Resident Evil Village: Review
Reviewed on PS5, by Fatzeus Gaming
Debuting in 1996, Resident Evil has to be one of the longest running Video game series at this moment. Resident Evil is probably the first game that comes to your mind when you hear about the genre survival horror, atleast it is for me and it has been known for being weird and goofy while still keeping players at the edge of their seats the entire time. After the disastrous Resident Evil 6, many thought that Resident Evil 7 going full psychological horror was the big return to form for the series but I think that game was just a steppingstone for Resident Evil Village to announce the comeback. Resident Evil Village is weird, goofy, scary and disgusting in the most Resident Evil way possible and for me that’s what makes it one of the best Resident Evil games ever made.
Village draws a lot of inspiration from Resident Evil 4. A game that is my favorite Resident Evil game of all time and is also considered by many to be the peak of the franchise. The settings, the over-the-top action and the return of the merchant makes it a successor for Resident Evil 4 in more ways than one. But Village also finds its own identity by giving the player more options and turning this game into a semi–Open World that you can explore depending on your personal preference. In Village, you’ll keep on coming back to this hub area after completing every story objective. The Village in this game is very similar to the village in Resident Evil 4 but it’s a much larger area. And it’s quiet and empty environments elevate the feeling of tension among the player as to what might be lurking in the next house. On top of that, there are houses and fields to explore and more treasures to hunt. While the exploration in Village is entirely optional, I’d highly recommend doing that, as it’ll put you up against some new Enemy types and is quiet rewarding as it gives you access to a lot of powerful weapons and expensive loot that you can trade for money at the merchant’s shop.
The Village is not the only place that you’ll be visiting while playing through Resident Evil Village. A huge Castle with a lot of wide-open spaces, a creepy doll house, a dark and disgusting mine right next to a river and an old, abandoned factory are your other playgrounds. All of these environments offer the perfect balance of Action and Survival horror. One moment you’ll be blasting your shotgun at Lycans and demons, and the next moment you’ll be in a dark hallway trying your best to puzzle your way out of there while a certain alpha monster breathes down your neck. These moments are terrifying and scary and they were almost too much to handle for me. These changes of pace are so great and welcome and they are everything that made Resident Evil such a smash hit over the years. And Just so you know, the signature Resident Evil formula of a big villain chasing you through the area does make a return in Village but it isn’t too much of a scare because these chases are very easily predictable and are easily escapable if and when you do get caught. There are puzzles in the game like you’ll expect but they are nothing special to talk about, they are just there and are pretty straightforward.
The Combat in Resident Evil Village feels great. Even more so with the Adaptive Triggers of PS5’s DualSense controller. It adds weight and recoil to every weapon and makes the experience so much more immersive. You get a wide array of weapons to choose from throughout the game. There are different kinds of Shotguns, pistols, a sniper rifle, and other special weapons that you can get your hands on throughout the story and by finding the treasures in the Village. You can also upgrade these weapons at the Dukes shop with money and these upgrades will turn you into a Lycan killing machine when the credits’ role. There is livestock roaming around in the village as well, which you can hunt and take back meat to the duke so he can make you different dishes that’ll enhance your character in different ways. The controls however are still pretty weird just like 7 and the AI will also dodge your bullets which makes it very frustrating when you aim and miss. Ammo is not very scarce in this like it has been for the last few entries of the series but it can still get pretty annoying. I’ll suggest adjusting your sensitivity in the settings menu to give yourself a better chance.
There are quite a few different enemy types in the game and you’ll have to do some exploration to get to face a couple of them which is a nice addition. However, the enemy types I really liked only face you a couple of times throughout the story which is not enough but all in all there’s enough enemy variety in the game to keep you going. The Boss battles in Resident Evil Village are another one of its strong points. They offer amazing set piece moments and are really fun to go through. They also take place in these confined spaces where you don’t have a lot of room to run away and dodge and this makes them a lot more enjoyable.
Resident Evil games over the years have never had a strong story and I don’t play these games for their stories. Resident Evil Village is no different. Even though it has an interesting set of characters including my Favorite Chris Redfield, Lady Dimitrescu and Heisenberg, it still doesn’t do enough to make the story interesting. I appreciate them trying different things and trying to link the old resident evil lore to the new one but it really doesn’t make too much sense to me thus far. Even the protagonist, Ethan Winters isn’t as interesting or badass like Leon or Chris from earlier games. And I don’t know how but every now and then he loses one of his hands and then attaches it back like it’s nothing. He says badass one liners after defeating a boss and cries over “Why is this happening again”. Like I don’t know dude, figure yourself out.
After going through the full 8 hours that I spent in Resident Evil Village the only complaint I have is with its final moments. In its last sequences, Resident Evil Village abandons it’s almost perfect balance of Action and Survival horror with Automatic weapons and frag grenades. In those moments, I couldn’t help but think that there were better ways to finish it off. Up till that final sequence I was vary of taking on a lot of enemies at once and that gave me a feeling of tension and fear in combat and that was taken away from me when I was running in and taking out 10 Lycans at once.
Resident Evil Village is an almost perfect Resident Evil game. It has everything that a great Resident Evil game needs with an almost perfect balance of Action and Survival horror, over the top but fun combat and some epic boss battles. And as someone who has been playing these games for a long time, Village has to be one of the best Resident Evil games till date. I just wish it could have that perfect landing that it deserved but you can’t have everything right? You are bound to Love Village if you are a long-term Resident Evil fan and there is enough there as well for hardcore survival horror fans. I just hope that capcom don’t stray from their path again like they did with 5 and 6 so that we can keep on getting these amazing environments and characters to be terrified off.
