Resident Evil Resistance

Resident Evil and multiplayer have always got along like oil and water (or perhaps zombies and Molotov cocktails). Whether it be co-op in Resident Evil 5 and 6, all those tacked-on Mercenaries modes, or standalone games like Umbrella Corps, the results have ranged from merely decent to downright rotten. Despite this, Capcom just keeps on trying. Cue Resident Evil Resistance.

As a freebie included with Resident Evil 3, you can't really fault Resistance, but it helps that its asymmetrical multiplayer is also a lot of fun. It’s a unique take on the Resi universe and I hope it finds some longevity.

Resident Evil: Resistance rounds out the Resident Evil 3 remake package with its asymmetrical multiplayer. But is it worth your time?

Releasing alongside the great but slightly flawed remake of Resident Evil 3, Resident Evil Resistance is a new “4 vs 1” asymmetrical multiplayer game heavily infuenced by the likes of Friday the 13th and Dead By Daylight, where four survivors have to battle through maps, traps and enemies controlled by the 5th player, the mastermind.

Resident Evil: Resistance’s 4v1 multiplayer mode has its moments but could benefit from some character balancing and combat feedback that feels as good as it does in single-player. Playing as the villainous Mastermind is consistently far more of a blast than trying to stay alive as the unbalanced Survivors, particularly because you can play as iconic baddies from across the series but also because messing with your victims feels so devious.

I have the patience to play the game and hope for that potential to be realized, but the unbalanced kickoff and silly decisions like attaching hosting duty to masterminds is not something I expect many people to weather for long. Resident Evil Resistance could be so much more with what it has on the surface, but what’s under the hood needs some thoughtful tweaking if Resistance is indeed a cause worth fighting for.

Resident Evil Resistance is an interesting addition to the series. It’s not great, but it’s also much better than 2016’s Umbrella Corps for those looking for a multiplayer experience set in the Resident Evil universe. Fans of the series will no doubt have some fun playing a few matches and tinkering around with abilities and cards, but beyond checking out an occasional update, I don’t know that I’ll personally be playing much more of it in the future.

Compounding onto this issue is the repetitive nature of Resistance. In my experience, Survivors always have the same three tasks for the three rounds of play: find three puzzle pieces, get the ID card off of the armored zombie, and destroy three canisters. The maps vary, and some of them are pretty great (the museum with Darkstalkers references is a delight to explore,) but the tasks seem to always be the same. You can imagine that this gets old quite fast, especially with the aforementioned balancing issues. All these ideas could be ridiculously fun together with some retooling, but as things...

Capcom took Resident Evil 3 and managed to completely reinvent the game while remaining faithful to the source material it was based upon. Regardless of the changes made to it, whether it was the re-imagining of the control scheme or doing away with the fixed cameras, it still felt like Resident Evil. And that’s one thing I love about these remakes that Capcom is doing. But Resident Evil Resistance strips away almost everything that makes Resident Evil fun and instead ends up being more akin to a zombie munching on your neck.

I have hope that Capcom will continue to work on Resident Evil Resistance and address the balancing and connection issues. In time, as players learn the importance of teamwork as survivors, it has the potential to be worthwhile addition to the asymmetrical multiplayer genre. As it stands right now, however, it simply isn’t fun to play most of the time. Stick to Left 4 Dead in the meantime; Resident Evil Resistance is better left buried until its developers have reanimated it with some much-needed updates.

In addition to the solid Resident Evil 3 remake, Capcom also released a new multiplayer game that is unfortunately unremarkable.