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Yo yo yo what’s up guys, it’s ya boy Christian from East Coast Avengers (a little nod there to OpTic Scump)! Got another review here for ya, but this time it’s from the riveting world of Resident Evil Village! It is one of my favorite games at the moment and definitely my Game of the Year contender. For more context, I did play it on the Xbox Series X so I experienced all of its action survival glory at optimal console gaming. #humblebrag
It all seriousness though, this a fantastic game to play if you haven’t yet. It picks up 3 years after the events of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. As you might recall, the Dulvey incident brought the mold to light and it is the latest problem the heroes of Resident Evil have to face. Ethan Winters, having thought that he escaped that nightmare and left it back at the Baker residence, now faces a grander, more sinister villain. There are some similarities between Village and its predecessor but what I really mean is all of the good aspects were kept by the developers that made 7 so good. I also saw an abundant of nods pulled from Resident Evil 4. It some cases, some gameplay mechanics were improved upon. Now before I dive deeper, I will warn readers that I will talking about spoilers from Biohazard and 4 but I will avoid all spoilers from Village.
The most obvious gameplay mechanic was that they kept the first-person perspective for Village from when they introduced it in 7. I should mention that 7 was the first mainline Resident Evil to be in first-person. This was a pretty big gamble for Capcom given that every previous mainline entry was over-the-shoulder or fixed camera angle. I can safely say that it also worked really well for Village! The gunplay is solid but clumsy enough to keep you on your toes. The section of the game that worked best for it in my opinion was the last major section of the game when you went against the toughest enemies the village had to offer. Another mechanic that was brought back in full was a merchant! A dedicated merchant that sells you weapons, upgrades, and consumables is back in the form of The Duke: A mysterious, yet friendly ally of Ethan that brought me comfort every time I ran into him. Remember in 4 when you went fishing with a knife and then sold your spoils to the merchant for currency? You can do that in Village as well but it also expands on that! Not only are there more variety of animals to hunt, including the return of crows, but you can also combine different ingredients of animal meat to make dishes at the merchant that give you stat bonuses. This simple addition is one of many details that impressed me with this title.
The setting and the lore of this game is what impressed me the most. I absolutely loved the Gothic European aesthetic of this game. Even weapons like the Wolfsbane revolver, the M1897 shotgun, and the GM 79 grenade launcher had baroque style gold engravings that I adored. Castle Dimitrescu was the most visually appealing part of the game and objectively the best. It has the easy, but engaging, puzzle solving and backtracking that is unique to Resident Evil and the setting brought back Salazar Castle vibes. The motion capture and voice acting were top tier to say the least. My personal favorite performances were Heisenberg and Lady Dimitrescu. However, the most time you’ll be spending with is Ethan, of course. As you the player and the protagonist muddle your confusion through this bizarre and interesting story, you realize that Ethan is a great vessel to experience it as. The writing has a bigger picture to the grand story while at the same time, can stand on its own merits. Oh, and that part *cries*
I thoroughly enjoyed this game and it pairs beautifully with Biohazard. It took me 5 playthroughs to get every achievement and I loved every minute, even the knife only run. I highly recommend playing both back-to-back. Can’t wait to see what Capcom does next because Resident Evil Village gets a 9/10.
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