Resident Evil Village (PS5) Review

A Love Letter to RE’s Past, Blazing a Path for the Future

Big spoilers are ahead! If you have any interest in Resident Evil Village let me save you some time, go play the game. From here on out, there are going to be spoilers left, right, and center.

Alright, here we go, Lady Dimitrescu is tall.

For real now, spoilers start now. . .

Resident Evil Village or RE8 (from here on just called Village) starts out with one of the most unique cutscenes in the entire franchise followed by a rollercoaster of emotions and confusion that could have all been solved if people just talked it out, something our characters come to realize, which was some nice character growth if I'm being honest. 

We are given through conversations with Mia that since the Baker Incident back in 2017 people have just kind of moved on and Chris Redfield has taken Ethan under his wing so to speak, giving him presumably basic military training. This is where the attention to detail Capcom has given this story really shines through. In Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, reloading a weapon halfway through a clip resulted in Ethan tossing the whole thing onto the ground, whereas now he tactfully pulls the clip out while injecting another one. Village is littered with these small but appreciated attention to detail.

After exploring Ethan’s new home and putting his daughter to Rose to bed, Chris and his squad shoots up their home, murders Mia in cold blood, takes Rose, and knocks Ethan out, kidnapping him. Of course, something happens to the vehicle carrying Ethan, bring the player to the European village where everything unfolds. For the next 7-10 hours Capcom really shows their force when it comes to moving not only the Ethan Winters story forward but the Resident Evil series forward as well, with distinct highs and lows; I think that this is done with an effectiveness that we haven't seen since Resident Evil 4. While not being a huge fan of RE4 (I'm old and bitter and like my original 3 on PS1) I really think Village blows RE4, RE5, RE6, and even RE7 out of the water. Whether it’s through creeping around the Victorian-era Castle Dimitrescu or bringing back the vibes of the Baker family, Mr. X, and Nemesis in the form of Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters or solving puzzles in the clearly P.T. inspired Beneviento House of dolls this game pulls from a lot of places. Where it is at its weakest is when it retreads on old ground with the fish-like lord, Salvatore Moreau, a segment where players wait to time runs across narrow paths to avoid being eaten by the giant swimming monster. The game also loses its stride with the final battle with the magnet power imbued Karl Heisenberg, which was big and bombastic but also reminiscent of the things Capcom needed to distance itself from, feeling far too similar to the over-the-top action in Resident Evil 6.

STORY

The overall story, boiled down to its simplest form is Ethan and Mia Winters from RE7 have a child named Rose and have moved to a home somewhere in Europe. After Chris Redfield murders Mia and kidnaps the rest of the Winters family, a mysterious figure later revealed to be Mother Miranda attacks Chris’ group and kidnaps Rose for her own nefarious purposes. Ethan stumbles into the titular village, where Mother Miranda is upheld as a holy figure and battles his way through her four lords. At the end of this endeavor, Ethan is forced to sacrifice himself to save his family and put an end to Miranda.

Village really has some of Resident Evil’s best story moments from the moment Chris turns heel. The four lords are introduced like a Batman rogue’s gallery. Ethan’s heart is ripped out of his chest. We find documents that point to the origin of Oswell E. Spencer, yes the same person who owned Spencer Mansion of the first Resident Evil game.

While the ties to the series as a whole are really just bookending the game, I think the story is strong enough to stand on its own, and by the time I rolled credits, I was left wondering where Resident Evil could go from here. Honestly, with the way they have done it, it can go anywhere because now we have more of an idea of where the T-Virus and all of what followed had started and where it comes from. That’s not to mention the fact that the BSAA from RE5 and RE6 is now evil using bioweapons in the form of what looked like zombies in the quick flash of the monster soldier near the end.

I think Village does ask a lot of its players at times because some of the Lords are much more fleshed out than others. Dimitrscu and Heisenberg are much more in your face about their whole deal. Beneviento and Moreau each have their own backgrounds and reasonings for why they are what they are but they feel like flatter characters, especially when compared to the other two, which is kinda crazy because Beneviento’s house is terrifying and I think it will stick with me for weeks to come. I also don’t want to just sit here and spoil every little plot because if there was ever a game that deserved full attention, Resident Evil Village would be it.

SOUND, VISUALS, AND PERFORMANCE

I played this on the PlayStation 5 and holy shit, this is by far one of the best-looking games I have played. The details on everyone’s faces and hands are absolutely insane and when using the photo mode to zoom in, those details really stand out. I am still in awe at how well-detailed the environments, characters, and weapons are. Seriously. Go look at the Wolfsbane magnum. Has a gun ever looked so good?

The sound design is great as well with good use of the 3D spatial audio touted for PS5 titles. I could really tell where every noise was coming from… every single terrifying sound. The hardest thing I think to nail when it comes to sound in games is guns and Village again stands above a lot of games in this regard because every shot has weight behind it with the bigger weapons putting that tension into the haptic triggers. The shotgun creates an almost straining to pull the trigger and the vibration and sound once the weapon is fired is outstanding. Where Village falters in sound is this; in Resident Evil 7 we got the amazing “Go Tell Aunt Rhody” song,” whereas here we don’t get anything close, not even an attempt. That is unfortunate and because of this, I feel like the overall soundtrack to this game isn’t as strong as past entries in the series.

Speaking of the PS5 features, load times in Village are lightning-fast. From a full load of the game, it was maybe 10 seconds? MAYBE but probably closer to 4 or 5 seconds. The areas in the game that have elevators that I’m assuming are used to hide a load are incredibly short and with ray tracing turned on this game really pushes that next-gen look.

GAMEPLAY/ REPLAYABILITY

This game feels great to play. Like I mentioned above, the guns feel and sound great while having what would seem to be a believable amount of kickback and timing between shots. The movement mechanics also feel good. Everything is honestly just really smooth in Village. The merchant archetype makes a return with the Duke. The new character is portrayed roughly and pushes into anti-fatness territory, especially after talking through this characterization with Rachel on the Here’s Johnny Podcast who had a strong opinion on this, and I’m in the same camp as them. It is gross how the Duke is always shown belly first and is constantly talking about consuming and I just feel like if Capcom can have a big and tall, sexy vampire lady then maybe they can do a little better with toning down on the tones of how this man is gluttony incarnate.

The Duke’s shop also brings back the treasures of RE4 which is a great feeling that rewards exploration with rare treasures. These treasures can then be combined to be sold for lots of money. There are also animals that can be harvested to create meals that permanently increase stats. Upgradeable weapons have been brought back too with new guns unlocking on a new game plus! Speaking of, beating the game unlocks NG+ but also gives a list of challenges to complete, earning a new currency that can be used to buy unlimited ammo per weapon, concept art, figures, and new guns like Chris’ tactical weaponry. There is a ton in this game to enjoy, especially if you want to replay it.

As of this writing, I haven’t put too much time into the unlockable Mercenaries mode but the fact that the beloved mode is back is awesome and it feels better than ever thanks to the fundamentals of Village. Those who bought Village are also given the new multiplayer game, Resident Evil RE: Verse but unfortunately the game’s servers have yet to start.

Overall, I think Resident Evil Village is another bold new step for Capcom and allows the future of the series to go anywhere. I am here for it and at this point, I fully trust Capcom, especially after House Beneviento where Capcom showed us all that they can be gut-wrenching, nightmare-inducingly scary. After stepping away for a day, after beating Village, it has become one of my favorite Resident Evil titles and I hope whoever reads this picks up a copy and enjoys it.

SCORES

GAMEPLAY - 9/10

VISUALS - 9/10

SOUND - 7/10

CONTROLS - 9/10

REPLAY VALUE - 8/10

OVERALL - 8.4/10

More information about Resident Evil Village can be found on the official website. A PS5 copy was purchased by the reviewer. Screenshots were captured using the native features of the PS5.

More Resident Evil review content is available on our site! Alex covered both the remake of Resident Evil 3 and the remake of Resident Evil 2 on Steam. For more PS5 coverage, check out my thoughts on the remake of Demon’s Souls or the charming platformer Astro’s Playroom.