It’s not too late for Village VR to happen, right? Right?!
As someone who ranksResident Evil 7as one of their favorites in and out of the long-running series, I am full-blown excited to seeResident Evil Villagecontinue down that path with some on-the-surface supernatural elements and more than a few nods toResident Evil 4‘s whole vibe.Villagehas my attention, and I was pumped to playMaiden, Capcom’s surprise-released PS5-only standalone demo.
If you have a PlayStation 5, get it – it’s a small 4GB-ish download and it’ll only take you 20 minutes or so your first time through. Maiden uses locations and characters fromVillage, but it’s not a “slice” of the main game. Think of it like the best-in-class Beginning Hour teaser forRE7, albeit without combat.
What else should you know? Don’t be like me and fixate on hard-to-find items that aren’t actually hiding in plain sight – this isn’t anotherP.T.or anything, though it is fun to inspect every little detail. That said, look around, and keep moving to find the way forward. The dungeon scenery can be… dynamic.
Capcom has said thatVillagewill get another demo on “all platforms” before the full game is out in May, so if you’re unwilling or unable to play Maiden, here’s a playthrough from our very own Dan:
[Spoilers for the Maiden demo below.]
Impressions? Maiden is what I needed it to be – a standalone piece meant to familiarize players with Castle Dimitrescu, much like the iconicResident Evil 7demo let us test-drive the Baker estate.
I’ve heard some complaints about the demo’s performance, particularly in the main room with the extravagant chandelier, but I can’t say I was affected. I thinkVillagelooks nice; not mind-blowing.
I will say, Maiden would’ve had more impact if there was even ahintof combat (it’s strictly a puzzle-item-collecting stroll, and that quickly becomes clear from the lack of any weapons), but I appreciated the chance to get up close with Alcina Dimitrescu and one of her bug-ridden vampire daughters.
It was also nice to have several lore-filled notes to sift through; “the winemaking techniques of Castle Dimitrescu can be traced as far back as the 15th Century, long before the current occupants of the castle.” And man, there’s something so snug about solving impractical-as-hell “Resident Evil” puzzles.
That said, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d bewaymore invested in this demo if I was crawling through secret passages and walking down the grand staircase with a VR headset on. To those of us who went throughRE7with PlayStation VR, it’s genuinely hard to go back to the “flat” format. Playing that unhinged roller-coaster of a campaign in VR was one of the gaming highlights of my entire life.
I’m holding out hope that maybe, just maybe, Capcom and Sony can makeVillageVR happen with an as-yet-unannounced PlayStation VR successor. If it’s ever going to happen, it’ll probably be there.
To anyone feeling left out right now because they don’t have a PS5, try not to – Maiden is cool from a visual setpeice point of view, but you honestly aren’t missing much substance. It didn’t change my mind aboutVillagefor better or worse. It’s still one of my most anticipated games of 2021, but I’m way more curious about that “separate new demo” coming to other platforms this spring. Let me pick up a sword!
