2021 is going to be a huge year for fans of the long-running "Resident Evil" series of video games. We're going to get the eighth "proper" installment in the series in April this year when “Resident Evil: Village” is released in May, and it looks likely to be a smash hit. Players have been excited to get their hands on the game ever since the first gameplay preview videos were released during the PlayStation 5 showcase event last year, and those excitement levels have barely wavered ever since. Every tiny clip and piece of information we've seen about the game makes it look fantastic, and the fact that Capcom has taken its time to get it right rather than rushing it out for the console's launch day is reassuring. However, it is not the only new "Resident Evil" game we'll be getting this year.

For all the greatness that "Resident Evil" has achieved over the years, the series has always been missing one thing, and that's a mass multiplayer online version. Here in the 2020s, it's online multiplayer modes that keep players coming back for more long after they've finished the game's central story. "Grand Theft Auto V" is still alive and kicking eight years after its release because of its huge number of online players. By contrast, "Cyberpunk 2077" appears to be dead only five months after its release because (among other things) it lacks an online mode. Once the story is played out, there's nothing left to do. "Resident Evil: Village" will sell in big numbers when it's released, but it would sell more further down the line if there were multiplayer modes for players to get their teeth into. "Resident Evil: Village" will still lack this feature, but its companion game won't.

Another game will be released on the same day that "Resident Evil: Village" becomes available, and thus far, it's flown almost entirely below the radar because so much attention has been foisted upon the main game. It's called "Resident Evil: ReVerse," and it's designed to fill the hole left by the lack of a multiplayer option in the other games. While sharing the same universe as the other games in the series, "Resident Evil: ReVerse" is a totally different animal. For a start, it's going to be free to download and play, and it will only exist as an online game. Secondly, it's multiplayer-only, and it takes the franchise into uncharted territory. The game reunites many of the characters from the series' long and storied past, including Jill Valentine, Leon Kennedy, and Claire Redfield, and places them within the heart of Raccoon City's Police Department, where classic villains like Mr. X have been brought back to life for you to kill them all over again. It's not "canon," if the canon of the game matters to you at all, but it does look like being a whole lot of fun.

If you'd like to find out exactly how much fun it's going to be, Capcom has an attractive proposition for you. "Resident Evil: ReVerse" is about to enter beta testing, and to complete it successfully, it's going to need lots of beta testers. There are no barriers to entry so long as you have the right hardware to play the game on, so you can get involved if you'd like to. For anyone who has a PS4, an Xbox One, or a PC with Steam, beta testing for "Resident Evil: ReVerse" goes live on April 7th at 11 pm PT. It then stays open until midnight on April 11th. That's only four days, but it should give Capcom enough information to know whether their game is ready to go live alongside "Resident Evil: Village" on May 7th. There doesn't appear to be an option for next-gen players to get involved as of the time of writing, but that might just be an oversight with the official listing. It's hard to see why a game that's available for the PS4 and the Xbox One wouldn't also be available for the PS5, and the Xbox Series X. Capcom hasn't indicated that there will be a maximum number of players required for the beta testing, but it's likely that a lot of players intend to take them up on the offer, so downloading the game early on April 5th would be advisable if the idea appeals to you.

The ongoing success of "Resident Evil" shouldn't surprise anyone at this point. We've seen the game become a successful movie series in the past, with an animated TV series already in the books and a new CGI series called "Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness" set to join it on Netflix in either late 2021 or early 2022. Even online slots websites have been able to make a little capital out of the "Resident Evil" name. When "Resident Evil 6" was released, an online slots game of the same name was released to players. It's a few years old now, so it's becoming a little difficult to track it down, but online slots sites like the Rose Slots IE website might be able to help you out with that if it's something that appeals to you. With a number of successful remakes of previous games also still available online, at this point, it's clear that almost anything that gets the official "Resident Evil" logo attached to it is a bankable monkey-maker.

It's too early at this stage to say whether "Resident Evil: ReVerse" will be a success or not. Graphically it looks more arcade-orientated than the supremely disturbing visuals of "Resident Evil: Village," and it remains to be seen whether an online-only version of the game will be met with the same enthusiastic reception as the previous solo games. We know that it will have "links" with "Resident Evil: Village" despite not requiring players to buy the other game, so perhaps its success will depend on the strength of the bond between the two. Alternatively, perhaps it will come to stand on its own two feet like "Call of Duty: Warzone" does. There's only one way to find out, and that's to play it when it eventually becomes available. If you'd like to do that early by taking part in the beta testing phase, hopefully, you know what to do about that now you've read this article.