Capcom masterfully crafts a franchise Frankenstein
Over the course of its 25 year run-time, the Resident Evil franchise has reinvented itself countless times. From its origins as a methodical puzzle game that set the standard for survival horror to the globe spanning action of later entries, Capcom has repeatedly taken risks with their signature franchise. With 2017’s Resident Evil 7, Capcom returned to the slow-paced, horror-focused roots of the series, while at the same time experimenting with a first-person perspective and a more serious approach to tone and characters. This experiment more than paid off, and RE7 breathed life into a series that many had thought had lost its way. Capcom was quick to capitalize on this newfound success with remakes of Resident Evil’s 2 and 3, and now a direct sequel to Resident Evil 7 with Village.
Village sees the hero of 7, Ethan Winters, thrust into a bizarre and wicked hamlet full of horrors. After the game’s shocking and intriguing introduction, it isn’t long until Ethan finds himself confronting vampires, werewolves, and plenty of other ghoulish creatures. What follows is a truly insane odyssey that sees Ethan searching for his missing daughter, while fighting against a rogue’s gallery of monstrous villains. Ethan’s encounters with these twisted characters forms the bulk of his journey, with each villain having their own unique atmosphere and mechanical focus.
This segmented approach to the villains gives Resident Evil Village a lot of opportunities to change its approach to its core gameplay. Early sections in a large gothic castle echo back to the earliest entries in the series, with the player tasked with exploring a complex area full of locked doors, shortcuts, secret areas, and devious traps. Later areas will experiment much more with puzzles or lean harder into combat. No idea sticks around for too long, as you are constantly given something new to do. Village also sees the series first foray into pseudo open world design, giving an open area with plenty of optional treasures and some hidden boss fights to discover. Village’s dedication to variety in many ways feels like an ode to much of the series past, and the way Capcom brings these various elements together so seamlessly creates the feeling that RE Village is a Frankenstein’s monster of the Resident Evil franchise. Much of the combat design takes inspiration from Resident Evil 4, with upgradeable guns and grid-based inventory management. Some monsters chase the player in segments reminiscent of Resident Evil 2 Remake’s Mr. X or 3’s Nemesis. The storyline even calls back on references throughout the series to cleverly tie the world of 7 and Village closer to past games.
This love-letter approach to Village’s design means that there is always something exciting to do, but it isn’t without a few minor drawbacks. The castle is a beautiful and exciting environment to explore, but all in all, feels extremely short. There isn’t the same sense of discovery as the mansion from the first game or even the police station of Resident Evil 2. A larger and more labyrinthine environment would have been very exciting to see. Furthermore the shift towards fast paced action leads to this game feeling much less scary than Resident Evil 7. With the exception of one memorable puzzle sequence, nothing in Village feels as terrifying as the early hours of 7, and while much of the game is atmospheric and eerie, it is rarely truly scary. I also found that inventory management as a whole was less important than many past games. I rarely felt the need to move my inventory items around, and even though I crafted new items and explored constantly, I didn’t run into a full inventory screen until very late in the game. I was never without plenty of spare ammo and rarely without healing items. Combining this with the generally easier challenge level means that this is one of the easiest Resident Evil’s yet, at least on the normal difficulty. The game is designed to be replayed and offers higher difficulty options as well that could help increase the tension of combat, but on a first playthrough there was rarely a reason to worry in a fight.
Village gives Resident Evil fans a lot to enjoy, and perhaps even more to look forward to. It is one of the most well-designed entries in the long running series, and comes the closest to telling a compelling story. Many of the experiments Capcom took in this game pan out, creating a game that has impeccable forward momentum and a satisfying reward loop. The Resident Evil series has been in something of a new golden age the past few years since the release of 7, and the massive successes of Village only suggest more good things to come for the treasured horror franchise.