Originally released in 2021, Resident Evil Village sees the return Ethan Winters, with his second appearance as a protagonist in the long-running franchise since 2017’s Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. While Resident Evil 7: Biohazard can be considered somewhat of a “soft reboot” in the sense that it was a return to survival-horror roots of the franchise, which had long moved it’s focus to action beforehand, Resident Evil Village is more about expanding upon it’s well-received predecessor – quite literally, as the well-designed but small house of the Baker family is traded in for a much larger snowy European village with vastly different locations to explore.

However, a word of warning first: Even if Resident Evil Village provides a recap of the events from Resident Evil V7: Biohazard at the beginning, I heavily recommend playing the game beforehand – not only because it’s an excellent Resident Evil title but also due to it laying the groundwork for many plot points that are followed up on during the sequel. On that note, keep in mind that both games include paid DLC that offer new canon story content, if you want the full narrative experience. Additionally, Resident Evil Village is only playable in a third-person perspective if you bought the Gold edition/”Winter’s expansion” of the game – although I’d personally suggest using the first-person perspective for your first playthrough anyway, since that’s what the game was initially designed for (also, cutscenes stay in first-person during both perspectives).

Moving on to the game itself, set three years after the incident at the Baker’s house, Resident Evil Village once again brings back the iconic mix of survival horror, rewarding exploration and tense action the franchise is known for - even if the individual combination varies per game. In this case, starting out at the titled village, protagonist Ethan Winters is naturally low on resources, which makes enemy encounters much more intense as you only got one pistol with little ammunition to defend yourself. But even as your resources grow little by little through careful exploring, the game uses boss fights to make you spend them just as you think you’re going to be fine for a while – or includes locations that strip all your weapons away, forcing you to rely on puzzle-solving and hiding from enemies instead.

Without going into spoilers here, it’s refreshing how the game shifts the gameplay experience slightly with every new location, as it keeps things from becoming stale. You also acquire new weapons at a decent pace, not too long for you to get bored, but also not too short for you to refrain from upgrading them. A dubious duke, serving as the merchant in this game, also allows for weapon upgrades through coin or stat upgrades through food exchange, making exploration much more interesting than just finding ammunition. Additionally, a crafting system allows you to create new helpful items on the fly, such as ammunition or first aid potions, if you found the required resources. As the traditional grid-based inventory system from the franchise makes a return, you also have to think about what you’re actually able to carry, although I personally never ran into any actual limitations here.

In terms of combat, Resident Evil Village offers a nice variety of guns that also play very well, although the enemy variety is a little on the low side. Regardless, due to a constant lack of ammunition, you want to make each shot count and thus switch weapons according to the situation – it never feels like you get to rely on one gun alone. This makes exploration more rewarding as well, with the game offering a handy map that shows you which rooms you fully explored and where you might want to take a second look. Compared to some of the previous games in the franchise however, it’s quite easy to figure out where you need to head next, which might come as a disappointment to some. Similarly, puzzles in this game are also not only few in numbers but also way too easy, usually of “use visibly marked key at the door obviously marked with the same symbol” difficulty. It’s nice that they’re included to shake up the pace, even making up the majority of gameplay in one location, though having a little more faith in the abilities of the players wouldn’t have hurt.

In terms of horror, I personally never really thought of the Resident Evil franchise as scary games, although this just a subjective view of course. This is mainly thanks to the ability to defend yourself, as long as you’re careful with ammunition management - although I do want to note how much I appreciate the tense atmosphere some of these games manage to build up, like Resident Evil 7: Biohazard or the remakes of Resident Evil 1 & 2. The reason why I mention all this is because Resident Evil Village does feature a sequence that I did find unexpectedly scary, which was a positive highlight for me.

While I really enjoyed the mix of exploration, combat and survival horror in Resident Evil Village, there are two things I do want to talk about that unfortunately diminished my overall experience with the game: The boss fights as well as the pacing.

In terms of boss fights, the problem mainly boils down to movement and perspective of the player. While normal enemies are usually quite slow and give you enough time to aim for their weak spots, the boss fights mostly feature huge enemies that also move around a lot. While I wouldn’t call them too difficult, they usually make me feel like I must fight against the slow movement and limited (first-person) view of the protagonist as well to properly hit my shots. On that note, if you’re playing on a controller like I am, I recommend changing the default settings to making looking around more responsive.

The issue with pacing correlates with Resident Evil Village offering much bigger and more varied locations compared to its predecessor, despite both being mostly linear: While each location also features a unique big bad with their own story, they vary in size and things to do. As a result, the storytelling suffers, with some villains receiving a lot more attention than others. Subsequently, some locations feel rushed while other too drawn out. In addition, the main plot slows down significantly in the middle of the game, only picking up pace again towards the end. And as the story of Resident Evil Village culminates, the game also switches gears to an action-heavy approach entirely during the final hour, which just feels too abrupt and forced even if it’s unfortunately a common occurrence in the franchise.

Despite these missteps however, Resident Evil Village is a very enjoyable and fully recommendable entry in the franchise, although it should not be treated as a starting point – pick Resident Evil 7: Biohazard instead. Resident Evil Village plays well, it runs great and although the boss fight and overall pacing could be improved, it’s a great showcase of why the entire franchise remains beloved by many.

Resident Evil Village ist wie ein mörderischer Urlaub in den Alpen – aber ohne die schönen Ausblicke und mit deutlich mehr Zombies. Der achte Teil der beliebten Reihe schickt uns in ein düsteres, abgelegenes Dorf, das so viele Geheimnisse verbirgt, dass selbst die neugierigsten Touristen schnell mit der Flucht liebäugeln.

Als Ethan Winters, der arme Kerl, der wieder einmal von einem hässlichen Monsterhaus zum nächsten rennt, schlittern wir von einem Horror-Szenario ins nächste. Wir begegnen abscheulichen Kreaturen, einem fliessenden Albtraum aus Werwölfen und Vampiren und – man möchte fast sagen – einer Familienfeier, die ohne ein bisschen „Blutvergiessen“ nicht komplett wäre.

Das Gameplay? Es gibt viel Action, Schiessereien und – Überraschung – reichlich Gelegenheit, Panik zu bekommen. Alles fühlt sich ein bisschen an, als ob man in einem Freizeitpark für Horror-Experten ist: mal geht es gruselig zu, dann wieder wie in einem wilden Schiessstand.

Resident Evil Village ist ein unterhaltsames Horrorspiel, das genau weiss, wie es einem das Blut in den Adern gefrieren und gleichzeitig den Finger am Abzug lässt.

ethan winters