Tokyo Game Show 2022 Complete Coverage

Tokyo Game Show 2022 - What It's Like to be Thrown Around by a Giant Vampire Lady in VR?

At Tokyo Game Show 2022, I had the opportunity to try out Resident Evil Village VR on the PlayStation VR2—and find out just what it was like to be manhandled by everyone's favorite giant vampire countess, Lady Dimitrescu, in glorious VR.

The TGS demo starts off with Ethan entering Castle Dimitrescu and follows his first meeting with Lady Dimitrescu and her trio of daughters shortly thereafter. This extended cut scene is both the best part and worst part of the demo. On one hand, the improved visual fidelity of the PSVR2 makes this scene all the more visceral as Lady Dimitrescu manhandles you and sucks your blood before her daughters string you up. On the other hand, with you being in full control of the camera, you can easily miss what is going on around you—like the brutality of how you are being strung up if you're a bit too focused on the giant vampire lady.

On top of that, when cutscenes start, you lose control of your arms (which are usually being tracked 1-to-1 by the PSVR2 Sense Controllers). This gives you a marked feeling of disconnect as your arms in the game are in a completely different place than your arms in real life. The other big example of this disconnect is whenever you are thrown to the floor. You can see Ethan's body before you as your eye level is a few inches above the floor—despite the fact that you are still standing in real life. This makes it feel more like you are suddenly 6 inches tall rather than laying on the ground. It's an odd feeling.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the worst of it. Near the end of the cutscene where Ethan is scrambling around for some medicine to disinfect his torn up hand, my head became disconnected from Ethan's body. I was suddenly about three feet ahead of him, so when I turned around I was able to watch his headless body splashing medicine across his hand. And while re-centering the camera didn't fix the issue, it was luckily fixed automatically once the cutscene ended.

From there, I was basically free to roam the ghoul-filled mansion with a pistol that had infinite clips of extra ammo—and this is where the PSVR2 Sense Controllers came into play. As usual, the left hand stick moves you around while the right hand stick controls the camera. However, unlike normal, the camera movements are in 45° jumps rather than smooth movement. While odd at first, it does largely eliminate the vertigo that comes from both your head and the controller affecting where you are looking at any given moment.

When it comes to using the gun, things are much more reliant on motion controls. By pressing the button that wraps around the main shaft of the controller with your middle and ring fingers, you are able to pick things up—like the gun at your waist or the knife on your left forearm. From there, it's a simple matter of point and shoot or motion-controlled staby-stab. You can even dual wield them both at once.

Reloading, on the other hand, is far more complicated. You have to push a face button on the controller to release the clip, then grab a new one from your left hip using your left hand, slide the new clip into the gun, and then cock back the slide. I was able to do it rather smoothly after my first try or two. My real issue with using the gun was relaxing my grip with my right hand—effectively dropping the gun back to my side—at the worst possible moments.

All in all, the short time I spent with Resident Evil Village VR was fun but I'm not sure I'd want to try playing the whole game that way. I can't imagine what some of the more challenging fights in the game would be like. That said, I fully expect Donna Beneviento's house to be absolutely amazing on the PSVR 2—and that alone might make the game worth playing. You know, that or every scene with Lady Dimitrescu.

Resident Evil Village VR currently has no announced release date. The PlayStation VR 2 is slated for an early 2023 release.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.