For many longtime Resident Evil fans, Project Resistance‘s announcement has been somewhat of a disappointment.
The upcoming title is a spinoff of Capcom’s illustrious franchise and represents a drastic tonal shift for a variety of reasons, chief among them being the introduction of multiplayer. Unlike the mainline games, which have, by and large, been traditionally single-player affairs that task you with surviving a living nightmare on your own, Project Resistance is, well, the opposite of that.
The premise is simple. Using an asymmetrical format similar to that of Dead by Daylight, Resistance pits a team of four survivors against a single human-controlled opponent, the Mastermind. The survivors’ job is to escape a series of increasingly difficult scenarios filled with zombies, Lickers and puzzles while their opponent does everything in their power to prevent their success. Choosing enemy spawn points, triggering environmental effects (e.g. turning out the lights) and even taking direct control of monsters like Mr. X are just some of the tools that the Mastermind has at their disposal to hinder their test subjects’ progress.
An interesting if mildly derivative spin on Resident Evil‘s usual modus operandi, then, but regardless, the focus on multiplayer is a deal-breaker for many.
Clearly having anticipated the negative reception from some purists, however, Capcom has come up with a solution that will hopefully satisfy different tastes. As per a recent interview with PlayStation Blog, producer Masachika Kawata revealed that Project Resistance will in fact have a dedicated offline mode.
The version we showed at TGS 2019 was an online game mode, but we are fully aware that there many are Resident Evil fans that expect the story in the game. In an effort to satisfy our fans, we will have an offline mode that is focused on the narrative component.
What that so-called narrative component will entail remains to be seen, as Kawata doesn’t elaborate any further, but nevertheless, we think it’s a fair compromise.
Project Resistance is currently in development for unspecified platforms and a release date has yet to be confirmed. Has today’s revelation served to change your stance on Resident Evil‘s next big spinoff, though? Send us your thoughts via the usual place below.
