Resident Evil Village Overview

Resident Evil’s New Adventure

Resident Evil: Village was released on May 7th on Xbox, Playstation, Microsoft Windows and Stadia. In the next installment of the long-standing Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil: Village takes place a few years after the events of Resident Evil: Biohazard, following Ethan Winters’ journey through another twisted set of landscapes and creatures. After enjoying a stint of the good life with his wife, Mia, and six month-old daughter, Rosemary, Ethan meets Chris Redfield. Or rather, Chris appears with his men and kidnaps Ethan and his daughter, and brings them to a mysterious European village. From there, Ethan must rescue his daughter and escape while avoiding Lycans and vampiric aristocrats (among many other strange foes). One-liners and campy storytelling are sure to follow.

Resident Evil Village
credit: Capcom

Nothing Wrong With Cherry Picking

The gameplay is similar to that of Biohazard’s, sticking to the first-person perspective that brought a new kind of life to the series. A variety of handguns and shotguns will be your main way to take down the various baddies. Of course, you’ll always have your knife as well. Further on, you’ll be able to obtain some higher damage arsenal options like the sniper or grenade launcher. And completing the campaign on certain difficulties will also unlock special weapons to spice up the gameplay.

Weapons can also be customized and upgraded. Customizations are varying attachments to reduce recoil, increase magazine size, etc. Upgrades improve the stats of the weapon (e.g. fire rate, reload speed, damage, and more). The inventory system mimics that of Resident Evil 4 giving you a briefcase and the ability to rotate the items within to best suit your needs. To fill that inventory or gather various items to aid you in your journey, you can speak with the Duke. Like the merchant from RE4, this fellow will provide you with a small store to spend your Leu to buy weapons, heals, etc. And be sure to save your game often at typewriters throughout the map.

Enough Scares for Your Buck?

The game has the same back and forth atmosphere as Biohazard, wherein one instance ,you’re on the edge of your seat, nervous to peer around a corner ,and then you’re in a cutscene of campy horror a la Evil Dead. On that note, your hands will endure many torturous events just like Bruce Campbell. There are some more action-heavy moments that felt like Resident Evil 6. This has garnered praise and criticism depending on who you speak with. If you’ve played previous titles though, you’ll have an excellent idea of what you’re getting yourself into. If you’re just looking for serious horror, you may want to look for other options. But if you enjoy a bit of a mix of the goofy and the intense scares, you will not be disappointed.

The additional difficulty options and unlocks also make replayability fun. There is a multiplayer option as well, though there isn’t much to elaborate on in that aspect. For a good time in a creepy Romanian village, it’s safe to say that RE: Village is worth the 1,067 Leu +tax (59.99 USD). For more news on games Resident Evil related and gaming articles, check out Just Gamers and their gaming articles.