Project Resistance Is Not a Safe Bet

A multiplayer Resident Evil game should be easy to bet on, considering the RE franchise is competing with Monster Hunter as Capcom’s most popular brand. It’s not, though, and Capcom has no one but themselves to blame.

This unfortunate trend started with Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, a four-player multiplayer title developed by Slant Six Games that featured co-op and competitive modes where players could use new and legacy characters. It was considered mediocre by critics and fans, but still sold at least 2.5 million copies thanks to its brand name (see #23) — and those sales don’t include the PC version. The reputation, sadly, helped send Slant Six into the grave. Given the sales, Capcom felt they had to make a sequel, and did so with Umbrella Corps, a digital-only game with a considerably lower budget developed by the company’s Osaka studio. This game turned out even worse, and couldn’t be saved by its sales.

The RE brand took serious damage, but it’s since regained its reputation thanks to titles like Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and the Resident Evil 2 remake. As if on cue, Capcom has figured that it’s time to give multiplayer RE another shot with Project Resistance (a working title, apparently). It has potential.

Project Resistance is a five-player asymmetrical multiplayer title with a primary mode that involves four players who have to work together to escape labyrinthine environments full of enemies. The obstacles and enemies are planned by the Mastermind, who’s controlled by a fifth player.

The game will have four playable characters: Combat specialist Samuel Jordan, hacker January Van Sant, support chemist Valerie Harmon, and defense specialist Tyrone Henry. They resemble regular citizens who’ve been thrust into the zombie apocalypse with minimal preparation, a stark contrast to the well-prepared officers and soldiers who are usually protagonists in the RE titles. Their attire is more reminiscent of RE7 protagonist Ethan and Resident Evil Revelations 2 semi-protagonist Moira Burton in wearing street clothes, though they’re nonetheless capable of handling themselves in battle.

The four characters will try to survive while the Mastermind creepily monitors them through a series of security cameras, and manipulates the arena to prevent their escape. Mainstay enemies from the series can be used as obstacles, including zombies, lickers, plant zombies, and even Mr. X from the RE2 remake, all of which can be directly controlled by the opposing player. There will also be traps that resemble miniature versions of the bear traps from Resident Evil 4, and the Mastermind can weaponize security cameras. They can even make puzzles the players will have to solve to escape certain areas, though they don’t look too complicated.

It looks like it could be fun from the demos shown at Tokyo Game Show thus far, and looks better than the last two multiplayer games did at this point. But there’s still some disappointment. Several players were hoping this would be a spiritual successor to the Resident Evil Outbreak games released for PlayStation 2 upon seeing the first teaser, but this is clearly carving its own path.

The presentation looks familiar. Several character animations are lifted right from playable characters in the RE2 remake, though they aren’t quite as polished. Project Resistance’s characters do, however, have more attacks, similar to those from the action-based RE titles. It’s also in an unfinished state, and the graphical fidelity was reduced thanks to the game’s need to handle multiple playable characters on the screen at once.

Several background elements are also ripped right out of the RE2 remake, though redesigned for levels that fit the four-player escape room style. Not to say this is a bad thing, since it lowers the development risk involved, and fans aren’t sick of these graphical assets yet.

If Capcom hadn’t confirmed themselves that it was running on the RE Engine that also powered the aforementioned RE titles (and Devil May Cry V), it would be evident just from watching it in motion. This was after some thought the teaser trailer was CG; RE Engine simply produces results which look that good in motion.

Whether Project Resistance can break the RE multiplayer curse that’s befallen it will depend on how good the developer is at assembling a quality product, and signs of that are uncertain. The game is being handled by Taiwanese developer NeoBards Entertainment, who previously handled the Onimusha: Warlords remaster, the current-generation port of the Devil May Cry HD Collection, and the Switch port of the Resident Evil: Origins Collection. None of those are new games, so there won’t be any way to tell how good their development skills are until this game releases.

When it will arrive is anyone’s guess at the moment. Project Resistance is planned for a release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, but they’re not settling on a release timeframe just yet. Capcom previously said Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (which our executive editor Angela Moseley is enjoying quite a bit) would be their only major release for this fiscal year, so it won’t arrive before April 2020. A final date will likely depend on how the game is received during and after the closed beta test, which will occur between October 4th and October 7th.