The Next Resident Evil Title Could Feature An Open-World Setting

The Resident Evil series could be getting a major makeover with its next game if this currently hot-firing rumor turns out to be true. As per Dusk Golem, a renowned Resident Evil insider with a fairly satisfactory track record, has reason to believe that Resident Evil 9, or whatever Capcom calls the next mainline franchise game, is about to go open-world, a first for the IP.

Dragons Dogma 2 expanded RE Engine functionality for open world games, the two other games building on this tech is Monster Hunter Wild & Resident Evil 9. The only thing I’ll additionally add before going silent & not reading Twitter again for now is part of all three project goals has been to retain the series DNA. DD2 is still clearly Dragon’s Dogma, Wild is still clearly Monster Hunter, same will be true for RE9 w/Resident Evil,” affirms Dusk. 

An Open-World Resident Evil Would Certainly Be A Sight To Behold

No Resident Evil game in the past has followed the open-world format, so how Capcom is going to pull this off in a way that appeals to fans is going to remain a shrouded mystery until said game actually comes out. In factual terms, Resident Evil 9 or anything of the sort hasn’t been officially announced by Capcom at the time of writing—though only rumor has it that the developer is working on more Resident Evil games.

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Personally, I’m not sure how an open-world setting for a horror game would work out, especially when it’s Resident Evil in the house. Multiple facets, such as the pacing, environment, and level design, all heavily come into play for linear single-player horror games, and optimizing all that for an open-world system does come across as difficult to get right. 

In other news though, it bears noticing that Resident Evil 4, Capcom’s latest remake, has crossed 7 million units in sales, not to mention being the franchise’s fastest-selling title already. eXputer rated it 5/5 in its review, calling it “a flawless recreation of an already phenomenal game.”