Resident Evil Village



Our hero Ethan Winters (returning from Resident Evil 7) and his wife Mia cook supper and care for their newborn baby, Rosemary, as Resident Evil Village opens with a scene of home happiness. Then something terrible happens—I won't reveal what since it's shocking—and Ethan finds himself alone in a snowstorm in a remote community, seeking for his stolen child. It's a jarring, abrupt start, but it's successful in raising the stakes and establishing Village's harsh, sadistic tone.

The location of the town from which the game receives its name is never specified directly, but a few indications point to it being someplace in Romania's wintry highlands. The hamlet itself is a shabby, run-down jumble of wood and brick buildings, farmer's fields, and the odd church. A medieval castle with enormous spires extending into the mist looms above it, and there are also signs of old ruins, implying a long and fascinating past. It's a fantastic environment, full of atmosphere, dread, and mystery, and one I wanted to explore every dark, dingy corner of.

Ethan is a dull character who is always perplexed by what is going on and never has anything fascinating to say. His sheer normalcy heightens the strangeness of the village's numerous unusual individuals, making him a rather ordinary protagonist. The Baker family in the last game were a somewhat realistic set of ghouls, but Capcom has dramatically upped the monstrousness of its opponents in this game. In his search for Rose, Ethan encounters an extraordinarily tall and gorgeous vampire, a strange mutant fish-man, a murderous porcelain doll, and other oddities.

Village is one of my favorite horror games since it defies categorization. Each villain's lair gives a distinct viewpoint on the genre, ranging from rapid, action-packed survival against swarms of enemies to a more slow-burning, psychological horror. It's a game that's always coming up with new ways to raise your heart rate and startle you out of your comfort zone, and it's a game that's constantly coming up with new ways to raise your heart rate and startle you out of your comfort zone. And it manages to keep up this level of performance throughout the game.

Village has the sense of a horror anthology since each part is so dissimilar. This, admittedly, can make it feel incoherent at times, as if the pieces are haphazardly linked together. Capcom seems to have come up with the concepts for the game's several fantastic set-pieces first, then figured out how to link them all at the last minute. However, the diversity of this technique makes it worthwhile. You never know what kind of new craziness the developer may throw at you next.