I’ve been a horror fanatic for as long as I can remember, though ironically (and somewhat annoyingly) I am also a complete scaredy cat who is likely to be the only one to audibly yelp at a very obviously set up jump scare. Popcorn is usually a no no for me unless I want to spill most of it on the floor.
Despite my susceptibility to jump scares, when it comes to film there’s actually not a lot that truly terrifies me. It may be down to overexposure or the slight disconnect between events unfolding onscreen, but whatever it is – it’s not too often I find myself genuinely scared when watching a movie.
However when it comes to games, it is a completely different story. My love for horror expands across many mediums but I actually usually find horror games pretty hard to play. I think it’s something to do with my own involvement in the progressing of the narrative, but I find my heart racing when playing any kind of horror RPG. Even the deceptively cute ‘Bendy and the Ink Machine’ freaked me out, and it took me a while to play Resident Evil again after I accidentally threw the controller at the television the first time I played Biohazard.
I knew I would have to play the new instalment in the series when it came out, so made a special effort to play through Biohazard through again (this time without any damage to property) before downloading ‘Village’ on release.
I grew up with Resident Evil, having played originally on the original Playstation when I was younger and eagerly playing new releases on subsequent consoles (though I gave up pretty early with Resident Evil 4 on the Wii and got it for Xbox instead). I actually once went to a Resident Evil themed airsoft event too. The only thing more terrifying than running away from zombies in a game is running away from pretend zombies in real life.
As the Resident Evil series progressed, it did feel like it strayed a bit from its original horror roots instead becoming more of an action game – but initial promo from ‘Village’ seemed to suggest the latest instalment was going to focus more on building fear and stealth than combat.
If you haven’t yet completed Resident Evil Village – you may not want to read ahead as there are going to be some spoilers about both gameplay and major plot points.
‘Village’ carries on three years from the end of Biohazard and opens with Ethan and Mia Winters who are living happily with their 6 month old daughter Rose. From their conversations it’s clear they are still traumatised by their experiences from the previous game, but have still managed to achieve a fairly happy ending. Probably not surprisingly, this doesn’t remain the case for very long. Quite early on, the events of the game are foreshadowed via a fairytale within a children’s book – a story which is told through a quirky animation that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Tim Burton film.
The action begins when the happy family is torn apart when Chris Redfield and his men descend upon the Winters’ home — murdering mother Mia before kidnapping Ethan and baby Rose.
The player controls Ethan after he awakens in the wreckage of the transportation, before he comes across a mysteriously deserted village where he seeks clues in an attempt to rescue his daughter.
Gameplay is split into four distinct areas and each part of the Village overseen by different rulers. There are a number of creatures that Ethan will come up against during his exploration of the areas, each displaying different characteristics generally linked to the area the player is in. The combat is scripted and for the most part, these enemies don’t pose much of a challenge on the easier difficulties.
When I first played, it didn’t occur to me to do anything other than have the sound play through my TV – but apparently it’s a bit better and more atmospheric if you use headphones. I’m not sure if this would help direct the sound a bit better. One criticism came quite early on in that it was really hard to pin down where noises were coming from and it was a bit of a pain in darker areas of the game where it wasn’t that easy to see.
The first area of the Village that Ethan explores is the mysterious Castle Dimitrescu. One of the most beautiful moments of the game comes in the initial unveiling of the castle, the ornate structure utterly mesmerising in the moonlight. The castle itself feels very detailed, with developers clearly putting a lot of love into developing a setting that pays homage to Castle Dracula, Transylvania and vampire mythology – creating something that is both aesthetically pleasing and yet unnerving.
The vast majority of the promo for Resident Evil Village focused on Lady Dimitrescu and her three daughters. The 9 foot noblewoman, ‘Lady Alcina Dimitrescu’ is revealed to suffer from a hereditary blood disease requiring her to consume blood to survive. Considering her regenerative abilities and apparent immortality, she is to all intents and purposes a vampire. The curvaceous vamp is both beautiful and deadly, and so it’s hardly surprising that she played such a key part in the promo material and has since spawned a somewhat rule 34 inspired following of her own. The game had barely been released when a clip went viral of a player spanking Lady Dimitrescu’s ass with a spatula.
The first proper moments of adrenaline in Resident Evil Village come from trying to elude Lady Dimitrescu throughout the castle, as she stalks the dark corridors similar to (albeit more gracefully than) Mr X. You initially have to face her three daughters before you come face to face to battle Lady Dimetriscu herself, who then reveals her slightly less glamorous true form.
I was a little surprised that this battle came so early on. As the game progressed I started to feel a little bit cheated, as the promo had certainly given me the impression that she would be more important to the story overall. Whilst Castle Dimitrescu was only really one of four main locations of the game, it certainly felt that Dimitrescu was more than a quarter of the advertising – though I suppose this is hardly surprising given her appearance and the target audience (see aforementioned spatula comment).
The next area of the game centres around House Beneviento and its namesake Donna Beneviento, who controls a rather twisted looking puppet named Angie. The second area of Resident Evil again seemed to engage more traditional ‘horror’ themes, with House Beneviento hosting a number of rather creepy porcelain dolls, but before I could really get into this part of the game it was over. Whilst Castle Dimitrescu had felt like a fairly sizeable chunk of narrative and action, House Beneviento was over very quickly and felt pretty lacklustre. Despite that, personally I found it had simultaneously the scariest and most bizarre element of the game with the fairly terrifying giant baby. I think the game would have benefited from expanding this section as what worked, worked well – there just didn’t seem to be enough of it.
The third character introduced for Ethan to face is the merman Salvatore Moreau. A lot of this section of the game seems puzzle based, with the player navigating their way through caves and over water, but it doesn’t feel particularly challenging and the morose Moreau is definitely more pathetic than he is petrifying. The showdown with him at the end of this segment is fairly enjoyable, but it feels very different to earlier in the game.
Once Ethan has eliminated Moreau, the player progresses to Heisenbergs factory. The dialogue and build up suggests Heisenberg is the ‘big bad’, and I did quite enjoy the parts within the factory, but Heisenberg himself as the penultimate boss felt like a bit of a let down. There were certainly parts of the factory that looked good and some moments were things were a bit tense, but something about it just felt rougher, less polished than Castle Dimitrescu.
The game concludes with the player facing Mother Miranda, the figure worshiped by the inhabitants of the village and one with power over the four lords faced. Enough digging around throughout the game will piece together the full story of Miranda – who we learn sought Rose in an attempt to revive her own daughter Eva. Tying the Resident Evil story together, we find out that Miranda, who has been alive for over a century, actually mentored the founder of the Umbrella corporation and had a key role in the development of the T Virus.
I had been really looking forward to Resident Evil Village as it seemed that the game was going back to its horror roots, as opposed to the more combat heavy game it had become as the series progressed. Unfortunately, once the initial area of Castle Dimitrescu was completed – the game felt like it quickly reverted. As with Biohazard before it, despite a strong start with some tense moments and building dread that was generated through the narrative, the gameplay quite quickly lapsed to the all too familiar gun driven combat game.
Whilst Lady Dimitrescu felt like a well rounded (no pun intended), thought out villainess – I wanted to see more of her daughters, who despite their inclusion in so much of the promo material felt like unimportant pawns rolled out for appearance but presenting no real challenge. None of the bosses thereafter felt as fleshed out as Dimitrescu, and the shift in aesthetic from the castle to say the factory felt quite disjointed. I think personally I would have preferred Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters as the sole antagonists, with that particular arc drawn out more.
Another question that remained for me related to the primary protagonist of the game. The faceless character of Ethan Winters was introduced within Biohazard, a game which also released in VR so the player could put themselves literally in his shoes. It made sense that in the previous game the player never really got to see Ethan, but it felt a little odd that by the end of Village we have still not actually seen Ethan’s face.
Inevitably when playing a game that is part of a series, comparisons will be drawn to those that have come before. I had hoped that Village would be a real stand out, but for me it just didn’t live up to the hype. With that said, it’s still very enjoyable and there are moments within it that are stunning to look at, so I’d definitely not say it’s bad – but as with a lot of things, it can be difficult to meet expectations when there is a lot of anticipation.
If you’d played Resident Evil Village, I’d be interested to know what you thought! Also – it’d be cool to have new Playstation pals, so get in touch!