Capcom held a Resident Evil showcase this week to unveil more details regarding the spooky sequel to Resident Evil 7, Resident Evil 8, otherwise known as Resident Evil Village. The livestreamed presentation showed off the first gameplay for the survival-horror title and revealed a release date, a special collectors edition, and even a new multiplayer side game that's available for free to those that purchase Resident Evil 8.
Resident Evil Re:Verse is a special bonus gift for RE8 owners, similar to how Resident Evil Resistance came included with the Resident Evil 3 remake. It allows fans to choose between several iconic characters from throughout the series, like Leon Kennedy and Jill Valentine, and participate in a deathmatch game mode to compete for the highest score. The competitive multiplayer title is meant to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the series, bringing together various locations that were featured in the mainline Resident Evil games.
In order to give players more freedom when it comes to moving around these iconic locales, it seems that the development team for Re:Verse had to shrink the characters down quite a bit for everything to work smoothly. Most Resident Evil games rely on throwing players into tight corridors and cramped hallways to create the feeling of dread and despair since it's a horror series and all. But since Re:Verse is more about action and getting lots of kills, the cramped areas aren't needed.
APZonerunner on Twitter pointed this out in a post showing a screenshot of Jill Valentine walking towards Leon, and she definitely looks smaller than how she was presented in 2020's Resident Evil 3. Alex also mentions that if fans check out one of the early parts of the teaser trailer for Re:Verse, they can see that Claire and Jill are barely taller than the desks in one of the offices of the police department level.
Considering that this multiplayer title supports up to six players in one match, it would make sense for Capcom to make each location feel larger than they actually are. If six players were thrown into a tiny area, there could definitely be some spacing issues to come from that.
It'll be interesting to see how this side game pans out. Capcom has not had the best luck with multiplayer Resident Evil titles, with most of them receiving average to disappointing scores on Metacritic or just simply losing traction very quickly. As of the time of writing, the reveal trailer for Resident Evil Re:Verse has over 60% dislikes on YouTube, so fans will just have to wait and see how this one turns out.
Resident Evil 8 will launch with Resident Evil Re:Verse on May 7, 2021, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.