Resident Evil Village

- Reviewed on PS4 -

Resident Evil Village released on May 7th, 2021.

Following the events of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Resident Evil Village continues the story of Ethan Winters and the horrific events that are haunting his family. 

Resident Evil Village is a direct sequel to the previous Resident Evil (mainstream) title, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and I highly recommend playing 7 before Village, however, the game does have a quick and effective video summarizing the events if you don't feel like playing 7. 

This review WILL have Major Spoilers so keep that in mind before continuing...

I normally don't buy games days after its release, but Resident Evil is definitely an exception in my book.

After completing Resident Evil 7: Biohazard multiple times, I was always interested in seeing more from the Winters family. 

You spend so much time in Biohazard (Resident Evil 7) getting to know Ethan Winters (the main protagonist you play as in RE7 and RE Village), and just when you thought Ethan would get a break from the horrific tragedies haunting his family, your now thrown into a more combat heavy, deeper story in Resident Evil Village. 

The main game takes place in a rural, mountainous area of Spain where you will venture off into different paths to acquire specific items (more on those items later). 

Symbolism is crazy (in a good way) in Resident Evil Village and the symbolism techniques by Capcom are immediately thrown at you with the book "Village of Shadows" (narrated by Ethan's wife Mia) forecasting exactly where Ethan's (your) journey is going to be like without you even knowing. 

Now before going deeper in the game, I sadly, immediately was annoyed by the voice acting for Ethan Winters.

Yes, it's the same voice actor (Todd Soley) from RE7, but the execution of surprise, fear, and the annoying one liners to make Ethan look / feel tough after defeating a monster are simply not for me and I found myself visibly being annoyed at Ethan's voice acting. 

Capcom continued their streak of memorable villains in their games with Resident Evil Village having five different, unique bosses to defeat. 

The names of the five major bosses include...

    - Lady Dimitrescu 

    - Donna Beneviento 

    - Salvatore Moreau 

    - Karl Heisenberg 

    - Mother Miranda 

Defeating these bosses (besides Mother Miranda) granted you a container of body parts where you would place them on a fountain like structure to continue the main plot. 

Of course, there are also intense sub bosses / fights that were also very memorable. 

A game aspect I really liked that others may have a problem with is the combat heavy orientation involved with Resident Evil Village, compared to RE7 (Biohazard). 

What I mean by that is, Resident Evil Village, when compared to Resident Evil 7, has a lot more combat than its predecessor (not including the Resident Evil remakes as of late).

You have a lot more weapon choices, ammo, crafting recipes, throwables, etc. to choose / find and some may think this gets rid of the fear aspect of the game, and that I can see being an issue, just not for me personally. 

Since I am on the topic of fear, lets discuss the fear factor in Resident Evil Village. 

For me personally, the fear factor of this game was not as good as RE7. 

It may be because of the constant ammo thrown at you that made me feel powerful and not afraid of anything, or it could just be because of poorly done monsters that didn't strike fear in me as I thought it would. 

Don't get me wrong, there were monsters that freaked me out like the doll house "boss" / encounter, and the huge, tall monster you see in the beginning of the game (at the village), but with that being said those were the only encounters that were unpredictable for me at least. 

Fear might not be RE Village's strongest factor, but memorable side characters that are in the game stand out much more (to me) than RE7. 

Take the Duke for example, he is a merchant who upgrades your gun(s) and sells you ammo, parts, healing, etc. this is way more effective to me as a player than in RE7 and other Resident Evil games, and this makes me enjoy the game a lot more as well. 

Between the first saga of Ethan and Mia's adventure in Resident Evil 7 and in Village, Resident Evil Village's story (adventure) is much more memorable overall.

Some can debate this because of the bigger world, or a lot more items but the fact of the matter is, even with its flaws, Resident Evil Village is definitely worth your time and money to experience even if you didn't play RE7 a few years back (as of writing this blog post). 

Pros: 

    - Combat Heavy

    - Great / Memorable Story

    - Great Cast of Characters

    - Variety of Weapons, Secrets, Areas, Bosses, Enemies, etc.

    - Good Ending / Cliff Hanger 

Cons:

    - Bad Voice Acting / Execution of Emotion (for Ethan Winters)

    - Annoying One Liners (from Ethan Winters)

    - Not as Scary

    - Predictable Jump Scares 

My Rating for Resident Evil Village (on PS4):

4 / 5

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Disclaimer

All Reviews, Ratings, Pros, Cons, and Opinions Shared on this Blog (Press A Reviews) are my (Connor Butler) own Thoughts and Feelings.