Say what you want about Resident Evil Resistance; It's a below-average, if not downright bad multiplayer title that feels underbaked, underdeveloped, and unbalanced. Despite that, Resistance at least felt like it had effort put into it. The graphics were solid and it had some semblance of a budget. It wasn't a good game, but it did feel like a somewhat-earnest effort from developer NeoBards Entertainment. NeoBards returns for a second attempt at bringing Resident Evil into the competitive multiplayer space. Resident Evil Re:Verse being greenlit at all is a surprise considering Resistance's lack of popularity, but it's clear it came with some consequences, such as a far lower budget.

Re:Verse, then, feels like a mobile game that Capcom licensed to some random developer, not a major title released on PC and consoles. While I can't say I had no fun whatsoever, the fun I had with the game was from my friends and I laughing at its expense, not because of anything quality or interesting NeoBards created. The gunplay doesn't feel downright terrible, but it feels slapdash and, for lack of a better term, "uncalibrated". Re:Verse in its entirety can feel that way; the movement, the character abilities, the maps, et cetera, all feel like they're from a thrown-together pre-alpha pitch to get publisher approval, not a full game you'd download and play with friends. Everything feels barely reworked to fit the criteria of a multiplayer environment, and the maps themselves, taken from prior RE games, just feel lazy. Each character has a different loadout and abilities, but there's no balance. Some characters are just obviously better than others and when there aren't really "counter characters" there's quite literally no reason to use certain characters outside of being a fan of them. Re:Verse does at least present the interesting concept of dead players becoming BOWs, with their level determined by kills before death. There's a huge disconnect in usefulness though - the basic fat molded is practically useless against any player of half-decent skill, and after a certain point I would immediately self-destruct just to get back to the game. On the other hand, the super tyrant can stunlock other players, which makes him extremely useful. This disconnect leads the BOW system to only be fun if you're doing well and just becomes a burden if you had a bad run. Gameplay issues aside, the game has a severe lack of content, too. There are only three maps: the RPD from RE2's remake, Dulvey from RE7, and the cemetery from Village, the latter of which was added in a post-launch update. While there are a decent amount of characters, nearly half of them are generic "literally whos" from Chris's squad in Village. While it's fine to have one of them, it's a totally missed opportunity to fill in the rest with fan-favorite characters like Rebecca, Barry, or even Wesker. It even looks cheap; the game has absolutely zero production value at all. While the graphics options feature the usual bells and whistles that RE Engine games tend to feature, even maxing the game out results in a title that looks cheap and unimpressive. You're given the choice between two aesthetics: the usual realism the series tends to offer, and a comic book filter. Neither is good and both have drawbacks - the comic filter looks garish and terrible, and the filterless mode makes Re:Verse's asset flip nature more apparent. Combine that with very little in the way of an original score (the match theme is just a slightly dynamic version of Looming Dread from RE2make) and you have a game that feels like it was put together in a few months.

Resident Evil Re:Verse was infamously delayed over a year past its original release date and to what gain? I played the game's open beta back in 2021 and felt lukewarm, albeit charitable. I gave its general lack of polish and content some slack due to being an incomplete game. Playing the finished game in 2024 only to find out it's hardly any different at all was massively disappointing albeit not surprising. On some level, I am rooting for NeoBards. I can't imagine that neither Resistance nor Re:Verse turned out how they would have liked had they been given better circumstances and Capcom is likely equally at fault for how these games have turned out. It seems that with Silent Hill F they are being given the opportunity to make a game that isn't microtransaction-laden multiplayer slop, and I'm willing to give their unproven skills in that field a shot. I do know, however, that I will not be playing any new multiplayer games from the studio anytime soon.