For what’s it’s worth, I’ve always wanted to get into the Resident Evil franchise, but outside of playing and beating the original Resident Evil 2 on my PlayStation over 20 years ago, I haven’t done much else. I almost finished Resident Evil 4 when it first released on PlayStation 2, but that’s the last game in the franchise I actually spent a significant amount of time with. However, after quickly playing through the “Maiden” demo for Resident Evil Village, it has piqued my interest and it’s a game I’m now looking forward to seeing more of.
I haven’t been following anything around Resident Evil Village. I knew nothing, including the fact that today (January 21), Capcom would be revealing some key details. I still had no idea, but I heard there was a demo, so I quickly downloaded it on my PlayStation 5 and played through it. Yes, this is a quick little snippet that does little to explain the RE Village story but it does exactly what you expect it will: make you want to learn/see more.
I’m not going to go into any real details around the “Maiden” demo. You ‘wake’ up lock in a cell deep inside a basement. You must figure a way out. The puzzles are pretty easy and I don’t expect it will take people more than 20-30 minutes to complete. You can wander a bit but there isn’t too much to see. You’re looking for key items to unlock new areas and hopefully get out of there alive.
But as a demo, this is exactly what you want in order to gain interest. The story is a mystery; you get just enough information about where you are but you want to learn more. The gameplay is simple but it shouldn’t be too difficult in a demo. You want the user to enjoy their time with the game because you want them to keep playing the full title when it releases in May 2021.
Capcom has done these kinds of snippet demos in the past for their last few RE Games: I remember playing through them and feeling the same way as I did with Village. But as I mentioned earlier, I never followed through with actually playing them. With Resident Evil Village, I’m hopeful that changes. I really like immersion in the games I play and this hit those marks perfectly. Now, I’m going to go out there and check out a few of the trailers I’ve missed*.
*From what I’ve quickly read while preparing this post, Resident Evil Village is a direct sequel to Resident Evil VII. If that’s the case, thankfully, I believe that game is available to Xbox Game Pass, so I’ll need to try to play it first.