Highlights

  • Maps in Resident Evil games are crucial for managing resources and creating atmosphere; artistry and interaction are key elements.
  • An open-world Resident Evil game would require a detailed map and the series has shown adaptability to various perspectives and genres.

Resident Evil is making its way steadily to its ninth numbered mainline installment and with that comes a lot of expectations. Resident Evil 9 could follow Chris Redfield in Europe, Rose Winters far into the future relative to the present day, or any new direction Capcom wants to take; meanwhile, Resident Evil has held onto a bunch of features and mechanics between recent entries and it’d make sense to at least see most of them in Resident Evil 9.

Resident Evil games are fairly unpredictable apart from how remakes have been churned out, though, with Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village both taking incredibly wide swings and eclectic influences. It’s not certain whether Resident Evil 4’s parry or Village’s first-person perspective will return in Resident Evil 9, for instance, but an intricate map system is one feature that is sure to be reprised, and hopefully with as much beauty and reverence toward atmosphere as the map from Village had.

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Resident Evil’s Maps are a Cut Above the Rest

Maps aren’t necessarily essential in Resident Evil once players are more familiar with one of its entries. But, as the Resident Evil 2 remake demonstrated, a detailed map can be paramount for managing resources and knowing if players had missed something since it pinpoints and labels items players had passed by and not picked up.

Resident Evil Village ’s map is doubly special because Capcom took the time to give it a lovely design that matched the game’s fantastical setting, rather than simply boxing areas in nondescript, inartistic geometry like most Resident Evil maps.

Resident Evil 9 will hopefully elect for the former design in its map as opposed to the more basic design whether it features an open world or not, especially if it perpetuates Village’s newfound genre blend of fantasy and horror. In fact, if anything, the artistry that went into making Village’s map look as incredible as it does should inspire Capcom to spruce up its default maps to be unanimously extraordinary. The bar is now high and to reach that rung Resident Evil should put as much care as it did in Village toward every map going forward. Each map could bear a distinct visual style as long as an illustrative touch doesn’t make it illegible.

A Good Map is Vital if Resident Evil Delves into Open-World Territory

Like Elden Ring enforcing an illustrative map on FromSoftware, Resident Evil would’ve needed a map for its open world anyhow. Resident Evil has proven it can adapt pretty well to any perspective, direction, or genre, with each new game instilling a bit of new adaptation and skill on display.

Indeed, an open-world Resident Evil game could surely be constructed from the bones of Resident Evil 7, Village, and the Resident Evil 4 remake concerning narrative pacing and side quests contributing to optional exploration. Of course, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis came as close as it could in its opening Raccoon City portion to a mini-open world, and seeing that open level design extrapolate into a fully open world of Raccoon City to traverse would be thrilling.

Speaking of Resident Evil 3, its remake was a highly abridged take on the classic and while it didn’t get to receive the same faithful revival of content from its predecessor as other Resident Evil remakes have, it would be a great redemption story if Resident Evil returned to Raccoon City somehow for its ninth installment and portrayed it in an open world. That said, rumors suggest Resident Evil 9 will still be in the realm of dark fantasy horror, and if so its map will hopefully continue to look like a beautiful painting as all future Resident Evil games should.