Resident Evil 7/Resident Evil Village Switch 2 Review - RE7 Excels, RE Village Needs Work

February 27th's Resident Evil Reququum has proven a breakout success and an accomplished technical effort across a range of platforms, but two other Resident Evils were smuggled in on the same release day. Ports of RE7 and RE Village for Nintendo Switch 2. These are somewhat less taxing games that should make for a simpler porting process. That said, these ports have a few quirks that you might not expect from a typical Switch 2 conversion. Resident Evil 7 was a bold game. It represented a shift in Resident Evil games away from the action inflected four, five, and six back towards the series survival horror roots and was the first series entry presented exclusively in firstperson view. It was the first outing for Capcom's RE engine, which would go on to power most of the studios big budget efforts in the PS5 era, and its decision to target 60fps on consoles, also cast it apart from its AAA contemporaries, which largely stuck with 30 FPS instead. On Switch 2, we see general alignment with the PS4 code. Settings appear similar enough across the two consoles. There is a quirk with the game's gamma presentation on Switch 2, however. where blacks appear somewhat lifted relative to the other platforms, at least in my capture. I'm not sure exactly where this issue is coming from, but it does appear to be a game-pecific issue. On top of that, there is one visual settings tweak that favors Switch 2 less aggressive shadow cascades. The volumetric resolution appears somewhat reduced on the portable. Perhaps that's because volumetrics may be set as a percentage of resolution as Switch 2 renders at about 720p in docked play, which is upscaled to 1080p, likely using DLSS. PS4, in contrast, appears to be 1080p flat, though using RE Engine's dated TAA. In practice, though, image quality on Switch 2 is substantially improved over the decade old PS4 version. Foliage doesn't flicker distractingly, specular lighting is more stable, and the imagery is similarly sharp. The delivered imagery is what counts here, not the internal resolution, and Switch 2 delivers a higher quality picture. Both platforms are smeared with post-process effects, however, including an overbearing chromatic aberration, so neither is especially precise looking. Screen space reflections also suffer on Switch, though again a lower internal resolution may be the culprit here. Frame rates, well, those are pegged tightly to 60 fps on both platforms with no variance in my testing. I didn't get very far in RE7, but the game's smaller environments and geometrically simple interiors are likely fine throughout. This was a mid-generation 60fps PS4 title and one of Capcom's first excursions into key eighth gen visual tech, so this is the kind of game that comfortably slots into Nintendo's hybrid. Handheld mode fares fine, though its configuration feels a little conservative. Internally, we're looking at about 432p or somewhere in that vicinity, and the upscale target likely takes a hit, too. It's a blurriier image that can look a little rough in the game's opening exterior segment, though dark interior spaces prove a decent fit for the rendering setup. Frame rates are pegged to about 60 fps as well, and I didn't notice the game dropping obviously or stuttering in my gameplay. The screen's VRR capability may hide small dips, but I suspect we're at or very near 60fps at least the vast majority of the time. I walked away from RE7 not terribly surprised by the Switch 2 output. If anything, Switch 2 probably veers towards underperformance given its low internal resolutions, but games of this vintage do tend to work well on Nintendo's new console, and Resident Evil 7 proves a very enjoyable experience. Resident Evil Village was a more arresting game than its predecessor. Low-fi Uklitian interiors were swapped for grand manners and expansive exterior views. Model quality, character rendering, and materials were considerably lifted. Unfortunately, that does tighten performance tolerances for Switch, and the results aren't amazing. Interiors typically fare well, but exterior spaces often dip substantially. It's quite similar to PS4, and this perfectly matched shot shows a near exact frame rate match across the two systems. Both systems stray far from the clean 60fps line we found in Resident Evil 7. I did have the liberty to peruse a set of saves from a completed playthrough, so I was able to sample a pretty large section of the game. It does seem to hold 60 fps for long stretches in interior areas, even large ones, while exteriors like the notorious Reservoir bring us closer to 40 fps. Fortunately though, the same general resolution setup we saw in RE7 is mirrored here. I got internal counts of about 720p and though I couldn't get a count on the output, it does appear substantially higher resolution. The S4 in contrast is 900p flat, but it runs with an inadequate TAA that does considerable harm to distant views. The image quality fight here is virtually a no contest win in favor of Switch 2 in my opinion with cleanly completed lines, minimized dithering artifacts, and smooth specular. Not everything is a clean win though. Note the split in the depiction of the stream here, though. Even there, I prefer the Switch 2's tendency to average and blur over PS4's raw jitters. One substantial apparent caveat comes down to snowfall rendering, which exhibits problems on Switch 2. Snow is often only faintly visible or practically invisible on the console. While it's much more obvious on PS4, these alpha blended transparent particles pose a number of issues for upscalers and lack motion vectors, and DLSS seems to rely on history too much, producing blurred, faint particles. Another quirk lies in lighting. The game's volutric lighting appears differently on Switch 2 than other platforms, giving the game thick, dense fog that obscures distant detail in these early game shots. I don't particularly mind the change, but it does seem incorrect. Handheld play yields the same approximate 432p pixel count as RE7, and the output appears slightly blurred, though it holds up well on the console screen. The results in docked play look cleaner and more precise than RE7, and that holds true for the portable experience as well. Unfortunately, the game continues to drop frames undocked and suffers from frequent jutdder in exterior sections. VRR, if it's enabled at all, is not working to my satisfaction in Resident Evil Village. At least most interiors still stick to 60. Village is a few steps ahead of RE7 in visual sophistication, and the output on Switch 2 is a bit more mixed. Image quality is generally quite good here, but frame rates are less pleasing. We have to step up to higherend hardware to get a broadly satisfactory outcome. Beyond the PS4, Resident Evils 7 and Village also shipped on current gen consoles. Village at the time of its release in 2021 and 7 about a year later in a new current gen edition. That means we have the Series S release to look at as well. Though my comparisons are a bit more cursory here owing to time limitations. My basic sense is that Switch 2 and Series S are broadly comparable in Resident Evil 7, aside from the color quirk I mentioned earlier. Settings are better on Series S, though often not obviously, and image quality seems somewhat similar. Series S is doing a 1440p checkerboard, so the picture is a bit sharper on that machine. Both machines now have a stable 60, so performance isn't an issue. But on Series S, you can engage a ray tracing toggle, which adds RTGI and RT reflections to the picture. Indirect lighting quality is improved substantially at the cost of performance. Series S is an unstable 60fps in this mode which may be tolerable with VRR providing you have an appropriate display. Resident Evil Village tilts the image quality question towards Switch 2 owing to the way that Vill's TAA mangles the branches and foliage and wide exterior shots on Series S. Microsoft's console does score a win in performance terms though, clocking a stable 60fps, which feels much better to play than Switch 2's output. Rateracing mode is less usable here owing to very degraded performance in most areas, so I would skip it personally. It's an interesting option to have, but poorly suited for the hardware. Series S sets itself apart from Switch 2 here in its rendering choices. checkerboarding over DLSS, ray tracing over rasterization, but I'd venture the results aren't that far off. RE7 is close, while RE8 favors Switch 2 in image fidelity, but Series S and performance. RA tracing is a nice to have that nonetheless isn't that appropriate for Series S. Overall, I think Resident Evil 7 is a generally good Switch 2 port, while Village is less so. Both prove technically competent. Both appear to make use of the systems powerful upscaler and both remain attractive, but seven locks to 60 while village stubbornly refuses. More conservative settings or a scaledback frame rate target could have helped here. Village is a bit like the recent Resident Evil Reququum Switch 2 version. A game that impresses, but the gamers sensitive to frame rate fluctuations should skip in favor of a more powerful machine. Capcom seems uninterested in frame rate caps for their signature horror franchise, which is unfortunate. If you enjoyed this video, please like, subscribe, and press the bell for YouTube notifications. Check out the Patreon at patreon.com/digitalfoundry for exclusive and early access content. And to get in touch, use social media.

Digital Foundry is now fully independent! Join the DF Supporter Program and support the team: https://bit.ly/3jEGjvx Switch 2 received an impressive port of Resident Evil Requiem - but Capcom wasn't done, releasing RE7 and RE Village for the Nintendo hybrid on the same day. Designed primarily for the PS4 generation, it's no surprise to see Switch 2 deliver an impressive port of RE7 - but Village presents much more of a problem. Oliver has the review for you, along with the required PS4 and Xbox Series S comparison points. Examine the DF Website: https://digitalfoundry.net Go here to check out DF merch! https://store.digitalfoundry.net Subscribe for more Digital Foundry: http://bit.ly/DFSubscribe 00:00 Overview 00:38 Resident Evil 7 04:10 Resident Evil Village 07:33 Series S comparison and conclusion