
Note: This Cloud Version of Resident Evil: Village was tested on 100MB UW Broadband over WiFi along with 5G mobile connection.
The Resident Evil series has seen its ups and downs over the years. After a strong start with the original trilogy (and Code Veronica), Capcom’s seminal horror franchise hit what many would argue to be its peak with the incredible Resident Evil 4, first launched on GameCube back in 2004. After some questionable decisions over the following years that eventually led to a remarkable revival with Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Capcom decided to lean on the success of Resident Evil 4 for its latest mainline entry: Resident Evil: Village.
First launched in 2021, Resident Evil: Village continues the story of Ethan Winters, a husband and father that we were first introduced to in the previous game (which, bizarrely enough, is launching later this year on Switch, after its direct sequel — go figure — but has been available in its Cloud Version guise in Japan since 2018). After a pretty shocking opening sequence involving series veteran Chris Redfield, Ethan winds up in a terrifying European village, complete with a vast, ancient castle, a reservoir, an abandoned manor, and a rundown factory. His mission is to rescue his infant daughter, Rose, who is kidnapped and now being held within the confines of the village itself.

Resident Evil’s locations are often as revered as its cast of heroes and villains, and the same is absolutely true in RE: Village. The setting is almost a character in itself, with the village acting as a hub area from which you’re able to locate and access the four other locations. Each area is remarkably unique in its depiction; Castle Dimitrescu is vast and grandiose, with furniture and decor that’s brought to life with exquisite detail. On the flip side, the reservoir feels dirty and grimy, with mud and slime caking every surface. No one location overstays its welcome, with the potential exception of the factory during the latter portion of the game, but even this is exceptionally fun to explore.
Of course, locations are nothing without their respective inhabitants. This is where RE: Village is a huge step up from its immediate predecessor; the range of enemies you’ll come across on your 10-12 hour journey is as impressive as it is slightly daunting. The most prominent enemies are the Lycans, which you’ll encounter multiple times throughout the story; these are effectively werewolf-type creatures that skulk around on rooftops, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. Once one of them attacks, the rest will follow suit, leading to combat segments that easily match up to Resident Evil 4 in their intensity.

Thankfully, then, Ethan Winters is able to combat any attacks with a range of different weaponry, including the basic handgun, a knife, shotgun, sniper rifle, pipe bomb, and more. Ammo isn’t quite as readily available as in Resident Evil 4, but by picking up items such as Chemical Fluid and Gunpowder, you can craft more ammo on the fly. If you’re well and truly backed up into a corner, a quick tap of 'L' will allow Ethan to throw up his hands in a defensive stance, limiting any damage taken and allowing for a swift counterattack to keep the enemies at bay. This version features the gyro aiming found elsewhere, too, if you prefer motion controls.
The true star of the show with RE: Village, however, is its boss encounters. You’ll have no doubt seen plenty of Lady Dimitrescu by now — perhaps a little too much, internet! — and she stands as one of the most iconic boss characters in Resident Evil history. The way she stalks you throughout the castle — much like Mr. X in the Resident Evil 2 remake — is genuinely terrifying, particularly since you’re unable to deal any damage with your conventional weaponry. The other boss characters are just as entertaining in their own right, with a true standout star being the creepy doll character Donna Beneviento, but you could argue that Capcom wasn’t quite ready for how much of an icon Lady Dimitrescu would become, and we’re honestly a bit disappointed how little she is in the game overall.

Nevertheless, RE: Village is an entertaining jaunt from start to finish and it demonstrates Capcom’s excellent ability to pace its horror games to near perfection, having learned lessons in the past. There’s not a moment here that feels wasted, yet you can optionally stretch out the experience to your liking with additional objectives like item crafting, cooking mechanics, treasure hunting, and more. In addition, of course, RE: Village includes the beloved Mercenaries Mode whereby you’ll need to take down waves of enemies for points, though its implementation here isn’t quite as strong as previous entries, with limited levels and characters (though this may be improved somewhat with the upcoming Winters' Expansion scheduled for release on Switch in December).
Of course, after seeing the addendum to this Switch version's title, what you’re all waiting to hear about is how the game runs over the cloud. Honestly, for the most part, we were pleasantly surprised. During our time with the game, we encountered minimal slowdown or visual hiccups, with the most egregious issue occurring in the initial loading screen, keeping us seated for a good five to ten minutes before the action kicked off — likely the result being in a server-side 'queue' on cloud firm Ubitus' end.
In addition, loading up the inventory screen will yield a circular loading icon in place of item assets for a few moments, but this is a minor quibble. As standard with cloud gaming, there was also very minor input latency at certain segments, but again, this was almost entirely unnoticeable for the most part. Overall, compared to our experience with A Plague Tale: Requiem — also a Ubitus joint — this was positively plain sailing.

Having said that, it's still plain that RE: Village is a cloud game being streamed to your Switch. During sections where the lighting is particularly dark, you’ll definitely notice some artifacting going on in the environment; there’s absolutely no way anyone could look at this game and believe that it’s running natively. For that reason, we’d still recommend purchasing RE: Village on a platform that’s able to handle the visuals natively, if possible, because the streaming tech just isn’t quite up to snuff quite yet. We suspect it probably won’t be for a while.
If Switch is your only option, however, then we suggest you try out the eShop demo version for RE: Village first. In Europe, Nintendo has implemented a 14-day refund policy for cloud games if you play for under two hours that might mitigate any potential buyer's remorse, but honestly, just save yourself the hassle. Our own experience with the game was pretty positive, but try out the demo, see if it runs okay for you, then make an informed decision from there, bearing in mind that access will be revoked at some future date.
Conclusion
Resident Evil: Village is an excellent continuation of the mainline Resident Evil series that pays homage to Resident Evil 4 while showcasing its own style and identity. The first-person perspective allows for some truly terrifying moments (though a third-person mode is also on the way in the Winters' Expansion DLC) and the boss encounters are some of the best in the entire series. Of course, running via the cloud means you'll likely come across some hiccups, along with some dodgy load times and potential slowdown. Our experience with this was pleasantly minimal compared to other cloud versions we've played, but be sure to test the demo for yourself. If you've only got access to a Switch, this is a pretty solid way to experience a great game.
Comments 77
Queue your favorite "no" YT compilation.
https://youtu.be/16gNI8f9yeU?t=24
I'm sure this game could've run natively on Switch.
I finally bought this game with the third person expansion as didn't play back in 2021... but over on the only device I have that can run it native, my PS4. Am replaying Revelations 2 on my Switch though.
If Switch is the only way you can play this masterpiece then i guess yeah play the cloud version but if you own a PS4/5 or a X1/Series then just pick up the Gold Edition and play it on them.
@HotGoomba No way in hell it would run on Switch. The Switch can barely cope with Bayonetta 3 and XB3 so there's no chance it could run this.
The game and its siblings are currently on sale on Playstation (and presumably other platforms) for Halloween. It'd be madness paying a premium for a hamstrung version.
THE SHOCK OF THE CENTURY
@DiggleDog portability and loyalty over everything. Throw Nintendo your money.
Why on earth would anyone pay 40-60 dollars to play a game knowing they will lose all access to it within a year or two? It's literally throwing money away.
Like to see a review that’s not on fancy fibre WiFi ‘
-Utility Warehouse full fibre broadband 100Mbps’
Does it have a demo available? I prefer to check how it plays before paying for it, I haven't played a cloud game before, and since I don't have another console, if it's playable, I'll buy it.
Edited because I just finished reading the whole article where it clearly says there is a demo available hehe.
I think RE7 was the better game over all, but I did enjoy Village quite a bit as well.
Also, I'm just gonna leave this here,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sl0v2lfATg
@JeanPaul Wait for the day when it comes to Game Pass streaming instead. It is inevitable. That service is a subscription and functions 100x better.
You can probably tell what my thoughts are if you read my comment on the last review but I do appreciate that this is a somewhat better experience (even if it's still got the cloud-rooted problems that'd make me not want to touch it whatsoever). Curious as to how all the PS4 entries will fare in a few weeks time.
@OldManHermit Thank you for blessing me with such a brilliant video XD
For once, I might defend developers for putting a cloud game on Switch. Since RE8 is not a new release or a highly requested port title, developing natively for the Switch would see very little return. This at least does not waste too many development costs/resources and allows for studios to invest time in other projects (like the fantastic Monster Hunter Rise or Shin Megamei Tensei 5, which was developed from the ground up with the Switch in mind and rivals high-end PS4/Xbox games). Also plenty of people who wanted RE probably already bought it on another platform.
Do I still want a native Switch port of RE8? Hell yes and I would buy it Day 1. Maybe it may even come natively to the Switch's successor console in a few years or I'll own a PS5/6 by then. But I'm not crying over this one like Kingdom Hearts.
Does make me wonder how many the Switch could have sold if it had more power to run all these third party games like COD etc maybe like a PS4 quality. Would it appeal to more people.
I mean imagine a Nintendo console with all their exclusives but all the third party games running really well on the console. Using a standard disk drive and capable of playing 4K blu ray.
Would it do better than say the PS5.
@HotGoomba
That's impossible
If A Plague Tale: Requiem - Cloud Version on how bad it is forget anyone trying this one as well.
@Dezzy70 A modern Nintendo device with a great exclusive library AND massive 3rd party triple A support sounds awesome for consumers AND for Nintendo.
I do think that cloud games are a potential way for Switch owners to play the games, so long as the experience works fine. I've got a PS5 myself though so while it is slightly intriguing, I already got the game on it and I won't have to worry about losing access later down the line.
My cousin however only has a Switch for gaming so it would be a possible way to play RE games without having to buy another console. The main issue however, is that it is a cloud game, and saves, plus access to the game, will be eventually deleted. Along with the games launching at full price (or their current market price at least).
If it still gets sales like Capcom's other regular sales though, then it could perhaps be worth the dive at the right price.
It's a great game & well worth a purchase on any platform that you can play it natively on but cloud no
@HotGoomba you're dreaming if you believe that
@Dezzy70 Nintendo doesn't want to compete in the crowded home console market anymore. And, judging by how their handhelds/hybrids tend to sell when compared to almost all of their home consoles, I think it's pretty clear the majority of gamers feel the same way.
Besides, Switch is still doing better than the PS5 worldwide.
It works and looks great on a steam deck. It’s a shame to play a game like this on switch. They didn’t even tried to make a real port for switch.
@Ralizah
It was just an idea or wonder if situation.
You say compete in that market but they never have since the SNES Days against the mega drive.
After that they went their way using special media storage devices different from the other consoles at the time N64 cartridges and small GameCube disc.
The draw for a powerful Nintendo console would be the ability to play Nintendo exclusives at a higher graphical level and still have the full support of the latest third party games.
Think about we have not had Nintendo console in ages that is a similar level of power to the others for full support.
But yes after all that the hybrid system is doing very well, and I think they will stick with that type of console.
@mario-64
I'm avoiding cloud games personally.
Then again to answer your question nothing lasts forever. Some people may want to play the game through just once or twice.
@ketrac
Glad you agree many don’t on here but can’t see why they do. Surely you get the best of both worlds then in one console. Amazing better graphical and AI and better AAA Nintendo exclusive gaming worlds and full third party AAA support, that is amazing.
@WallyWest
What are you talking about Xenoblade 3 runs perfectly.
@Cia Performance is good for the most part yes but the hit to resolution especially handheld was hard and its a game clearly pushing the system.
@Dezzy70 We'd probably have received only a fraction of the exclusives on Switch that we have if developers were aiming for PS5 levels of visual fidelity.
Less than that, come to think of it. Third parties only started to return to Nintendo when it was clear that it wasn't going to be a repeat of the Wii U, and this was primarily because people liked having hybrid versions of traditionally TV tethered games. You wouldn't have had that push to get third party games back on Switch if it were a home console, since it wouldn't offer anything fundamentally different than what PS4 / Xbox One do in terms of TV tethered experiences.
Meanwhile, such a system would have forced them to choose to devote resources either to their home console or to a next-gen handheld, since they barely even managed to support development for both 3DS and Wii U. Unless they're stupid, they'd choose to go all in on the handheld again, the device people actually want to buy.
So you'd be left with yet another Nintendo-branded TV-tethered box that suffers massive drought periods, since exclusives would be few and far between, and third-party buy-in would be wildly worse than it is on current-day Switch, since companies would be hesitant to support Nintendo again after the Wii U burned them as badly as it did.
You'll get your 4K Mario at some point, even if it has to happen through AI upscaling technology.
@Dezzy70 Some want to be special for the sake of being special. Right now Nintendo rakes in cash profits on systems sales alone, no attach rate required. My humble thesis is that they’d make a ton more with full 3rd party catalogues, even if console sales themselves wouldn’t net profit.
Games. Games. Games.
Just give us a Revelations game again.
@ketrac
Valid point, also it doesn’t have to be series x powerful especially the last two year and probably next year at least. It could have been PS4 powerful say to keep up with third parties.
But they have missed that boat now and next year will see more PS5 and Series x only games.
Another issue they have is their studio sizes and development without being disrespectful, you need massive resources to create games at the detail level of say HFW and GOW and sorry to say Nintendo studios are less experienced in that field and take a long time as it is.
@WallyWest Sure, but it can cope with Witcher 3, Hellblade, Alien Isolation, Dying Light, No Man's Sky, Doom Eternal, Wolfenstein, Outer Worlds and many others. Hell yeah it could run this game natively, especially considering its waaay smaller scope in map size.
@Ralizah
I totally agree Nintendo studio sizes and experience is not up to an open Zelda graphical world of say HFW. The game would never release or take over ten years.
Nintendo are where they are and that suits them and their handheld hybrid system suits them and surely their next console will be the same, due to a few factors including game development time and cost of more powerful systems.
@Dezzy70 Nintendo could keep making Nintendo games. BOTW is a great example of a game that even in 2017 would’ve been great on a stronger platform. Doesn’t need to be like the massive «too big to fail» Sony titles.
Nintendo game strenghts are art and design.
But the machine itself SHOULD be able to run whatever a third party would want to make, without massive compromises. See X series S for example.
@ketrac
That is a valid point Nintendo don’t have to use all the consoles power due to their studios but third parties could at least support a lot better.
Well they won’t be doing it for sure.
I think it will be a more powerful Switch 2 or even maybe just a Switch pro so it’s stays in the original Switch family. That will then give them the chance of having the most units sold console over taking the PS2.
But currently I do believe next year 2023 they do need a few Western big AAA games, as much as Splatoon 3 is good it’s not a Western market big seller. They need maybe a new Mario platform game or even a new Mario kart to keep sales going in the Western areas as sales are starting to slow there.
Even better probably the best and biggest selling Movie to Game tie in, surly they can’t miss that opportunity with a new Mario platform game
And the Movie release. That would be a massive western area seller.
If this is the kind of game you want on a portable then honestly just get a Steam Deck. It really is the stop gap Switch 2 and will remain a great machine to have around even after Nintendo brings out the next Switch since multiplat games will almost always come to Steam while they’ll likely remain the exception not the rule on Nintendo even with better hardware.
At the very least don’t support them charging anything close to full price to play these versions, it’s a horrible precedent to set
I purchased ALL Resident Evil games in a steam pack for around 60 bucks in a huge sell last summer and Nintendo expects us to pay full price for this…..?
I will forever be a core Nintendo gamer but these kinds of games are the reason we purchased Steam Decks for our home. It’s extremely offensive to pay so much for borrowing a cloud game that’s not even looking or running as good as everywhere else, not even close. Stadia is over, there’s no future for cloud gaming, nor should be any.
(Everyone should do as they see fit, of course; all the above in my opinion, and I had no intention to offend anyone.)
@Ara you are a fake Nintendo fan promoting other systems on this site. You should be ashamed of yourself.
@sixrings I am not a fan of anything or anyone, fake or otherwise. I do not agree with Nintendo’s corporate side of things either. I only play games if they’re any good, and Nintendo produces some of the best games around, so that’s pretty much it.
Also, Steam Deck does not compete with the Switch in the slightest, and NL itself published a lot of Steam Deck articles over time.
That being said, I do not take bullies nor trolls lightly and I usually avoid them for good. I wish you all the best.
Edit, only from 2 weeks ago, from nintendolife’s twitter — https://twitter.com/nintendolife/status/1580730114681475072
Just say 'no' to the cloud.
@Ara Your opinions are valid for a multitude of reasons. Some people will take offense because they want to engage in bad faith arguments for «the lulz».
Can’t wait to get a hold of a steam deck myself.
Nintendo corporate are missing out on ways to grow their business.
Hard pass. I like to own my games and be able to play them anytime. Cloud version my ass!
Luckily i have it on PS4. Ain't it sad that Sonys last gen console is too next gen for switch to handle legit ports of the games so they gotta do this cloud crap to compensate?
For Christ's sake Nintendo i love ya but seriously get with the times! Switch 2 better at least be more powerful than PS4 or what's the point?
So why would you go for this over the various other streaming services for handhelds?
I said it before and I'll say it again, people need to stop calling these "ports". These are literally streaming to the hardware, using very little of the CPU and GPU, nothing but copouts.
@OldManHermit Bless you for this.
Meh wasn't a fan of any Resident Evil game after RE4 and these still had not impress me especially when these are stuck in the cloud of garbage.
@Truegamer79 Let's be honest, even if Switch 2 is as powerful as a PS4, by the time it comes out, the industry will have no room for PS4-level performance, and we'll be right back where we are now, scraping by with the odd "impossible port" here and there.
@WallyWest
With a comment like that, I feel you haven't played Bayonetta 3. I did this morning for 4 hours and it handled the game just fine, 60 frames per second no less
@PoeTheLizard
Sad but probably true. What ever happened to now you're playing with power?
I don't get why people keep hating Ethan. He isn't supposed to be like the previous protagonists. He's an ordinary man caught up in extraordinary circumstances.
He's dull on purpose which is counter to the over the top goofiness of other main characters.
I might have actually considered this...
...if it were free.
I'm really behind on my Resident Evil games, but if I ever do get around to playing this, I'll play it on PC.
@Ara : Capcom sets the price, not Nintendo.
@Dezzy70 Switch has already done way better than PS5 most likely ever will, so I don't get your point if you have one?
@SteamEngenius
The point isn’t about fan boy which console has sold more or done better so please I have a Switch I play every day. And have had every single Nintendo console since day one.
My original post started as a what if situation in terms of Nintendo developing a more powerful console and having current third party AAA games on their console.
A sort of best of both worlds amazing Nintendo AAA exclusives and the best AAA current third party games and what a console that would give us.
cloud version? again, no thanks
Damn, I got @WallyWest, @Mbawa, AND @Would_you_kindly to think I was serious probably!? I'm on a roll today!
@HotGoomba Good work!
@Sculptor I love comments like this as it shows how much people don't know. Yeah those games run on Switch so what? Do they run on the RE Engine? No so its pointless comparing. To get the RE Engine on Switch for MH they had to completely rebuild it for Switch, in a lot of ways its a different engine to the one what powers RE Village. The engine what powers the new RE games and DMCV is built for more powerful consoles, you can't just port it or downgrade for a console not much more powerful then a 360. Also you see NMS on Switch? It lacks 2 key features, has tons of downgrades both big and small and has had many things removed or downgraded they might as well be removed, the more i play NMS on Switch the more i've come to accept HG shouldn't have wasted time on this version even if i love having it on the go. Village is a demanding game and running on a engine made for more powerful hardware.
@Old_Man_Nintendo DF say otherwise and have the evidence in their video. I'm around half way into the story and its painfully obvious to anyone used to 60fps that it can barely reach 60fps, between the lackluster resolution (that on a 4K TV stands out hard) and the poor performance the game visually is only saved by great art and character design. Its a fantastic game though and its a testament to how great it is that i can push through the performance but it is a game that pushes the Switch too hard.
@WallyWest
My question is their video using the day 1 patch? I feel it may not be, since it usually takes them a few days to make their videos
@Old_Man_Nintendo Don't think so but even with it the game runs poorly. Day 1 patches rarely if ever sort out performance issues, if they do its minor and if they do DF are usually told to wait for it by the Devs before putting out the video.
As someone who has only a Nintendo Switch as their gaming console and does all their work on a Mac: I’m loving the ability to play a native Apple Silicon version of Resident Evil Village for the Mac on my MacBook Pro 13”. It runs amazingly well and at 60 FPS!
@mikegamer These are literally streaming to the hardware, using very little of the CPU and GPU, nothing but copouts.
That went above and beyond the small mindsets already of Cloud fandom.
My daughter was playing yesterday. It crashed once and there was some slowdown. Particularly when she was getting swarmed but it mostly behaved. Which is astonishing, considering we have crappy spectrum.
What alot of Cloud fandom forget is NA ISP isn't cheap and they have bandwidth caps. And you get the speeds offer you not what you wished you get. This is the handicap they do to NA internet users from truly open internet speeds.
I think a some on here forget that a lot of people only own a Switch so this idea of playing a superior version on another console simply isn’t an option. So all these comments saying “madness paying a premium” and “I’m waiting for it on Gamepass” (or my favourite comment: “just get a Steam deck”)are missing the point. By this logic no Switch owner should ever play Witcher 3, Hitman, Doom, Control or any of the countless other games that are a downgrade from the original. Not everyone is a hardcore gamer with multiple consoles or a high spec PC to run these things.
@HotGoomba Switch 2 could run it if it comes close to PS4 power but we'll have to wait til next year.
The Switch can barely run 30fps video at 720p. Would shudder to think how this plays.
@HotGoomba It could, but we all know how lazy and stingy Capcom is. They can't even put the entire Megaman Legacy collection into 1 cartridge.
@liveswired
after I have played doom eternal but most important dying light, the Witcher 3 and no man skies , there is no way for this game not be able to running directly on switch with little effort(aka optimization) maps are very small like corridor just reducing setting to low and dynamic scale resolution as usual I am pretty convicted re village could run at 30fps with same drops to min 20 here o there (like any third party games) and still be playable especially in handheld mode, this is just crapcom being cheaper and lazy as usual just look at the RE4 port is the worst port ever they have made (even still playable and i am enjoying right now(first playthrough)
@Richardwebb
present I only own a switch, and I enjoyed to the max pleasure all third party port, i own all of this : the Witcher 3, dying light, doom 2016 and eternal, diablo 3, all RE(playing 4 first time just now),alien isolation, BioShock 1 and 2, borderland 2,assassin creed rebel collection, dark soul ,crisis trilogy, skyrim, metro collection, sniper elite 4, spyro trilogy, wolfstein II ec.. and i looking forward to buy no man skies and the ark survival ultimate edition IF this remake of the bad port wich was released today on switch is good enough
I’m not sure what everyone else’s experience has been with this, but I play with fast, wired in internet and the latency in button commands are so bad that it’s nearly unplayable. Had done already done a play through on Stadia and it was fine….
@WallyWest
I'm playing docked only and XB3 is sharp enough. Best looking game in the series and one of the best looking games ever. Everything is just so gigantic! People have unrealistic standards these days...
@Cia The game is pretty but its far from being one of the best looking games ever, i mean ok sure its one of the best looking Switch games but once you add the other consoles it doesn't even reach the top 5 this year in visuals.
This game looks good but never played. I do not play horror games. To scary.
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