The latest installment of the popular Resident Evil franchise is here. Resident Evil Village is the 8th main game in the series, and today we are bringing you our review.
Resident Evil Village picks up a few years after Resident Evil 7, but the good news is, you don’t need to have played the previous installment. You’ll be given an option to see an overview of what happened, and it would probably help a little, but Resident Evil Village is it’s own game and story.
What We Liked
There’s a lot to like about Resident Evil Village. First up though, is the pacing. If you’re coming into this title hoping for the claustrophobic terror that came with Resident Evil 7, you’re out of luck.
The game pushes toward action more often than horror, but they’ve done an incredible job of mixing things up. There was a point in the second act where I straight up nearly quit because it got that scary, and things slowed down massively. The balance in this game is fantastic, and although it might not be when some fans hoped for, Capcom delivered exceptionally.
Pacing aside, the art style looks incredible. The different locations had me stopping to stare and take it all in. Walking through the village and seeing the castle in the distance, shrouded by mist, is just a wow moment. Walking the halls of the castle took me back to my Resident Evil 1 days, and most locations were a blast to explore.
Of course, graphics and pacing are just part of the equation, the other is the story. We both completed the main story in around 8 hours, and it’s pretty self contained, telling the story from start to finish while keeping us hooked and wanting more throughout. There’s enough emotional punch, and intrigue throughout, and by the time it all wrapped up, we were left craving more.
For fans who like to replay, Mercenaries mode is back. This lets you upgrade your gear and jump back into different locations, fighting hordes of enemies while completing small objectives. It’s a fun way to experience the game again, and somewhere we see ourselves wasting a lot of time.
What We Didn’t Like
It’s not all perfect. Character models and animation looks fantastic, but the hair just looks so out of place and odd. Combine that with the out of sync dialogue, and some moments look like something out of a nightmare.
The bigger issues are with the lack of depth in the levels. For a game titled Village, you don’t spend much time there. Sure, you start off in the village and revisit it from time to time, but most of your time is spent exploring different locations.
Those locations look grand and are fun to explore, but like the village, they are relatively brief and skin deep. We found ourselves wishing that the level design was far broader in scope, giving us different routes to explore, rather than leading us down a linear path using invisible walls and frustrating barricades. Come on Ethan, you can climb that waist high obstacle!
Conclusion
All in all, we both really enjoyed the game. It might not be as horror focused as the preious entry, but boy, did it leave us shaking at points, and offered some amazing scares. The pacing was spot on, and although the level design feels skin deep at times, it’s still a blast to explore.
For fans of the franchise, Resident Evil Village won’t disappoint. It’s a good romp through great locations, giving you the chance to fight and discover all sorts of monsters.
Check out our video review below.
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