Intro
Developed by none other than CAPCOM Resident Evil: Village is the new entry to the AAA series which has been a joy for horror survival fans and the general fans of the Resident Evil lore. The game has been launched on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Google Stadia, Microsoft Windows and has become the fastest-selling title of the entire series.
Storyline
The game is a continuation of Resident Evil 7. Ethen Winters continued to be the game’s protagonist. In Resident Evil 7 Ethen gets back his wife at the end of the game. He was living happily with his wife and daughter. But how could a horror story have a happy ending? The story of Resident Evil: Village starts after BSAA captain Chris Redfield attacks the protagonist’s home for some mysterious reasons where he has been living with his wife Mia and daughter Rosemary. After Chris killed Ethen’s wife, he kidnapped his daughter and him. Now after waking up, Ethen finds himself in a castle near some village. This is the place where he will start trying to find his missing daughter.
Gameplay
While the game is horror-survival-based, it also has its share of the puzzle, action, and adventuring elements. The control functions of RE8 are nearly the same as Resident Evil 7 and the controls of RE7 were very well received by the gamers. So, it is a good thing. The story of the game is very intriguing and just like RE 4 moves around a village but it also has a castle. One especially good thing about the game is that the storyline is not completely fixed. It means that the players can decide their action and it will decide the next turn of events. So just like the developers have said, they did give some freedom to the players in exploring. The players can buy certain items, guns, and medication from a merchant, the Duke. There are a lot of secret areas to uncover in the snowy village and the castle.
Resident Evil: Village will also have the Mercenary Mode in which the players will fight against the monsters and just like its predecessors, it will be an action-based arcade mode.
Soundtrack
The heart of a horror game is the level of emersion that it has and the soundtrack is the key to emersion.
In-Game Puzzles
RE series has always been spot on with the action sequences only because of the puzzle aspect that has been hardwired into the game. Landing headshots is never enough as the player needs to explore the surroundings, find objects to interact with, and do special actions in every fight, and Resident Evil: Village is no exception. The game constantly feels like a struggle for life and various secrets and map knowledge help you do that.
The key part of the game is the resourcefulness of the player. As ammo and resources are scarce the smart use of given loot is essential for survival and survival is a matter of improvising and adapting.
Who are the villains?
Now let’s talk about the villains of the story. The four lords govern the village. The first lord of the four mutated lords is Alcina Dimitrescu a.k.a. Lady Dimitrescu. She is also the main villain of the game. Lady Dimitrescu is a 9-foot vampire who lives in the castle with her three daughters.
The daughter’s names from the oldest are Bela, Cassandra, and Daniela. According to what’s shown thus far, the youngest Daniela is the craziest of the three.
Lady Dimitrescu loves her daughters very much and their family creates strong contrast with our protagonist Ethen who also loves his daughter very much and is trying his best to find and save her. The second mutant lord is Salvatore Moreau. He lives at the lake adjacent to the village and is in command of a number of half-fish-half-human, merman monsters. The third lord Karl Heisenberg comes from the Heisenberg family and runs a factory with werewolves just outside the village. The fourth lord is Donna Beneviento and is the second of two female lords of this village. She along with her doll Angie lives in the mansion located near the fog-filled valley. She is always seen in mourning clothes that cover her completely.
Although the Heisenberg family and Dimitrescu family don’t like each other very much, they along with the other two noble families maintain an alliance to control the region. the four houses serve Mother Miranda who is a spiritual and temporal leader of the village.
The character of Mother Miranda is a bit of a mystery as there is not much information about her.
When a villain become famous
Without any doubt, of all the villains in the game, the one who has been the most popular is Lady Dimitrescu. She became an international sensation just after her first look was released. The Lady has earned fans all over the world even before the release of the game.
With nearly 9ft and 6 inches in height, the Lady has a scary yet beautiful appearance. But all the beauty disappears once she goes on the hunt and transforms her fingers into foot-long blades. The internet is filled with Lady Dimitrescu’s fanart, cosplays, and memes.
Game design
Resident Evil: Village is very intricately designed and is a dark-theme-based game that is quite common for horror games. The game is playable on Windows, Xbox series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, and PS5. The game also includes an online multiplayer mode, Resident Evil Verse.
The game utilizes ray tracing rendering methods which have work that has delivered a good result in terms of quality of the image in normal gameplay. But, in fast action-chase scenes, there is much to expect and needs to be worked on. We will see how the graphics will be after the game’s official release. What RE 7 lacked for a few people was the lack of different types of enemies Resident Evil: Village makes up for it throwing many enemy types each with different weaknesses and strengths.
Controls
The game has responsive controls with a decent aiming mechanic which takes a short amount of time to reset after every shot which makes it hard to spam shots and rightfully so since it’s not a shooter per se. There are not many complex moves and the general controls are sharp and not any clunky mechanisms.
Our Final Thoughts
Wandering around in the haunted village feels real and gives you a sense of imminent danger lurking around every corner. I have had literal goosebumps at many of the jumpscares due to the level of emersion that comes with the fantastic gameplay and convincing storyline. This overall enhances the experiences especially with the soundtracks and the audio effects. The end although can be a bit disappointing for some even still it is overall a very polished game and definitely worth paying.
We rate the game a strong 9/10 as the jump scares and its story is worth playing.
