During the recent Resident Evil Showcase, Capcom wowed fans by showing off some great new footage and gameplay for the upcoming Resident Evil: Village. What they showed-off was fun, exciting and aired just enough on the right side of high-camp and nail-biting terror that many fans are chomping at the bit to once again enter the world of survival horror. But then they announced Re:Verse.
In an instant, a lot of that goodwill was lost as Capcom presented us with yet another multiplayer game that really isn’t what fans want or definitely need. This announcement comes after last year’s debacle with Resident Evil: Resistance, the pack-in title that came bundled with Capcom’s controversial Resident Evil 3 Remake.
Taken on its own, Resident Evil: Resistance isn’t necessarily a bad game; it’s just a very ill-conceived add-on to what was ostensibly a poor effort on Capcom’s part. With fans voicing their frustration with the stripped-down re-telling of Resident Evil 3’s core events being indicative of the developer prioritizing the multiplayer mode over anything else.
Whether or not that was the case remains to be seen, but it's easy to see where fans are coming from in this regard. The original Resident Evil 3 is a much-beloved entry in the series. After the incredible job Capcom did with bringing Resident Evil 2 into the modern era, fan expectations were high. Capcom delivered a product that really didn’t live up to the original in gameplay or intensity.
Naturally, alarm bells are ringing for many as Resident Evil: Village has its own pack-in multiplayer title with Re:Verse. A celebration of the series twenty-fifth anniversary that pits numerous iconic characters from the series against one another in a no-holds-barred deathmatch. A neat concept in theory, but is that really what players want out of a multiplayer Resident Evil game?
The simple answer is no. Capcom has provided great examples of multiplayer within the Resident Evil universe before but has never followed up on it in any meaningful way. Most players will naturally cast their minds back to Resident Evil 5 and 6, two other controversial entries in the franchise that eschewed the tense horror gameplay of yesteryear in favor of high-octane action that put you and your friend in the thick of it.
Say what you will about those games, but they at least felt somewhat like Resident Evil at their core, but what fans are truly clambering for is a modernized version of the Outbreak titles. These two gems of the PS2-era were traditional Resident Evil games that you could enjoy with your friends. All the hallmarks were there, from the survival-based gameplay to brain-tickling puzzles and new romps through fan-favorite locations. The Outbreak games managed to bring multiplayer to Resident Evil's world in a way that didn’t feel at odds with what the series was all about.
Re:Verse may turn-out to be a fun game, but it isn’t what fans of the series want, and knowing that it’s being bundled alongside Village is making us wonder just how long of an experience that game will be. Naturally, we won’t know whether or not that’s the case until Village is released, but Capcom seems to think that players want a multiplayer experience in the form of mindless gunplay when quite literally nobody is asking for that.
Resident Evil: Village is set to be released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC on May 7th, 2021.