Resident Evil Village Review

Hey everyone! I hope you’re all having a good day and are as excited for E3 2021 as Seppin and Rek are for new content. With the massive gaming convention in sight, Rek wanted to do a detailed review on one of the games he’s finished playing, Resident Evil Village! Let’s get into the review!

Onto the Review

Alright, the newest entry into the Resident Evil franchise came out earlier this month and I have been pretty excited after the horrifying experience that was Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. Great horror game btw. Seriously, check it out!

Like I was saying, I had just gone through all of the games this year to hype myself up for Village and I hope this review can help sell a few of you who are on the fence about the game.

Gameplay

Firstly, let’s talk about gameplay and how this new entry changes things up for Ethan Winters. In Resident Evil 7, the gameplay was pretty straightforward for a horror game. About a handful of different weapons to kill Molded, including a shitty pocket knife that doesn’t do much unless you are speedrunning for the world record, and fun few boss fights positioned periodically on Ethan’s journey to escape the Baker family. Resident Evil Village builds upon that in familiar ways for fans. It’s still in first person, which is a bit strange to me as a fan of the third person Resident Evil games, but it works here. The inventory system is presented more so in the form of weapon crates like in Resident Evil 4 (please remake soon). The weapons each serve the gameplay well and given to the player when it is encouraged. This can be seen in the placement of the sniper rifle before the introduction of the flying monsters and the Lady Dimetrescu boss fight, not to mention the magnum or M1851 Wolfsbane which is used to kill that giant werewolf that stalks you before Moreau’s Reservoir. Most important feature reintroduced in the leveling up of weapon stats. I feel like I am going to say how this game reminds me of Resident Evil 4 a lot in this review but it is so true.

We have a new merchant named Duke who provides a shop for players to buy ammo, healing items, weapon upgrades, and food items which strengthen the player indefinitely. In this way, there is this sense of progression throughout the game as your weapons get stronger and the player themselves gets beefier with the personal upgrades. I remember when I increased the strength of the player’s block and that helped me SO much throughout this game it is not even funny. His dialogue starts to repeat itself after a time, but who can resist the Resident Evil 4 reference?

What are ya buyin?

Honestly, that should up the score by a whole point in my opinion…

Next, the different enemy types in this game is really refreshing after Resident Evil Biohazard which only had the Molded and then the boss fights. The creepy crypt zombies with swords, the flying monsters that have terrible movement, the fast werewolves, and then there are Heisenberg’s rejected experiments that kind of resemble titans. Each enemy was kept to their region and seeing new zombie types pop up through the game just made it more enjoyable. Now, there comes the boss fights. The Lady Dimetrescu fight is great, if only a little cramped on the church tower. The Donna Beneviento region was more like a horror dollhouse than a boss fight. Fun the first time, but I’m not sure how it will play out on subsequent playthroughs. The Salvatore Moreau fight utilized different elements of gunplay and forced the player into cover. Then, the Heisenberg fight was completely unexpected and a really badass fight for Ethan. Lastly, the Mother Miranda fight includes a handful of different phases and proved a fun challenge at the end of the game. Overall, the gameplay itself is a real fast-paced improvement for the series with plenty of moments filled with great action for the player.

If there is one drawback on the game itself, it is that the game is a bit linear. You sort of go from one boss’ area to the next until you reach the end of the game. There isn’t a ton of backtracking unless you are looking for treasures or ammo. There is this clear path to the end and this makes replayability a little lackluster for players.

The style of the game was really interesting as I’m sure many will agree. The Eastern European fairy tale presents a frighteningly dark atmosphere with different monsters and villains to fight off against. The ancient castle with royal vampires dancing with blood soaked faces in the artful halls and skulking zombies in the dark reaches of the dungeons. Creepy doll houses, alchemical labs filled with grotesque mutation, and the factory filled with organic-meets-machine soldiers. It’s really an awesome scene that was fun to explore!

Story

To briefly touch upon the story and how this new entry fits into the Resident Evil franchise, I must say a few spoilers. So, if you still want to remain surprised, jump past this paragraph of text and see the final notes and score! You have been warned…

The game takes place three years after the events of the Baker Family incident in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. The source of the Molded are explained in the Megamycete, a giant infected mold with hivemind capabilities beneath the village that is protected by Mother Miranda, who hopes to control its powers through Rose Winters, Ethan’s daughter. It doesn’t delve too deeply into Mother Miranda’s history as a researcher of the Megamycete and the mold it produces until the end where its revealed she’s trying to bring back her daughter, Eva. It briefly mentions how Miranda provided some tips and pointers to a few important Umbrella Corps founders, such as Spenser. Yet, this is all at the very end and is probably the most connection Resident Evil 7 and 8 will ever have to the main games…

Last chance!

Ethan Winters sacrifices himself to destroy the Megamycete. This comes down to an important decision after Ethan discovers that he died in 7 and has been the carrier of the Mold since then. It is a heroic and heartfelt sendoff for Ethan, even though he was only in 7 and 8. There weren’t many character development opportunities and it is only in 8 that I felt Ethan as a character. It was a shame to see him go out here, but it happened.

I want to talk about Chris’ role in this game because it was definitely confusing for fans at the first trailer last year. Chris is working for Blue Umbrella at this point, seen in 7, and is targeting the infection and terrorist groups like the Family who are looking to spread it. Chris is after the Megamycete throughout the game, targeting Mother Miranda who he learns has taken the shape of Mia at the start of the game and that is why he guns her down. He’s also been training Ethan to become an operative with Kendo, remember him from Resident Evil 2? The ending presents a new style of gameplay with Chris that was reminiscent of the “Not a Hero” DLC for 7. Yet, the familiar helicopter ride into the sun is what really stood out to me as a Resident Evil fan. I was happy to see it as the FINAL moment! Totally no other scene after! Nope!

Okay…. Maybe there was one end credits scene…

I really am trying to blot it out of my memory so please forgive my bias here.

The End Credits scene shows an aged-up Rose Winters in her father’s jacket visiting his grave with a bouquet of flowers. A black van rolls up, sent by Chris, and Rose is being called in for her assistance. The van goes down the road an uncomfortably long time toward a figure walking in the distance that players suspect to be Ethan’s player model.

This scene really upsets me. It is a meaningless time jump, remotely similar to the one for Sherry Birkin in Resident Evil 6 that many fans were not happy about. I for one wasn’t a huge fan of it. It just doesn’t make that much sense to place this same scene right after Ethan’s death. It’s way too soon in my opinion.

I was more interested in seeing what Chris was doing when he wanted to check in on the Europe branch of the BSAA since the operatives they met in the Village were infected. With that style of Chris gameplay we got at the end, I’d love to see that game!

Aging up Rose just seems to be a mistake and weirdly placed after Ethan’s sacrifice.

Final Thoughts

Anyways, it was a fun experience, a good entry into the Resident Evil Franchise, just sort of loses me at the end. I recommend that Resident Evil fans should play it if they were a bit weary of the game because it does offer some good action alongside fairy-tale horror.

Scoring

Gameplay & Design: 10/10

Story & Characters: 7.5/10

Technical, Graphics, and Setting: 9/10

Final Score: 26.5 / 30 or 88.3%

I hope you guys enjoyed this video game review! Leave a like if you enjoyed it and comment us your score for the game! Until next time…

~Rek

~Seppin