Everything We Know About Resident Evil 8

Last Updated: June 28, 2020

One of the exciting surprises at Sony’s PlayStation 5 showcase event was the official announcement of Resident Evil 8, or rather, Resident Evil Village, as the first few letters of “village” have been stylized to look like the Roman numeral VIII.

Few details have been revealed about the next Resident Evil game, but the announcement trailer and official descriptions still give us some tantalizing details.

Here’s everything we know so far about Resident Evil Village.

Release

Resident Evil Village has been announced for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC. A Steam page is already live for it. Although there is no specific Resident Evil Village release date yet, it is planned for 2021.

Characters and Setting

Resident Evil Village is a direct sequel to Resident Evil 7: biohazard and once again stars Ethan Winters, the protagonist of that game. It is set in a mysterious village that includes many varied environments shown in the trailer.

Other confirmed returning characters include Mia, as well as longtime series protagonist Chris Redfield, who most recently appeared in Resident Evil 7’s DLC episode Not a Hero. There has been much speculation that Chris is the villain of Resident Evil Village, but his role and motivations are still unknown.

The IMDB page for Resident Evil Village lists numerous other returning characters, including Alex Wesker and Barry Burton, but since IMDB can be edited, none of this should be taken as official just yet.

The Umbrella Corporation logo appears in the trailer and screenshots, confirming Umbrella is in Resident Evil Village in some form.

Gameplay

Resident Evil Village is using Capcom’s RE Engine, which was also used not only for Resident Evil 7, but also Resident Evil 2 (remake), Devil May Cry 5, and Resident Evil 3 (remake). It will be played from a first-person perspective just like Resident Evil 7, rather than the third-person over-the-shoulder view used for the recent remakes.

The specific gameplay will most likely involve a mix of fighting the wolf-like monsters and other enemies, and solving puzzles. It’s worth noting that the Special Developer Message says they are “upping the ante on action a bit,” among other details.

That might set off alarm bells for some longtime series fans, but they might simply mean it will have more action than Resident Evil 7 did, rather than a return to the all-out action horror seen in Resident Evil 4 and especially Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6.

Conclusion

Right now, we have only a handful of concrete details about the next Resident Evil game, but there’s plenty of room for theories, especially since Capcom highlighted one piece of key art as being very important.

So, when will we learn more about Resident Evil Village? According to the official website, new information about Resident Evil Village (or Resident Evil VIII or Resident Evil 8, whatever you want to call it) will be revealed in August. Stay tuned!