RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE

IT’S TIGHTER, MORE FOCUSED, AND BLOODCURDLING

Jacob Ridley: Resident Evil Village is a much more fast-paced game than you might expect off the back of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. For that, it’s the Resident Evil game I’d recommend to those who haven’t tried a Resi game before, as in between all the body horror there’s a whole lot of running and gunning.

It also blends so many excellent horror game staples into a single, fluent game. Each primary ‘area’ of the map feels like a discrete experience, some more action focused and others more downright haunting. And each one home to a well-written, and well-acted, paranormal mob boss figure. Resident Evil Village feels like a horror game built to cater to most horror fans, and while usually that might appear overreaching, Capcom manages to thread the needle exceptionally well.

Harry Shepherd: I skipped Resident Evil 7, but totally not because I was too scared. And I can prove it: I played Resident Evil Village. But it means my last experience of the series was the terminally bloated action movie, Resident Evil 6, and Ethan’s terrifying jaunt through Castle

Dimitrescu could hardly be more different. In the best way possible. It also reasserted to me how useful it is to have fully-functioning hands.

Anyway, where Resident Evil 6 was overlong, over the top, and needed the reset of 7 to get back to what the series is best at: scares. Village takes that a step further: It’s tighter, more focused, and, most importantly, blood-curdling. As Jacob says, each area feels distinct. They’re a series of neat, horrifying episodes that feel fresh enough that, while Lady D is sent packing quicker than you might expect, you don’t really mind.

Village boasts plenty of fearsome moments, even when you’re armed to the teeth. In what feels like no time at all after admiring the reveal of the Gothic castle, you’re surrounded by werewolves, left scrapping for survival with a mixture of bullets, red barrels, and dumb luck. I was at my most afraid in these moments.

That said, for all the gratifying guns, the section in which they’re all taken away will always live longest in the memory. The tall vampire that stole the show ahead of release may cast a long shadow, but hidden behind her was one of the scariest horror sequences I’ve ever played.