Pay attention, Resident Evil is clearly an influential sequence. It helped mildew the enduring imaginative and prescient of survival-horror video video games, and over the course of its almost 30-year historical past, it has reinvented itself and the style extra occasions than one can rely. There’s even an thrilling new Resident Evil title popping out proper across the sequence’ thirtieth anniversary, which appears like an applicable factor to advertise and throw some weight behind. So clarify to me why, as a substitute, there’s a Resident Evil knockoff known as Ebola Village taking over time and house on PlayStation’s YouTube web page proper now?
The trailer’s description reads, “A traditional horror impressed by the unique survival video games of the 90s, Ebola Village is a contemporary tackle a first-person journey the place the primary character, Maria, investigates a sequence of mysterious occasions.” Let me simply say, “impressed” is doing quite a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. It’s been sitting on the official PlayStation YouTube page for over 20 hours, has amassed over 70,000 views, and roughly 7,400 downvotes. It was noticed on-line by social media gaming news accounts like Knoebel. “What are we doing right here man,” reads one of many prime feedback.
Ebola Village already launched on PC final yr. A part of a whole sequence developed by “indie_games_studio” (sure, that’s the studio’s identify), it prices $17 {dollars} and the highest Steam opinions say issues like, “This recreation is so unhealthy it gave me Ebola irl.” Normally, it’s Unreal Engine asset-flip knockoffs of hit Steam video games which can be losing house on the PlayStation Retailer. This time round, it’s precise junk from Steam that seems to be flowing downstream. The way it ended up with a spot on the PlayStation YouTube channel stays unclear.
Your entire trailer appears like a shoddily constructed homage to the Resident Evil sequence, and never in a campy, enjoyable manner, both. One of many opening pictures exhibits a personality driving into city, and from the first-person perspective of the scene, their fingerless gloves look virtually precisely like a part of Leon Kennedy‘s Resident Evil 4 match. In one other scene, a zombie (or somebody in any other case contaminated by Ebola???) lobs an axe on the participant’s head, and I swear the accompanying sound impact even sounds prefer it’s straight out of RE4.
I ponder if this trailer will likely be nonetheless obtainable on the official PlayStation YT acc after I get up tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/9CKCMwnle8
— Knoebel (@Knoebelbroet) January 7, 2026
To make issues worse (or higher relying on who you ask), there’s additionally an enemy with a chainsaw and sack over their head. Come on, y’all.
RE4 isn’t the one recreation from the sequence that’s proven a bit of affection right here, and there are some standout “homages” to the bigger RE sequence among the many varied egregious particulars. For instance, the font used for Ebola Village‘s title seems similar to that utilized by the Resident Evil remakes, and the “E” in Ebola right here is crimson adopted by gnarled white lettering, mirroring the logos for these video games. Moreover, the primary character, Maria, feels fairly “impressed” by the sequence’ early feminine protagonists, like some amalgamation of Claire Redfield and Jill Valentine.
Sooner or later within the recreation, Maria even seems to flee to a distant village to “go to her mom and her ex-husband, Ruslan,” at which level the sport begins to look eerily just like the RE4-inspired Resident Evil Village. There’s a tall crone-like character, a battle with a werewolf, and there are even scenes set amongst distinctly Village-esque cabins. Probably the most shocking a part of the trailer is definitely the absence of a Girl Dimitrescu analog, however perhaps that’s one shock Ebola Village is saving for these courageous sufficient to really spend cash on it.
Some commenters on the trailer web page couldn’t assist however theorize that the video’s thumbnail was AI-generated, which might not less than really feel consistent with the remainder of the slop presently sitting on the PlayStation Retailer. Based on the sport’s Steam web page, it was certainly the work of a neural community. Ebola Village is evidently releasing on console on January 23, and I can’t wait to see what borrowed tips it has up its sleeves, not less than till Ebola 4 comes out. We’ll see if that one makes it into an precise PlayStation showcase.
