Everything we know about Resident Evil Village

After myriad rumors and leaks, Capcom finally revealed Resident Evil Village during Sony’s PS5 showcase in June 2020. The reveal featured a nearly three-minute video, showing off the game’s tone, visuals, and a bit of its enemies and characters, too. It included surprisingly more info than many had expected, and when combined with various interviews with Capcom, along with a Special Developer Message video, there’s quite a bit we do know about Village.

Following that, Capcom held a Resident Evil Showcase, in which it revealed the release date for Village, as well as info about a demo, pre-orders, and even a new stand-alone multiplayer expansion called RE: Verse.

Trailer

Before getting to the nitty-gritty with what to expect from Resident Evil Village, it’s a good idea to watch a trailer for it to get a sense of its tone and atmosphere. Above is the second trailer for the game, which was shown during the Tokyo Game Show in September 2020. In it, you get a clear look at some of the game’s enemies, along with a tremendous amount of world-building that feels close to Resident Evil 4.

In addition, we finally got to see gameplay for Resident Evil Village, which was revealed during the Resident Evil Showcase. Check it out below!

What’s up with that title?

Image used with permission by copyright holder

It’s not called Resident Evil 8, despite being a follow-up to Resident Evil 7. For all intents and purposes, it is Resident Evil 8, and Capcom has cleverly designed the game’s title to still include “8” in Roman numeral form, which you can check out above. You’ll remember that Resident Evil 7 did the same with its logo, as well.

The other thing to consider is that Capcom has decided to name it Village instead of 8 for a reason. As part of an interview with Famitsu (relayed by Kotaku), Capcom explained the Village would be a character, in and of itself, and that its producers would be “happy” if players “remembered Village.” Players will venture through this village, which will serve as the game’s setting.

It’s coming to PS4 and Xbox One

Capcom has ambitious goals for Village but despite this, it will still launch for previous-gen systems — the PS4 and Xbox One. This news was confirmed by Capcom during the Resident Evil Showcase, after months of unclear messaging about Village’s platforms.

Obviously, graphical fidelity is a huge factor with upcoming PS5 and Xbox Series X games, and Capcom plans for Village to look stunning. “With the combined power of next gen and RE Engine, we can take our developers’ visions to new heights,” said the game’s producer Tsuyoshi Kanda. Immersive audio, impressive visuals, and a lot more is planned for this release. Don’t expect the game to have loading screens, either — another aspect that will be bolstered by next-gen machines. It’s unclear how the game’s performance will change with the previous-gen iterations, but we’re hoping they run well enough to justify development for those machines.

The game will also apparently focus much more on exploration when compared to RE7 — which again, will require more powerful hardware to maximize the game’s full potential. Resident Evil Village is now a cross-generational title, but how it will perform across all platforms remains to be seen.

It’s a direct sequel to Resident Evil 7

Capcom explains that Village is “the sequel to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, and serves as the conclusion to its story.” Village takes place “a few” years after Resident Evil 7, and in it, you will continue to play as Ethan Winters from a first-person perspective, as he and his wife Mia try to enjoy life after the horrors on the previous game. As shown in the reveal trailer, Chris Redfield from previous games in the series comes into Winters’ life and “disrupts” his tranquility. After encountering Redfield, Winters is led through the village to find answers. Little else is known about the characters and their motivations.

It’s unclear why Redfield is involved or if other characters from the series will make an appearance. Some fans have speculated about some characters shown in the trailer, pointing to the long-haired man with sunglasses possibly being Luis Sera from Resident Evil 4. This has not been confirmed, but that — of course — isn’t stopping the speculation.

Either way, Winters and Redfield are involved in some way, sparking the events of the game’s story. Redfield looks to be older and “brooding,” with almost an ominous presence. He very well could be an antagonist in some way.

The reveal trailer briefly shows a puzzle with the Umbrella logo, possibly alluding that the organization will make some sort of an appearance. Much of the gameplay and overall “feel” seems to be similar to RE7, but will be much more open, at least from what we’ve seen so far. Much of RE7 took place in small- to medium-sized linear areas, which made for a claustrophobic feeling.

Village will focus more on action

Action and horror have been a staple of the Resident Evil series since its inception, though many long-time fans tend to prefer the entries that emphasize survival aspects — which offer you limited ammo and resources. In Village, Capcom will be “upping the ante on action,” but it’s unclear to what degree. Resident Evil 7 had an effective blend of action and survival-horror elements, and given Capcom’s recent track record for quality, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to see Village double down on action. What many don’t want to see is the degree of action presented in Resident Evil 6, which essentially serves as a third-person shooter, dropping nearly all survival mechanics.

Based on the enemies you’ll be facing off against (which we’ll get into in more detail below), it stands to reason the game will be more action oriented. In the trailer, we got to see short snippets of action against human and non-human enemies. It’s unclear to what degree action will play a part in Village, but it seems to be very much in the vein of RE7.

Along with its action gameplay, it’s also highly likely we’ll see the return of puzzles, if the game’s reveal trailer is any indication. In it, we got to see lots of puzzle-like imagery, with many items that resemble those introduced in RE7. One such item features a fetus-like creature in the center, surrounded by twigs and black feathers, which some fans are speculating is supposed to resemble the Umbrella logo. Maybe this is an item involved in one of the game’s puzzles.

As shown in the recent Resident Evil Showcase, Village will also feature an inventory system similar to that of Resident Evil 4’s — wherein players must apply items at varying sizes across a grid, while ensuring there’s enough room for everything.

Enemies aren’t exclusive to zombies

Speaking of enemies, the short reveal trailer showed some beautifully designed Werewolf creatures, but it’s unknown if they’re infected by a virus or if their origins lie elsewhere. Nonetheless, these seem to be one of the game’s more formidable enemies, joining the various human characters you’ll face off against. Based on how quick the enemies seem to be, it gives even more credence to upping the ante on action.

Interestingly, the trailer doesn’t seem to show any zombies at all. We’ve seen that Resident Evil doesn’t need to have zombies to be great, but it is a question many have brought up. It’s possible zombies don’t make an appearance at all, which is fine by us. Though some rumors have hinted to the game including both zombies and other enemies, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Depending on why Chris Redfield is visiting you, it’s possible you’ll have to face off against him, which would be an interesting twist, given his lineage as a protagonist throughout the series.

And of course, the internet has been going crazy for the tall vampire woman known as Lady Dimitrescu — who is expected to be one of the main villains in the upcoming game. It’s currently unclear what her role will be in the final product, but one thing’s for sure: Lady Dimitrescu is scary and the community seems to love her.

When can we play it?

Resident Evil Village finally got a release date slated for May 7, 2021 across PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. It’s currently available to preorder, but we’ll cover more on that below. Players who purchase on previous-gen systems will gain access to the current-gen versions at no additional cost, as long as it’s within the same ecosystem (PS4 to PS5 and Xbox One to Xbox Series X|S).

https://twitter.com/RE_Games/status/1352376781156868106

There’s a PS5 demo available now — with a separate demo to come to other platforms later

Better yet is that PS5 owners can access a free demo for Resident Evil Village right now. It’s being referred to as “Maiden” and features a different playable character than the game’s protagonist, Ethan Winters. The demo is short, but it gives us a taste of what to expect from the full release later this May.

Though, if you’re on other platforms, you’ll be happy to know that a separate demo will be made available to all sometime in the spring.

Resident Evil Village will come with a multiplayer game called RE: Verse

The Resident Evil series is no stranger to multiplayer modes. Take the cooperative features of Resident Evil 5 and 6, or the Mercenaries game on Nintendo 3DS, for example. Most recently, the remake of Resident Evil 3 featured Resident Evil Resistance, an asymmetrical online multiplayer game in which players must work together to defeat the Mastermind.

With all of that in mind, yes, Resident Evil Village will come with a separate multiplayer game called RE: Verse, which is a stand-alone game that will feature many of the series’ most beloved characters. It will be available for free to all who purchase Village. You can register for the beta here.

Below is a trailer for RE: Verse.

As you can see from the trailer, the character models have a comic book style that resembles their realistic counterparts, but with a cartoon-like visual style. According to Capcom, “players can choose from a fan-favorite roster, each with their own unique skillsets to master. When players are defeated in combat, their character respawns by mutating into a bioweapon to enact revenge on their foes.”

DLC

As for DLC, Village will feature what is referred to as the Trauma Pack, which is included in the Deluxe Edition of the game. This comes with lots of in-game goodies to enhance the experience. Outside of that, all who preorder Village will gain access to additional items as well. More on that below.

Pre-order and special editions

As announced during the Resident Evil Showcase, Resident Evil Village is available to pre-order now. Moreover, it will come in a few different versions, like a Standard Edition, Deluxe Edition, and Collector’s Edition. Here’s how to pre-order and what comes with each.