Admit it, when you first saw that teaser for Project Resistance there was a part of you disappointed it wasn’t Resident Evil 3

The first teaser caught us all off guard. Capcom make an incredible remake for RE2, all eyes are on them doing the same thing for Nemesis. And when it didn’t immediately materialise, the nerves kicked in. We all should have known they were up to something.

Now while everyone is eager to run away from the hulking, stomping behemoth this Friday, there’s still a lot of people disregarding the Resistance component of the package. And having spent some time with the Beta, we reckon that’s a big mistake.

Because this creatively designed, team-based action is not only a great fit in the REverse, but it’s actually a lot of fun. Especially if you get to play as the Mastermind.

Basically, you’re split between a team of four survivors, tasked with various objectives like deactivating security terminals and destroying cell cannisters before all four of you have to reach the exit. It’s kind of a Left 4 Dead crossed over with a Team Fortress.

Your Survivors can buy weapons at the start of each round using Umbrella Credits, picking up things like green herbs, first aid sprays, guns and ammo. You have the same amount of inventory slots as you’re familiar with in the base game, and have to use them wisely, especially as you can pick things up through the round.

Each Survivor also has unique abilities to help each other, like an option to heal everyone in close proximity. You’ll need to work together to survive, no doubt.

The Survivors will have to go up against the Mastermind, an individual who can hop between security cameras scattered around in each level, dropping zombies and traps down on the unsuspecting survivors.

Sure, they can defend against you by temporarily fusing the cameras, but it’s never for too long and then you’re back in charge. And the amount of power at your fingertips is, quite frankly, delicious.

You can lock doors to halt the Survivors progress, set the dogs loose on them, pepper them with machine-gun bullets and yes, even drop Mr X down from the skies to pulverise everyone. It’s so damn satisfying.

Your aim as the Mastermind is to run down the clock so that the Survivors can’t escape and both teams can add to that time by damaging the other – Survivors by defeating the monsters and the Mastermind by downing Survivors.

I was heavily impressed with the quality of Resistance and that’s just from the beta. There’s obviously lots more to come with new environments, different characters, and alternate options, but there seems to be enough here to keep you coming back for more. If, given the chance of course.

True, it’s not going to pull you away from Warzone or Apex Legends anytime soon, but there’s a lot of substance to what many are dubbing a ‘tacked on’ mode and I hope it sees the success it deserves when it launches with Resident Evil 3 this Friday.

Resident Evil Resistance Open Beta is now available on PS4, Xbox One and PC.