On May 7, gamers will get their hands on Resident Evil Village – the eighth part of the famous game series, which will continue the extremely successful Resident Evil 7. Despite the fact that series for 25 years, she is still capable of giving odds to modern horror films, which is clearly demonstrated by the novelty. Details are below.
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Not long and unhappy
Ethan’s family life is like an idyll
After the events in Louisiana, which are dedicated to Resident Evil 7, the main character Ethan Winters lives away from civilization with his wife Mia and daughter Rose. Peaceful life comes to an end when, on one of the quiet days, shots are thundered in the house: a special squad led by Chris Redfield, who once saved the Winters couple, kills Mia and kidnaps Ethan’s daughter. To return the child, the man will again have to face the horror in the accursed nameless village, where the baby Rose is to be kept.
The “family” plot of Resident Evil Village is a little more complicated than that in the previous game of the series: there, let me remind you, Ethan went to an abandoned house in search of his wife, who disappeared several years ago. However, the devil, as expected, is hiding in the details: the history of the Baker family was still more straightforward than local tangled folklore, and the unknown Ethan at that time evoked much less empathy than in his second game. Here the hero has already managed to become almost family, and the powerful intro with the murder of the one whom Winters so desperately saved the entire “seven” gives good motivation both for the journey itself and for investigating the causes of the tragedy. Still, Chris in all previous games was on the side of the “good guys” – what really happened?
Brave new world
The village from the doorstep turns out to be an unfriendly place
The gameplay basis of the seventh part has largely remained the same: the camera still offers to play in the first person, resources are often not enough, and opponents are again not so easy to lay on the ground. True, if the “seven” was clearly inspired by the first part, which can be seen from the return to the atmosphere of constant horror at the very beginning, and from the study of one location, then the Village clearly pays tribute to the cult RE4. The ability to put items in a box has been removed, the number of weapons has increased greatly, and the world is no longer limited to one house and its surroundings.
With the study of the world here, in general, things are extremely interesting: Ethan will visit several large locations, the entrance to which opens from the central hub – in fact, the village. The exploration of the main zone is almost like a metroidvania: most of the map is at first inaccessible, but, gaining access to new items, Ethan will be able to get into previously blocked houses and get inaccessible things. It is not necessary to do this in most cases, but it is useful: improvements for weapons, treasures and other equally useful things are stored in closed houses.
In some cases, just getting items is not enough: you have to solve puzzles of varying degrees of difficulty. So, in one of the cases, you first need to break the padlock in order to get into the courtyard of the house, later – to find the key to the house itself and, finally, to pick up a combination from the safe. Not to say it’s overly difficult, but more than good for additional content.
Duke in person
Most often, in such places, the reward is some particularly valuable item, which can later be sold to the Duke, the obese merchant. He helps Ethan on a reimbursable basis: for cash, the Duke is ready to improve the hero’s weapons, sell useful items ranging from cartridges and first-aid kits to new weapons and improvements for them. After passing the first few locations, the merchant will have a new function – cooking. During the game, Ethan can kill local chickens, pigs, and other domestic animals for meat, which can be handed over to the Duke for various dishes. This action is extremely useful: the portion eaten increases various parameters of the hero, be it movement speed, increased health, or improved absorption of damage when blocking.
In addition, Ethan knows how to collect various useful items from improvised means: at the beginning of the game, only a first-aid kit and cartridges for a pistol are available, but gradually the hero will learn to craft more complex ammunition, grenades and other useful items in sufficient quantity for a comfortable life. Fortunately, the materials occupy a separate slot and are not located in the inventory, which has become quite limited due to the inability to “throw” excess cargo into the box.
I brought my toys with me
Saving, like in the good old days, made through a typewriter
While we’re on the subject of blocking, let’s move on to the combat system. There is no need to wait for sophistication: Village is a great example of how the phrase “don’t break what works well” is used in practice. The combat system, in fact, has not undergone any changes in comparison with the “seven”: Ethan knows how to strike aimingly and backhand, defend against attacks – and, in general, that’s all. This applies to both melee attacks (accurate knife strikes or cutting attacks) and firearms (without aiming, accuracy is greatly reduced).
This is compensated by the possibility of tactical use of the environment: exploding barrels, sacks of flour are scattered on the map (if damaged, they create a curtain that prevents opponents from seeing and temporarily stops them) and cabinets with which you can block entrances and restrict enemies’ access to buildings. The opportunity is extremely useful: at the very beginning, when Ethan is practically unarmed, waves of enemies will attack him, which is not so easy to fight off. However, using the right means and the ability to block the exits, you can wait out the attack much more calmly, fighting off only the most annoying adversaries.
Over time, weapons will become much more: to the starting pistol and knife, which the hero receives literally a few minutes after the start of the game, shotguns, a sniper rifle, grenades and, notably, mines will be added. The latter also help in solving tactical puzzles: with a successful application, one explosion can kill several opponents at once or cause a lot of damage to especially thick-skinned enemies.
Sometimes there can be really many opponents
There are no problems with the diversity of the local fauna: four houses have been established over the village, each of which creates unique henchmen. So the werewolves shown in the trailers will not be limited to: more familiar zombies and much more unique opponents like fish-men, who seem to have come from games based on the works of Lovecraft, are worth waiting for.
By the way, useful items, money and jewelry regularly fall from opponents, including from bosses: here you can literally kill and sell the daughters of Lady Dimitrescu.
Power volatility
Even Ethan couldn’t resist a joke
Four key houses were actually shown in trailers, but the advertising machine spun so that the main focus was on Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters. The move is amazing, since she has almost the least screen time: the passage of her castle is unlikely to take more than a couple of hours, and, frankly speaking, it cannot be called particularly memorable. Most of the time, during the journey through the castle, either ordinary opponents or the three daughters of a giant vampire will interfere with the player, and it is extremely easy to deal with them. The game several times, first in text form, and then visually, will give hints on how to defeat the “immortal” bloodsuckers. Having weakened them correctly, the daughters can be naturally “tucked in” with a knife, without resorting to the help of a firearm and without spending a first-aid kit – at least on normal difficulty, for sure.
At the same time, the Dimitrescu castle is the flesh of the flesh of the series: searching for keys to open doors, solving simple puzzles, backtracking and regular chases of immortal opponents are available. And the interior itself makes a powerful nod towards RE4: the Gothic mansion, together with the first village, immediately create the necessary associations.
It is all the more interesting to be in other estates: in one of them, for example, Ethan will be temporarily deprived of all weapons and forced to participate in a kind of survival quest where you need to solve puzzles and fight your own nightmares (very bright). In another – to travel in the womb of a huge plant, facing ever new facets of the madness of its owner. Each new location not only visually differs from the previous one, but also changes the tone of the narrative and the rules of the gameplay: somewhere you have to rely on ingenuity and intuition, somewhere you have to solve spatial puzzles, dodging attacks from a formidable enemy, and somewhere you have to fight altogether like in an arena with many enemies. However, it is worth making a reservation: the locations also differ in quality. Somewhere it is wildly interesting, but you have to leave very quickly, and in other cases, on the contrary, the drawn cards manage to get a little bored – however, not enough to cause yawning.
Sticky fear
There will be no shortage of creepy images: the severed heads of animals …
What is important, the feeling of one’s own weakness does not leave until the very end: if in the “seven” towards the end of the molds one could have fun throwing grenades and disassembling them into molecules from a machine gun, almost not caring about ammunition, then in the Village the tension is felt even in the most “meaty” moments. Yes, perhaps the game falls short of the feeling of fear that arose at the beginning of the seventh part, but it exactly keeps its bar throughout the entire passage, not slipping into a frank shooter even where you have to really shoot a lot.
In some episodes, the game does a great job of adopting the experience of colleagues, creating unique scenes like chases or hide-and-seek: when not all gameplay is built around such mechanics, it brings a pleasant variety, and does not tire. And at the best of moments, the frantic pursuits squeeze out adrenaline as well as Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth with its stunning hotel escape. It’s not hard to get scared at such moments: a successful combination of the atmosphere of complete hopelessness and gameplay works great for the desired effect.
The same applies to many other levels: dark basements with torture devices and bloody stains or tall grass with monsters rustling in it can tickle your nerves. And the good old violence has not gone anywhere: every now and then on the screen will flicker severed limbs and piles of corpses – all according to the precepts of the series.
Back to basics
You can’t write about the Village and do without Dimitrescu
The initial suspicionsthat in the game there is still no place for mysticism and, in fact, old acquaintances like viruses, parasites or mold are to blame for everything, were confirmed. True, not quite as it seems at first: Village, in an unusual form for the series, manages to maintain the plot’s intrigue almost until the very end, over and over again throwing up details about what is happening. There is an explanation for everything: the local belief in the almighty mother Miranda, and the appearance of werewolves and vampires, and even talking dolls. Interestingly, for once we are not talking about the tricks of the “Umbrella” shortcomings – although, of course, there was no “umbrella” in the plot.
Village does a lot for the overall storyline of the series, closing some of the storylines from previous games in a very unexpected way and making subtle nods towards others. As a result, Ethan Winters, a seemingly random hero, finds himself in the center of events almost more trenchant than the conventional Claire Redfield. True, sharing any details will be an unforgivable spoiler – it’s better to find out everything yourself. By the way, some fan theories put forward after the seventh part are confirmed here.
At the same time, the “madness” of Resident Evil has not gone anywhere: the developers can try as much as they want to convince gamers that Village is a serious game, but there is no escape from its roots. Of course the level Jill Sandwich left behind, but the shallow goals of the global journey still evoke clear comparisons with the paintings of the Troma studio.
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