I finally got around to playing Resident Evil Village for a couple of hours. My oh my what an experience this game is. It really is a roller coaster ride all the way through. At least all the way through the castle, which is where I'm currently about to finish up. I think.
I'm gonna assume y'all has already read tons of posts on this game. There has been it's fair share in the community already. I won't go to hard in on the plot but I'll mention it in short.
We play as Ethan Winters, the same guy from RE:7, who is looking for his daughter. His whole family is kidnapped and, presumably, killed. After being taken away he wakes up in the mountains somewhere in Eastern Europe. As he traverses the mountain for signs of life he stumbles into a village with very little signs of life. The whole game then revolves around this crazy village.
The Mystery
What I like the most about the game so far is the big mystery. Just what the hell is actually going on? How does this all tie into the overarching storyline of Resident Evil?
I had the same thoughts when playing Resident Evil 7. How does it connect to the rest of the games? In RE:7 we met a deranged family in the middle of Lousiana. Turned out the reason they were insane was because of Eveline. Eveline was a bio-weapon who had infected the family and taken control of them. With the inclusion of bio-weapons it all started to feel really Resident Evily after all. The mutated monsters we met started to make sense. At the end Chris Redfield came to save ut which really tied the game into the Resident Evil saga. WHAT!?
While this ended up making sense in RE:7 the entire events of RE: Village so far is a total mystery to me. This time it's not obvious mutants but the beings and characters we meet are like taken out of a fairytale. Lady Dimitrescu, the giant vampire woman living in a grand castle. Heisenberg with his army of werewolves. The little doll that looks a little like Chucky!? And not to forget the god figure of Mother Miranda who seems to be at the center of it all.
I'm just completely baffled. This all feels like something supernatural over bio-weapons and mutations to me. I've gotten through pretty much all of the castle now and there's no hints pointing at the latter. I am really curious though as to why Chris Redfield comes to abduct us at the start of the game. There has to be a connection here. Not only that but after beating the demo we're shown a trailer of sorts, and in that trailer we get to see the Umbrella logo. What does it mean though!?
They've really done a great job with this mystery. I can't wait to see how it all plays out. While playing I'm being really thorough for my first playthrough. I make sure to search every room 100%. Not necessarily for items but for notes and clues. I want to consume everything this game has to give me.
The gameplay
The gameplay isn't something revolutionary but it does the job perfectly. The first person perspective really helps with the immersion. I'm so glad they switched from third person to first person for these last two games. I'm sure they wouldn't be nowhere as good in third person.
Gunplay is simple but it works. I think it reflects that Ethan is in no way a soldier. He's just an ordinary guy who happens to find himself in some peculiar situations where handling a gun is practical. I'm really impressed at his speed of switching guns though. It almost feels like he's just pulling out another set of arms with how quick it is.
The difficulty may however be the weakest point for me yet. I'm playing on standard difficulty, and while there are higher difficulties I could have chosen, I feel like standard is just really easy. I haven't taken a single hit from any enemies aide from bosses and mini bosses. I haven't died once, apart from that time I got stuck in a corner and mauled to death by lycans. I wish I could change the difficulty on the fly but I can't. I don't want to start over either so I'll just have to stick with it. I plan on playing it at least one more time though anyways so I'll crank it up then.
A typical feature in Resident Evil games are puzzles and Village has them to. Although really easy ones. I haven't really had any problem solving any of them yet. They're all quite obvious from just looking at them. I hope this is something that picks up as I progress.
There's also a ton of items and loot scattered around which lowers the difficulty of the game further. I have so much money I have already managed to fully upgrade my handgun and shotgun. I even managed to increase some stats on the sniper rifle and purchase the upgraded inventory. I don't know if this is due to lower difficulties handing out more items or what.
Verdict
I have no idea how far through the game I am. I can however say that everything up until now has been absolutely awesome. It's a wild ride for sure. There are sections of the game that really tense me up and makes me clench my butthole really hard. Like when being chased around the castle by Lady Dimitrescu. Or when sitting in a safe room listening to her stomp around outside.
I'm jupming straight bak into the action after publishing this. Now that I finally managed to put a few hours into it the whole game just feels like an addiction. I need to know what happens next.
All images in this post are screenshots taken by me.