The recent April 14 Resident Evil Showcase has unveiled several new details about the franchise’s upcoming game, Resident Evil Village. Two new gameplay demos were announced, with the Village demo releasing April 17, and the Castle demo releasing April 24.
The demos will be released on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 first, before arriving on all platforms on May 1. These come after the first demo, Maiden, was released in January. Alongside this, a new trailer for Village was revealed, which can be seen below. It shows the game’s villain, Lady Dimitrescu, in all her overbearing might, alongside snippets of lycans, and hints towards the identity of the mysterious Mother Miranda.
In addition to this, Village is set to bring back the multiplayer mode, Mercenaries. Originally packaged with Resident Evil 6, the online shooter puts players in the shoes of either monsters or survivors, with each group going against one another. As in Village, the mode will adopt a first-person view, unlike the third-person perspective seen before. Players will also be able to buy weapons and gear from The Duke between rounds. Additionally, items can now be picked up from the floor, a new addition to the mode. A new trailer for the mode was also screened at the showcase.
This wasn’t all of the Resident Evil news from the showcase, as a VR version of the Resident Evil 4 was confirmed to be in development. Set for release on the Oculus Quest 2, little else is known about the project, although it will adopt the first-person perspective of recent Resident Evil games. It’s currently unclear whether this is a separate project to the Resident Evil 4 remake announced last spring, although details are sure to emerge soon.
The final reveal from the showcase was a release date for the upcoming anime series, Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness. Due for release on Netflix in Summer 2021, the show is set after the events of Resident Evil 4, following the further adventures of protagonist Leon Kennedy. This is separate to a Netflix Original live-action Resident Evil series, which has yet to gain a release date.
