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Capcom’s celebration of all things Resident Evil continues with their April Resident Evil Showcase.
A series of times you’ll be able to download and play a demo of Resident Evil Village ahead of its May release was announced. It also included a quick look at Village’s Mercenaries mode and an announcement of Resident Evil 4 VR for Oculus Quest 2. A new trailer for the Netflix CGI series Infinite Darkness, and some other bits and pieces were also shown. Sadly, there were no announcements of any other Resident Evil games as part of the 25 year anniversary of the original.
Kicking Things Off
The event kicked off with a new Village trailer. Which showed clips from early in the game, including several glimpses of the werewolf-like lycans. Everyone’s favourite 9ft vampire - Lady Dimitrescu - showed up to have a little sip of Ethan’s blood. Chris Redfield also put in an appearance.
At the last showcase, Capcom announced a PlayStation exclusive demo with the promise that other platforms will get one in the future. Capcom came through with this promise and announced a time-limited demo available on PlayStation 5, PS4, Steam, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Stadia (great news for all three users of that console) from May 2nd.
The demo will let you play for 60 minutes in total and will give you the choice of exploring the game’s village or castle areas. You can dip into both if you wish, but you’ll only have 60 minutes total to split across the two areas. The demo will also only be available for 24 hours. It’ll be available May 2nd from 1 AM in the UK, 2 AM in Europe and from May 1st at 5 PM (Pacific) in North America.
8 Hours in Village
Just to add to any potential confusion PS4 and PS5 owners also get “8 Hours in Village”, where you can play both village and castle areas over preceding weekends. Each area will be opened up for eight hours, in which you can then play for 30 minutes.
In the UK, the game’s village area will be available for PS4 and PS5 owners to sample from 18th April at 4 PM until 19th April at midnight. In North America, this will be from 17th April at 5 PM Pacific until 18th April at 1 AM.
A week later, the game’s castle area will then be available for both of Sony’s consoles from 25th April at 4 PM UK until 26th April at midnight. In North America, that’ll be 24th April at 5 PM Pacific until 25th April at 1 AM.
It’s all a bit complicated, but it’s great to see Capcom adding puzzles back into the Resident Evil franchise. PS4 and PS5 owners can start downloading the demo today.
Mercenaries Mode
Capcom then gave us a look at Village’s Mercenaries mode. This is the combat-focused mode featured in numerous Resident Evil games returns to the Village with a few tweaks. One of the new features included in the game is the Merchant. Nope, he’s not as good as Resident Evil 4’s Merchant! He will pop up between areas, selling supplies, guns and upgrades. You can also select abilities, which include skills where you can buff movement speed, weapon damage, armour, and more.
Capcom’s competitive multiplayer Resident Evil RE:Verse was again mentioned. It will be free for Village owners, although no new information was given.
Infinite Darkness
Next up was a new trailer for Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, the upcoming CGI series for Netflix. Launching this July stars Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield and it set in 2006.
Capcom confirmed the live-action movie Welcome to Raccoon City has wrapped filming and is now in post-production. No release date was given.
And in other news, Resident Evil will join Dead by Daylight, more details will be announced on 25th May.
Capcom wrapped the showcase with an announcement of Resident Evil 4 VR for Oculus Quest 2. This version of the game moves its action to a first-person perspective. More details will come as part of an Oculus showcase on 21st April.