This year’s remake of Resident Evil 4 is arguably one of the best games of 2023 thus far. Capcom is adding even more value to the PS5 version with Resident Evil 4 VR Mode coming as free DLC sometime this winter. At Tokyo Game Show 2023, I went hands (and head) on with Resident Evil 4 on PSVR 2, stepping into the shoes of the one and only Leon Kennedy.
My demo started me in the beginning part of the game as Leon makes his way through rural Spain in search of Ashley, the US president’s daughter. It was a good place for me to drop into RE4 VR Mode, allowing me to ease into using the PSVR 2 again.
Starting from this point provided some non-combat moments to explore and take-in the setting of RE4 in the new perspective. The Spanish village inhabited by locals affected by the Las Plagas parasite already proved to be a spooky locale in the regular game, but experiencing that setting in virtual reality only further enhanced the eerie and unnerving atmosphere. The RE Engine continues to handle visuals in VR surprisingly well, allowing for ample detail, lighting, and shadows to crank up the spookiness. The old, damaged shacks and homes creaked as I moved around searching through them. Grotesque scenes Leon comes across, like mutilated carcasses, are even more disturbing to see them close up. Simply put, RE4 looks great in VR, but certainly isn’t for the faint heart or queasy stomachs.
Soon enough into my demo, I found myself not alone and had to take up arms against the zombified villagers. If you ever played Resident Evil Village VR on PSVR 2 (which I demoed at last year’s TGS), hopping into RE4 VR is a fairly smooth transition, given it controls similarly. You play with two PSVR 2 Sense controllers. You use the left and right analog sticks of the controllers to move yourself around, as well as quickly turn your viewpoint, respectively.
The Sense controllers have a grip button in the palm of your hands, which you use to grab and hold onto your weapon like a gun or knife. Your weapons are holstered onto your character model as Leon, so you select which weapon to wield simply by moving to where it is in your downward view.
Shooting Leon’s pistol is as simple as point and shoot: move your arm and hand to take aim and press down on the controller trigger. It can be a test of your aim at far enough distances, but I found myself getting the hang of it quickly. Reloading can take some getting used to, especially compared to the usual one button press in most video games. Here in VR, there are multiple steps to reloading, like in real life. You physically have to grab a virtual magazine on yourself, load it into the gun, and cock the gun before shooting again. The motions are intuitive but the cognitive disconnect from doing it in virtual reality adds a little difficulty that can cause you to stumble a bit early on.
Wielding the knife was considerably easier overall. Grab a hold of it and start slashing and stabbing away, or even throw it! As RE fans know, the knife can come in handy in a pinch, like when you are out of bullets or need to deal damage faster to close-up enemies. One of the most useful functions of the knife in RE4 is present in VR Mode: parrying. Time your knife counter-slash right and you’ll successfully parry the enemy, sending them stumbling back. Those moments can be precious as they allow yourself a chance to move around, reload your gun, and/or attack. Successfully parrying felt super satisfying and pretty easy to pull off (perhaps the timing is generous or easier to pull off with motion controls in VR).
I can’t of course forget Leon’s melee attacks, like his oh-so-powerful roundhouse kick. Those make a return in RE4 VR Mode, but you won’t find yourself having to actually physically punch or spin around like you’re doing a roundhouse kick. Melee attacks are simply pulled off like in the regular game, by pushing a button when a prompt shows on an enemy.
Your view then switches to a theatre mode like view where you watch from a third-person perspective as Leon pulls off the move. Similarly, cutscenes play out in a similar way, and it can take away from the VR immersion. I would have liked if cutscenes remained in VR first-person perspective. Or when watching from third-person, the environment filled up my whole view instead of seeing a virtual screen floating in a black room. However, I am more understanding of the choice for the melee attack sequences. Can you imagine the motion sickness if you experienced Leon’s roundhouse kick in first-person? That could be vomit-inducing.
Before I knew it though, my brief time as Leon flew by and came to an unfortunate end. I really wanted to continue living the story in this whole new way. RE4 has so many cool and memorable sequences, enemies, characters and more that would be awesome to experience in VR. With RE Village VR already available, and RE4 VR coming in the near future, Resident Evil fans have plenty of reasons to dive into PSVR 2.
Resident Evil 4 VR Mode will be free DLC for Resident Evil 4 (PS5) and will launch for PlayStation VR 2 sometime this winter.
Thank you to Capcom for having me at their Tokyo Game Show meeting room to play!