Resident Evil Village: What we would like in ...

Resident Evil Village has been announced for a few months already, so we know very well that it will be a title that, along the lines of what we saw in the seventh chapter, of which it will be a direct sequel, will propose a style of play and a story light years away from those that are the classic canons of the saga. In short, it will be a first-person psychological horror, without hordes of the undead and lickers, special corps and grenade launchers, but an old snowy village, half-ruined and a bit dilapidated, its surroundings made of forests, quarries and tunnels, plus a castle that hides who knows what mysteries.

A set, in short, reminiscent of certain European black fairy tales, for a gaming experience that promises to be once again inspired by the western school of horror at Outlast or Amnesia, rather than, we repeat, by classic gameplay of the franchise.

The village of the damned

We know from Resident Evil Village that it will have a stylistically gothic fairy tale setting, between villages and castles that bring to mind the fascinating scenarios of some areas of Eastern Europe. The story will restart years after the events narrated in the direct sequel to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, with the then protagonist, Ethan, who will reprise his role in this chapter, in the mysterious village in the mountains where the new story will start. It is there that the man will wake up after some dramatic events that will also involve his wife Mia and the child born of their love. So, after surviving the horrors of the Baker house, and being able to rebuild a normal life together with his family, Ethan Winters will have to escape from the horrible new nightmare in which he will find himself trapped, also because of Chris Redfield.

If the mechanics, as it seems, will be broadly those seen in the previous one (although there will presumably be a greater use of firearms), we are curious to see how Capcom will apply them in a different environmental context , made up more of open spaces than indoors (even if there will be a huge castle), and of "micro worlds", ie those formed by the individual houses of the village, which apparently will be largely explorable and usable as hiding places. All the more reason, considering that among the enemies, in addition to zombies in armor, witches and various abominations, there will be creatures similar to werewolves, therefore it is assumed with superhuman strength and a certain sensitivity to smells. From this point of view we would like the smell of these beings to have some impact on the gameplay, not only as a weapon in their favor in sniffing Ethan, but also as a weak point.

For example, Ethan could deceive them about the position by leaving an object in one point and then moving against the wind to another hiding place, or create particular irritating and annoying concoctions to stun or blind them, the time necessary to throw at them a shovel safely or run away. Of course, if these monsters were the birth of Ethan's mind in hallucinations caused by some infection or some virus, everything would change. However, the confirmed presence of a merchant as in Resident Evil 4, which should have some importance in the game mechanics, suggests that this time the protagonist will have access to more "products" and accessories than in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard .

But hoping that the presence of the seller does not turn out to be out of context and, above all, does not unbalance some aspects of gameplay. For the rest we expect to be able to create useful gadgets by recovering material around the scenarios, dodge or repel enemy attacks if properly "read" in time, exploit scenario objects to damage them, as well as collect swords, axes and weapons of various fortunes, and making choices in particular key moments of the adventure with direct consequences in the story. Some crossroads to vary the path where possible without forcing too much plot and events.

Resident Evil Village and PlayStation 5

On the new Sony flagship, the game will have, it seems, some exclusive features, a start with the probable support for PlayStation VR. As already happened with the previous Resident Evil VII, also in this episode characterized among other things by the first person view there could be room for the use of the virtual reality viewer developed by Sony. We sincerely hope so, because in combination with DualSense it could result in a truly terrifying experience. From this point of view, we expect Resident Evil Village to really exploit the specific features of the console, especially those related to the commands. If in fact the 4K (dynamic), the dynamic HDR with active ray tracing effects, and the lightning-fast loading times guaranteed by the SSDs are the minimum wage, granted, for a production of this level, what we want is to see the DualSense controller enhanced. .

From this point of view, Capcom has already made it known that it is definitely focusing on its exclusive features, at least as regards the use of weapons. But beyond the latter, we would like adaptive triggers and haptic feedback to be used also for other aspects of the adventure, so as to further lower the user into the game environment. In our opinion, for example, it would be extremely positive to be able to perceive, in addition to the weight and resistance of the triggers of the weapons, also that of the character's body when perhaps, injured, he has difficulty standing up or running. Then "feel it" drag itself, step by step, grasping with the hands some grips to lean on, and lift the objects with difficulty. Likewise, with haptic feedback, in addition to actually feeling like shooting a real gun, we would also like to be able to feel the friction between Ethan's feet and the type of ground he walks on, or contact with objects or enemy shots.

The rest we are sure will be done by Tempest 3D, the audio technology that according to Capcom will maximize the gaming experience, "causing goosebumps with sounds coming from any direction". From this point of view we would like to implement a whole series of sound effects capable of instilling fear and disquiet just by moving within an area, with a grunt that perhaps comes to our right from a certain distance and gradually approaches. more, as the wind blows in the background, fooling the hearing with other noises that may or may not be natural. In short, as you will have understood from this Resident Evil Village we expect an even more terrifying experience than the previous one, and in this perspective we have faith in the technology offered by the new generation consoles. This is what we thought of Resident Evil Village, a title on which Capcom seems very convinced. And you? What do you think of the game and how would you like it?