Resident Evil 3 came and went last week to a somewhat mixed reception. While it was a fun game, I personally thought there were plenty of missed opportunities throughout. At the same time, the open beta for the packed-in multiplayer game; RE: Resistance, had experienced issues with PS4 and PC players, so I left it out of that review.
But over the weekend, the issues had seemingly been fixed, and so I played many matches of RE: Resistance to give my experiences of it so far in its current state.
With it being a modern multiplayer game, this incarnation will be the first of many, with plenty of changes and updates over the coming months and even (Capcom would hope) years. In its current state, however, I was left feeling bored and frustrated, with a lot needing to be improved upon in every aspect of the game.
RE: Resistance aims to give you a sort of throwback to Resident Evil: Outbreak and Left 4 Dead, with a fair sprinkling of modern asymmetrical multiplayer titles such as Dead By Daylight thrown in for good measure. There are two ways to play. ‘Survivor’ is essentially a run from one point of the map to another before a time limit expires. The other mode is called ‘Mastermind’, where you’re essentially an Umbrella-employed director playing a twisted version of Kevin from the film Home Alone, laying traps and enemies on the map to maim and kill the survivor team as they try to clear the level.
Before you begin, you are brought into the Tutorial section, where you can try out both Survivor and Mastermind modes, and have the rules explained without the pressure of a live game.
In Survivor mode, you can play either on your own or in a group of four – there’s no other option. You need to go from one part of the map to another, all the while picking up cash in the form of ‘Umbrella Credits’, helping out teammates, and shooting/avoiding all the enemies that the ‘Mastermind’ spawns.
Even though there are six characters with varying abilities, Valerie, Tyrone, and Becca are the only ones, for now, worth playing as. Their speed and effectiveness when battling hordes of zombies really helps to survive the onslaught. But even so, the controls can still feel sluggish. Pressing the usual ‘Tab’ key to bring up weapons or items to use takes far longer than in Resident Evil 3 for some reason, and being able to help your teammates also feels drawn out. I also expected to share items or ammo, much like how Resident Evil 5 managed this system, as it would have given better variety and better teamwork dynamics, but it’s nowhere to be found here, which is a shame.
I was able to ignore the above faults at times. There were a few fun matches played with the tension and excitement of scraping by, balancing risk and reward to grab ammo and supplies. You need to make sure you’ve got enough for the hordes of enemies that the ‘Mastermind’ player almost always spawns, and the kicker is you never know what exactly you’ll be dealing with.
Usually, towards the end of the level, many zombies and zombie dogs were spawned, alongside William Birkin or Mr. X from RE2, which would predictably end up in game over more often than not. It gives Resistance a feeling that it isn’t as fun and fair as it could be, that the ‘Mastermind’ and their arsenal of undead tricks have no fair balance to what they could spawn over the course of the match. Your only viable choice usually is to go down the ‘every man/woman for themselves’ path and stock up on ammo and health before this horde of G-Virus enemies come to end you all.
It has quickly become a chore to play through Survivor in its current form; it all still feels rather unfinished, an open beta that seems like it could have done with being released separately and given time to iron out these issues that could have made this side of the game more compelling to play.
As I previously noted, the Mastermind side of the package lets you be the director of those stages. You are presented with an area map to lay down your traps and enemies before the survivor players reach the rooms. You’re also given ‘boosts’ to place down different enemies, or multiple amounts of some to make it more challenging for the players. You can also take control of enemies, from the shambling zombies all the way to the hulking William Birkin and Mr. X, to really cause some damage.
I had the most enjoyment in this mode, mainly because I was able to control the bosses from RE2. If it wasn’t for the risible controls and the UI, I would have had even more fun.
Cycling through the enemies to spawn is an often confusing act. When you do spawn some, you’re not really sure if they will actually appear on the map. One example was when I spawned a pack of dogs onto the map, but because of a pillar in the way, it only spawned a couple of them, instead of just letting me know to spawn them somewhere else. The spawn cards themselves are also confusing, as you’re not sure what exactly you can spawn, and even how to cycle through them all. I tried every key imaginable to swap between traps and enemies. It made the whole thing more frustrating than it needed to be, and in the end, I just waited until I could spawn Birkin and went on a desperate onslaught across the map. Finally, connecting to a match takes far longer than it should. Every match took at least five minutes to let me in to start playing.
Overall, I came out of this feeling frustrated and more than a little bored, and honestly would have much preferred the Mercenaries mode to come back in a remade form instead. Resistance is a jumbled mess of ideas without a clear vision, albeit with the potential to get better. Unfortunately, it’s released in a buggy, slow, frustrating state. There are cracks of hope that it could eventually be a good game once feedback and new seasons of content are implemented, but I don’t think I’ll be coming back to the game anytime soon.
Resident Evil Resistance review code for PC provided by the publisher.
Resident Evil Resistance is out now for PS4, Xbox One, and PC as part of Resident Evil 3.