At the Oculus Gaming Showcase event, the VR platform revealed a number of details for upcoming titles. Earlier in the week, it was revealed that Resident Evil 4 would be coming to the Oculus Quest 2. The news came as a bit of a surprise to fans, as most of the previous information about Resident Evil 4 concerns a remake that has been rumored to be in development for some time now. But, with a big showcase event, now more gameplay details have been revealed for Resident Evil 4 VR.
Resident Evil 4 revolutionized and revitalized the Resident Evil brand when it dropped in 2005. The shift to over-the-shoulder action and the more adrenaline-fueled pacing led to a game that still receives praise to this day for providing scares as well as heart-pounding action.
Now the game is set to enter the world of VR, taking that over-the-shoulder perspective, that was once a game-changer, and going first-person. With the Quest 2 and its Oculus Touch controllers, players will be able to interact with Resident Evil 4 in a completely new way. Items can be physically picked up, guns can be reloaded by the player with motion, and there will be dual wield capability, as the early footage shows Leon hold a handgun in one hand, and a knife in the other. Fans had already been drawing parallels between RE4 and RE Village, and this first-person version of Resident Evil 4 shows off those similarities even stronger.
Leon will still move with the analog stick on the Touch controller, with most of the 'interaction with the world' happening through a 'rig' that developer Armature has added to his upper body that maps the motion controls the player performs with the Touch controllers to Leon's in-game body. Armature has also redone thousands of textures in-game for better resolution and the world geometry adjusted to work better for an interactive VR experience. The enemies of Resident Evil 4 will also be rebalanced to account for the virtual reality environment and how the player moves through the world.
The game will also see an upgrade to its audio, now that it is moving over to VR. Spatial audio will allow players to hear the game in a new way, with the environments and enemies telegraphing audio so players can determine exactly where the noise is coming from. Finally, the inventory system has been revamped to be more interactive and on the fly, with it no longer functioning as a pause menu. Instead, inventory management will be in real-time.
While everyone might be talking about Resident Evil Village and its recent demo, there is a lot of work being put into the VR version of Resident Evil 4. Fans will have to wait a while to step into Leon's shoes, but what is being shown off so far looks promising.
Resident Evil 4 VR will be released later this year for Oculus Quest 2.