If you’re a fan of the classic fixed-camera Resident Evil games and have been longing for their nostalgic return, the new Echoes of the Living demo featured in Steam Next Fest this week is tailor-made for you. After trying out the initial demo earlier this year and revisiting this upcoming survival horror game during Steam’s demo festival, I can confidently say that developer Moonglint has implemented several impressive improvements, making it a game that will genuinely appeal to fans of Capcom’s classic series.
Echoes of the Living embodies all the hallmarks of those older Resident Evil titles: it features dual protagonists with distinct narratives, a fixed camera perspective, a focus on item management, a tense and eerie atmosphere, elements of backtracking and puzzle solving, an item storage box in the save room, and, naturally, hordes of zombies. If you’ve played any of the games between the original Resident Evil and Code Veronica, much of what Echoes of the Living offers will be instantly familiar to survival horror aficionados.
Moonglint has made notable enhancements to the game since the initial Echoes of the Living demo. The most noticeable improvement is the vastly improved tank controls. In the previous demo, they felt unresponsive and cumbersome, but now they operate much more smoothly, resulting in far fewer instances of getting grabbed by zombies. Additionally, there is now a more modern control scheme available, but for purists, the tank controls remain the preferred choice.
Both player characters, Laurel and Liam, have new introductions, and certain in-game events make the game world feel significantly more dynamic. Echoes of the Living already resembles a modernized version of the original Resident Evil Remake, making it a must-play for fans of that game.
The most significant departure from the Resident Evil formula in the demo is the introduction of brand-new melee weapons. While you still have the trusty infinite-use knife (although it’s not as overpowered as Code Veronica’s), you now have access to baseball bats and pipes. These melee weapons break after a few uses but serve as both a reliable backup when you’re out of ammo and an incredibly satisfying way to dispatch enemies with a single hit.
Similar to how you could quickly dispatch zombies by aiming the shotgun upward in classic Resident Evil games, you can change the swing direction of a melee weapon to easily crush a zombie’s head. The animation and sound effects combine to produce one of the most gratifying crunching noises I’ve ever encountered, and I genuinely felt a pang of disappointment when my baseball bat broke.
The Echoes of the Living demo is only available during Steam Next Fest, which runs until Monday, October 16, so be sure to download and try it on Steam as soon as possible. The game is set to be released in the first quarter of 2024, so the wait for the full launch won’t be too long.
While anticipating the release of Echoes of the Living and the elusive Resident Evil 9, you might want to explore the best survival games currently available on PC and consider diving into some essential VR horror games to truly experience spine-tingling scares.