Gameplay
Like its predecessor, '' Resident Evil 7: Biohazard'', ''Resident Evil Village'' uses a first-person perspective. It is set in a snowy explorable Eastern European village, described as "pulled straight from the Victorian era" and much larger and more immersive than its predecessor. Structures and buildings in the central village can be climbed and used to fight enemies. Compared to ''Biohazard'', the game is more action focused, with protagonist Ethan Winters now equipped with more combat skills due to military training. The game's primary enemies, the werewolf-like Lycans, are not only agile and intelligent, but can wield weapons and attack in packs, forcing the player to rethink their strategy on whether to use sparse ammunition, use melee combat, or simply run away. Similar to '' Resident Evil 4'' (2005), makeshift barricades can be used to fend off enemies. The inventory management mechanic is similar to that of ''Resident Evil 4'', featuring a briefcase and the ability to move and rotate items for better storage space. Players can buy supplies, weapons, upgrades, and items from a merchant called the Duke. The players can also hunt animals in the village and have them cooked into dishes by the Duke. Eating side dishes allows the player to gain certain advantages such as decreasing the damage taken while blocking. Treasures and collectibles can be found around the village, and sold to the Duke for currency. Players can manually save the game progress by locating and using typewriters, which replaces the tape recorders seen in ''Resident Evil 7'' and marks their first appearance in a mainline game since ''Resident Evil 4''. A map of the village can be accessed from the pause menu, as well as a diary with sketches recapping the player's progress in the story so far. Two new features added to the game were photo mode, which gave players the opportunity to screenshot in-game moments, and a button to skip cutscenes. The Mercenaries Mode, an arcade-style game mode of past ''Resident Evil'' games, returns in ''Village''. In this mode, players fight through timed stages, and purchase items and upgrades from the Duke’s Emporium. Players who purchased ''Village'' also received ''Resident Evil Re:Verse'', a six-player online multiplayer third-person shooter, when ''Re:Verse'' released in October 2022.Synopsis
Setting
''Resident Evil Village'' is set three years after the events of ''Resident Evil 7'', largely on the day of February 9, 2021. Ethan Winters returns as the protagonist, having defeated bioweapon Eveline in ''Resident Evil 7''. Ethan has been living with his wife Mia and six-month-old daughter Rosemary when Chris Redfield—the protagonist of previous ''Resident Evil'' entries—and his men suddenly appear, murder his wife in cold blood, and kidnap him and his baby daughter, bringing them to a mysterious European village. Ethan has to traverse the village to rescue Rosemary. The village is invaded by werewolf-like mutants called Lycans and governed by four different mutant lords, each controlling their own forces from strongholds within the village. Lady Alcina Dimitrescu, an unusually tall vampiricPlot
Three years after ''Resident Evil 7'', Ethan and Mia have been relocated to Europe by Chris Redfield to start a new life with their newborn daughter Rosemary. One night, Chris and his Hound Wolf squad raid the house, assassinate Mia, and abduct Ethan and Rosemary. Ethan awakens next to a crashed transport truck in which he was riding, and discovers a village terrorized by Lycans, werewolf-like creatures. Ethan fails to save the remaining villagers and is captured and brought before the village priest Mother Miranda and her lords: Alcina Dimitrescu, Donna Beneviento, Salvatore Moreau, and Karl Heisenberg. Ethan escapes a death trap made by Heisenberg and ventures into Dimitrescu's castle to find Rosemary, with help from a mysterious merchant known as the Duke. Ethan eliminates Dimitrescu and her daughters, finding a flask containing Rosemary's head. The Duke explains that Miranda placed Rosemary's body parts in four different flasks for a special rite, and that she can be restored if Ethan recovers the other flasks, held by the remaining lords. While killing Beneviento and Moreau for their flasks, Ethan learns Hound Wolf is also in the village. Ethan passes a test from Heisenberg for the fourth flask and is invited to the lord's factory, where Heisenberg proposes they defeat Miranda together. Ethan refuses, once he learns Heisenberg intends to weaponize Rosemary, and escapes. Ethan encounters and confronts Chris over Mia's death, learning the "Mia" Chris killed was Miranda in disguise. Chris reveals that Miranda possesses the power of''Shadows of Rose''
Rose, now sixteen years old, has been separated from Mia while under the protection of Chris. She has become a social outcast due to her abilities gained from the Megamycete, and resents her powers. Canine, a member of the Hound Wolf Squad, informs her from Miranda's research that there is a Purifying Crystal within the realm of the Megamycete that can remove Rose's abilities; he proposes that she find the rest of Miranda's research inside the consciousness of the Megamycete fragment that he has salvaged. Rose uses her powers to enter the mind of the Megamycete, where she discovers herself in a realm similar to Dimitrescu's castle. She finds it covered in spewing mold, with monsters led by a version of the Duke attacking and killing clones of herself. She is helped by a guiding spirit whom she names Michael. Despite Michael's advice to leave the Megamycete, Rose persists, wanting to rid herself of her powers. With Michael's help, Rose escapes the castle but falls into a deeper stratum within the Megamycete. Rose finds herself in a replica of Beneviento's house, where she relives her traumatic childhood, with the realm's leader blaming her father's absence. To comfort Rose, Michael shows her a realm similar to her house as a baby. The realm's perpetrator reveals herself to be Eveline, seeking to kill Rose out of jealousy over being a failed and unloved experiment. Michael once again helps Rose escape. Rose finds herself in another deeper stratum that resembles the village where she was kidnapped. There, she discovers and uses the Purifying Crystal to remove her powers, but also finds the consciousness of Miranda, who reveals that Canine was an illusion to lure Rose into the Megamycete. Still determined to revive Eva, Miranda intends to use Rose as a vessel now that she is powerless. Michael manifests, reveals himself to be Ethan's consciousness within the Megamycete, and helps Rose escape. Ethan is heavily wounded and encourages her to leave, but Rose breaks the crystal and embraces her powers to destroy Miranda. Rose embraces her father, who apologizes for not being there for her upbringing but declares that he is proud of her. Rose leaves the Megamycete's consciousness and visits Ethan's grave before being called away on a mission for the BSAA. As she and her escort drive off into the distance, an unknown figure is seen approaching their vehicle.Development
''Resident Evil Village'' was in development for approximately three and a half years before its announcement in June 2020. Capcom asked the ''Resident Evil'' team to start development on August 8, 2016, while ''Resident Evil 7'' was still about a half a year from release, according to director Morimasa Sato. Without having ''RE7'' release to judge its success, the team kept the initial designs around the core survival horror gameplay roots that had been in '' Resident Evil 4'' (''RE4'') and had been a return to form in ''RE7''. During this early period they came up with the concept of the village as the central theme, inspired by ''RE4,'' where its village was also a central location as well as many of the gameplay mechanics established by the title. The team used ''RE4'' approach to create "a balance of combat, exploration, and puzzle solving". Sato said that for the new game, "we're bringing the essence of ''Resident Evil 4'', while ''Resident Evil 7'' functions as the base for the game". Looking back at the use of horror of ''RE7'', producer Tsuyoshi Kanda said, "One of the lessons we took away is that this isn't something that is black and white, it's always going to have some variation or modification, and figuring out, OK, this worked for 'RE7'' but rather than replicating it, let's find a variation that works for a wider audience." The development team opted for a more balanced take on action and horror for ''Village''. ''RE7'' was released in January 2017 and was well received by critics and players, so the team decided to make the next game a direct sequel to ''RE7'', keeping its protagonist Ethan Winters as the main character and retaining the same style of gameplay. According to Kanda, this also helped to complete Ethan's story that was left open in ''RE7''. The team had become attached to his character, and worked to devise a story for him with the other ''Resident Evil'' teams within Capcom. As they continued to develop the village, Sato said they wanted to give players more freedom toward solving problems, and make it "a horror movie that you can play". Kanda said that like with ''RE4'', they were able to incorporate a variety of different themes of horror within the village, leading Capcom to describe the village as "a theme park of horror". In contrast to past ''Resident Evil'' games that generally have been linear progressions, the team created a more open world-style village, with optional and secret areas, designed to reward the player for exploration. The main story remained in a pre-set order that the team felt best for how the player should experience it. He said that compared to the claustrophobic feeling of the Baker mansion in ''RE7'', the horror in the game came from the uncertainty on what lurks in the "openness" of the village, while easing the "tension curve" compared to the previous game through quiet moments such as save points. Sato also stated that the village's snowy weather was inspired by the team's trip to Europe for research for the game, where they were met by an "unseasonable cold snap, the scenery was covered in snow. This inspired us to implement snowscapes into our game. We use snow not just for visual presentation, but as gameplay elements as well.” While it is recognized by Capcom as the eighth main game in the series, and its logo stylized to include the Roman numeral "VIII" for 8, the producers stylized the title to emphasise on the "village" aspect rather than the "8". In a '' Famitsu'' interview, producers Kanda and Peter Fabiano said that they considered the village a character, and wanted to reflect that in the stylization of the title so that players would remember it. Development on the game was hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, at one point bringing the development process to a halt for a month. Like ''RE7'', ''Village'' was developed with theRelease and promotion
Lady Dimitrescu, a character who rose in popularity prior to the game's release, was featured extensively in promotional material and merchandise prior to the game's launch. To promote the game, Capcom announced that a special lottery event would be held to give away a free ''Resident Evil Village'' acrylic jigsaw puzzle which could be entered by tweeting the hashtag #VILLAGE予約. On March 3, AMD announced that the PC version would feature ray tracing and AMD FidelityFX. ''Resident Evil Village'' was the featured cover game in the April 2021 issue of '' Game Informer''. On April 30, 2021, a puppet show featuring the four lords was released on YouTube, with each puppet claiming that they are not scary. On May 11, 2021, Capcom released a video that showed a behind-the-scenes on their YouTube channel on working on the game's theme song, "Village of Shadows". ''Maiden'', the first of two demos, was released exclusively for theDownloadable content
At E3 2021, Capcom announced that downloadable content for the game was in development. At the Capcom Showcase in June 2022, the ''Winters' Expansion'' was revealed. It includes a new story expansion titled ''Shadows of Rose'', featuring Rosemary Winters as the playable protagonist, alongside a third-person camera mode for the main story, and two new stages and Chris Redfield, Lady Dimitrescu, and Karl Heisenberg as additional playable characters for the Mercenaries mode. The expansion released for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S versions on October 28, 2022, and is planned to release for the Nintendo Switch cloud version on December 2, 2022, and for the macOS version at a later date.Reception
''Resident Evil Village'' received "generally favorable reviews" on all platforms from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Several critics noted the more action-centered gameplay in comparison to '' Resident Evil 7'' and compared the switch in direction to that of '' Resident Evil 4''. Phil Hornshaw of '' GameSpot'' wrote that while he felt ''Resident Evil 7'' leaned towards the "dark and creepy haunted house" setting akin to '' Resident Evil'', ''Village'' took cues from the "faster, panickier" ''Resident Evil 4''. '' IGN''s Tristan Ogilvie saw the game as successfully taking the best elements of the action from ''Resident Evil 4'' and combining it with the modern design from ''Resident Evil 7''. Hornshaw praised the new direction taken by the game, feeling its notable departure from ''Resident Evil 7'' was what made it work as a sequel and opined that the game provided an excellent balance of action and scares. Conversely, Leon Hurley of '' GameRadar'' was critical of the new approach, calling it a shame that the title was "one of the 'not a horror game' ''Resident Evils''" and concluded that whilst the game was fun, it had undone the work of ''Resident Evil 7'' in redefining the series. Later sections of the game received mixed opinions for their emphasis on action. Ogilvie praised the final chapters for their "chaotic levels of carnage" that reminded him of a run-and-gun ''Call of Duty'' campaign, whereas both Hornshaw and Hurley criticised the sections for being too action heavy, negatively comparing them to ''Call of Duty'' and "the worst action-heavy portions" of '' Resident Evil 6''. Critics praised the variety of gameplay throughout each section of the game. Hornshaw commended the diversity of horror ideas, finding it impressive how skilfully the game switched between them, and called each area "fun, intense, and, naturally, frightening in its own way." Hurley lauded the sections in the game's first half as "full of atmosphere and intrigue as you explore". He gave particular praise to the second area for being "one of the best horror moments I've played in a long time", but thought that the game's latter half felt average, especially in comparison to the game's greater parts. Despite this, he opined that the shifting of ideas throughout the game created excitement for what was coming next. Ogilvie noted the changes in gameplay for each section, with one catered towards stealth, while another leaned towards psychological horror over combat. He also praised the increased variety of enemies compared to ''Resident Evil 7'', saying that it added "depth and decision making" to crafting, forcing the player to decide which items would have the most effect on certain enemies. The more open-world style of exploration was well received by critics. Hurley wrote that ''Resident Evil Village'' was the first time the series had experimented with open-world, and that a lot of his time was spent exploring and retreading areas with new skills and discovering new surprises. Ogilvie concurred, writing that exploring the village itself as the game's central aspect helped distinguish it from previous installments. He felt exploration was rewarding from unlocking new paths and secrets, further augmented by the inclusion of a merchant character which motivated him to explore in search of tradable items. Common weaknesses of the game were considered to be its boss fights and puzzles. Hurley thought that the quality of the puzzles was "consistently low", in particular criticizing an example in which a map is given to find a locked door that the player passes previously in the game, and another that had the solution next to it. Ogilvie similarly criticised the puzzles, saying that the solutions were either "exceedingly straightforward" or spoiled by instructional notes left nearby. Hornshaw noted the movement system was unchanged from ''Resident Evil 7'' and as a result felt "a little slow and clunky"; they opined it was better suited when surrounded by enemies rather than during boss battles. Hurley similarly thought that boss fights did not feel designed for first-person combat because of the slower movement, and that dodging attacks in large open spaces meant the player was often forced to move the boss out of their field of view. Ogilvie found that many of the battles fell "surprisingly short" and amounted to little more than dodging and shooting an enemy's weak points, noting that he would have preferred them to be more engaging and "epic-sized". The game's narrative faced mild criticism, with Hornshaw writing that it was not one of the better ''Resident Evil'' stories, and was disappointed it did not resolve all of the plot threads from ''Resident Evil 7'' or sufficiently tie the games into the series at large. Hurley also opined that the pacing of the story was "inconsistent", and that due to how much time the player spent exploring, key story sections could either feel "weirdly short, or artificially extended." On the other hand, Ogilvie praised the story as "a compelling mystery" that engaged him throughout his entire playthrough." The arcade mode "The Mercenaries", which is unlocked on completion of the main game, was praised by Hornshaw for "demonstrat nghow tight the combat in ''Village'' can be" and for being fun in its own right. Ogilvie also praised the mode as "addictive" and "the most valuable bonus to unlock".Windows performance
The Windows version of the game had performance problems, particularly during intense combat. Richard Leadbetter of '' Digital Foundry'' noted the "tremendously high frame times" and "extraordinary" stuttering, especially during encounters with the maidens and other enemies with certain animations. Leadbetter attributed this to a combination of Denuvo along with Capcom's own anti-tamper software. In July 2021, a pirated version of the game by an independentSales
''Resident Evil Village'' shipped over three million units in its first four days of release, becoming the third-fastest-selling title in the ''Resident Evil'' series, tied with 2019's ''Resident Evil 2''. At the same time, Capcom announced the series had sold a total of 100 million units since its debut in 1996. From May 3 to May 9, 2021, ''Famitsu'' rated the PlayStation 4 version at first place in the Japanese gaming charts, selling 111,171 copies in a week. The PlayStation 5 version sold 38,713 copies, reaching fourth place in the charts. ''Resident Evil Village'' was also the best-selling game across the US and the UK during the month of May 2021. It went on to become the eighth-best-selling game of 2021 in the US. The game sold 6.1 million units worldwide by May 2022, and reached 6.4 million units by June 2022.Accolades
Alleged plagiarism
Shortly after release, film director Richard Raaphorst accusedNotes
References
External links
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