'Cracked' Resident Evil Village Gives Massive Performance Boost

There's still plenty on Capcom's plate when it comes to Resident Evil in 2021, as the shuffling zombie shooter celebrates its 25th anniversary. The jewel in the corpse crown this year has undoubtedly been Resident Evil Village, however, some players claim to have found a superior, 'cracked' version of the game.

While over half of Village's impressive sales figures are down to the PlayStation 5, those playing on PS4, Xbox, and PC still make up a good portion of the copies shifted. With many still seeing PC as the best way to play, it's unsurprising that whispers of a performance-boosted Village have caught gamers' attention. But what's really going on under the hood?

What is the 'cracked' Resident Evil Village?

There are some morally questionable techniques in use here, but a Digital Right Management-free (cracked) Resident Evil Village is apparently running better than Capcom's original launch on PC. DRM is there to protect ourselves and our PCs, but the idea that the DRM is actually limiting the performance of a game isn't exactly good news for Capcom. 

Eurogamer got wind of the cracked Village and decided to put the claims to the test. Offering a massive performance boost, the site confirmed stuttering issues have been phased out thanks to the cracked version of the survival horror. There's nothing worse than trying to dash away from Donna Beneviento and Angie, only for the frames to skip and Ethan finding himself slayed by that demonic doll. 

Back when Eurogamer first reviewed Resident Evil Village on PC, there were complaints that some animations stutter during combat. When playing at 60fps, the stutter could hit 66ms (four frames). When uncapped, it was spiking at 130ms. Elsewhere, encounters with Lady Alcina Dimitrescu's three vampiric daughters led to a "sustained frame-time stutter". When it comes to the cracked version of Village, all of the above are apparently gone. 

Will Capcom fix Resident Evil Village?

Going right to the top of Castle Dimitrescu, the cracked build even snared Capcom. Offering an update to Eurogamer, the developer confirmed, "The team are working on a patch to address PC performance issues, it should be available soon - we'll have more details shortly". Even if we don't condone it, it sounds like piracy sometimes does pay. 

The cracked version of Village can be found relatively easy online, and while we won't share it here, it apparently works with the Steam version of the game. Also, be warned that it won't work with existing saves. Unless you want to start again, it might be worth waiting for Capcom's patch or update. 

It's been over two months since Resident Evil Village released, and despite repeated grumbles that something needed to be done about lacklustre PC, it's a bizarre turn of events that a cracked version is what's led to Capcom finally addressing our complaints.