While there’s no release date yet for the release of the cloud versions for Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard yet, Nintendo has revealed that Resident Evil Village will be coming to the Switch on October 28.

Alongside the release of the base game, December 2 will see the release of Resident Evil Village’s Winters’ Expansion Pack. The expansion will include a new story DLC which is played with a third-person camera.

Resident Evil Village‘s expansion was announced earlier this year. It will star new character Rose as the protagonist, and will focus on her struggles with fighting against new creatures and monstrosities.

This update adds features like subtitle size, color and background toggles, closed captions, a display for the speaker’s name in Story Mode and a permanent reticle. How these options will work remains to be seen but there may be some new gameplay showcasing the same in the coming weeks. Colorblind modes sadly haven’t been confirmed so hopefully, those make it in before release.

Resident Evil Village – The Winters’ Expansion launches on October 28th for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Xbox One, and Google Stadia for $19.99. It’s included with the base game in Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition, out on the same day. For more details on Mercenaries: Additional Orders and its new playable characters, head here.

A free accessibility update for all Resident Evil Village users is coming alongside the Winters' Expansion and Gold Edition in October, adding:

– Subtitle size, color & background toggles
– Speaker name display in story mode
– Closed captions
– Permanent reticle

— Resident Evil (@RE_Games) July 28, 2022

Be warned though, that this feature contains major spoilers for Resident Evil Village and how it ends, so if you haven’t finished the game yet, turn back now.

WINTERS’ EXPANSION

Before we get into the nitty gritties and do a blow by blow analysis of all the new stuff coming to Resident Evil Village, let’s start off with a brief summary of sorts. The bulk of the new content that Capcom is adding to the game is arriving on October 28, all of it bundled together in a single package dubbed The Winters’ Expansion, named after the game’s titular hero, Ethan Winters, and his daughter Rose Winters. The Winters’ Expansion will include a full-fledged single player expansion, new content for the Mercenaries mode, and more. Let’s take a look at that in greater detail.

SHADOWS OF ROSE

This is, of course, the headlining part of The Winters’ Expansion- Resident Evil Village’s story DLC. Given how the base game itself ends, many had assumed that its DLC would see us playing as Rose Winters, Ethan’s daughter, and it turns out that was an accurate prediction. Titled Shadows of Rose, the DLC will take place 16 years after the events of the base game. Ethan Winters is dead, and Rose takes centerstage, now struggling to deal with her terrifying abilities. This is easily the farthest forward the Resident Evil timeline has ever gone to date, so it should be interesting to see how the story deals with that.

SHADOWS OF ROSE – MORE DETAILS

Rose’s primary goal in Shadows of Rose, it seems, is going to be to find a way to break free of her powers and be rid of their curse, and to do that, she enters the consciousness of the Megamycete- yeah, that big, giant mess. Turns out that’s still around. What happens in there is obviously being left unspoiled, but some tantalizing tidbits have been shared, like Rose meeting a girl who looks just like her, and more interestingly, both time and space being completely warped inside of this realm. That means things are probably going to get trippy, as Rose fights not just against new monstrosities and creatures, but also the environments themselves.

The trailer for the DLC also showed a mutated version of the merchant, a.k.a. The Duke, that Rose meets inside this realm. Another interesting character is a being called Michael, who is acting as a guide of sorts to Rose inside of the realm and seems to be helping her as she tries to get rid of her powers.

Oh, and curiously enough, unlike the base game, this DLC is going to be entirely in third person.

Speaking of which…

THIRD PERSON MODE

Resident Evil Village was a purely first person game, just like Resident Evil 7 before it, but if you’re among those who’ve always wanted these games to offer a third person perspective like other games in the series (and there’s plenty of people in that group), you’re in luck. Capcom has announced that The Winters’ Expansion will also add a mode to Resident Evil Village that makes the entire game playable in third person, bringing the experience closer to the recent Resident Evil remakes- and yes, that means that we’re finally going to be able to properly see Ethan’s face. There will also be completely new animations added to the game as part of the mode- though Capcom hasn’t said anything yet about how cutscenes will be handled in third person. Will the game switch back and forth between third person gameplay and first person cutscenes, or are all cutscenes being completely redone and redirected to make them fit with the third person perspective? That remains to be seen.

Shadows of Rose will be third person, and the base game’s campaign will become playable in third person as well, but The Mercenaries will remain first person only. Which brings us to our next point…

MERCENARIES: ADDITIONAL ORDERS

Resident Evil Village brought back the fan-favourite Mercenaries mode, but many fans were underwhelmed with its offerings, deeming it to be sparse and somewhat light on content. It seems Capcom heard those complaints though, and will be addressing them with The Winters’ Expansion. The content drop releasing in October will also come with new content for the mode in the form of The Mercenaries: Additional Order. And what exactly will that include? There will be new stages, for starters, while more playable characters are also being added, including Chris Redfield, Heisenberg, and everybody’s favourite massive vampire, Lady Alcina Dimitrescu. Interestingly, when you’re playing as Lady D, you’ll be towering over all the enemies you take on in combat. Further details on additional stages and playable characters will hopefully arrive in the coming weeks and months.

RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE: GOLD EDITION

This is something you probably saw coming, at least if you remember how Capcom handled things with Resident Evil 7. On October 28, when The Winters’ Expansion launches, Capcom will also release both digital and physical versions of Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition. The Gold Edition will include both, the base game and all the new content that’s being added to it as part of The Winters’ Expansion. There’s no word yet on how much it’ll cost, but Resident Evil 7’s Gold Edition (which included all DLC for it) cost $50 when it launched back in December 2017, nearly a year after the base game’s launch. Hopefully, Capcom will make sure that this upcoming release is priced reasonably as well.

RESIDENT EVIL RE:VERSE

Resident Evil Re:Verse has sadly become another bafflingly poorly handled attempt at making PvP stick for Resident Evil. The game has lost a ton of ground before it could even launch, and the fact that it has been delayed significantly and roundly ignored by Capcom itself has done it no favours. That said, it did recently re-emerge, and Capcom confirmed that it, too, will launch on October 28. No new details were shared on it whatsoever, so we have no idea what (if any) improvements and changes have been made to the game as a result of its delays. Of course, those who already purchase Resident Evil Village (or decide to buy it in the future) will get access to Re:Verse for free, which is something Capcom announced well over a year ago, before Village even launched.

PLAYSTATION VR2

The Winters’ Expansion and Re:Verse are launching on October 28, but there’s other stuff coming to Resident Evil Village beyond that as well. Resident Evil 7 was one of the best games to offer PSVR support, and similar VR support in its direct follow-up has been sorely missed. That’ll change not long from now, because Resident Evil Village is currently in development for PlayStation VR2. We’ve seen brief gameplay footage for it (which also showed the ability to dual wield weapons), though there’s no word on when it’ll launch. In all likelihood though, this won’t be out before 2023.

For starters, there’s Resident Evil Village: Shadows of Rose. This expansion is set 16 years after the events of the base game and sees you playing as Rose, Ethan’s daughter. It’s a completely third person experience that sees Rose traveling into the consciousness of the megamycete, where she’ll be fighting against not only creatures and monstrosities, but the environments themselves.

Other new content headed to the game will come in the form of Mercenaries: Additional Orders. This will add quite a bit to the Mercenaries mode, including new levels, as well as new playable characters such as Chris Redfield, Heisenberg, and yes, even Lady Dimitrescu. When you’re playing as Lady D, you’ll be eight feet tall and tower over your enemies.

Finally (and this is bound to intrigue series fans), Resident Evil Village is also adding a third person mode. The entire game will be playable in third person, with new animations designed for it- and yes, we finally get to properly see Ethan’s face.

All of this combined is part of a single package dubbed by Capcom as the Winters’ Expansion. It will launch on October 28, and the same day will also see the launch of Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition, which will include both the base game and the expansion content.

Finally, Resident Evil Re:Verse has also resurfaced at long last. The PvP multiplayer game will launch on October 28 as well, though Capcom has provided almost no new details on it.

Resident Evil Village is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia. The game has sold 6.1 million units to date, and is also currently in development for PlayStation VR2.