Resident Evil Village Hack Reveals The Terrifying Truth About Ethan Winters
Ethan Winters, the protagonist of "Resident Evil Village," sure has some pretty bad luck when it comes to keeping his family together. He's also pretty bad at keeping his body parts intact. Thank goodness for his magic regenerative abilities — otherwise, the poor fellow would be Swiss cheese, thanks to the attacks from the big bad in the 8th mainline "Resident Evil" game. That said, there's one body part Ethan hasn't lost yet, and that's his head — or so one might think.
"Resident Evil" developers over at Capcom sure as heck don't want players to know what his face looks like. And as revealed by a new mod that allows gamers to play "Resident Evil Village" from a third-person perspective, his playable character model doesn't even have a head. A "very experimental" third-person camera mod has been debuted by modder FluffyQuack, and that description is no exaggeration. While the mod is obviously quite promising, it plays host to all sorts of weird quirks and limitations. For instance, shooting causes Ethan's model to point in different directions than his gun — plus, the camera clips through walls, and it's basically impossible to interact with many objects, according to FluffyQuack themselves.
Still, the most jarring quirk is definitely the big ol' empty space where Ethan's head is supposed to be. Who can blame you for having problems aiming a gun without, y'know... a face?
Ethan's face is literally shrouded in mystery
Capcom has gone out of its way to keep players from getting a gander at Ethan's mug, something that isn't exclusive to in-game cutscenes either. After completing "Resident Evil Village," players can unlock "figures" — basically character models — that they can zoom in on and spin around to get a better glimpse at NPCs and enemies in all their gory detail. One of these figures, of course, is Ethan Winters. Unfortunately, his face is obscured by shadow, making it impossible to visualize his visage. As usual, that's where modders come in to save the day.
A mod called "Ethan Winters Restored," courtesy of Nexus Mods user SilverEzredes, removes the pesky dark shadow covering the "Resident Evil Village" protagonist's head, giving PC players a peek at the everyman's face. The fact that this mod doesn't appear to add anything to the character model — but instead removes part of the render — means that a digital artist over at Capcom designed Ethan's face in full. This begs a few questions: Why is Capcom so aggressively hiding Ethan's face? And, assuming that the face revealed by SilverEzredes' mod is legitimate, why was it never added to Ethan's in-game character model?
The answer to the second question, in all likelihood, comes down to modders doing the very things that SilverEzredes and FluffyQuack are doing: Revealing things that were never meant to be seen. Of course, "Resident Evil Village" — a game chock-full of some of survival-horror's most terrifying monsters — isn't the first game in the genre to boast a mysterious protagonist.
This doomed horror game has a revealing camera hack, too
The playable teaser for Hideo Kojima's ill-fated "Silent Hill" reboot, "P.T.," a game filled with secrets fans are still learning about, also toyed with players' protagonist perceptions. The game only revealed who exactly gamers were playing as upon completion of the demo. It turned out that actor Norman Reedus, who would go on to work with Kojima on the divisive dystopian delivery simulator "Death Stranding," was meant to take the reins on the since-canceled "Silent Hills." Unlike Ethan Winters, however, Reedus' character had a face — and although players didn't see it until "P.T." was over, hacker Lance McDonald revealed that the "Walking Dead" star was there all along.
At one point in the game, players approach a filthy mirror, thick grime obscuring the face of Reedus' character. According to McDonald, however, altering the position of the game's camera in order to reflect the protagonist's face in one of the cleaner sections of the mirror reveals Reedus in all his rugged glory. It's an interesting antithesis to Ethan's mysterious face, as the Reedus face reveal is played as a surprise, while the jury's still out on why Capcom doesn't want players to know what Ethan looks like.
Since its May 7 release, "Resident Evil Village" has been causing one heck of a stir, nabbing critical acclaim for its blend of action and survival horror elements — and for some of the creepiest stuff to ever crawl out of horror gaming ever. As more and more modders get into the title's guts, more secrets are sure to be revealed, and fans will surely be dying to get their hands — reattached with first aid meds or not — on them.