New footage has emerged of the upcoming Resident Evil Village running smoothly on PlayStation 4 Pro, dispelling concerns that previous-gen consoles may struggle to run next-gen releases. A new gameplay reel released exclusively by IGN shows five minutes of Village in glorious 4K definition, holding up next to its PlayStation 5 counterpart.
When revealed at the PS5 announcement event in June 2020, Resident Evil Village was initially billed as a next-gen exclusive release, with no news on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game. These previous-gen versions were only confirmed this January at the Resident Evil Showcase event, and this footage from IGN is the first we’ve seen of Village in action on these consoles. The smoothness of the gameplay — running comfortably at native 4K resolution — is sure to come as good news to those whose only chance to play the game is on last-gen consoles.
Of course, this footage is from the enhanced PS4 Pro, and concerns around Village’s performance on base PS4 and Xbox One systems may still whirl around until gameplay on those consoles is demonstrated. It does, however, ease concerns that previous-gen consoles would be immediately abandoned by developers, and proves triple-A releases will still be available on these systems for the near future.
A sequel to 2017’s Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Village takes place several years after Ethan Winters’ escapades in the eerie Baker mansion, as he unites with franchise mainstay Chris Redfield to venture to a European village haunted by a mysterious spectre, Lady Dimitrescu. The game retains the first-person gameplay that RE7: Biohazard first brought to the franchise, and seems set to preserve the survival horror roots of the original 1998 Resident Evil – with the horrors just as accessible to previous-gen players.
