Fan excitement over Resident Evil Village has continued to rise over the past couple of weeks. Just recently, Capcom revealed a ton of new information about the upcoming horror game in a new showcase event, headlined by the imposing villain Lady Dimitrescu. While fans have since become attached to the character for perhaps reasons that Capcom didn’t expect, the showcase also revealed a strange new addition to Resident Evil 8.
In addition to the single player game, fans are also getting access to a new multiplayer experience called Resident Evil Re:Verse. While Capcom didn’t reveal too much about it, the trailer seemed to show classic Resident Evil characters like Leon Kennedy and Jill Valentine running and gunning through iconic locations like the RE2 police station with visual style that looks like it was taken out of comic book.
While fan reaction to Resident Evil Re:Verse seems mixed, the experience has a lot to prove to fans as it isn’t the first time that Capcom has attempted to add a feature like this to the traditionally single-player franchise. While many of the games came with co-op elements for the campaign, a few have attempted to add a competitive element to them, pitting players against other players. Unfortunately, the results for these multiplayer offshoots have typically been mixed at best.
Largely remembered as a core single player experience with optional cooperative elements, Resident Evil 5 was a generally well regarded entry in this series. A few weeks after the game launched in 2009, Capcom released Versus Mode as a $4.99, which added two game modes for up to 4 players to the experience: Slayers and Survivors. Slayers was essentially a free for all, with a team version also available, tasking players to kill as many Majini as possible to earn combo bonuses. Other players were also fair game, with deaths causing a small point loss. Survivors put the focus on fighting other players rather than AI enemies. Each character had a different starting weapon with other weapons and gear found littered around the maps.
For many fans, launching a separate mode weeks after the game launched was enough to get the fanbase upset, who felt that not only should the mode have been included in the full game, but it was basically a $5 reskin of the Mercenaries mode. While those who played found the experience generally fun, it contained the controversial stop to shoot tank control gameplay of the main game which saw its own complaints. While the paywall and control scheme may have been enough for some fans, Versus Mode also lacked proper balancing as certain weapons proved to be much more effective and stronger than others. Still, compared to future multiplayer focused games, Resident Evil 5: Versus is likely viewed as the least offensive title.
A collaboration between the SOCOM development studio Slant Six Games and Capcom, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City puts players in the shoes of one of 12 playable Umbrella Security Services agents as they work to contain the outbreak in Raccoon City during the events of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. While the single player has a host of issues, the game also adds in a number of multiplayer modes from more traditional deathmatch modes to objective based ones like Biohazard where teams rush around the map collecting G-virus samples to return them back to base.
Overall, the game received very mixed reviews, traditionally ranging from mediocre to bad. Many reviewers claimed that the game delivered the bare minimum and needed better design choices as well as a number of fixes for its technical missteps. Even with all of its flaws, poor critical reception, and bad Metacritic score, the game sold surprisingly well. In fact, a few months after release, the game managed to sell over 2.1 million copies worldwide, prompting Capcom to view the game as a big success. It’s likely due to this viewpoint that Capcom would go on to continue the tactical shooter series which ultimately led to another Resident Evil multiplayer disaster in Umbrella Corps.
Serving as a spin-off series, Umbrella Corps took Resident Evil in a completely different direction from what franchise fans were used to. Instead of a tense, horror experience, Umbrella Corps is a multiplayer focused tactical shooter which has the dubious honor of being one of the worst reviewed games in the Resident Evil franchise.
Essentially, players take on the role of a mercenary from one of two different corporations vying to control over the research left behind by the collapse of the Umbrella Corporation. The small maps are all based on iconic Resident Evil locations such as the mansion, though explained as recreated training areas instead of being the actual places. Maps are also infested with zombies, so instead of simply fighting other players, teams will need to be on their toes with plenty of threats attempting to take them down. In place of a traditional single player campaign, Umbrella Corps only features a 24 mission horde mode, tasking players to survive against increasingly difficult waves of enemies.
While attempting to capitalize on the rise of eSports, response to the game after it launched in 2016 was universally negative. Most were not pleased by how far the game strayed from the franchise, though many reviewers also commented that the maps were too small, boring, and ultimately felt generic. Some even noted that the game was made up of a bunch of styles that didn’t quite fit together very well. It was also plagued by bugs at launch and rumors indicated that the budget priced game was also developed with a smaller than normal budget. Coupled with the fact that Blizzard launched its incredibly popular multiplayer game Overwatch just a month before, Umbrella Corps ultimately faced an uphill battle that it couldn’t win. Its Metacritic scores remain in the 30s to this day.
The most recent attempt to infuse a multiplayer element into the Resident Evil franchise, Resistance took a different approach from past games. Taking inspiration from asymmetrical multiplayer games like Evolve or Dead by Daylight, the game had four players attempting to survive against 1 mastermind. It’s the job of the mastermind to attempt to stop the team of four from escaping the map before the timer runs out. They can place traps, explosives, zombies, and plenty of other obstacles to try and down everyone. The survivors not only need to make it out alive, but they need to locate three different keys to unlock the various exits and escape to freedom before time runs out.
Instead of making it a standalone title, Capcom smartly bundled the experience in with Resident Evil 3 Remake, ensuring a healthy population of players on day 1. While the mode received decent enough scores from reviewers, it just didn’t have the staying power that many had hoped at launch. It has a small, yet passionate fanbase, but the overall consensus is that the mode is ultimately inconsistent with the Mastermind being vastly more fun than playing as one of the four slow moving survivors. Zombies are fast and are essentially bullet sponges, forcing players to spend too much time and ammo taking them out. Promising ideas marred by technical issues and strange design decisions have seemingly sunk another multiplayer focused Resident Evil experience.
For now, the jury remains out on Resident Evil Re:Verse. However, with a few months remaining until launch and not much currently revealed about the alternative mode, Capcom still has plenty of opportunities to sway fans.
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.
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