Resident Evil Village (PS4) - Video Game Review

Despite the fact that we get yearly installments of Resident Evil these days, it really feels like it's been quite a while since the franchise's main story progressed since Resident Evil 7. I'm glad Capcom is looking forward just as much as they're looking back with their REmake games. I think this game perfectly captures both of those perspectives as it tries to embrace both the dread of Resident Evil 7, as well as the action of Resident Evil 4. With all that said, I have some thoughts.

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Where You Can Find It: I played this one on PlayStation 4, however it's also available for PS5, PC/Steam, XB1, XSX, and Stadia. Based on what I've heard, this game was originally made for modern-generation consoles/PC, so I'd recommend using those platforms for optimal performance if you want the best quality.

General Information
Resident Evil Village (or Resident Evil 8) is a first-person survival horror game that was developed and published by Capcom. It was first released on 7 May 2021 and is a direct sequel to Resident Evil 7 (this may seem obvious, but the Resident Evil games aren't always directly connected). According to Liam Croft and as of 11 May 2021, it has already shipped 3 million copies, which ties it with Resident Evil 2 Remake as the third highest-selling Resident Evil game for its first week's release. Its reception has been fairly positive as it holds an 81 Metascore on Metacritic.

The Story
Three years have passed since the events of Resident Evil 7, and Ethan Winters has moved to Eastern Europe to settle down with his wife, Mia, and their newborn daughter, Rose. Their tranquil home life is violently upended when Chris Redfield murders Mia and kidnaps Rose after knocking Ethan unconscious. Ethan wakes up outside a snowy mountain village filled with monsters who have their own plans for Rose, and it's up to him to save his daughter and uncover the horrifying secrets behind the quaint hamlet.

There's some fantastic blending of European Gothic horror with the standard Resident Evil bioterror staples fans are used to at this point. There are witches, werewolves, vampires, and more in the village and they each bring their own unique challenge to Ethan's plight. Like Resident Evil 7, the story boasts an ensemble of unique villains with the intimidating Lady Dimitrescu and ominous Beneviento standing out as the major stars. Unfortunately, as much as I like the antagonists in this game, they lack the depth of Resident Evil 7's Baker Family and seem to operate in a vacuum from one another after Ethan meets them for the first time. 

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Lady Dimitrescu is hoping you'll stay for dinner

Another similarity this has with Resident Evil 7 is its sluggish final act. For those that remember the last game, it had a pretty boring boat section where players killed tons of molded monsters. Resident Evil Village is nearly identical with this problem as players will hit a very large section near the end where they must navigate a multi-floored facility crawling with enemies for them to mindlessly shoot at. I'm fine with more action, but it all started to feel pretty stale at that point. Thankfully, the game's plot rallies after this particular slog for a satisfying conclusion with a brilliant couple of twists that I was genuinely impressed with!

The Gameplay
Much of Resident Evil 7's first-person play-style has been retained for this latest installment, however players will immediately notice combat has a much larger role this time around. There's a solid amount of different enemy types that blissfully make up for the last game's dull molded monsters, and players will get to see plenty of these new creatures as they progress. Similarly, the game's bosses are pretty different in how players must approach them, with some requiring more brains than brawn. Although there was a decent enough challenge, I must admit this game felt far easier than previous Resident Evil games, however I am told the higher difficulties make up for this general lack of challenge.

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Keep your guns loaded and your eyes open for this one

Some of the new gameplay mechanics players will find is an enhancement to how it goes about combat. Ethan was able to block in Resident Evil 7, but now he can also push enemies back if his block is timed correctly. Ethan can also make use of his environment with makeshift barricades and bags of flour to slow down enemies. I must admit that Ethan's block feels a tad too strong at times as I've seen the man seemingly deflect attacks from giant winged monstrosities while barely taking any damage in return. It's only made funnier by the fact that blocking literally just means that Ethan is throwing his hands up to protect his face.

An element players have not seen since Resident Evil 5 is that Ethan will be able to purchase/sell and upgrade weapons and equipment from a mysterious merchant named "The Duke." Both Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5 did a fantastic job with providing players with tons of different weapons that each had their own strengths and weakness, which only enhanced additional play-throughs. Sadly, this game seems to have lost some of that innovation as weapons players find later in the game are objectively superior to the ones they initially find in the first act. Since there's no incentive to keep old weapons, it gives off a feeling as though all the upgrade investments in those old guns was wasted. One new element that The Duke provides though is cooking, which enables Ethan to permanently upgrade health, speed, or blocking if they can track down enough ingredients. These upgrades had me searching high and low for poultry, and on more than one occasion I found myself getting into an intense knife-fight with an angry pig in my quest for meats.

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The Duke will help you...for a price

Audio/Visual
It's in this particular department that Resident Evil Village truly shines. The environments from beginning to end are all really incredible to behold. Players will experience everything from chilly swamps and dilapidated villages to foreboding castles and even a haunted house. The accompanying ambient sounds enhance these environments to new heights as players will hear Ethan's shivering and the creaking of windows straining against the cold mountain winds. Beneviento's manor was easily my favorite as the subtle setting terrified me to the point of where I had to take a break halfway through.

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The view is to die for

Just as there are more enemy types than ever before, I believe it's worth mentioning that all of these monsters look incredible with the bosses particularly standing out. The scurrying lycans' howls and the manic laughter of Lady Dimitrescu's "daughters" chilled me to the core and seeing a 9-foot tall vampire woman duck into the room I was sneaking in had me scampering for a new hiding spot like Scooby-Doo.

If there's one area I found slightly lacking, it might be the soundtrack, however I didn't find it bad per se. Much of Resident Evil Village's sound design seems to be dedicated to terrifying silences where the subtle sounds of footsteps and heavy breathing stand out more. With that said, most of the background music was pretty forgettable, which is a little disappointing as this franchise is well-known for its fantastic soundtracks. Maybe I need to give it more time, but after beating the campaign, I can't recall what the "safe room theme" even sounds like and there was nothing that stood out like the last game's "Go Tell Aunt Rhody."

Multiplayer

Resident Evil Village is a single-player only title however it features a companion game called Re:Verse. Re:Verse lets players play as classic Resident Evil characters in 4-6-player deathmatches that each last around five minutes. Re:Verse is free to anyone who purchases the main game, and was originally supposed to be available to play on the same day that Resident Evil Village released. In late April, Re:Verse was delayed and will now no longer be available until the summer of 2021. I have some serious reservations about this multiplayer add-on as Capcom's previous forays into competitive shooters have not exactly been stellar. I'll update this section when I get a chance to try it out.

Micro-Transactions/Downloadable Content
There's a likely chance that this will get future DLC, and right now there are two available DLC packs for purchase: the Trauma Pack and the Original Soundtrack. The Trauma Pack offers a new difficulty, Resident Evil 7 re-cap videos, a new gun, and some cosmetic add-ons. Considering its price ($12.99 on Steam), it's certainly not worth it and I don't recommend it. The re-cap videos are nice, but the gun is practically useless and the cosmetics just don't seem worth the money. The Original Soundtrack is good for the music lovers out there, but I wasn't particularly impressed with this game's background music.

Replayability
Like previous entries, there's a New Game+ mode where players can experience the campaign again with all the weapons and gear they found during their last playthrough. Additionally, players can unlock even more weapons via the game's Bonus section where they can spend points earned from achievements to purchase new gear, concept art, models, and more. One of the things they can unlock is a Mercenaries Mode akin to previous Resident Evil games where players go up against hordes of enemies to rack up high scores. I'm certainly keen to go through the campaign again on a harder difficulty, however I will admit that certain sections of the game will be fairly boring on the second playthrough as Beneviento's section specifically loses much of its luster once the player knows what they need to do.

The Best of the Best: The incredibly detailed environments and ambience.

The Worst of the Worst: The sluggish factory segment.

Calhooey Score: 7/10 - Good

Would I Recommend?

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This may sting a little...

Resident Evil Village tries to blend Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 7 together and mostly succeeds, but it does have its fair share of problems. I enjoyed this game a lot, but it struggles to stand out as one of the all-time great entries of the franchise. I recommend this to players that have already experienced Resident Evil 7 and those that are into Gothic horror especially. For those that aren't familiar with the franchise and like action shooters, I would recommend trying this when the price goes down a bit first.

Recommended Let's Play Channel:

Here's another playthrough from PISTOLPETE's channel. I have yet to watch all of it, but if it's anything like his previous ones, I'm sure it's great.

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Spoiler Comments

• Ethan's hands can shield him from getting smashed by giant metal behemoths and acid rain, but apparently the fangs of one lycan are too much.
• I really liked the optional bosses in this. I apparently missed the one in the field, so I'm looking forward to that challenge on my second playthrough.
• I was over the factory segment before I even finished the first floor. When I discovered there were two more floors to deal with, I was ready to just let Miranda have Rose at that point.
• Even after everyone explains that Mother Miranda swapped places with Mia, I refused to believe it. I kept thinking that she'd actually swapped places with Chris and that the Chris we had encountered throughout the game was actually Miranda using us to kill off her "children."
• I must admit that this explains why Mia took more bullets than Tony Montana to kill.
• This definitely explains why the hag was able to roam around the village without getting mauled.
• Umber Eyes was right to criticize Chris for not telling Ethan what was going on. The entire trajectory of this game's story could've been drastically altered if Chris had just taken two minutes to tell Ethan about Mother Miranda.
• The tie-in to old Umbrella was so badly executed it reminded me of Resident Evil Survivor's awful attempt to connect to Resident Evil 2. Based on the trailers, I had assumed this section of Eastern Europe was simply home to some of the leftovers of Umbrella before it collapsed. I feel like that would've been a more plausible idea than Spencer deciding to vacation in some random mountain hamlet.
• So the BSAA are the bad guys now? I hope someone told all the other Resident Evil characters that have been in the BSAA since Resident Evil 5...
• Ethan dying at the end was a great way to end his story. Capcom seems to have a serious problem with not being willing to let go of their main characters and I'm glad Ethan got an organic conclusion.
• Seriously Capcom, Billy is still in Racoon Forest somewhere and we never saw what happened to Sheva, Carlos, Jake, or Natalia.

References

(1) Gorilla Games King. (n.d.). Resident Evil 8 game cover image. Retrieved from: https://gorillagamesking.com/producto/resident-evil-village/.

(2) Lady Dimitrescu. (2021). Lady Dimitrescu gif. Know Your Meme. Retrieved from: https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1998766-lady-dimitrescu.

(3) Pring, J. (2021). Beneviento doll image. We Got This Covered. Retrieved from: https://wegotthiscovered.com/gaming/secret-beneviento-treasure-resident-evil-village/#gallery-1.

(4) The Jolly Duke. (2021). The Duke gif. Know Your Meme. Retrieved from: https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/2079834-resident-evil-biohazard.

(5) halfwayriight. (n.d.). Ominous village gif. Cafe D'Athens. Retrieved from: https://halfwayriight.tumblr.com/post/629822258538479617/resident-evil-village-scenery.

(6) Game Pressure. (2021, April 27). Giant lycan image. Steam. Retrieved from: https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/38407506/view/3085505125832520622.

(7) PISTOLPETE. (2021, May 11). Resident Evil 8 Village - Village of Shadows Difficulty NG - The Village Part 1 [video]. YouTube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtZP3DkTD14.