2021 new gaming things!Resident Evil Village!

2021 latest gaming news!

Sharpen your menu organizing skills, because Resident Evil is back with Resident Evil Village. Since this is a main series sequel, Resident Evil 8 (the number is baked into Village as Roman Numerals, get it?), we’re back in first-person, and expecting yet another horror adventure full of twists, turns, and terrifying monsters.

Ethan Winters is back and having a bad time, as you can imagine. But things look even worse than we’ve come to expect from Resident Evil. Village features a ton of firsts for the series, including werewolf-esque creatures, ancient vampiric countesses, and some magic dude that looks straight outta Bloodborne.

It’s going to be a weird one. Here’s everything we know about Ethan Winters’ not so relaxing trip to Romania.

What’s the Resident Evil Village Release Date?
Resident Evil Village launches on all platforms on May 7, 2021. You can find it over on Steam for PC.

If you want the specifics, here’s when Resident Evil Village unlocks in your timezone.

Check out our Resident Evil Review to hear why Andy Kelly calls it the scariest RE yet in his 85% review.

“Village can occasionally feel like half a dozen different horror games jammed together,” Andy says. “But the strength and variety of its ideas, the quality of the art direction, and its darkly evocative atmosphere more than make up for it. It’s a bold and experimental horror game, but also one that leans into the series’ past glories—particularly Resident Evil 4.”

The newest demo for Resident Evil: Village is a limited time and time-limited demo available until May 9. It was originally only scheduled to be available for 24 hours but Capcom extended the window. You can download and try it until May 9 at 5pm PDT. You’ll be able to log 60 minutes of play time exploring the village and Castle Dimitrescu. Both seem like pretty big places, so you’ll likely only get a small look at either one.

Unless of course you were one of those who took advantage of an exploit allowing players on PC to reset the timer.

Back in January we also tried tried the Maiden demo that was available to PS5 players and and spent about 20 minutes escaping from Dimitrescu Castle. It was set in an earlier time period than the game itself, laying out notes and clues about what’s going on there. “Without spoiling the demo too much, you’ll meet a couple of the inhabitants of the castle, and, yes, Lady Dimitrescu is just as charming, tall, and terrifying as we’ve been led to believe,” Emma said.

Turn off your lights, get comfortable, and check out the Resident Evil Village announcement trailer. It’s a stressful, action-packed three minute teaser that features a bedtime story, an old man with a shotgun, and… a gritty Chris Redfield???

A story trailer shown off during September 2020’s PS5 showcase is a creepy setup to the game’s story partly through the lens of an animated storybook. The village that envelops RE8 seems like an appropriately demented destination with deadly forest.

January 2021 brought around yet another Resident Evil Village trailer that showed off those very large vampire ladies who live in the castle above the village. You can also catch the gameplay reveal about 34 minutes in to the showcase from January.

A stranger trailer came in the form of a Japanese puppet show featuring singing, Muppety versions of the four main villains. You know, for kids.

Mercenary mode is back
Resident Evil’s arcade action mode is making a comeback in Village. “It’s back, with a few Resident Evil Village twists,” said director Morimasa Sato.

As with past versions of Mercenaries, it looks fast-paced. You have a time limit to kill a certain number of enemies, but combo-ing kills will grant you both bonus point and bonus time. The big difference this time is that, like the rest of Village, you’ll be playing in first-person. Another new feature is Duke’s Emporium which you can access between zones to buy supplies and upgrade weapons.

Part of what made Mercenaries so popular in past RE games was its co-op multiplayer. We don’t know yet if that will be returning in Village too.

What will Resident Evil 8’s gameplay be like?
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It’s a first-person survival horror game that seems like it will play similarly to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, with more of a focus on action elements. Ethan Winters is one of the least combat-trained protagonists of the series, so you’ll likely have to be clever and careful to get out of harm’s way in the village. In Capcom’s gameplay reveal, they let on that blocking will play an important part in avoiding danger, not just pre-emptively shooting things.

They also gave a look at a crafting system for creating first aid items and ammunition. The grid-based inventory of Resident Evil 4 is making a return and so is the merchant, known as The Duke, who you can buy and sell weapons from.

In a gameplay video from April, we got to see quite a bit more combat as Ethan navigates a flooded cellar full of enemies with his pistol, shotgun, and a knife.

In our Resident Evil Village review, Andy Kelly says that Village is lighter on puzzles than past RE games. “It does make for a pacier game, with fewer interruptions to the flow of exploration and combat,” he says. “But I like those interruptions, and I feel like Village could have benefited from being a little more cerebrally taxing.”