Hey everyone! I’m back as you can see! I’ve been radio silent for the past year mainly because life hit me like a damn bus but I’m back again and more than ready to share a new review with you guys! I’m covering Resident Evil Village, the long awaited sequel to RE7 which was a major hit (and a game I’ll be reviewing somewhere down the line). This game has been out for a long time now and I had played it earlier in the year but you know how life gets sometimes… Anyway, that’s enough chatter it’s about time I finally started this review!

Story

Resident Evil Village takes place about 3 years after the last game. Ethan has it good now, he’s living with his lovely (I use that term loosely) wife and his 6 month old daughter in a small village in Europe. Obviously, this being a RE game, that doesn’t stay true for long actually I’d say it lasted at least a good 5 minutes before everything went to hell as usual. Chris Redfield (the main protag of past RE games and a “friend” to Ethan) breaks into his house, takes his daughter, knocks him out and walks away and that’s just the beginning! As Ethan goes on a little crusade to find his daughter through this creepy, zombie infested (obviously) village, he finds out truths that would shock him to his core as well as a dark truth that links back to the very beginning of RE7!

Resident Evil games may vary when it comes to gameplay but they always get the plot right in my opinion. This game really killed it with it’s story line and the ending just keeps you begging for more! It’s also nice seeing Chris as usual even if he is weird in this game. One thing they did really well is the personalities of the main villains and their motivations. My personal favourite was Karl Heisenberg, one of the main villains of the game. He was super badass and he was kinda funny too. The story was probably the real reason I wanted to play this game and it delivered for the most part but I have some complaints in that it was a little confusing in terms of the main villain’s goal and a few other bits and pieces that weren’t fully explained or fleshed out.

One thing I really enjoyed about the game was Ethan himself. I’ll be honest and say that I wasn’t really convinced with him in the beginning since he’s completely different from the other protagonists of the series but this game really made him stand out. Seeing him try his absolute hardest to get his daughter back and his interactions with the enemies in the game was really cool to see and I think the game really made Ethan a favourite of mine. Overall I think I’m pretty satisfied with the story and I’ll give it an 8/10!

Gameplay

Just like the last game that featured Ethan, this game is a first person survival horror game. Resident Evil Village has a semi-open world thing going on and since there are 4 lords to fight in the game that means there are 4, I would sort of call them, ‘dungeons’ for each lord. Obviously there’s the main hub that you start out in (and usually end up back in after a dungeon) and as you continue through the game, the lords’ dungeons will unlock in order.

Like any Resident Evil game, this one is more or less point, shoot, and don’t get bit (which means nothing to Ethan because whether it be gameplay or cutscenes, the guy is like a human chew toy). There’s a wide array of enemies to fight meaning there’s also a wide array of gun’s to blow their heads off with. The standard start weapon is just a pistol as usual but as you go on, shotguns, magnums, sniper rifles and more will be unlocked with many different stronger versions becoming available! Besides your standard, usually less than state-of-the-art firearms, you can also use a knife, pipe bombs and mines to really put the hurt on your undead enemies!

A function returning from previous games is the ability to craft your own ammo and items provided you have the materials to do so.

A ‘new’ thing added to this game that wasn’t in the last one is a merchant! No, not that merchant. A merchant called ‘The Duke’ has been added to the game to help you on your blood soaked journey of baby finding and he’s a pleasure to have around! The Duke sells all sorts of things be it new weapons or healing items if you have the right amount of cash. A little short on cash? No problem because he also buys any treasures or other trinkets you happen to have collected on your quest! That’s not all, besides buying and selling, the Duke can also COOK for you! There are many animals wandering around the village which you can hunt so you can collect their meat and using this meat you can have the Duke cook you a meal which can enhance defense or increase health! You thought I was done? Nope, because he can ALSO upgrade your weapons for you! He’s truly got it all.

This game plays alot like RE4 in that it’s alot more action oriented and it takes place in a village out in the boonies. As far as scares go, this game doesn’t provide much in the long run EXCEPT for one of the lords’ dungeons which is scary enough to do the trick. For some people action based RE games aren’t exactly what their looking for but for a guy like me who started the series off with games like RE4 and revelations I much prefer the shooty shooty parts of the game so the gameplay really kept me hooked. One thing that’s really fun is exploring the village and finding rare treasures and weapons. Just going a little out of your way can be very rewarding and it’s super satisfying solving puzzles and finding hidden powerful weapons!

Of course I have a few complaints such as the boss fights being really underwhelming. Don’t get me wrong though the boss fights are super cool especially Heisenbergs but they all went down pretty easy including the final boss who was a total pushover. In the end, I think I’ll give the gameplay 9/10!

Conclusion

Although some believe that Resident Evil Village is just trying to live off the success of 4, I think it stands pretty damn well on it’s own and as to be expected from an RE game, it delivered a fun and tense experience that I will no doubt enjoy playing through again! Now, for my final rating…

My god I’ve been working on this review for a long time. I finally started uni which is something but damn is it difficult! I’ve been so preoccupied with it that I wasn’t able to focus on writing. Honestly there’s not much to cover in this game since it’s gameplay is more or less just RE7 two if that makes any sense so I could’ve finished it a long time ago. I only realised that I really wanted to start writing again when I was writing an essay for class and my fingers just started flowing on the keyboard and I said to myself ‘I’m so tired of writing formal essay’s I want to write something cool!’ and here I am on my Christmas break giving you this review. Is this counted a Christmas game? It has snow in it so I’m gonna count it as a Christmas game. Anyway Christmas is over already so I’ll just say happy holidays and happy new year in advance! Until next time hopefully I’ll muster something up!