Resident Evil Village
The great horror series celebrates its 25th anniversary with a typically haunting tale that spends most of its time looking back rather than pushing things forward
After a few awkward years, the Resident Evil series’ seventh main instalment modernised things with a new first-person perspective while returning it to its horror roots.
RE Village retains that same style and feel, putting you back in the shoes of RE7 protagonist Ethan Winters… but as the first RE game of the next-gen console era, could this also be a chance to take a bolder step into the future?
Well, not really. In recent years, Capcom has tended to stay close to its past glories – and that’s also the case with this game, which doesn’t quite represent a great leap forward but prefers to pillage from what’s gone before.
Village takes place three years after RE7, as Ethan and his wife Mia have relocated to Eastern Europe to start a new life with their baby Rose. But that familial bliss doesn’t last, as their home is suddenly attacked by a military team led by… series hero Chris Redfield?! Before you figure out what the hell’s going on, you wind up in an eerie village where Ethan spends the entirety of the game in search of his daughter.
Village tries hard to make you identify with Ethan, who really gets put through the wringer in some gruesome ways. He’s undergone military training so is more capable with guns now, although combat is still clunkier than your typical first-person shooter.
You won’t get attached to any of the village’s survivors, who all meet their demise pretty quickly; as one character remarks, there is
“nothing but blood and death” here. Making more of a lasting impression are the grotesquely exaggerated villains – and the village itself, which is one of the largest environments seen in an RE game and wildly diverse.
There’s a terrific time to be had overcoming its monstrosities… but while Village does its best to combine RE7’S first-person frights with RE4’S delights, it’s mostly a pastiche rather than a truly new gaming experience.
Alan Wen