Resident Evil Village review. Attraction of horror / Overclockers.ua

After two remakes in the Resident Evil series at once, Capcom released a sequel to the seventh part and called it Village. It was clear from the trailers, and the developers did not deny that they drew inspiration from Resident Evil 4, took the basis of the gameplay from Resident Evil 7 and flavored this matter with European folklore. In fact, it happened, and even more was taken from the fourth part than expected, but this did not make the Village worse or better. What the eighth part came out as a result, what happened in it and what didn’t, read in the review below.

Three years after the Resident Evil 7 finale, Ethan and Mia moved to Europe, are married and have a daughter, Rose. The girl is trying to forget the past, but her husband is not. During the next dispute, Chris Redfield breaks into the house with a military detachment, kills Mia and takes Rosa. Ethan is not explained anything and is simply knocked out with a butt. He comes to his senses in an abandoned Romanian village, where a huge castle stands against the backdrop of Slavic color.

It turns out that the hero’s daughter is in him, so he decides to get there by any means and return Rose. On his way will stand the local mistress mother Miranda and her four crazy minions, each with their own quirks, history and supernatural abilities. They will also have vampires, werewolves, zombies, cyborgs and many others on their side. Ethan will oppose this with his ability to shoot, survive in extreme conditions, and also heal severed limbs and holes in the body with a simple first-aid kit.

Resident Evil Village has a strange but addictive history. There are many mysteries and omissions in it, and as you progress through the chapters, new details are revealed. True, the farther, the less logic and common sense in the plot, but in this series there was nothing like that.

Let it be illogical, strange and sometimes clumsy, but the gamer is explained by the act of Chris Redfield, the motivation of each villain, they connect this case with Resident Evil 7 and give a start to the ninth part. Is it possible to complain about this? Of course, but this is true for any of the parts, including the fourth, beloved by many. Therefore, as always, we will give indulgence to the story and focus on survival horror.

Although the eighth Resident Evil is Village, that is, the “Village”, the last one is much smaller than expected. The hero comes to an unknown Romanian village with a Slavic flavor and periodically returns, but besides him, other multifaceted locations were brought in, including a luxurious castle, a factory, a dam and other places that each of the plot villains owns.

Even before the release, I read, and then heard in the reviews of colleagues that Resident Evil Village is not as scary as the seventh one, and there’s no need to talk about other parts. Like, they gave more shooters, but less survival and horror. As for the survival component, I agree, which I will discuss below, but the game is no worse than its predecessors.

Playing in the evenings or at night, with half-dimmed lights and headphones, I was constantly scared. The developers pump up suspense in many ways: here you have music and well-developed environmental sounds, screamers and many dark areas of the map, from where something constantly climbs, gets up, flies out, swims up, and so on.

Periodic fright is helped by the local main villains, who at certain plot points also act as bosses. The most spectacular among them is the vampire Lady Dimitrescu, who attracted gamers after the first trailers were shown.

Not as much attention has been paid to her as we would like, and her tactics in the gameplay are similar to the habits of the Tyrant from Resident Evil 2 Remake. At the same time, she scared me no weaker than him, but the creators did not stretch the slightly worn out element for a long time.

The other ringleaders, Karl Heisenberg, Donna Beneviento, Dr. Moro and Mother Miranda, are harder than Dimitrescu, endowed with charisma and a lot of disgust, but not as colorful as the high blood lover.

Of the ordinary opponents, lycans cause problems, they are werewolves, they are also werewolves. Ugly critters jump out suddenly, close the distance quickly, and even move a lot, so hitting them is more difficult than usual.

There are also reinforced werewolves, dead men with swords, zombies, where without them even in Romania, unexpectedly, but cyborgs that look a lot like the Borg from Star Trek, something like big bats and other colorful creatures.

There is more shooting in the new part, and doing it is still not easy, but great. It is advisable to visit the enemy and catch his head in the scope, but you can also shoot off the limbs to make it easier to finish off.

When there are too many adversaries, auxiliary items scattered in the right places will help. For example, a barrel of gunpowder that explodes from a shot.

The arsenal is almost as rich as in the seventh part, but it has become easier to keep this business.

In Resident Evil Village, the fuss with inventory was removed. Now, crafting resources and quest items are stored separately, so a bag that will have to be expanded anyway will almost always fit everything.

At first, there are also not enough cartridges and first-aid kits, but further supplies are getting better, and the missing resources can be bought from the local Duke merchant. The added NPC spawns in safe rooms as you progress. He can improve weapons, sell found valuables or unnecessary items, and in return buy useful ones, crafting licenses and even food that enhances the hero’s abilities.

True, for the latter, you will have to run around the Romanian village in search of pets, kill them and bring them to the merchant. It seems, as in the topic, we play the “Village”, but against the backdrop of the series it looks strange.

In between skirmishes and cutscenes, the main character is busy looking for keys and various items needed to open doors, hiding places, secret rooms and passages. As before, the main thing here is attentiveness and observation, and the puzzles are not difficult and are solved, if not the first time, then the third time for sure.

Resident Evil Village is a beautiful atmospheric game with amazing photorealism. Of course, it cannot be called a full-fledged nextgen, but it looks gorgeous, especially the Dimitrescu castle and the village.

On the PlayStation 5, the game runs in 4K at 60fps with ray tracing. Everything looks bomb, drawing and attention to detail are fascinating. The faces are rendered cool, facial expressions and movements are clear, the colors are deliberately poor, and the shadow work is impressive. I upset the grass in the village and the hair of the werewolves, but compared to the rest of the visual, these are trifles.

The oppressive mood of the Village is also created by the music. This is not included on the player, but as a background for horror, it listens perfectly. I wrote about working with ambient sounds above – they are almost the main way to convey the local atmosphere.

The creators of Resident Evil Village didn’t take advantage of the great features of the Dualsense controller in the PS5 version. Vibration would not have felt so poor if I had not gone through Returnal before, where the developers used it to the fullest.

And within the framework of the Village, this could also be done coolly, for example, by scaring it, escalating the situation, or strengthening the survival component. But in fact, there is a sound when opening the inventory, increased pressure when injured, and a couple of other weak effects.

Resident Evil Village came out the way we expected. This is a successful mixture of “four” and “seven” with a beautiful picture, first-person view and frightening gameplay. The game has a rather weak plot and a faded protagonist, who, although some phrases were put into his mouth, still looks many times weaker than the same Chris Redfield.

The Village is an atmospheric survival horror that has moved a little away from its roots. But all this is explained during the passage, and although not always logical, but the attempt to link with the previous parts of the creators is credited.

Resident Evil Village is now more of a shooter, but it’s no less scary. Enemies sometimes attack in batches, but there is almost no corridor shooting, as in Resident Evil 7. But, as well as there, the action is added to the finale, but everything is thought out. Although the creators are trying to update the series and breathe more pop gameplay schemes into it, they still manage to be inspired by the past of the franchise and not let gamers relax. They effectively escalate the situation and plot, playing perfectly with the picture, characters and sound. In my opinion, they are doing great, so let them experiment further.