We’re seeing double

Resident Evil: Revelations gives Chris and Jill a surprise

This return to the slower pace of classic Resident Evil brought with it a sense of vulnerability and claustrophobia. Jill Valentine and her partner Parker venture deeper into the depths of an abandoned cruise liner, the Queen Zenobia, searching for Chris Redfield. As the watery threats close in, the two end up trapped in a flooding engine room with no hope of escaping.

Cue a switch of characters as we jump into the boots of Chris, who wasn’t on the ship after all, but is showing up to bail his fellow agents out of trouble. Panicked, we have to rush through the ship, retreading what we’ve played through already as Jill, our prior knowledge of the journey complicated by some new puzzles and blocked doorways that have appeared in our path.

When we find the engine room, Chris slams the door open, ready to be the hero and save the day. Except… Jill and Parker aren’t there. The engine room is completely empty. And that’s when Chris finally notices a map in the room, labelled with the name of the ship: Queen Semiramis. It turns out there were two ships the whole time, constructed identically – both of them taken over by bioterrorists hoping to spread the deadly T-Abyss Virus.

Seeing both ships floating alone in the sea is a moment where we feel utterly powerless against the threat before us on the Queen Zenobia and Queen Semiramis. In what could easily be a predictable survival horror adventure we genuinely feel like Chris at this moment – like the rug has been pulled out from under us, and our hope extinguished by the salty sea, floating alone.