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Resident Evil Village on iPhone: a glimpse into Apple’s gaming future but that future isn’t here yet

39K View2023-11-08

Apple is stepping up its game when it comes to, well, games with the iPhone 15. The mobile giant’s gaming ambitions aim to rival even the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Console favorites are being adapted for iOS, and Resident Evil Village is the first to be released. This 2021 survival-horror title is now playable on the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Max, as well as iPads with the M1 or M2 chips.

The transition from console to phone isn’t without struggles, though. At the beginning of my time testing Resident Evil Village on iOS, I couldn’t score a single shot at the first enemy I encountered. Every time I touched the on-screen controls, my view would fly into the air and send my bullets careening toward the castle instead of into the heads of these gory bad guys.

Combat is a very important part of Resident Evil Village, and unfortunately, the combat experience on my phone has absolutely destroyed my immersion so far. I strongly suggest not even trying this game unless you have a controller for your iPhone, because the giant on-screen buttons are a disaster.

The strangest part is that other games have already dealt with this problem in much more elegant ways. Call of Duty Mobile is the gold standard of touchscreen controls. It allows players to turn up the opacity of the on-screen buttons to the point of making them invisible, and to artfully rearrange button placement to their heart’s content. Plenty of games have proven that touchscreen controls are viable, even in more modern, action-packed experiences, so there’s no reason Resident Evil Village shouldn’t have been able to do a better job.

Having already played Resident Evil Village on PlayStation 5, it was immediately clear to me how even the highest quality settings for the iOS version are much lower detail. Even worse, playing with high settings for a long time leads to glitches and a scorching hot phone. After only ten minutes playing, my phone was burning like a pancake fresh out of the oven.

Despite the decreased visual quality, the performance of the game isn’t always great either. When the game went into cutscenes, sometimes the screen would start lagging badly. It felt like I was trying to stream a movie over crappy Wi-Fi that made the image stutter.

If you’re spending a lot of time traveling or waiting somewhere, Resident Evil Village might be a solid choice to keep you busy. If you often play games at home, though, then you probably will want to play the game with a controller, on a cozy couch, and of course with your iPhone 15 hooked up to a big TV. Considering all those costs, you might as well just buy a PS5.

The mobile version of Resident Evil Village is like a gourmet dish that looks incredible, but it ends up leaving a bad taste in your mouth. If this is Apple’s big push into being a serious contender in gaming, I expect more from them. Here’s hoping that they figure it out in time for future iOS ports like the upcoming Death Stranding.

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