Gaming: RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE

Words by Jose Alvarez

Growing up, no game scared me more than Resident Evil. The horror game genre has gone through many ups and downs over the years. Some horror games included jump scares while others sought to maximize the amount of blood and gore. No matter what kind of genre of horror you like, Resident Evil has been at the forefront of the horror genre for over 25 years.

In Resident Evil Village, a direct sequel taking place three years after Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Ethan Winters (the protagonist of RE7) is taken to Europe by Chris Redfield, the protagonist of the original Resident Evil. Ethan has to rescue his daughter Rosemary this time around. The village is dwarfed by Castle Dimitrescu. Lady Alcina Dimitrescu is a vampiric aristocrat, Donna Beneviento is a dollmaker, Salvatore Moreau is a grotesque merman, and Karl Heisenberg uses magnetism to create Frankenstein-like monsters. Each sub-genre of horror is represented in Resident Evil Village, and all four report to the head witch, Mother Miranda.

There is a huge cabal of beasts waiting for Ethan as he tries to rescue his daughter, including horror staples such as zombie ghouls, flying gargoyles, werewolves, and more. Ethan is far more prepared since his last adventure. Despite the vast amount of enemies in Resident Evil Village, a merchant called The Duke is willing to assist Ethan, but at a steep price. You’ll often be forced to comb every nook and cranny in Resident Evil Village to stay stocked up. You can even bring animals to The Duke to help boost Ethan’s health and defense, and there are rare animals that you can find using photographic clues hidden throughout the game.

The game overall also incorporates puzzlesolving, although it doesn’t take much to solve said puzzles. Boss fights seem to be overall lacking, requiring pure firepower and reflexes over strategy and skill. However, closer and closer to the end, bosses ramped up in difficulty rather than in length; it would have been more satisfying to slay an enemy that required you to use every single thing at your disposal and then more. You can do this if you choose to play the game at a higher difficulty such as Hardcore mode, where every enemy will test your abilities. If you regularly play first-person shooters, the learning curve will drop a bit.

Once you finish the story mode, you can use points from objectives to unlock infinite ammo weapons in subsequent playthroughs or even concept art. You can also compete in Mercenaries mode, which has you traversing stages from the game with additional perks such as high-powered headshots, exploding enemy corpses, or faster movement speed. This mode can be addicting if you wish to get S or SS ranks.

Overall, Resident Evil Village felt more like a hybrid between horror and action than purely horror such as in years past, but even old school fans will enjoy this game. Of course, games today have numerous updates, and things will change. Multiplayer will return to the game in Re:Verse mode, which will debut later in the year, and allow you to play against your friends using familiar faces from the franchise such as Leon S. Kennedy, Jill Valentine, Ada Wong, and Claire Redfield. I’ll continue to blast away at the many horror tropes this game has to offer in the time being.

Developer & Publisher: CAPCOM

Platform: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X