Resident Evil Village Review
“Stands 9 feet, 6 inches tall above the rest.” Written by: Hunter (ReaperHunter23)
In June of 2020 during the Playstation 5 reveal event we were treated to the first look at Resident Evil Village. The trailer got my attention because it looked like it was implementing a bunch of ideas they toyed with during the development of Resident Evil 4 before settling in to what that game was going to be, so my curiosity was piqued to say the least. By the time we made it to 2021 Capcom had shown off more trailers ,what felt like a dozen different demos, and perhaps most amusingly off all, took the internet by storm with the introduction of Lady Dimestrecu. But, all of the memes in the world won’t mean anything if the game is not any good, so let’s take a look to see if Resident Evil Village was able to continue the momentum the series has had for the past few years.
Image Credit: Capcom
Resident Evil Village is the second main series game to be set in a first person perspective. The crafting system for ammo and health items also makes a comeback. Village leans further into the action side of things than 7 did however. This becomes clear when you receive the handgun, complete the first enemy encounter and then obtain the shotgun inside of the same twenty minutes. That’s not to say the game doesn’t have its quieter atmospheric moments, but it seems to strike a similar action to horror ratio as Resident Evil 4.
The game deliberately calls back to Resident Evil 4 in a few other ways as well. Such as the return of the Tetris Briefcase inventory system, as well as having a new Merchant character. The Duke, as he’s called, will sell you supplies, as well as attachments and upgrades for your weapons. He also cooks for you, which I believe grants Ethan permanent upgrades to stats such as health and defense. I never partook in the cooking because upgrading my stats seemed superfluous and to the game’s credit, I was never punished for not taking these upgrades, beating the game was perfectly manageable without them.
The main reason I decided that upgrading my stats would not be worth it was because this game is remarkably easy. The enemy AI did not feel all that intelligent, and it seemed as if most of the lycans or other regular type enemies could be reliably put down with three headshots. Or lined up for a shotgun blast to several of them. It amuses me because the game constantly gives you ways to mitigate being overwhelmed, by placing shelves that you can push in front of doors, or other such obstructions to funnel enemies through, but I never really had to make use of those. There was one point where I had an enemy one on one, so I pulled my knife out and just ran in circles around and sliced it to death, without ever taking a hit.
On top of the enemies being rather easy, the game is pretty generous with how it hands out its resources as well. Between the amount of ammo the game was giving me, as well as the supplies to make more ammo, I was never strapped for anything until one of the final areas in the game. This in turn made some of the bigger enemies, and even the bosses a non issue since I could just unload a copious amount of shotgun bullets into whatever the handgun couldn’t put down.
Now, I’m not condemning the game for being a little on the easier side, because I was still having fun throughout. It's just interesting to come from the Remakes of 2 and 3 where, as few as two zombies could ruin my day if I wasn’t being careful, to this game where I can take down a screen full of them before ever needing to heal.
Image Credit: Capcom
If the typical B movie cheesiness found in Resident Evil stories is something you enjoy, this game has got you covered. The set up is as follows: Protagonist Ethan Winters has his daughter whisked away by Chris Redfield, things go wrong when Chris is trying to transport Ethan and his daughter, so Ethan stumbles backwards into this wacky werewolf village in search of his missing child. From there he meets some of the village’s notable figures and is subjected to a number of different horrors, most of which involve mutilating his hands.
The story of the game isn’t anything remarkable, but it is fun enough, and backed up by some stellar performances from the villain crew. Lady Dimetrescu and her daughters are quite entertaining and psychotic. Heisenberg also has a stellar equally bombastic performance behind him. Watching him and Dimetrescu argue in their introduction was a lot of fun. Even Chris Redfield, who I’ve never particularly cared for felt more natural in the antagonistic sort of role they put him in in this game.
The one weak link in the cast however is the protagonist, Ethan Winters. Aside from a line or two, everytime Ethan began talking, I wanted to punch him in the mouth. It’s strange, you’d think you would be able to sympathize with a character with a motivation as solid as trying to save his daughter, but oh man does he make it tough.
Still overall the story is good enough for what it is and the villains make it entertaining enough to put up with Ethan’s idiocy.
Image Credit: Capcom
On a visual level, Resident Evil Village is gorgeous. The RE engine is one of the best looking engines in recent years and all of the awesome environments in this game do wonders to show it off. Be it he Dimetrescu castle, or the Benevito House on the cliff with the waterfall behind it, all of these areas look fantastic.
Given that this is a horror game I should talk about how scary the game is. Personally, I did not find it to be all that scary. So hey, if you are someone interested in the horror genre, but maybe don’t have nerves of steel, this could be a good game to try out as way to dip your toes in. Don’t get me wrong though, the game is plenty atmospheric and certainly took its time to have quieter and more eerie moments placed between all of the enemy encounters. So while I was personally never intimidated I can appreciate the effort that went into making the attempt.
The cool thing is that when shifting from one major area in the game to another, the game will change up its approach to its style of horror. For example, Lady Dimetrescu’s castle has a clearly gothic horror vibe to it and gameplay wise feels very similar to exploring the Spencer Mansion or RPD. And in contrast the following area feels like something resembling P.T. more than the game you’ve been playing for the past few hours. It was cool to see and most of the areas had an interesting approach, with only one not really doing it for me.
Image Credit: Capcom
Summary
Resident Evil Village was certainly entertaining enough for me to recommend. While I didn’t enjoy it as much as the two remakes from the recent years it still has its own merits. It manages to take a more action leaning approach while not completely abandoning the notion of being a horror game.The village and its surrounding areas are thematically similar enough to feel like an entertaining haunted carnival attraction. The carnival like approach also means that even if the current attraction isn’t quite your cup of tea, the amount of variation in delivering the scares means you may still be interested in what comes next.