Is Resident Evil Village The Best Game In The Franchise?
Resident Evil: Village Review
10 Best Resident Evil Village Characters
Back when I played the HD remake of “Resident Evil” for our Retro Review series, I had said that horror games weren’t really my thing. Sure, I’m a fan of several scary movies, but there’s something more intimate about horror games, particularly when it comes to interaction. It wasn’t just because I was scared to play some of these, though; I was also just tired of jumpscares. I don’t want to simply get scared - I want a game that’s going to follow me long after initial experience. I want something that’ll scare me, show me a good time, and invite me back for more. “Resident Evil” showed me that, and after playing the remake as well as a bit of “Resident Evil 4” in my downtime, I felt ready. Ready to tackle Capcom’s latest nightmare of werewolves, mad villagers, and vampire ladies. Can the eighth game in this legendary survival horror franchise keep the ball rolling with Wonderbread hero Ethan Winters? Or are we heading back down the dark path of “less horror, more action”? Greetings, ladies and gentlemen of the internet! My name is Ty with MojoPlays, and this is my review of “Resident Evil: Village” on PlayStation 5! Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long. So, be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos! And if you wanna talk zombos, demons, or vampire ladies, you can follow me on Twitter - @GhostRyderTyler. Ah, Ethan Winters - everyone’s favorite whitebread hero of the series! Ever since the events of “Resident Evil 7: Biohazard”, Ethan has become slightly paranoid about his life. Hey, you can’t blame the guy for caring about his wife and daughter! However, his panic has become justified after boulder-punching champion Chris Redfield grows a beard, adopts a brooding personality, and decides to kidnap Ethan’s daughter because reasons. While being taken into custody and thrown in the back of a truck, a freak accident occurs, forcing Ethan to wander into a snowstorm, thus leading him into a village of terror. Where has Chris gone with your daughter? What madness ensued before your arrival? And why does this cast of villains look like one of those “group walks into a bar” jokes? As in most “Resident Evil” games, your time will be spent running from all sorts of monsters as you meticulously manage your inventory, scramble for ammunition and collectibles, and wonder whether you’re missing a piece to a particular puzzle or if you’re just stupid. Maybe that last part is just me, BUT if you’ve played any of the games, you pretty much know what “Village” is going to be like. However, that isn’t to say it’s like any other Resident Evil game. “Village” actually brings a handful of ideas from past installments and meshes them in a way that creates its own identity. One such example of this is through the use of “themed horror”, an idea explored in RE7 where the cast of baddies each serve as a horror theme. As we’re all probably aware of thanks to Capcom’s marketing, Lady Dimitrescu represents the vampires. Beneviento plays the creepy doll schtick while Heisenberg gets a bit obscure with the industrial, mechanized horror. And Moreau...well, he’s just a disgusting blob who reeks of dead fish and looks like a poke would cause him to explode with delicious jelly. And then, there’s the mysterious Mother Miranda who looks like a cult leader and admittedly terrifies me the most. An odd mix of enemies, yes, but upon reflection, I noticed that each villain utilizes different formats we’ve seen across other horror games. For example, Dimitrescu and her castle provide an experience akin to RE2 and RE3 by having the player stalked in a labyrinthian area. Beneviento reminded me of the more obscure “Emily Wants to Play” series, when hide & seek becomes a game of life & death whereas Moreau was like an expanded version of the fight with Killer Croc in “Batman: Arkham Asylum”. While these concepts may be seen as recycled, I felt they fit well into the “puzzle, shoot, survive” cycle “Resident Evil” has been known for, often focusing on one of those three if not blending them all together. While we’re on the subject of cycles, “Village” does do something that forces you to pace yourself differently when compared to the rest of the series. Players can explore the village in order to find items to aid in your survival. As you obtain more key items, so too does your freedom in exploring the village. It creates this interesting pace between the key regions that allows you to take it easy a bit, replenish your stock, and search thoroughly for anything that may seem useful. Observant players may stumble across hidden bosses or clues to finding special resources. Resources pertaining to animals may be given to the Duke so he may cook up a meal that’ll increase your stats. With all of this, “Village” gives you plenty of time to recompose yourself, assess your situation post-boss battle, and adjust accordingly to prepare for your next venture. “Village” also brings back an inventory management system similar to RE4 and it comes with some features to make managing easy. For starters, any crafting supplies, key items, or treasures you find will not take up inventory space. So, if you see anything under those categories, pick it up! Secondly, crafting is more user friendly than ever before. Past games have often required players to use a “Combine” mechanic in order to create special items. Not anymore. Crafting is an entirely different menu that keeps track of everything you’ve picked up and lets you simply select recipes you’ve learned to craft items. So long as you have the recipe, resources, and room, you won’t have to worry about sorting out space and memorizing what can be combined with which item. Thanks to this, you’re spending more time in the game and less time in the menus, which is something many survival games fall victim to. What surprised me most about “Village” was the combat. “Resident Evil” often creates scenarios that toy with your “fight-or-flight” responses. Fighting off a single foe may not be a problem for you, but what are you going to do if you find yourself surrounded by lycans and one of them is wielding a giant hammer? Typically, this is where you choose to either waste the ammo and go out in a blaze of glory or run away with your limbs intact but shameful of your cowardice. (Or maybe that’s just me again.) However, “Village” adds a little more incentive to confront your fears. Offing common enemies and tough adversaries will net you crafting supplies, currency, or even special treasures to sell to the Duke, who serves as your enigmatic merchant here. It’s another layer of risk & reward. Sure, you can run and conserve your ammo, BUT if you get a ton of currency or a couple of treasures, that could allow you to buy additional ammo, new recipes, or even upgrade your weapons the next time you run into the Duke. Basically, you have to weigh your possibilities in both short-term and long-term, and it was this system that encouraged me to at least try and fight my foes. That’s all well and good, but the big question is if “Village” manages to be as scary as the games before it while carrying on the same level of cheese. Honestly, I felt that it did. While I wasn’t really going around with extreme caution, there were enough tense moments in the game that made me jump or scream obscenities. Some of our wonderful members in the WatchMojo Discord got a glimpse of that as I was showing off the game on launch day. Still, there was a part of me that wished it had aimed for the same level of WTF that RE7 displayed. “Village” has its own ways of scaring you, but they arguably don’t come close to RE7’s unabashed reliance on shock. As for the campy dialogue, there was plenty of that. It wasn’t enough to come off as obnoxious, thankfully, and Capcom seems to understand when not to go off the deep end with ridiculous dialogue. There were a few times where Ethan leans into it a bit too much, but overall, I didn’t mind it. Hey, there’s difference between lines like “STAARRRSS” and “You were almost a Jill sandwich” and lines that make you sound like an action hero that likes to blare dad rock. I can’t tell you how many moments there were where I expected Ethan to start blaring Mötley Crüe after uttering a corny one-liner. What else can I really praise about “Village” that RE fans would expect from the franchise? You have the cheesy dialogue, the scary enemies, the cleverly designed puzzles, the satisfying loop of obtaining key items and backtracking to previously inaccessible areas… It’s all present here, and it’s all accessible regardless if you’re a veteran of the series or a casual player. I played through the entire game on Standard difficulty and only died three times. One playthrough took me roughly nine and a half hours to complete, and judging from one of the PSN trophies, it is possible to beat it in under three hours. So, whether you need a new experience for the weekend or want to practice a speedrun, “Village” certainly gets you in and out the door. And if you enjoy your initial playthrough, there’s a hearty helping of endgame content to entice multiple playthroughs. Indeed, “Village” is a fantastic game through and through, but in terms of technical performance, it falters quite a bit. Like past games, “Village” evokes a sense of doom and gloom with its set pieces from approaching the front doors of Castle Dimitrescu to Beneviento’s haunting estate hanging off the side of a waterfall. It’s all unsettling, but it can be hard to appreciate these environments when pop-ins are painfully noticeable. There were even a few times where frames dropped because too much was happening at once. Given the technical prowess the PS5 is supposed to have, I was disappointed to see the game in this state, especially as these problems grew more frequent during the second half of the game. AI is a bit questionable, too. While not as frequent as the pop-ins and frame dips, there were a couple of times where I caught enemies behaving a tad abnormally. Lady Dimitrescu wasn’t so scary anymore after I caught her walking in place. Not sure if she had forgotten how to open doors or if draw distance was to blame. Either way, it almost destroyed my perception of the character. Speaking of Dimitrescu, I have to bring up one expectation set up by Capcom’s marketing team. We saw a lot of Lady D in trailers, promos, and posters. Like, A LOT. Now, I am aware that since she was memed to death by Twitter, this was an opportunity for Capcom to capitalize on everyone’s interest and infatuation with her. However, it ended up setting an expectation in me that Lady Dimitrescu was going to have a far more prominent role in the story than she ended up having. This isn’t to say Beneviento, Moreau, and Heisenberg were disappointments, but I wish Capcom had talked about these characters as well in order to properly set expectations. Marketing and technical problems aside, “Village” was marvelous in just about every way possible. After the disappointing remake of “Resident Evil 3”, I was worried that “Village” would be Capcom trying to steer the series in a new direction. Instead, “Village” ended up becoming an unexpected and pleasant treat. There are still plenty of creatures to frighten players with, plenty of puzzles to boggle your brain, and plenty of clever secrets to uncover. On top of that, it manages to evolve its combat through rewards, implement an intricate and mysterious hub with the village, and present a story loaded with lore old and new that’ll intrigue RE fans. And it does so while still retaining everything that makes “Resident Evil” great. Why, it was so entertaining that it gave me a smile about as wide as Lady Dimitrescu. Flaunt that smile, honey - you (and the folks at Capcom) have earned it! Thanks for watching! If you enjoyed this video, you’ll probably get a kick out of our other “Resident Evil” videos.
