New Resident Evil Village Details Tease Open World Environments And Exploration

As a spectacular reimagining of what had otherwise become an incredibly formulaic series, Capcom achieved exactly what it set out to do with Resident Evil 7. The developer’s decision to hit the reset button, so to speak, following the poorly-received RE6, was a move welcomed by all, and while Ethan Winters’ danger-fraught escape from the clutches of Jack Baker and his equally deranged family represents one of the best installments (both in terms of gameplay and narrative) to date, one sorely-missed element from the reboot was scope.

It’s hardly surprising that Capcom opted to maintain realistic ambitions for its first game to utilize the RE Engine, but three years and two remakes later, it seems as if Resident Evil Village truly is intended to be a culmination of all it has learned in that relatively short timeframe.

Nowhere has that been made more evident than recent comments provided by Village‘s development team during Tokyo Game Show. According to director Morimasa Sato, a particular emphasis was placed on enabling and encouraging player exploration in the upcoming sequel, to the extent that he describes the Village subtitle as something of a misnomer.

“When you take the word ‘village’, people picture a small place. But when you look at Village, it has a colossal, distant feel to it. You have a lot more freedom in Village than in Resident Evil VII,” he continues, adding, “We want players to experiment, to figure out what works for them”, ultimately pitching the experience as a “horror movie you can play.”

Whether Ethan’s newfound freedom to explore his surroundings alludes to the presence of non-linear progression remains to be seen, of course, as while Resident Evil has certainly never been an open world franchise by any stretch of the imagination, Capcom has always strived to offer alternate routes to the same end goal – one of many aspects that make repeated playthroughs such a joy.

Hopefully we’ll get answers to some of those burning questions over the weekend during a dedicated Resident Evil Village panel. Stay tuned for more details.