When it was first announced, no one knew if Capcom's episodic experiment would succeed - as it turns out, Resident Evil Revelations 2 has been the boost the series needed. Both the gameplay and the story were on-point, and the first three episodes proved that an episodic Resident Evil can work without abandoning the series' lineage.

It felt like a solid way to finally bring the convoluted story of Resident Evil back into something more approachable.

If only Episode Four didn't throw so much of that out the window.

As usual, the episode begins with Claire's campaign, and it picks up immediately following the events of Episode Three. Then, roughly 15 minutes later, Claire's story comes to a close. That's not an exaggeration: Claire's portion consists only of a few flights of stairs, a single cutscene and an escape from the tower. Our total time for Claire's entire campaign: approximately 17 minutes.

As a result, the game simply doesn't have enough time to adequately explain much of anything. Episode Four does nothing to explain any of what's going on or what's happened to the player; none of Claire's dangling story threads come together and the villain ends up being completely pointless. The ending itself is even worse, as it concludes on a literal pile of clichés and doesn't make any sense whatsoever. It's not just a bad ending, it leaves players feeling as if most of what they've spent three episodes doing has been pointless.

Barry's story starts off a bit stronger, but it doesn't last. The majority of the episode focuses on the relationship between Natalia and Wesker - which could have been perfectly fine - but the execution fails on almost every level. First off, most of Episode Four's story is told through optional journals and notes, meaning that players can skip over entire sections of the plot. It feels lazy, as if Capcom was cutting corners just to avoid putting another high-quality CG cutscene together.

Secondly, by the end of the episode, Barry feels like a secondary character. Players were led to believe that this was to be Barry's grand return to the franchise, but in Episode Four, he's really just along for the ride. While his personal story arc does come to a close, it's absent for the vast majority of the campaign - when it does appear, it's another massive list of clichés and terrible writing.

Otherwise, everything else about the story gets lost in the shuffle, leaving many major questions unanswered and gaping plot holes strewn throughout. Barry's campaign doesn't end up feeling quite as pointless as Claire's, but it's still a hugely disappointing ending to what could have been one of the better Resident Evil stories.

In terms of gameplay, Claire's campaign is basically nonexistent. Sure, there's nothing inherently wrong with it, but that's mostly because there's barely anything there in the first place.

That being said, Episode Four isn't shorter than any of the other episodes, it's just that Barry dominates the vast majority of it. Thankfully, it's a fun ride: the first part of the campaign features two separate paths to explore based on an earlier decision, and there are some great environmental puzzles to add some variety. The latter half of Barry's campaign hearkens back to classic Resident Evil: traipsing through a mansion isn't exactly inspired, but it serves as a nice change of pace.

The game's grand finale is all over the place. Take the final boss fight: the whole thing feels forced, and it's hard to tell if players are actually doing any damage. In fact, during our playthrough, the boss only died after all possible resources were spent. While it's possible that killing the boss with the last bullet in our inventory was a coincidence, that's probably not the case. In comparison, the final set-piece isn't quite as awkward, and it plays with the game's patented character switching, but it's more for show than anything else. All in all, there's nothing wrong with Episode Four's gameplay - it's nothing extraordinary, but it's far from the worst the game has to offer.

As was the case with the previous episodes, Revelations 2′s textures, animations and character models look good - especially the final boss. At this point, fans know what they're in for: atmospheric environments, above-average CG cutscenes and a strong visual package overall.

Surprisingly, it's the game's voice acting that really drags the presentation down. Revelations 2 is no stranger to corny dialogue, but Episode Four features some genuinely terrible acting. It's strange, considering that the cast has been fine up until this point, but it's not entirely the actors' fault. After all, it's hard to do much with lines like:

"F*** technology!"
"Yeah, f*** it up the ass!"

It only gets worse during the finale, and players will cringe as each new line is delivered. Any remaining connection between the game and the player will disappear as soon as the characters start opening their mouths.

If you're the kind of gamer that's satisfied with visceral combat and challenging puzzles, Resident Evil Revelations 2: Episode Four won't disappoint. While the final episode isn't the best example of what the game can do (that honor still belongs to Episode Two), it's still a lot of fun to play.

However, if you're here for the plot...you'll likely end up disappointed. The first three episodes did a great job building up the story, but Episode Four is a n absolute mess - gigantic plot holes and unfinished story threads end up dragging one of the best Resident Evil stories in years through the mud, and the cliffhanger ending only adds insult to injury.

It's the worst kind of disappointment: all that great build-up, and almost nothing to show for it.

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