The long-awaited remake of the acclaimed zombie adventure Resident Evil 4 was the highlight of Sony’s State of Play online showcase on Thursday night.
The 2005 original marked a fundamental change in the direction of the Resident Evil series, with a new focus on action and an updated “behind the scenes” camera view to replace the squeaky third-person visuals. Following the half-hour-long event, a story was posted on Sony’s blog promising that the remake would preserve the essence of the game, while “reimagining” the story, modernizing the visuals and updating the controls. The game’s trailer also promises virtual reality content for the PlayStation VR headset. The release date is March 24, 2023.
Final Fantasy XVI, the latest entry in the Square Enix and Street Fighter 6 role-playing series, also revealed a new trailer featuring multiple classic fighting games and a remarkable new visual style, complete with realistic animations and spectacular Paint splash effect. Both are due next year.
There are also some interesting new titles. Space horror adventure Callisto Protocol is similar to Dead Space, emphasizing panicked space travelers being torn apart by aliens. This is the first entry from Striking Distance Studios, founded by Glen Schofield, co-creator of the Dead Space series. Released on December 2. We also saw Rollerdrome, the nifty cell-shaded third-person action shooter from the creators of Roll7, the stylized skating sim of the OlliOlli series, and the anime-influenced adventure dating sim Eternights.
Perhaps the most intriguing aesthetic of the night belonged to Season A Letter to the Future, a bicycle road trip game in which players photograph and document a world doomed before the impending doomsday. There’s also a new trailer for the cyberpunk kitten adventure Stray, which also has a release date – July 19.
We expect to hear more on the PlayStation VR 2, the radically refreshed successor to Sony’s original VR headset, which launched for PS4 in 2016. Featuring 4K high dynamic range visuals and two 2000 x 2040 OLED displays, it will offer four times the resolution of its predecessor, while the new controller brings haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, similar to the PS5’s Dual Sense pad.
The biggest reveal is a VR version of Resident Evil Village, with the new trailer likely to center on the cult enemy Madame Dimitresscu. There’s also The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Chapter 2: Retribution, a run of No Man’s Sky and Horizon VR: Call of the Mountain on PlayStation VR 2, which features plenty of climbing and ranged combat.
From the outset, Sony has made it clear that it will not release major first-party new games. These are sure to arrive later in the summer. But the confirmation of Resident Evil 4’s return and some tantalizing details from Final Fantasy XVI, with new protagonist Clive Rosefield showing off a series of fiery attacks, set the stage for at least a few months of game announcements. There’s no E3 this year, but there’s a major Microsoft Bethesda showcase on June 12, and GamesCom returns in August. As far as gaming industry hype for 2022 goes, we’re just getting started.