In the absence of any E3 shows for 2022, some game developers have been holding their own E3-style live streams to tease some upcoming game releases to fans. The latest developer to host one of these shows is Capcom, and unsurprisingly, Resident Evil content took up a lot of the developer’s presentation. With a story DLC for Resident Evil Village on the way, along with a remake of Resident Evil 4, there was a lot that fans wanted to see. And although gameplay for both was kept tantalizingly brief, Capcom did reveal the release dates for both RE8's DLC and the RE4 remake.
These aren’t the only two Resident Evil titles Capcom has yet to release, however. Resident Evil Re:Verse is the multiplayer PvP game that came bundled with Resident Evil Village and received only ten seconds of screen time during Capcom's Resident Evil Village showcase.
The brief announcement simply stated that Re:Verse would become available to play on the same date as the DLC for Resident Evil Village, on October 28, 2022. Re:Verse was meant to release alongside Resident Evil Village to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Resident Evil series, but it was delayed for a year after the game’s online beta revealed a lot of issues in matchmaking. A multiplayer shooter mode is a curious direction of the series to go, however, especially since the series has only recently re-established itself as a more focused survival horror franchise with Resident Evil 7.
Re:Verse is a multiplayer PvP game mode for up to six players, with the unique Resident Evil distinction that after a player is killed, they will turn into one of the series' iconic bioweapon enemies for a short duration of time. The game reuses a lot of assets from the latest RE Engine-created Resident Evil games, including characters, weapons, and locations like the RPD, although these locations have been scaled up in Re:Verse to become suitable multiplayer maps. All the assets have also been given a cel shaded, almost Borderlands style look which was likely done to ease the processing strain on the game.
Capcom seems interested in establishing an online multiplayer component in its RE games, as the Resident Evil 3 remake also came bundled with an interesting, but ultimately ill-fated asymmetric multiplayer game mode named Resident Evil Resistance. Re:Verse appears to be a more traditional attempt at a multiplayer PvP mode that would likely have increased the amount of time players spent with RE8. Releasing a year after Resident Evil Village means that Re:Verse may have already missed its chance to do this.
The very brief appearance of Re:Verse in the Capcom Showcase does cast doubts over how much faith the developer has in the game’s success. Re:Verse could become another of Capcom’s ill fated attempts at making a multiplayer Resident Evil game.
Resident Evil Re:Verse will be released on October 28, 2022, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.