Resident Evil Village has finally arrived on PS4, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and Google Stadia. Powered by Capcom’s RE Engine, the game tells the next chapter in Ethan Winters’ — the protagonist of Resident Evil 7 — story, as he heads to a mysterious European village in search of his kidnapped daughter, Rose.
During our time with the game, we kept our eyes peeled for any meticulous, minuscule graphical details that Capcom has pored over to make the game one of the most visually pleasing the series has offered to date, and we thought we’d share them with you.
Did you find any neat visual details we haven’t included? Be sure to share them with us in the comments below.
Wine Glass Reflections, Realistic Liquids & Intricate Clothing Details
There’s a whole ton of tiny details to pick out at the beginning of Resident Evil Village, and we’ve managed to capture a screenshot that highlights a bunch of them above.
First off, let’s look at Mia herself with her incredibly realistic finger bones protruding out the top of her hand. The creases in her knuckles which can be seen more prominently on her left hand, too, show an impressive amount of detail in the character model itself (though we won’t talk about the hair).
That level of detail is present even in her clothing, with the intricate detail of her knitted cardigan highlighting just how impressive character models can look in RE Engine itself. Even the way the cardigan and her blouse realistically fold and crinkle as she moves takes the detail to levels we seldom see even in big AAA titles nowadays.
Finally, we’ve got examples of Resident Evil Village’s ray-tracing technology at work with the wine glass and the wine itself. If you look carefully at the wine glasses, you’ll see realistic ray-traced reflections of the environment around them. The easiest example to see here is in Ethan’s glass, where you can see the reflection of the room and table at the bottom.
Even the gentle glistening of the glass Mia is pouring into adds a sense of realism to this scene that elevates it above many other games, and is an exciting promise of things to come once the Series X and PS5 generation comes into full force over the next few years.
In the background, you’ll notice impressive lighting and shadow effects from the light and lamp. Even the salsa has impressive lighting effects!
Those Flames Tho
Tiny Details in Resident Evil Village
One thing that really struck us during the opening hour or so of Resident Evil Village was in this scene, where a lamp is knocked to the floor. While there’s a fireplace in the background that looks incredibly realistic as is, it’s the flames on the floor, closest to the camera that really highlights the impressive detail Capcom has put into its fire and flame effects.
Not only do these flicker and alight other objects in their surroundings in a realistic manner, but the flames themselves look near photorealistic, burning bright in the center with dimmer wisps surrounding them. Who knew flames in games could be as mesmerizing as they are in real life.
Incredible Lighting Effects
Not too far into your adventure, Ethan will find himself crawling through tight nooks and crannies to navigate locked doors on his quest to find Rose. Once again, it’s the ray-tracing and lighting effects in the RE Engine that blew us away here, with the realistic manner in which the bricks in this tunnel are bathed in the light from the room at the end.
It makes you feel how dark and damp this tunnel is, adding to that dark and creepy atmosphere that simply can’t be replicated without ray-tracing tech at work.
The lighting effect isn’t just applied to the entire tunnel, though. Instead, the light filters in from the end room in a realistic manner, greatly illuminating the bricks at the very end to the point we can make out their imperfections, while those closest to Ethan remain dull in comparison.
Painting Canvas Textures
Tiny Details in Resident Evil Village
Once you’ve made a bit of a dent in Resident Evil Village, you’ll come to a scene where the old hag lady speaks in riddles at you again. You’ll also get your hands on a key that opens up a bunch of new areas for you to explore in the village. But forget the box and her creepy, frail figure in this scene, and instead take a look at the image directly in front of her, partially covered by some delicate fabric.
First off, there’s a ton of detail in that fabric alone, but what’s more interesting here is the level of detail in the painting itself, or the texture of the canvas specifically.
Taking a look at the canvas where the candlelight is shining on it, you can make out the various bumps and grooves of the canvas. Some minor stretches and small creases can also be spotted suggesting this is a rather old painting that’s seen better days.
The painting may have seen better days, but paintings in games haven’t. This is so detailed we could almost feel the aged canvas between our fingers. Oh… that was the DualSense’s haptics? Never mind then.
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