The curtain has now been lifted, or at least partially, on Capcom’s Resident Evil Village. We now know the game will be coming in May. You can try out a ‘visual demo’ of it if you happen to have a PS5 now, with another demo set to come to all platforms later in the year. In the meantime, however, we’ve got to a small taste of what the gameplay will be like.
In the recent Resident Evil Showcase, we got a first look at the gameplay for the upcoming horror title. While this unfortunately was not a seamless demo, we did get to see a decent amount. The combat is much like Resident Evil 7, which this is a direct sequel to. It’s in first person, with the ability to block attacks. It does seem like gunplay is a tad snappier, however. You can see that against some of the game’s enemies, and the footage does briefly feature the much talked about ‘tall vampire lady’ that has taken social media by storm.
There are some extra things here as well, such as a crafting system. It seems similar to RE7 there as well, and they show off crafting first aid kits and ammo, but seem to hint there is more this time around. Probably the biggest, no pun intended, addition however is the return of a merchant character. Those who played RE4 will remember that iconic ‘What’re you buying?’ catchphrase. Well, that isn’t here, and it doesn’t seem to be the same gentlemen. In Village, you will buy and sell things from and to a man referred to as the Duke, who is a rather large fellow living in the back of a wagon and seems to know a lot about the main protagonist, Ethan. There also seems to be some kind of indication here that there could be some extended interactions with him beyond just buying and selling stuff.
There are hints at bonus objectives, puzzles, and boss fights here, too, though nothing is shown in depth. You can see the full gameplay demo in the timestamped video below, and see it cut off in very dramatic fashion.
Resident Evil Village will release May 7th for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. It will also include Resident Evil Re:Verse, a deathmatch multiplayer title that you can read more about through here.