What’s Good About Resident Evil Village
So. We’re here. The main reason I went on a Full-On Resident Evil Kick, to begin with. Resident Evil Village has been out for the last week and it’s pretty good. And the thing that I wasn’t expecting was to the degree that it was going to was to take a lot from Resident Evil 4. Like a lot. I’m not complaining because as I’ve said in this very series of entries, Resident Evil 4 is my favorite game in the series. But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s get into the nitty-gritty.
You once again take control of Ethan Winters, the protagonist of Resident Evil 7 and unfortunate schmuck who, following the events at the Baker mansion and relocating to Eastern Europe, gets swept up into another bout of horror fueled nonsense after his wife Mia is killed (guess I made the wrong choice at the end of RE7) by Chris Redfield and his men and his daughter Rose is taken. After a brief detour, he finds himself in a derelict Village ruled over by the enigmatic Mother Miranda and her four lords: the imposing (and the subject of thirst the internet over) Lady Demitrecu, the incredibly creepy doll maker Donna Beneviento, the fish-man looking Salvatore Moreau, and my personal favorite; the incredibly hammy and over the top showman Karl Heisenberg (no, not that one). They hold the keys to Ethan rescuing his daughter and getting the hell out of dodge.
While they may not be as nuanced as the Baker family ended up being by the end of 7, the Four Lords end up stealing the goddamn show whenever they show up. They give me the same vibe as Osmund Saddler, Ramon Salazar, and Ricardo Irving from Resident Evils 4 and 5 respectively; just the most ridiculous characters in a good way. It also rules that most of the marketing focused on Lady D and her estate because that leads to only the first quarter of the game being seen and gives it a chance to flex its muscles in the other areas.
The game takes a step away from the Louisiana Bayou and other flavors of American Horror for a decidedly European flavor. Vampires, Lycans, Gargoyles, oh my! The swap to more traditional, gothic horror monsters and the Resident Evilfication associated with them therein is a refreshing take on these older creatures, and they still work under the purview of how Resident Evil usually does its creature designs. It’s great stuff. You even run into a character throughout the game that’s the RE Universe’s take on Baba Yaga and she’s pretty cool?
The game is structured in a way that’s similar to Resident Evil 7; almost identical, but that could be due to me playing both within the relative closeness of each other. You have the four domains of the Four Lords sprawling out from the village that serves as the main hub and in-between area. It gives the impression of being an area similar to the Plantation house in 7 or the police station in RE2 but feels like how the World was set up in RE4. With decently sized areas that allow for hidden secrets, but are ultimately linear and focused. By the time you get to the later parts of the game, you’ll be intimately familiar with the way the village is laid out and where to go after getting keys for previously locked-off areas. Searching these areas is also good for finding crafting materials to make ammo and healing items, more on that in a bit.
The combat is where things get into the weeds of the RE4 influence. The game fixes the one problem I had with Resident Evil 7 in that the Molded were pretty boring from a visual and gameplay perspective. You not only do more straight-up fighting in Village, from the aforementioned vampires, Lycans, and gargoyles, you fight a bunch of other messed creatures that I won’t spoil because you need to see them for yourself. To get around them, you’ll need an Arsenal rivaling Leon Kennedy’s in terms of stopping power. No really, you’ve got the standard pistol, shotgun, sniper rifle, grenade launcher, and full-auto weapon you see in Resident Evil games, and on top of that, you got variations of those standard archetypes that can all be modified and upgraded to increase their effectiveness. And this brings in The Duke.
The Duke is a mysterious traveling merchant who fulfills the same purpose as the merchant in Resident Evil 4 (down to even referencing the guy) by selling items, upgrades, taking treasures off your hands for a price, and more. He knows more than he lets on, but he’s a damn good resource. All of these are held in your attaché case, WHICH IS BACK AND I AM SO HAPPY ABOUT. Sorry about that. There’s also a crafting system now and as a result, ammo and healing items are not as prevalent as they were in 7. It means I won’t have to futz with an inventory every five minutes when crafting because key items and crafting materials are kept out of the main inventory and the game demands that you scrounge for resources to make ammo and health items. It leads to the default difficulty being a tad easy, so if you want a challenge, I recommend bumping up to Hardcore. These all go into making the game less nerve-wracking overall compared to 7, but there are still times when the game decides to go full-on “Let’s scare the player half to death” mode and I love it and hate it because I am both a lover of the changing up of the formula and a massive coward at the same time. But I will say this: The game still remembers that it’s a Resident Evil game and proceeds to go Full Resident Evil in the back half and I adored it.
Resident Evil Village is a game that I worked my way up to because I was wanting to get more into Resident Evil. I ultimately made the right decision because Resident Evil Village is a Resident Evil ass Resident Evil game in the best way. It takes hints from all of the games in the series worth taking from (though a good chunk is from RE4) and other parts of the horror genre to make an experience that, while not the scariest, is creepy and tense as hell for the majority of its runtime. And with this the Resident Evil kick is complete. Come back next week for something completely different. I promise it won’t be another Resident Evil game.
