Resident Evil Revelations HD review: survival-horror's road to redemption begins here

It all adds up to a setting that's drenched in atmosphere and saturated with fear. It's a scary place to move around in even when there's nothing else on screen. So when there is you heart will burst out of your chest like a lovestruck Warner Bros cartoon character. Unlike Resi 5 and 6, Revelations understands that more mutants doesn't necessarily equal more scares, and instead concentrates on giving you a reason to be scared of them in the first place. And Revelations' cache of enemies are a superb bunch; slow-moving but relentless, deadly from afar and lethal up close.

Ammunition is predictably scarce and even the most run-of-the-mill enemies scoff bullets like fondant fancies, so a more intelligent approach is needed. Instead of pumping six bullets in a mutant's head, say, you might want to cripple their claws with a couple of well-aimed shot and move in with your knife. A fine idea in theory, but an extremely difficult game plan to execute under pressure.

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If careful shot taking is preferable during regular encounters, then during boss fights they're essential. If you don't concentrate your fire on their weak points - in the case of the game's first boss Skagdead, the screaming human head balanced precariously on his flabby shoulders - you'll find yourself out of bullets and out of luck.

These encounters represented something of a difficulty spike on 3DS, but thanks to the superior controller they're a lot more manageable here. Since the original always functioned best with the 3DS' Circle Pad Pro add on, Revelations' transition to a dual-stick set-up is an effortless one.

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Meanwhile, the touch screen detritus has migrated to the Xbox 360's extra buttons. Swapping weapons is managed with the d-pad, flares and grenades are activated with the right bumper button, and the Genesis Scanning Device powers up whenever you hold down the left bumper button.

The latter case is the perfect example of how the simplified controls don't always work to the game's benefit. The idea behind the Genesis is that you use it to scan mutant corpses, Metroid-style, and once you've scanned enough goop you unlock extra gear and rewards.

There was a risk/reward factor involved in doing so on 3DS however, as you had to manually swap between it and your active weapon on the touch screen - which put you at risk of being caught with your pants down by a surprise mutant.

Now it's a lot more straightforward to switch between the two, which deflates some of the tension. Part of the Resident Evil charm is working against the controls, and at times Revelations HD feels a little bit too responsive for our liking, if that makes sense.

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As a result this is a less challenging game than its 3DS counterpart, although that's far from a disaster - this is still a lengthy, substantial game, and it doesn't suffer at all for being broken down into bite-sized episodes. In fact, its tight structure and its 'Previously on...' recaps make it ideal 'one quick scare before bedtime' fodder.

Nonetheless the improved controls demand a new higher difficulty setting, but Revelations HD's Infernal mode takes things a little too far. It remixes enemy placement and boosts both the number and the strength of the mutants, but it does so in extreme fashion. There's no way you're getting through this on a first playthrough with the basic weapons - which is an oversight on the part of the developers as returning 3DS owners will want to do exactly that.

Long-term replayability comes in the form of Raid Mode, now expanded and unlocked from the beginning. This is a succession of arcadey survival challenges, and you unlock new weapons and characters as you level up. It's compulsive, varied and well put together, and bolts further value to a package that already delivers far more than you'd expect, given its humble origins.

We loved Revelations on 3DS and on the big screen it just means there's more of it to love. If you're a horror fan who feels that Resident Evil/Dead Space has lost their way in their search for a larger audience, this gem will renew your faith in the genre.