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Disclaimer

I played through first episode on Survival, episodes 2-3 on Normal.

TL;DR

If you liked RE4, but wanted less consistency with mechanics then this will be your jam.
While RE4, 5 and 6 embraced their action genre, this game has some design choices that seem to try putting it more towards survival-horror, but since it still focuses on combat a lot – you end up with a game that’s neither a full survival-horror nor a horror shooter.
I can only recommend for RE fans who want to play all the games in the series. Revelations 2 is probably one of the worst ones.

Description

In RE Revelations 2 you will play as 2 pairs – Clair + Moira (Barry’s daughter) and Barry + Natalia (a small girl and a new character). This game has nothing to do with Revelations 1, there is no need to know both for full story.
This game has the ability to move and shoot at the same time, unlike RE4. It’s also a solo game where you will switch between 2 characters in real time, even during combat.
While in Resident Evil 5, 6 and Revelations 1 every pair had both characters being able to shoot, move objects etc. in Revelations 2 each character contributes in different ways.
Claire and Barry can shoot and have CQC training that lets them knock down stunned enemies. Moira can stun enemies with her flashlight and finish them off when they are on the ground, but can’t knock them down. She can also use her light to look for hidden items. She cannot use guns however. Natalia can sense zombies even through walls, detect weakpoints on enemies and throw bricks to knock them down. She can also sneak around better than other characters and can uncover hidden items like Moira.
Also, Barry, as an elite operative, is fully equipped for combat from the get-go, unlike other protagonists.
The story follows Claire and Moira after their kidnapping by unknown group of soldiers. They end up in cells of a prison with zombies walking around and they have to find a way out. Barry on the other hand follows their trail in order to find his daughter.

Pros:

+ Atmosphere
The game is pretty oppressive (not as much as RE3 or Evil Within) and visual design keeps the tension on. Zombies tend to be very old and decomposed.
+ Combat (when AI isn’t dumb)
I liked RE5’s combat for it’s integration of tag-team melee combos. Here you can have similar teamwork, but you have to switch between characters. You can blind an enemy with a flashlight as Moira, then knock him down with a kick as Claire and finish off with Moira again.
Natalia can throw a brick at an enemy, which will knock them down and possibly reveal a weakpoint for Barry to shoot for a quick kill. While Natalia cannot do as much damage as Moira by herself – Barry is more than enough to kill anything in their path with her ability to detect enemies and weakpoints.
+ Raid
A game mode where you go through premade dungeons fighting enemies and collecting items and money to upgrade your character. Can be played in co-op. This is the best part of the game.

Cons:

- Stealth
Unless a game is build around it (like Evil Within 2) stealth has no place in horror games (or games in general). Here stealth does not work half the time, probably due to full on scripting of some enemies.
- Episodic
I’m pretty sure I got this game in a bundle with other RE games and there was nothing in the bundle that told me that I would only get 1 Episode out of 4. Imagine my disappointment when I finally sit down to play this after reserving a good portion of a weekend for gaming and finding out I need to shill some more money down Capcom’s way for the pleasure of not ruining my weekend.
If all episodes are out, then why the f is the game still being sold piecemeal...
- Searching mechanics
There are 2 search mechanics in this game. For Claire and Moira, the latter handles the flashlight and if she shines light at a spot with a hidden item – a small sparkling effect will appear. Then you have to manually take over Moira and aim her flashlight at the hidden item spot, which will then reveal the item for you to pick up.
For the other duo, the girl will detect nearby item spots just by looking in their direction. She then has to point at them by aiming, which will reveal the item for both her and Barry.
This is an annoying mechanic that just makes you double-check every corner of every room. Items should just be there for you to find and pick up without these special mechanics.
It’s still a better system than the awkward scanning from Revelations 1. God, I’m glad that got scrapped.
- Difficulty/AI
I started playing on Hardcore, but at some point the game expects you to use melee attacks a whole lot because you won’t have enough ammo for some bosses. Problem is, unlike in RE 4/5, you can’t just shoot an enemy in the head to put them in a stun state. Stun is achieved either randomly when you hit an enemy with a gun, or by focusing with your flashlight for a few seconds. While you are controlling one character who uses flashlight, the other one will very often wander into enemy range and get mashed into the ground. You can tell your partner to stay somewhere safe, but only Claire can knock enemies down with a kick once they are stunned. Moira can attack in melee and finish opponents on the ground, but doesn’t receive a prompt to kick. So you are either grinding away at enemies using Moira’s crowbar or relying on a dumb AI to not get hit, and they will always find a way to get hit.
And since you don’t get a lot of healing herbs either – this is a problem.
You could grind away lower difficulty levels for more ammo and then switch to Hardcore, but then it feels like cheating. So unless you play in co-op – this game is just badly designed with artificial difficulty that relies on the AI. There are also sections where, in order to save ammo, you’d have to kite enemies as 1 character and do something else as the other, which further makes me believe that Survival is only reasonably playable on 1st playthrough in co-op.
- Inconsistent
Mechanics don’t always work in a consistent manner. Headshots won’t always stun regular enemies, which is a problem when game expects you to save ammo for bullet-spongy bosses. Some areas can be explored by boosting a character upwards, but some areas with same-looking access can’t – they are scripted to be explored in a different manner.

Lowdown

The 2 duos offer different playstyles and while I liked mission design for Clair and Moira more, Barry and Natalia make for a more fun gameplay. Overall, I think Revelations 2 straddles the line between being tedious like Revelations 1 and genuinely tense and engaging like RE4 or 5, but also is a total asshole with how little ammo it sometimes gives you and how tight of an environment it forces you to fight in. This on top of zombies and other enemies being very quick makes for a tension that feels artificial. Mechanical tension, if you will, and that’s not how I believe horror games should make you feel.
Look at Dead Space 1 and 2. They don’t have super-tight environments or janky AI and they give you all the ammo you need. If you want an action horror – why make the game janky on purpose?
Would I recommend Revelations 2 more than RE 4 and 5? No. How about RE6? I honestly don’t know, since 6 had some very nice ideas and while it didn’t feel much like an RE game, neither does Revelations 2.
I'd give RE Revelations 2 as a whole (including all episodes) a

5/10

I’ve had more fun with this than with RE 7 and about half of Village combined, but I struggle to decide whether I’d prefer to replay this or RE6, which makes me realize that RE series as it stands nowadays just isn’t for me anymore.
I hope someone will pick up the pieces and re-vitalize the dead survival-horror genre.