Resident Evil 4’s Best Version Is Getting Free Mercenaries Mode

Publisher Capcom and developer Armature Studio have announced that Resident Evil 4 VR is receiving a free update later this year that will officially add the fan-favorite Mercenaries game mode to the title. The VR version of the popular Resident Evil 4 was officially released in October 2021, and it allows players to re-experience the classic survival horror title from an all-new first-person perspective. Despite its gameplay remaining largely unchanged when compared to its original counterpart from 2005 and HD remasters, Resident Evil 4 VR censored and removed suggestive and offensive dialogue from the game, as well as any inappropriate animations revolving around the character of Ashley Graham.

The Mercenaries mode is an arcade-style mini-game that first appeared in Resident Evil 3 and grew to popularity with Resident Evil 4. It featured distinctive levels and several popular characters from the series with unique attributes, weapons, items, and melee attacks. Its gameplay is heavily based on Time Attack Mode, in which players are tasked with obtaining the highest score by killing as many enemies as possible before the timer runs out. Mercenaries mode made a comeback to Resident Evil almost a decade later in Resident Evil: Village. Village‘s The Mercenaries mode brings back its arcade-style features but drastically changes the mechanics to allow more fluidity in gameplay and pacing due to the title being in first-person mode.

In a blog post from Oculus (via TechRader) the popular VR brand revealed that Capcom and Armature Studio are planning to officially bring The Mercenaries to Resident Evil 4 VR sometime in 2022 as a free addition, allowing players to take on the tense game mode in first-person mode for the very first time with all of its previous features. Additionally, Resident Evil 4 VR’s first post-launch update is rolling out today and is bringing new usability and gameplay enhancement. These new enhancements include new accessibility options for waist and chest holder adjustments to fine-tune the location of inventory slots, the option to pick laser sight colors, reloading settings, save improvements, and other optimizations for a better overall game experience.

Designed as an overhaul of the classic survival horror title, Resident Evil 4 VR recreates many of the title’s iconic moments and gameplay mechanics from the first-person perspective, giving players a brand-new experience of the decade-old game. Following its release, the title quickly became one of the highest-rated and fastest-selling titles on the Oculus Quest just a few weeks after launch and garnered enough critical acclaim to become nominated for Best VR Game at The Game Awards in 2021.

Resident Evil 4‘s Mercenaries mode is similar to Time-Attack arcade game modes and is very fast-paced, requiring players to rush and kill as many zombies as possible while both exploring rapidly to collect time extension pickups and trying to stay alive by moving. Due to this, Resident Evil 4 VR could possibly see drastic changes made to the Mercenaries mode to adjust its difficulty and mechanics for virtual reality. Nonetheless, the upcoming Mercenaries VR mode is set to hold out players till the announcement of Resident Evil 4‘s next-gen remake.

Resident Evil 4 VR is available on Oculus Quest 2.

Source: Oculus (via TechRadar)

About The Author

Samed Kadirogullari
(281 Articles Published)

Sam is a narrative designer and writer from Florida. Having studied game design and comms, he loves to keep up with industry news, work on indie projects and talk about retro gaming. You can follow him on Twitter @scriptslash

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