Recent reviews by Crumble

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First things first: NO FOV SLIDER; if you want to play at anything other than 80 FOV, you will need a third party fix.
7/10 Very enjoyable grotesque action game with a thin horror tapestry

If you are coming into this fresh off of playing RE:7, this may not be the game you are expecting. It fails to create any of the same tension or dread, that the slow and methodical pace of 7 managed to pull off.

+environments
+visuals
+exploration
+presentation

-characters
-story
-lack of suspense

--Spoilers coming up --



Of the 5 main villains, Lady Demetrescu is by far the most interesting. The others pale in comparison, which makes the story fall flat after the first third. Same goes for the environments: Apart from the village and the castle, they are largely forgettable.

House Beneviento was particularly disappointing. This part of the game feels like it is trying to recreate the tension of the Lucas portion of RE:7 but fails and ends up feeling like a poorly-reviewed early-access indie walking simulator horror-themed puzzle game that delivers in neither puzzles nor horror. The pay-off in the end was almost worth it though. Luckily, this portion of the game is fairly short, unless you get stuck on one of the puzzles purely because you fail to get the correct button prompt to come up. (totally didn't happen to me)

The fact that this chapter of the game follows its strongest chapter makes its inadequacy all the more noticeable.

The other two Lords are fine, but fail to measure up to Lady Demetrescu and the castle. The Factory portion was also a bit too long for my taste.

boss fights: There are a lot of them but they ultimately come down to one of two things: kite & do as much damage as needed OR kite & shoot the glowing dots.

gameplay: as i mentioned above this is an action game, survival horror fans better look somewhere else. Enemies are bullet sponges but you needn't worry as you will always have plenty of ammunition at your disposal. Inventory management is a non-issue.

exploration: exploration of both the castle and the village is fun and rewarding, while the remaining areas of the game drop the ball in this department.

My favorite moment in this game wasn't a boss fight or one of the encounters with its (literally) larger than life characters, but exploring one particular dungeon, filled up to Ethan's knees with blood, wine or both, dim light reflecting off the smooth surface with a couple of enemies lurking below the opaque liquid . That was awesome.

One enemy you cannot see in a creepy environment is much more effective than the groups of 5-10 enemies the game lobs at you later.

These rare moments are when RE: Village shines the most. Sadly there are not many of them.

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I hate it.

If you want to look up from your newly created theme park at 7am wondering where all that time went, play this game. If not, stay far away.