The long-awaited Resident Evil 8 is finally gearing up for release, and Capcom has begun the slow rollout of features and story details to get fans hyped, as it did in the recent Resident Evil 8 showcase. Among the typical gunplay and puzzle-solving endemic to the series was something a little different: guarding. This little mechanic may seem small at first, but could have ramifications felt a decade of sequels from now.
Resident Evil has long been about surviving horrors, and thus an emphasis on mitigating damage has always been present. Zombies were often slow to move and turn, so even in the cramped confines of the Resident Evil 1 Spencer Mansion or RE2’s rapidly repopulating Raccoon City police station, protagonists could juke around hostiles to conserve ammo and health. Even though there was no dedicated mechanic yet to minimize damage, the game design allowed players to sprint through rooms once they had a good handle on the controls and enemy layouts.
That all changed with Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Marking the franchise’s first step towards action-centric gameplay, a defensive mechanic was introduced: dodging. At the press of a button, Jill Valentine could shunt herself to the side, offering protection from both zombie grabs and the much more dangerous Nemesis. This system returned with a massive upgrade in Resident Evil 3 Remake, slowing down time in a manner akin to Bayonetta while giving players the chance to deliver a souped-up counterattack. This was the strongest players had seen a Resident Evil protagonist to this point, a sensible choice for RE1 veteran Jill Valentine, but Capcom wasn’t even close to done.
Resident Evil 4 brought the series to the over-the-shoulder era, and introduced mechanics that would set the stage for 5 and 6. While enemies always had some kind of different reaction to shooting them in the head, chest, or legs, Resident Evil 4 expanded that to include all of an enemy’s limbs and any weapons they were holding. The game’s mantra was essentially “the best defense is a good offense,” and nowhere was that made more clear than Leon’s iconic roundhouse kick becoming available after a leg shot. This idea of a contextual finisher that could also push back other enemies held fast for a few more games until finally giving way in Resident Evil 7.
First introduced to the franchise in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, guarding adds a new dynamic to Resident Evil’s typical zombie-dodging gameplay. While prior games emphasized movement speed and clever offense, Resident Evil 7 allowed players to hunker down and become a sort of tank. Guarding works by holding a single button, causing Ethan to cover his face with his arms. This slows him down, obscures his vision, and prevents him from doing anything but crouch (another, more situational, defensive mechanic). On top of all that, Ethan can only block one attack at a time, so it’s clear that Capcom took great care in making guarding a balanced mechanic.
Still, despite those weaknesses, guarding can be a lifesaver for newer players, and a speedrunning tool for experienced ones. At its most basic, players can continuously block and walk until they’re hit, and most damage taken will be reduced to one quarter. With certain special items or by perfectly timing a just guard right when an enemy hits, players can reduce damage to one eighth or even nothing at all. Some attacks, like Mia’s chainsaw charge, even have built-in deflections that can stagger an enemy without any harm to the player. Avoidance is still important in higher difficulties and survival modes where enemies will be swarming the player and dealing more damage, but it’s still a good tool to fall back on when there’s no other options.
So, what does all that mean now that Resident Evil 8: Village has brought guarding back? Well, for one, all the design considerations above have likely made a return. Well-timed improved guards are likely back, unlockable defense-boosting items will pop up here and there, and some attacks will be nullified and pushed back entirely. Some attacks, like a giant enemy’s massive hammer swing, probably can’t be blocked. However, to see the real potential of guarding, there’s nothing better to look at than downloadable campaigns of RE7: Not A Hero and End of Zoe.
In RE7’s Not A Hero DLC, performing guards at just the right time results in “deflects” which cause enemies to flinch. Deflects can be utilized against every enemy, including the final boss Lucas. In his case, if players deflect Lucas’ instant kill grab, it will cause Lucas’s chest weak point to be exposed without the need for ammunition. This advanced guarding technique weights the balance of power in favor of the player, and would likely require an increase in attacks that cannot be normal-guarded or deflected at all to compensate. Enemies could even try to flank or strafe around players while attacking. Still, if Resident Evil ever needs to put the player in the shoes of a mighty series veteran, like this DLC’s Chris Redfield, a correspondingly powerful defensive mechanic would feel that much more appropriate.
The other RE7 DLC campaign, “End of Zoe”, demonstrates what guarding is like when guns aren’t an option. Newcomer Joe Baker is still a powerhouse compared to the average RE protagonist, but because he prefers not to use guns, his combat ends up close and personal. If he can’t take a stealthy approach or instantly take out an enemy with his limited supply of spears, he needs to get in melee range, and that’s a scary prospect when fighting monsters with natural claws and blades. This is in its sharpest focus when fighting the Swamp Man, the DLC’s boss monster who fights with punches and tackles much like Baker. Guarding is thrust into the forefront in a way it wasn’t even in the main game, and it’s not hard to imagine comparable situations in a regular RE when players run out of ammo and are backed into a corner.
The primary change guarding invites is the viability of melee combat without stunning the enemy with another mechanic. Resident Evil‘s typically trusty knife goes from an emergency weapon and a finisher for grounded enemies to a viable option that can bring down any beast, while strafing and blocking added on. Furthermore, extra melee options like those seen in End of Zoe have reason to exist without disrupting other methods of play. Things would still get dicey around bosses and minibosses, but the new first-person Resident Evil gameplay has demonstrated a remarkable aptitude for making dynamic encounters full of potential strategies for taking threats down.
After experimenting with what first-person action gameplay is capable of in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, it’s going to be interesting seeing what Capcom comes up with for Resident Evil 8: Village. Melee weapons, staggering enemies through timed blocks, and all manner of interesting enemy and level designs can come from implementing just one seemingly small mechanic. Guarding has changed the Resident Evil experience forever, and 8 is primed to show how.
Resident Evil 8: Village launches May 7, 2021, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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