Resident Evil Village PSVR2 tech review: superb visuals, game-changing controls

Resident Evil 7 is one of the best titles for the original PSVR with the extra immersion provided by the headset elevating the experience to a new level – despite using the same DualShock 4 controls as the standard game. Now we have PSVR2 support for Resident Evil Village and this time Capcom has embraced the new Sense controllers, fundamentally altering the core gameplay. So how do the visuals hold up in VR and what sacrifices were necessary to get there – and how do the new Sense controls influence the experience?

VR support in RE Village is accessed via a downloadable patch and once installed you’re prompted to choose between 2D and VR when booting the game. This is a straightforward way to handle VR but this does mean that the VR mode features its own saves and lacks trophy support. The game’s intro plays in a floating virtual screen but the game transitions to a full stereoscopic 3D thereafter – including cutscenes. This is cool, but these sequences’ pre-defined camera movement and animation could trigger motion sickness in some users, but the good news is that a more settling alternative is available, as you can opt to view the cutscenes within a floating screen if you prefer.

Once gameplay begins proper, it’s clear that Village looks a little different than it does on a 2D screen. Ray tracing isn’t present here, understandably, and the game seems to run at 60fps rather than the 90fps or 120fps achieved by less visually-demanding PSVR2 titles. However, your head movement tracked at 120Hz with asynchronous time warp, so the experience still feels reasonably fluid.