PROJECT RESISTANCE

Can you resist the urge to destroy friendships in player vs zombie 4v1s?

Resi’s back – and this time you can control the Lickers and Mr X in asymmetric multiplayer.

THE MASTERMIND VIEWS THE MATCH IN PROGRESS BY FLICKING BETWEEN CCTV VIEWS OF THE SURVIVORS.

Multiplayer and Resident Evil have always had a spotty relationship, to say the least. Co-op in Resident Evil 5 was great fun, but at the cost of tense survival horror. Online shooter Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City didn’t feel like a Resi at all. Resident Evil Outbreak (released on PS2) was ahead of its time, and the servers have long since shut down. But with Project Resistance, the latest Resident Evil project, Capcom might just have worked multiplayer magic.

The concept is a simple one – the sort of asymmetrical experience that’s become more and more in vogue. Four players make up a team of Survivors who must work together, and they’re pitted against a fifth solo player, the Mastermind (Daniel Fabron, an Albert Wesker-like man of mystery), whose job it is to do everything they can to get in the way of the other team, from controlling the environments to placing and playing as zombies.

Matches play out like large multi-area escape rooms, with one player handed the tools to get under the skin of a team who must try to communicate to achieve victory.

VIDEO NASTY

The Mastermind views the match in progress by flicking between CCTV views of the Survivors as they make their way past challenges. As the Mastermind, when you can see an area you can spawn zombies and make a nuisance of yourself by locking doors or turning out the lights to slow the Survivors down.

From placing undead to creating environmental traps, what you can do is dictated by a deck of cards you take into matches. You need to use the cameras and map to ensure you stay ahead of the Survivors, but thanks to the puzzles in each area they won’t be moving too quickly for you to deal with. The game can even recommend some locations to place zombies to make sure you can control the pace as the Mastermind,

though there’s not much more satisfying than choosing exactly when to flick the lights off to spook other players.

Once the zombies are placed you can hop into them and control them directly if the AI just isn’t cutting it. All it takes is a few well-timed zombie lunges to knock players down, and then their teammates will have to revive them, meaning separating them can pay off. Even the trenchcoated Tyrant Mr X puts in an appearance as a limited-use ultimate skill, allowing you to deal serious damage to the Survivors.

FOUR-THOUGHT

The Mastermind might have plenty of jokers in their maniacal deck of cards, but that doesn’t mean the Survivors don’t have some aces in their own holes. January van Sant, for instance, can hack CCTV cameras to temporarily stop the Mastermind from being able to access certain viewpoints. She can also drop an EMP that disables the cameras in an area and increases the cost of using cards for the Mastermind for a period of time.

So, hacker, check. But where would we be without other character archetypes? Valerie Harmon is the team’s support, and she can heal and buff the other Survivors. Thanks to her instincts, she can also spot items and dangers just by being close to them on the map. Tyrone Henry is the tank and can increase everyone’s defence as well as dish out a powerful kick that can both knock down zombies and slam open doors. Ex-boxer Samuel Jordan rounds out the team as an attacker, able to deal out closequarters punches.

These four capable youngsters were kidnapped by the Mastermind after agreeing to take part in medical trials, and now must escape by making their way through each map – past the Mastermind and Resident Evil-style puzzles. Each level has three areas they must clear before escaping, making each one a real test of co-op co-ordination. Dying Survivors can be revived, but even if they’re too far gone they’ll respawn (though that costs a chunk of the time limit the group have to make their escape, so don’t let your team down and the clock run out).

FIVE TO TANGO

Like Capcom’s latest games, Project Resistance is made with the developer’s proprietary RE Engine, which was put to fantastic use in the last two games in the series, Resident Evil VII and Resident Evil 2, and also in Devil May Cry V. NeoBards Entertainment, which previously worked with Capcom on Devil May Cry HD Collection and Onimusha: Warlords, has been brought on board to develop the asymmetrical multiplayer.

Project Resistance isn’t what we expected the next step for the franchise to be, but when has the series ever done the expected? While work on this game presses on, the other teams at Capcom are bound to be working on something in the mainline series. In the meantime, Project Resistance might be the perfect Resi multiplayer experience. The puzzling and zombie-avoiding required of the Survivors already feels like it perfectly fits the Resident Evil formula we’ve come to love over the past 20-odd years, with the added bonus of somebody getting to deviously mould that game around them – bringing in the walls of the escape rooms closer and closer with each new zombie and trap sprung, threatening to make each Survivor a Jill sandwich of their own. And any game that’s going to give us an excuse to suit up and play as Mr X is a welcome one indeed.

Will you join the Resistance? Let us know: opm@futurenet.com

JANUARY VAN SANT CAN HACK CCTV CAMERAS TO TEMPORARILY STOP THE MASTERMIND.

It took us five minutes too long to realise the pun in Project Resistance.

While the Mastermind can see the building blocks, for the Survivors it’s the same old Resi tension.

Fail to revive a teammate and they’ll respawn, but it’ll cost the Survivors time.

Your Mastermind’s skills and deck of traps can be customised. Trick or treat?

Hmm, Umbrella again. Everything comes back to Umbrella.

Just because it’s multiplayer don’t expect it all to be action. Survivors will still have to solve some classic Resi puzzles to escape from each room.