With less than a month to go till the launch of Resident Evil Village, the eighth main installment in Capcom's iconic survival horror franchise, Capcom has released a timed demo offering gamers an immersive look at the upcoming video game. Offering thirty minutes of gameplay before cutting a sizzle reel linking players to preorders for the game, the demo immediately sets the horrifying mood and bloody action as returning protagonist Ethan Winters finds himself facing a new kind of terror that is consuming an entire town.
Here are first impressions from this limited-time demo release ahead of Resident Evil Village's launch on May 7.
The Story So Far...
Ethan's daughter Rose has been kidnapped, and he explores a snowbound village to learn what exactly has become of her. An old crone warns Ethan of the arrival of a sinister figure named Mother Miranda and other monsters as a bell tolls in the distance. As Ethan ventures into the seemingly abandoned village, a castle looms in the distance on a hill overlooking the town. The town square features a sign motioning towards a ceremony site, while a shrine across from the town graveyard contains a wooden warding goat whose destruction is warned to incur the wrath of Miranda.
As Ethan approaches the castle gate, he finds it locked and is tasked with finding a way to gain access to the foreboding structure, with the ominous town containing everything from shrines to Mother Miranda and Lady Dimistrescu and particularly creepy scarecrows, to villagers sheltering from armed monsters and lycanthropes prowling the surrounding countryside that will eagerly hack Ethan to bits if given the opportunity. And while the villagers are incredulous that Mother Miranda would turn against them, even the most beloved figures in town have been transformed into something decidedly more bloodthirsty.
Gameplay
From the outset, Ethan is sporting an inventory system similar to Resident Evil 4 that already comes equipped with a knife, a pistol with several rounds of ammo and a bottle of first aid fluid; a shotgun is discovered later in the demo. The game also features a crafting system that allows Ethan to craft everything from medicine with herbs and chemicals to additional gun rounds with gunpowder and rusty metal scraps found throughout town. Health is denoted by the usual color-coded heartbeat monitor to indicate damage. Ammo itself is relatively scarce, and players can strike at bags of flour to create a cloud temporarily covering their escape as lycanthropes stalk them through fields.
Combat gives Ethan a bit more agency, not only being able to aim and shoot or strike with his knife but also guard against hand-to-hand combatants and push them back to prevent them from viciously biting him while he's down. Similar to Resident Evil 4, Ethan can barricade himself in buildings by moving shelves in front of doorways, but monsters can break in through windows as they hunt their prey. The aiming and camera can come off a bit stiff at times, but both can be adjusted within the options setting, as can the games' adaptive trigger functionality and ray tracing on the PlayStation 5; Capcom also makes it clear before the demo begins that this is not the final build of the game.
Presentation
Even at the title screen, the environmental effects are impressive as an especially unsettling scarecrow billows in a desolate, snowy field. The draw distance is similarly excellent, with players able to see mountains looming over the village though some of the textures come off a bit smoother than they should; haystacks and some of the encountered foliage and fabric being visible examples. Graphically, the lighting and fire effects are particularly effective, from natural light outside to candlelight and gas lamps illuminating interiors. Faces are rendered and mapped well to the accompanying dialogue, with Ethan's hands visibly damaged as he guards against attacks a nice touch.
Sound-wise, the game is atmospherically cinematic, from frigid gusts of wind sending shivers down Ethan's spine to lycanthropes stalking and growling menacingly before deciding to strike. Whereas Resident Evil 7: Biohazard had a more tension-fueled, narrative-driven gameplay presentation, Resident Evil Village gives the player more of a focus on exploration and action than its immediate predecessor; the cinematic elements are definitely still there but more in bursts than a sustained, largely cinematic presentation throughout, at least for now.
Closing Thoughts
With its remote, town-based setting and persistent feeling that one is being hunted by relentless monsters, Resident Evil Village feels, more or less, like a spiritual successor to Resident Evil 4 with its added emphasis on action while maintaining the supernatural terror. Village retains the first-person perspective from Resident Evil 7, but whereas that previous game relied largely on tension as Ethan tried to escape from the cannibalistic Baker family in a clear nod to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Village feels like a '70s horror movie in the vein of The Wicker Man or Italian Giallo cinema, complete with unsettling religious imagery and a cult-driven narrative.
This is all to say that Resident Evil Village is a very fun and more engaging experience for the player than Resident Evil 7, if perhaps not quite as purely horror-driven. More familiar tropes and gameplay elements from the wider Resident Evil franchise are woven back into the game seamlessly. At the same time, that sense of urgency that pushed Resident Evil 7 is presented in bursts and, when it does inevitably appear, it keeps the player riveted to the story. With Capcom releasing a second demo for Village the following weekend, players are poised to get a deeper look at the upcoming survival horror game, this time set in the foreboding castle where Dimistrescu and her brood dwell, ready to greet Ethan with bloody aplomb.
Developed and published by Capcom, Resident Evil Village will be released for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC and Google Stadia on May 7.