Poor Ethan Winters. Just after he’s started to settle down and
enjoy family life, out of nowhere his wife gets shot, daughter kidnapped, until
he once again finds himself embroiled within another eerie conspiracy that sees
him waist-high in nightmarish monsters. It’s sure to be quite the weekend. Luckily
for us, his grief is our gain, as Resident Evil: Village marks a strong
continuation of the franchise’s recent swerve into a more claustrophobic brand
of survival horror. Mechanical improvements may be minor, sure, yet overall
this is about as inventive and terrifying as Resident Evil has ever been.
Village pays respect to the events and tropes that have come before while still
finding room to take risks.
The first thing to mention is that Resident Evil: Village is
an outright beautiful game. From the oddly enticing beauty of the Eastern
European village itself that’s been frozen over to the lavishly glossy and
wet-looking interiors of its more ornate structures, Capcom’s A-team have
proven themselves masters of environmental design before but here every
location you explore boasts an impressively noticeable lived-in feel. Books
sprawled out over the mantelpiece, tipped-over barrels spewing what appears to
be red wine… all this comes together to create a deeply unsettling atmosphere –
to the point that the graveyard often felt like the safest location.
The titular village portion plays a larger role than what
Resident Evil 4 alumni will likely expect. And though smaller by comparison,
frequently returning to it to discover new routes and pathways is excitingly tense.
The same can also be said for the much-publicised Lady Dimitrescu’s castle. Anyone
who’s already indulged in either the Maiden demo or the other few from the past
few days will have some idea of what to expect from this domain, but again
there’s plenty of surprises to see when traversing from cellar to roof. Full of
engaging yet not overly elaborate puzzles to solve and important story context
to uncover, Castle Dimitrescu is yet another iconic Resident Evil location.
Lady Dimitrescu herself is also a commanding villain for the
time she’s featured, especially during sections where she persistently follows
you around environments Mr. X-style and you have to think on your feet about which
castle route you’ll need to take next. She’s not quite as intimidating or
unpredictable as the Resident Evil 2 remake’s relentless stalker, true, but
this is more than made up for by her constant teasing. It isn’t too much of a
spoiler to say that her curvaceous figure doesn’t stay that way for long, and
that facing the internet’s favourite tall vampire lady in her final form makes
for a fun set piece, indicative of Resident Evil: Village’s tendency to have
boss fights play out cinematically despite their up-close and personal nature. It’s
a tricky art to balance, but this is one of the better trait’s Resident Evil’s eighth
mainline entry successfully carries over from Biohazard.
There’s so much more to Resident Evil: Village’s structure,
story and setting which I’d be remiss to mention in explicit detail. However,
just know going in that there’s a lot more to all three of these aspects than
Capcom’s marketing would have you believe. As mentioned in the introduction,
this is a game unafraid to take risks, featuring so many narrative twists and rug-pulls
that I was never sure where the horrific journey would take me next. Chris
Redfield’s involvement in the whole matter, for instance, though providing some
much-needed connective tissue between Village and the rest of the series canon,
turns out to be one of the less surprising aspects. His inclusion is fine, yet it
says a lot that his role is quite inconsequential to Ethan’s story in the long
run; Village’s new cast of villainous cretins were well-defined enough to keep
me engaged and encouraged to press on.
Speaking of which, although the series’ traditional undead
zombies are indeed present, the new Lycan enemies are a more than worthy
substitute. As an upgrade to the last game’s sludge-based moulded they never
disappoint, able to move at speed, swerve out of your line of fire and easily
overwhelm should you let them get the better of you. Admittedly, I was initially
unsure about whether Resident Evil was venturing too far into Twilight-esque
territory with the addition of werewolves and vampires, but both make sense for
the story and help Village’s setting boast a distinctly supernatural atmosphere.
Your first meeting with the Lycans occurs extremely early on in the campaign, and
it’s not hyperbolic to say it plays out as one of the most terrifying Resident
Evil encounters ever.
Another highlight is a particular sequence where your
weapons are completely taken away for a short while. Here the emphasis on true
survival is upped as you try to outwit and hide against a truly unsettling
enemy, all as you hunt down the different solutions needed to escape a building
infested with creepy china dolls. Most of the terror here may ultimately be
scripted, yes, but it’s a perfect example of Capcom being smarter about its
brand of horror. Long gone are the days where you’re punching a boulder
surrounded by a pool of lava to save the day.
That’s not to see Resident Evil: Village doesn’t turn the
action up to 11 every once in a while. Some of Ethan’s weapons can actually
pack a huge punch in the final hours should you choose to upgrade them enough, and
it’s a gratifying sensation to take the fight back to the folk who you once
feared. This you do when visiting new merchant character The Duke, who offers
everything from weapon upgrades to ammunition recipes and even meals that can
permanently enhance Ethan’s traits. You’d think that Village introducing a
crafting would lessen the survival horror aspect, but you’re still always
scrounging around for the raw materials needed and forced to search high and
low.
Finishing the campaign took me 9 hours to beat on the
standard difficulty, but there was definitely more time I could have spent
hunting down all the collectibles and optional items. Plus, it's hard to
complain about length when Village feels perfectly paced for the most part, and
you can always supplement the adventure by chasing high scores in The
Mercenaries, which makes its grand return here. Playing it in first-person
definitely gives this fan-favourite mode a different flavour than before, but
it’s much faster-paced than your efforts in the main campaign as the enemies
just keep on coming. Your goal is to kill as many as possible within the given
time limit to reach the highest score, but the ability to buy more upgrades in
between areas and smashing blue orbs to gain different gameplay buffs –
improved health, headshots that do more damage, etc – help make it a cathartic
arcade romp. Generally, The Mercenaries offers some good horror respite and it’s
good to see it realised in a fresh way.
Overall, Resident Evil: Village is an impressive survival
horror package that continues Capcom’s winning hot streak with the franchise. By
not resting on its laurels and continuing to place almost all facets of horror
in front of the player, Ethan’s follow-up story is an appropriately terrifying jaunt
through one of the best-realised we’ve seen yet on the next generation of
consoles. Village is proof that quality will always trump quantity in terms of
scale and length, yet it still finds the time to innovate in unexpected ways.
And even during the odd event where this experimentation isn’t so successful, you
quickly forget about such misfires thanks to a bigger, better scare lurking
just around the corner. Simply put, Resident Evil: Village sets the new standard for survival horror.
