Resident Evil: Raccoon City teases open world horror in Unreal Engine 5

The Resident Evil franchise is not only one of the most popular of the survival horror genre but it’s also one of the most iconic in the whole of the video game industry, and Capcom knows it.

The popularity of the Resident Evil series has been supported by a passionate fanbase since its inception in 1996 when the very first game in the series arrived on PC and the original PlayStation followed by a port to the SEGA Saturn the following year.

Check out the Resident Evil 4 trailer below!

Over the years, we’ve seen countless releases in the Resident Evil series, some better than others, as with any video game franchise. Capcom has nailed down its formula with tales of horror, mutations and corruption like no other in its linear but immersive world. However, despite existing for nearly three decades, we’ve never had a proper open-world Resident Evil game. The closest we’ve had is Resident Evil Village released in 2021. Would an open-world Resident Evil game work? Who knows, but indie developer Robson Rodrigo has put that theory to the test.

Not to be confused with Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, the project developed by Rodrigo using Unreal Engine 5 is Resident Evil: Raccoon City and it features accurately recreated locations from the original Resident Evil trilogy, Resident Evil Zero as well as the two Outbreak multiplayer games.

In the gameplay video uploaded to Robson Rodrigo’s YouTube channel, we see the huge map of Raccoon City in great detail including the outskirts of the city, the Arkley Mountains which is home to the Spencer Mansion from the original game, and the Training Facility from Resident Evil Zero.

We, of course, get to see other iconic locations such as the RPD, the Clock Tower and much more. Oh, and this map is one million and six hundred thousand square metres for Raccoon City and six million square metres for the Arklay Mountains. So it’s huge. It really is an impressive project and as a big Resident Evil fan, I’d love to see something like this from Capcom one day.