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Resident Evil 4 VR interview: Mercenaries and future development

In this exclusive interview, we speak with Armature Executive Producer Tom Ivey about porting a classic to VR and what the future holds for Resident Evil 4 VR.

Greg Burke

April 13, 2022 4:35 PM

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Many, many moons ago, the team over at Capcom set its sights on creating a new horror-themed game. Owing a large debt to the design first pioneered by Alone in the Dark for DOS, 1996’s Resident Evil also made use of polygonal characters against pre-rendered backgrounds and put them in front of millions of PlayStation owners’ eyes. Just like that, a worldwide phenomenon was born, leading to countless sequels and spinoffs. One of the notable sequels that came down the line was 2004’s Resident Evil 4, which debuted on the Nintendo GameCube and redefined the presentation it had been known for.

Fast forward almost twenty years and Resident Evil 4 has been adapted for play in VR. A project overseen by Oculus and developed by Armature Studio, Resident Evil 4 VR showed us that old dogs can learn new tricks. Our own T.J. Denzer got the opportunity to speak with Armature Executive Producer Tom Ivey about the development of the VR port and the studio’s future plans for additional content.

Armature Studio and Oculus first confirmed that Mercenaries Mode was indeed heading for Resident Evil VR back in November of last year. Mercenaries Mode was unlocked in the original game once players had completed the campaign on any difficulty. The objective of the mode is to kill enemies and earn points before the evacuation chopper arrives. Killing a normal enemy earns players three-hundred points, while boss enemies can earn several thousand points. A crucial part of the game is to kill as many enemies as possible in a row, kicking off a score boost multiplier that is necessary to reach the top of the scoreboard. There are also time extension pickups to give participants more time to earn points. How well Armature adapts this mode for VR will be very interesting to see once the update arrives.

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Greg Burke

Head of Video

Greg is the head of Video Production for Shacknews. If you've ever enjoyed a video on Gamerhub.tv, it was most likely edited by him. Follow him on Twitter @GregBurke85.