Resident Evil Re:verse Beta Hands-On Impressions

At 4pm today, Capcom’s Resident Evil Re:verse beta kicked off. Having talked about my disdain for it at length yesterday, I got itchy and decided to see if my misgivings about the mode was justified.

No…but mostly yes.

I played the Resident Evil Re:verse beta on the PS5, so my impressions will be of it running on that platform.

Before you even start though…you’re forced to suffer. The game won’t let you in till you register for a Capcom ID. If you’re damn set on playing, you better have one ready and linked to your Gamer Tag/ PSN ID/ Steam ID.

Once that’s done, only then will you be taken to the title screen.

In the beta, everybody’s playable.

For those who aren’t keeping count of the playable Human characters, here they are.

Hardcore fans will look at that list and rage…Why no Barry Burton? What about Brad Vickers? Sheva Alomar? Steve Burnside? Hell…Albert Wesker?!

Nobody knows. Hell, probably not even at Capcom. I wouldn’t be surprised if they pulled the names out of a hat to pick who gets to be in the game.

Since there was no way to pick Barry, I tried playing as Leon and then later, as Jill.

Two games were all I could stomach.

It’s honestly a bland third person shooter with zero depth. You run around the RPD building (that’s the only stage in the beta) and shoot everybody you see. It’s a pure Deathmatch mode, which gets old fast. I’m hoping there are other modes in the full game…though I’m not going to hold my breath.

You’ll always start the round as a Human from the Resident Evil games.

Each character has two weapons (which are unique to each character) and two abilities (which are on a cooldown) you can use. Special weapons can also be found in the map, alongside virus vials and healing items. The virus vials are the only thing that sets the game apart from pretty much every other shooter out there.

These vials (you can hold two at one time) will mutate you into a B.O.W. when you die, which I have to admit is pretty damn cool. The more vials you have when you croak, the deadlier the B.O.W. you’ll mutate into.

Playing as a Tyrant or Nemesis is damn awesome and is the ONLY redeeming quality about the game. Like the human characters, I’m pissed at the paltry lack of representation here. No lickers, no Hunter Alphas, no Drain Deimos, no zombies or Cerberuses or even Bandersnatches.

Killing people as a monster is fun but then you’ll be dead before you know it.

Once you die, you’ll be back as a Human again and you’ll need to grab more virus vials all over again.

The gameplay loop is boring, especially since in a Deathmatch setting. It might be interesting if there’s an asymmetrical gameplay mode, but as it stands, I’m deleting the beta right after I’m done with this post.

There’s practically no longevity in the Beta; there’s no mode other than Deathmatch, there are no customization options…there’s no character progression mechanic at all!

I honestly don’t know who will find the mode interesting enough to play it for more than a few minutes. Perhaps only the hardest of the hardcore Resident Evil fan.