Capcom’s Resi renaissance is a wonderful comeback story. Resident Evil VII was an immaculate title, one that returned a fallen idol to its feet with excellent pacing, a twisting but satisfying narrative and arresting presentation. Most of what made Biohazard great is here in Transylvania and Resident Evil Village even adds some greatness of its own. However, it’s not a masterpiece but something that maintains the series’ returned esteem.
Picking Up
The game begins a little after the last one left off. Ethan, Mia and their baby are trying to move on until they are rudely interrupted by Chris Redfield. Ethan sees his wife killed and is then kidnapped along with baby Rose. When the game begins in earnest, Ethan and his child have been separated. Naturally, he tries to retrieve his spawn.
The opening is cold. A dash of normality is followed by some scant exposition and a lot of action. This kicks the game off quickly and gets players to what the game will ultimately do best – let them off to explore and enjoy the titular village and its surrounds.
With nothing to go on, players are compelled forward by intrigue as much as the linear path that Ethan is on. Slowly, the game reveals Rose’s role in the plot. Even more slowly, the game reveals how to track her down.
Dripping in Atmosphere
Resident Evil Village has a grim, foreboding atmosphere that sometimes ramps up into terror and horror. The empty, semi-destroyed village that greets us feels cold and dead. The castle interiors gleam with gilded detail while its dungeons smother the player with darkness. Moreau’s amorphous form and ooze-filled lair is disgusting.
Each of its areas has unique traits with some matching its visual and narrative theme. The organic labyrinth of Moreau and the weaponless playtime with Beneviento are two notable examples. Enemy design is stellar and the game’s foes are often matched perfectly to the surroundings and its theme.
From faceless humanoid scrubs through living belfry-dwelling gargoyles to an ugly baby, the things you eventually become sick of shooting add so much atmosphere to a game already dripping in the stuff.
Mild Survival and Puzzle Themes
RE8 features a wide but shallow selection of mechanics. Players can craft ammo and health items but the process is trivial, adding a step to collecting ammo and health rather than making a player feel in any way industrious. Players can fortify buildings in preparation for a horde but it has exactly one mechanic – pushing a shelf in front of an entrance. Capcom placed these shelves in many random houses and it made me feel like it would be a huge part of the game – thankfully, it isn’t.
As with all Resident Evil games, players will open the game up by locating a key or a password and returning to the door or macguffin that matches it. There isn’t nearly as much backtracking as during the series’1990s heyday, thankfully. Progress is never held up too much by distance.
Puzzles are excellent. Most are quick eye or brainteasers that momentarily halt the pace of the game and offer plenty of variety. Teasers often have a simple solution but the fun comes from finding it. Shooting five oddly-placed bells. Lining up a life of wear for a music box puzzle. Managing platforms for local switches. Just three of the neat distractions that break up the action.
Hub-Line-Hub
The village serves as a hub and the first non-linear section of Resident Evil Village. Throughout the game, players will open up a non-linear area then will have a vague idea of what they need to do and must figure how to do it by rubbing off stuff until a prompts appear.
After a non-linear section we usually meet a linear section then a cut-scene to drive things along. Peppered throughout are linear, highly scripted sections that break up the cycle a little bit.
Players reach their first area proper and their first set of series of villains after a short run around the village. Lady Dimitrescu may have caught the public’s imagination but her castle and minions are only one of four distinct sections needed to possibly save Ethan’s baba. While great effort was put into making each of the four Lord’s demesnes feel and look unique, they follow the same trajectory regardless of how much they have been dressed up.
There is a feeling of repetitiveness that dulls some of Resident Evil Village‘s charm. Ethan gets knocked out and wakes up somewhere terrible quite often. We meet two unkillable enemies (and the feeling of being punked that goes with them) inside the first thirty minutes.
Combat involves little strategy and a small selection of weapons so longer battles with hordes or bullet sponging foes eventually become tedious. And Resident Evil 8 contains a lot of this style of combat. Designed to strip your ammo and health rather than inspire any real fear or induce any sense of danger. This also includes infinite respawn hordes that happen far too often. To the devs’ credit, Ethan will point out when enemies will endlessly respawn.
Cohesive Variety of Style and Theme
Bosses and minibosses usually hit the mark, though. With some one-off mechanics and/or sheer spectacle, Resident Evil Village‘s most special of enemies serve up combat desserts after a banquet of groteque fodder.
Some of the best of these aren’t strictly about combat – like chilling out some draught-dodgers or a game of hide & seek complete with the terror of a child’s laughter. The variety in set-pieces is laudable and this variety does a lot to stave away the boredom that the game’s eventual repetition may bring.
As previously mentioned, each of the game’s four main areas and the hub-esque village carry a theme that matches their lord. Enemy types and some section-specific mechanics often match this theme. It’s all so cohesive and drags a player deeper into each area’s take on darkness.
However, the four areas were not created equally and the game is bookended. The opening hours and the final run-in are far stronger than the middle of Resident Evil Village.
Give & Take
Breaking the game up into four parts helps and hinders the experience overall. Coming back to the village with a new toy or even just to see what has changed is fun. Having four areas in which to build and populate mini-horror worlds gave the devs license to explore different themes and set-pieces.
But the four-parter also highlights weaker areas of the game and forces players to walk the same line over and over. The superficial and light mechanical changes carefully chosen during production can only do so much to hide this overarching feeling of rising to the challenge one too many times.
First-timers should finish Resident Evil Village in around twelve hours. However, it feels a little too long and that maybe it would have better to cut some of the weaker content. Village has replay value baked in as Resident Evil games tend to do but outstaying its welcome that first time only discourages subsequent runs.
Despite its flaws, Resident Evil Village is still a worthy follow-up that will entertain. The cast of villains, setting and story will pull a player along to see the end even it could have done with a few cuts.
