Resident Evil Village is the most important project for Capcom and perhaps the main one in this still covid year. Early leaks and hacks of developer servers could spoil certain details for some fans and blur the future impressions of the passage a little, but in any case, this is one of the largest and most ambitious releases in the history of the Japanese company.
Events Resident evil village unfold some time after the final Resident evil vii… The ending with Mia’s rescue has become canon, and now systems engineer Ethan Winters and his girlfriend are hiding in one of the Blue Umbrella’s hideouts along with their newborn daughter Rosemary. But the idyll does not last too long: on one of the happy family evenings, BSAA soldiers break into the Winters’ house, kidnapping Ethan and his beloved daughter. Now the main character, who found himself in the vastness of an unnamed Eastern European suburb, roughly in Romania, must understand what is happening around and save Rose from the clutches of the local community of monsters. We cannot go into details, but the story turned out to be exciting and the production was performed at the highest level.
Switching towards “medieval horror” goes the series to the face. Out of the overturned car, Ethan walks along the road covered with snow and blood towards the deserted village. The authors play well with the environment, focusing on vivid details and elements that give the overall picture liveliness. The frozen ground oozes steam from a horse recently ripped open by sharp fangs, and the crunch of branches under the hero’s feet adds to the anxiety atmosphere. The doors creak gloomily on rusty hinges, the rapid breathing of a werewolf can be heard somewhere.
A small and very dramatic prologue gives way to insane and somewhat reminiscent Outlast 2 races in the labyrinth of cunning and dangerous traps and the first acquaintance with the monstrous four of Lords and her patroness Mother Miranda. The rural lycans are being replaced by revived corpses with axes and rusty swords, as well as the friendly family of the new game icon Alsina Dimitrescu. In the gothic castle of the vampire, the developers focus on exploration, allowing players to get a better understanding of the structure of the estate and immerse themselves in puzzles. At the same time, the game helps beginners, highlighting in red color on the map not fully explored rooms or attracting the eye with the glitter of treasures hidden in the ceiling beams and behind valuable paintings.
Different locations in Resident Evil Village are designed for different gameplay – slow or more active – respectively, there is a place here for both action and frightening episodes. Most of the time you will have to explore the area, look for important items and keys to new doors. The village serves as a kind of hub, where the hero will return more than once, but the bosses and their habitats will have to be passed in a special order with little variation. For example, when you get into the creepy house of the puppeteer Beneviente, you have to play according to the rules of the movie “Saw”: Find hidden keys and solve dark riddles. The episodes in the fortress and at the factory, in turn, rely on action, and there, even on normal difficulty, you will have big problems with ammo. Well, the last part of the game is already beginning to resemble a series Call of duty…
The bosses turned out to be very colorful, and battles with them require understanding their vulnerabilities. If you don’t have the necessary component to deal with them, like bombs, then the game will kindly place a couple on the nearest dressing table or closet. The screensavers and the fights themselves blend very smoothly, creating rich and very bright scenes on the level of the best Hollywood productions.
Capcom’s designers play boldly with styles and mechanics, making each new encounter with the next overlord different in style and gameplay from the previous one. Closer to the finale, the writers surprise with an unexpected and very powerful twist, offering a view of events from a slightly different angle. It is noteworthy that it took me ten and a half hours of real time to complete the campaign with the search for all secrets, but the game has a trophy for completing the story in less than three hours.
