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UPDATE: More leaked information has potentially been revealed regarding Resident Evil 8, we’ve added it below the original bullet points. Scroll down to the red UPDATE to read.
While odds were looking fairly good that Resident Evil 8 was going to be revealed today during Sony’s PS5 reveal stream (especially given that the entire series went on sale on PS4 starting the other day), we’re going to have to wait just a little bit longer. That doesn’t mean that there still isn’t Resident Evil 8 stuff to talk about though, of course. As per a new leak from our friends over at BioHazard Declassified, a bevy of new Resident Evil 8 story and gameplay details have been leaked. Now I should note that we were unable to independently verify all of the information in their leak, although some aspects of it do line up with information we’ve heard. I should be absolutely clear before you begin to read, however:
WARNING:
POTENTIALLY MAJOR PLOT DETAILS FOR RESIDENT EVIL 8 FOLLOW BELOW. RUMOR OR NOT, THERE IS A VERY GOOD CHANCE YOU COULD BE SPOILED FROM HERE ON
So their leak focuses on a few specific bullet points, ranging from story to gameplay details. Here’s their leak in full:
Exploring Occultism
Occultism will play a big part, but there is no magic. There is a cult that worships the abominations created from the new virus. At first, there are hints at something supernatural but it is explained by the virus, which is in the air, causing hallucinations from time to time.
The Antagonists
The main villain of the game is a man called Alan R., a mysterious count living in a castle. He is the leader or at least a high ranking member of ‘The Connections.’ Alan is also mentioned in an article published by GameRant on May 15th.
The secondary villain is Natalia/Alex Wesker. There are also files hinting that Blue Umbrella is not as clean-cut as they portray themselves to be.
New Playable Character, Emily
Parts of the game are played as a Mountain Resident called Emily, a woman in her late 20s, who aids Ethan. She is looking for her father. Emily grew up in the village and will assist Ethan and later work with him to find her father and escape.
The Flashlight Will Play a Large Role
You have a flashlight and the game is often pretty dark, forcing you to use it, akin to many other games that are in the same genre. The flashlight can run out of batteries, but slowly recharges by itself over time.
The Locations
Aside from the titular ‘Villiage’ (Stylised as VIIIAGE), Resident Evil 8 is set to explore other locations such as Castles, Caves, and Forests. It will have a larger focus on “Outdoor” locations that the rest of the series.
The Child and Evil Chris Redfield?
Mia and Ethan have a child. Due to their infections during Resident Evil 7, it is deformed and by all accounts, not a normal child. They live a pretty lonely life in a remote place and try to hide their child. However, Chris Redfield breaks into Ethan’s house, ending in the execution of Ethan’s Mutant child, followed by shooting Mia. Apparently, he is operating on his own and that is not part of an official operation.
When Ethan wakes up, Chris is gone. He did not leave Mia to die but bandaged her. There are some shadowy figures in the room. Ethan is abducted there and then wakes up in the ‘Village’.
Ethan’s Trek
Ethan has to make his way through the mountains. There have been disappearances in this region that are unexplained. You will also start off defenseless before getting your first weapon a bit into playing.
The Enemies of Resident Evil 8
The main enemies are zombies and pale human-like enemies, that resemble Ganados. Dogs, wolves, and enemies that resemble Lickers do appear as well. There are zombies with swords, knives and clubs. They appear mainly in the later section of the game, where you enter “The Castle”.
These “werewolf-like” enemies we are going to refer to going forward as “beast men”, judging by the description it seems to be more fitting. And it seems their build is to more disgusting than normal enemies. This seems to match up with the description of the game being a “serious departure” and “the darkest and most gruesome” entry in the series thus far as reported by AestheticGamer aka Dusk Golem.
So that’s all very exciting. Funnily enough, the element here that makes me most excited is learning that the flashlight will play a larger roll. The flashlight in RE7 was little more than an aesthetic, and between it, REmake 2 and REmake 3, could be frustrating as areas were objectively too dark to see but the flashlight turned on automatically when the game decided it was too dark. Learning that Alex Wesker/Natalia will be involved is also incredibly intriguing, especially after some rumors have pegged Resident Evil 8 as being a suped-up Revelations 3. If this aspect is true, it will be the first time that a major plot element from the Revelations series has crossed over into a numbered game (outside of Easter eggs). It does concern me that Natalia would be involved but there’s no mention of Barry, though. Fingers crossed our blessed boy is okay.
The new character, Emily, sounds like she could be the woman Ethan escaped the burning house with in the leaked demo information:
“You manage to escape with one of the other villagers, a woman who helped you into the house, as the hallucinating villager sets it ablaze.”
I’ll be curious to see how this character will function. RE Engine Resident Evil games have yet to have any meaningful partner interactions thus far, aside from a handful of scripted sequences where an AI partner follows you for a few rooms, and then you’re back to your lonesome again. Could Emily fall more in line with being an Ashley type, where you have to look out for her but she can manipulate out of reach gadgets or perform certain tasks while you keep the fighting going, or perhaps something more akin to BioShock Infinite‘s Elizabeth, where she’s mostly autonomous and helps directly in combat? Or does her listing as a playable character mean that she’ll quite literally be the same as RE7‘s Mia, REmake 2‘s Ada/Sherry, and REmake 3‘s Carlos? Controlled for brief sections of the story before going back to being an AI that shows up on occasion. That’s all assuming this is true to begin with, of course.
The rest of the information lines up with previously reported info, such as the bestiary, locations, and the story involving a cult along with an “evil” Chris Redfield. I still really don’t think anyone should panic about that just yet — Capcom’s most likely taken cues from fan theories regarding Chris’ appearance in RE7 (which, at the time, was disputed to not really be him due to how radically redesigned he was), and there will be some sort of twist to it. Cloning already exists in the Resident Evil universe, and mind-control technically does as well (thanks to Las Plagas).
UPDATE: New information was tweeted by @ClaireChaotic on Twitter. They’ve previously leaked Resident Evil 8 details, having been apart of the original source for the details regarding hallucinations, details on Chris possibly being an antagonist, etc. Claire shared new details to go along with the leaks in this article, from her source “CV”:
- Less tentacles
- More occultism, decay, body horror
- A big enemy, chains, aggressive, with a staff-like weapon
- Zombies with armor
- … Sooner than expected?!!
While I’m not quite sure what to say about “less tentacles” (less than what?), but the rest both lines up with things we’ve heard elsewhere and is all quite exciting. More “body horror” especially piques my interest. I adore gross, horrific body horror (The Fly, The Thing 1982, etc), and would adore seeing more here. Zombies in armor is something that keeps being reiterated by multiple leakers, and I’m very interested to see what that means exactly. RE6 also had zombies in armor for a brief period of time, will this be along those lines of literal shamblers in rotting suits of armor, or will it perhaps be something closer to Ganado, but more on the… rotting side?
There are most likely only days left until Resident Evil 8 is officially revealed at this point, it’s only a matter of time now (there are of course more important things in the world at the moment that come first). We’ll keep you updated.
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