IT has been 26 years since the first Resident Evil game landed in our laps and personally into my heart. That was only cemented further in 1998 when the original Resident Evil 2 was released.
So, in the wee hours of October 21st in Australia you know I was up and ready for the latest Resident Evil Showcase to go live. And it did not disappoint. We got to look into Resident Evil Village: Winters Expansion, featuring the Shadows of Rose DLC & other fun additions which are available to play if purchased on PlayStation 4 &5, Xbox Series X & S, Xbox One and PC in the coming week and Resident Evil 4 (2023) due out March 2023.
Shadows of Rose
This DLC follows Rose; the daughter of Resident Evil VII & Village protagonist Ethan Winters. Set sixteen years after the end of Resident Evil: VIllage, Rose is now a teen and wants to be rid of her powers which seem to have her under constant surveillance if the end of Village is anything to go by. We’ll get to revisit locations from Village like Castle Dimitrescu and be in contact with the robust merchant, The Duke. Though he seems to be a little…evil this time round. We get a little look into how fear is a major factor in Shadows of Rose. A moment of fear can be something that leaves the biggest impression on you that it still affects a person subconsciously. I particularly hope they do not bring back the giant fetus. I still have nightmares about that thing.
The Mercenaries: Additional Order
The Mercenaries has always been an unlockable content of the Resident Evil franchise that I love. And Resident Evil Village’s Mercenaries is getting an addition that I am particularly looking forward to. Mercenaries will now come with new characters to play as, The Lords. And I know a lot of people will be looking forward to playing Mercenaries as their favourite tall queen, Lady Dimitrescu, but you shall find me beating down enemies as my favourite giant hammer-swinging, electromagnetic field-manipulating boss; Karl Heisenberg.
Resident Evil Village – Third Person Mode
This part of the expansion speaks for itself. Like Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Village was in first-person view whereas all previous mainline Resident Evil titles have been in a third-person view of some form, be it over the shoulder since the original Resident Evil 4 or fixed camera of Resident Evil 1-3 & Code Veronica.
As a result. Capcom has apparently decided to go ahead and release Third Person Mode for those who aren’t particularly fond of the first-person view – though as much as you may want to, you still can’t see Ethan’s face. If you try to rotate the camera to the front of him, but his face is still shadowed out and he will look away. At least we can see his side profile now, and know Capcom didn’t give him just a blank face with two dots for eyes and a smile drawn on with a whiteboard marker.
And as of the airing of the showcase, you can demo Third Person Mode of Resident Evil Village for 60 minutes of gameplay. But be warned, if you have pre-ordered The Winter’s expansion or Resident Evil Gold Edition on Steam, you may have come to realise that your base game is broken due to the latest patch. Capcom is awfully aware and has said they are working on a fix
I say just be patient. It’ll be worth the wait.
Next up we go a look at the revamped RE:Verse
RE:Verse has appeared to undergone a major rework after the not-so-favourable reception to the Beta back in 2021. RE:Verse came as a free PVP Multiplayer game with the purchase of Resident Evil Village and much like Capcom’s previous attempts at PVP Resident Evil game, the Beta for RE:Verse didn’t fare much better.
But stubborn to make it work, Capcom delayed RE:Verse to 2022 and I think that it was the right idea. A lot of people were under the belief that RE:Verse was silently cancelled. As recent as June 2022 we still hadn’t heard any updates, but the cancellation hammer didn’t get this one as we got a World Premiere teaser with this Resident Evil Showcase.
The gameplay looks beautiful and it has been expanded upon with the original cast of characters ranging from Resident Evil 2 (2019) & 3 (2020) and Resident Evil 7. Now it appears to have Resident Evil Village’s, Chris Redfield and his Wolf Hound Squad as well as levels using Resident Evil Village locations.
It features cross-play and the Early Access goes live from October 24-26thfor those who have purchased Resident Evil Village or RE: Village Gold Edition. And we were provided with a roadmap of what future updates will have installed.
Though I didn’t get to play the Beta, I will be sitting down with fellow GOA crew member Stormie for a few rounds of RE:Verse and getting her thoughts and opinions on the changes between the Beta and this updated version Capcom is releasing.
Resident Evil Village [Mac Version]
Capcom has decided to show Mac users a bit of love and announced that they will be releasing a Mac Version of Resident Evil Village on October 28th 2022 but it is just the base game. The Winters’ Expansion will come at an unannounced later date.
Resident Evil: Cloud
Though it sounds a bit like a weird spin-off title, Resident Evil: Cloud is a cloud version of Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 2 & 3 and Resident Evil VII: Biohazard for the Nintendo Switch. Starting with Resident Evil Village being released on October 28th 2022, with the Winters’ Expansion to follow on December 2nd 2022. The two Resident Evil Remakes have their cloud releases on November 11th for Resident Evil 2 and November 18th for Resident Evil 3.
Compared to the next presentation, these announcements are just a bit of a warm-up. Luckily, Capcom did not disappoint as fans of the Resident Evil franchise are in majority agreement that back in 2005, the release of Resident Evil 4 brought a fresh take to the franchise.
Resident Evil 4 (2023)
Long in the rumour mill, Resident Evil 4 was said to have a remake in the works which was confirmed in June 2022 at the PlayStation’s State of Play with its first trailer. Seeing the remake is going down a more dark horror-based route, it has a lot of people excited, myself included.
This Resident Evil Showcase gave us a new gameplay trailer and it doesn’t disappoint. It shows us how they have changed some parts of the game, ie what looks to be the first Ganado encounter. This is a good sign that they didn’t just slap a new coat of paint on the old game by redoing the graphics. You can now crouch and sneak around to be a bit more stealthy. And we can see that Capcom know to keep some of the key and memorable moments, such as your visit to the village for the first time.
We get to see our first real threat in the shown gameplay footage, and despite not being as bulky as in the original Resident Evil 4 game, Dr. Salvador still looks menacing if not more so with the way his eyes pop through the eyeholes in his sack. The fact that Leon can oddly enough parry a chainsaw with a knife is a bit off-putting. But we will roll with it.
Another positive for the game is that Leon still has some cheesy one-liners in his arsenal, the campiness is a big contributing factor to what made the original so great. And was I the only one who thought that the female village Ganados looked a bit like Marguerite?
The inventory system keeps the Resident Evil 4 esthetic, which was brought into Resident Evil Village, but Capcom appears to incorporated the crafting system used in Resident Evil Village into Resident Evil 4 and it leaves me curious about how restricted resources will be throughout the game.
Of course, our buddy the Merchant makes a return with his magical coat that manages to hold a variety of guns, support items and accessories. Tune-ups are done on the spot as per the original but now the implementation of the Trade mechanic will be something to be trialled as rare gems can be traded for guns, support goods or even treasure items.
Though I’m glad to have the Merchant back, his voice isn’t as gruff as it was in the original which I think would be more fitting for this remake. And I feel he sounds much more British, which doesn’t sound right for a game set in rural Spain (although our editor also says Spain has a surprising number of British people there, particularly in the Costa Del Sol region).
Not only do we get to see the return of the Merchant, but we also get a full visual of the ever-womanising but oddly charming Luis Sera in his updated style, with him looking less charming and more sleazy. If Luis is going to say his line about Ashley’s ‘ballistics’, it will definitely come across as more distasteful than it did originally
With the second trailer release, we get snippets of later game cutscenes featuring Bitores Mendez who is giving off massive Rob Zombie vibes. Our favourite swamp monster Del Lago, Osmund Saddler and my favourite little man, Ramon Salazar. Sadly missing his campy squeaking voice but it is more suited for the darker tone the game is going.
It also didn’t go unnoticed that we got to see most of the major bosses from the original game, besides Jack Krauser. It leaves me hoping that Capcom hasn’t made the error of removing him from the game, as they did with removing the Clock Tower segment from Resident Evil 3.
We got to have a look at what comes in the Digital Deluxe and Physical Collector’s Editions. The Deluxe comes with 4 different costumes for Leon and two screen filters. The Sentinel Nine handgun and the SKull Shaker shotgun, a treasure map, sunglasses for Leon and you can swap out the soundtrack for the original game tracks.
The Collector’s Edition comes with everything from the Deluxe Edition but also with a box that looks like a storage case, Steelbook, an extra DLC pack product code, a digital soundtrack, an artbook, a special map poster and the real reason people pay hundreds of dollars for Collector’s Editions; the figurine of Leon.
And lastly the Pre-order bonus’ being a Gold Attache case & Handgun Ammo charm for Standard pre-orders. Deluxe & Collector’s Edition pre-orders receive the same as the Standard but also a Classic Attache case and an additional Green Herb charm in-game. And if you pre-order on the PlayStation store, you will receive a mini soundtrack.
All in all, there are a lot of things to look forward to regarding Resident Evil between now and March 2023 when Resident Evil 4 releases.
