Resident Evil Village: Overlord Reviews
The Good
Resident Evil Village is a continuation of the story of Ethan Winters who we were introduced to in Resident Evil 7. Ethan as the main protagonist of this story has even more challenges to face in Resident Evil Village. In Resident Evil Village the normal Umbrella Bioweapons which have shown up in the previous games primarily as zombies have been replaced by Vampires, Werewolves, and strange gooey aquatic beings. Taking on a first-person perspective in a Resident Evil game is a new concept though the developers have tried quite hard to increase the scare factor of the game and bring the eerie spooky ambiance back to the franchise in a new way. While not quite as unnerving as the original Resident Evil games which took camera placement and angles to provide a specific amount of visibility allowing for more control over the scares, the first-person perspective will put you face to face with the monsters you fight. This also has the potential for VR compatibilities which would place you directly into the action and danger of the village.
Resident Evil Village takes a couple of ideas from the Resident Evil 4 story which also saw a different protagonist, Leon, though a village infected by a different mutation of the T virus as he searches for the president’s daughter. Similarly, Ethan must make his way through Caves, Castles, and Factories in search of his daughter who was taken from him. Facing massive monsters, and some epic boss fights Ethan faces ultimate peril to find his daughter.
Resident Evil Village unleashes another wave of Resident Evil lore about Umbrella, Bioweapons, and the variations of the original T Virus. Many small details are hidden through out the village in notes and scribblings all over the place and will paint a very vivid picture of the story that happened to the village and its people.
Past the story Resident Evil Village has an additional game mode which places you into several scenarios where kills, accuracy, and speed matter to earn the highest point totals possible. The Mercenary mode is fun though once you have double S ranked each of the scenarios it does get a little stale. Still a fantastic edition that is similar to the Tofu Mode of Resident Evil 2 Remake that was released a couple years ago.
This game runs fantastically out of the box, no bugs, no issues that I could find in my eight playthroughs. This game really got a final polish before it was released to the public. This is a huge breath of fresh air as it has become more and more common to release a partial product with an expectation to patch out the bugs later.
Ultimately Resident Evil Village is a fantastic addition to the Ethan Winters story and answers a huge number of questions that Resident Evil 7 left us speculating about for years. While also keeping plenty of secrets of its own to continue the story and allow for further growth of the overall story.
The Bad
While the game is fantastic at a technical, story and gameplay level there are a couple of things that I think were overlooked or could have done with a little more development.
Some of the areas in the game felt overlooked or like they were a second thought. You could tell right off the bat where much of the effort was placed, and where some attention could have been useful. Of the areas within Resident Evil Village a couple were incredibly short and significantly gimmicky, while they were still scary and played into the ultimate story they could have been expanded into an even greater experience in my opinion.
Some of the boss fights felt a little stale or lame, when the game itself expects you to beat one of the bosses in under a minute you know there is definitely a gimmick there that you will have to exploit.
Thoughts
Through my eight playthroughs on all the difficulties I had a fantastic amount of fun challenging myself to further difficulties and self-imposed challenges allowed the game to stay fresh even when the game itself wouldn’t change. Like Resident Evil 7 I am expecting a DLC, like the “Ethan Must Die” DLC, later that will introduce a level of randomization to the game, improving the level of replay ability even after full completion of the game.
This game was definitely a favorite of mine and I will revisit it in the future when more content is likely to be added. It was fantastic to try to speed run and even better at the first look, when you didn’t already know what to expect and all the opportunities for scares were fresh.
This game earns a very high score from me, while there are a couple areas I would have liked to see expanded the main points of the game were fantastic and a great experience.
The Close
This game would receive a have to play recommendation for anyone who is a fan of the Resident Evil franchise, and even a check it out for anyone else. Some people might be discouraged by the Horror aspect of the game, but there is enough action and thrill that you soon loose sight of the previous jump scares while you rush your way through a maze being chased by a horrible monster.
I alluded to this previously but having done everything and anything to do in Resident Evil Village up until this point I will likely put this game on the back burner till new content is released. I am eagerly awaiting a randomizer version of a map similar to Resident Evil 7 that I can play over and over again since each time everything will be different.
The future is bright for Resident Evil, after a couple of bumps in the road Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6 which took a bit of a wide step outside of the Horror realm, Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village have pulled back the previous lovers of the horror franchise. It has brought horror back to the Resident Evil world and allowed for even more lore and story to be discussed by devoted fans for years to come.
I cannot wait for more from Resident Evil Village in the form of DLC and I cannot wait to see where Capcom decides to take the next Resident Evil game! The future is bright for Resident Evil and I cannot be happier for it!
