Game #1010: Resident Evil VIllage

  So... the next one is gonna be Resident Evil Ixnay?

 I shouldn't have played Resident Evil Village considering how constrained I'm for time, how it's not even October and how I haven't played VII yet, even though I own it. But then again, I've never played the series in order(3 was my first!) so why start now? I skipped pretty much every trailer, sans the reveal, for this game, but what little I saw gave me Resident Evil 4 vibes, so I somehow fell into the hype and played this game before I planned to. Ah, well!

 The game follows VII's blueprint. You play as Ethan, the same guy from the previous game, it's in third person and once again, it's you against a family of monsters. There's even a moment in which you are captured and you get to meet all four of them(I haven't played VII, but I've seen the family dinner scene!). On the other hand, just like REvil 4, you start off in a Village and even visit a Castle, there's a mysterious merchant that manages to find his way everywhere you go and you even fight creatures that are far, far from zombies, including werewolf-like creatures and even pseudo-vampiric creatures. That said, at least Las Plagas behaved like Zombies. At no point did I feel like I was playing a Resident Evil game, but it's not something I'd hold against it. Heck, you even get to hear Chris curse which felt odd...

 ...speaking of Chris, nobody ever believed that he was Evil. Oh, c'mon, it's not even a spoiler, you know it, I know it, everyone knows it. But I'll tell you this, the writing surrounding Chris was terrible. Of course he has some very dumb lines that are supposed to paint him as a villain, but you'll never believe them, and him being such a prick only makes him look like an idiot. The entire game could've been avoided if he gave Ethan some explanations, y'know, the guy he met in the previous game? It's just bad writing, but doesn't enter the realm of cheesy, sadly, as cheesy could've helped. The rest of the plot is alright, I liked the four main baddies and I definitely liked the setting the game is set in, although the interior of the factory was a bit too much. But hey, REvil 4 went into a military island, so REvil VIII gets to have its own out-of-place area too! 

 The game feels like a Metroidvania of sorts. Besides the four domains of each Lord, the village acts as a HUB to which you'll return after every boss fight. And as you advance through the game you'll be getting tools that will open up secret areas or secret goodies, so while you could keep moving from objective to objective, exploration will reap bountiful rewards, such as new, stronger weapons or maybe just supplies. There are animals out in the wild that you should kill, as you can use their meat for permanent upgrades to your health and defense. Oh! And just like in Resident Evil 4, you have a limited inventory, which you can upgrade, although I never found myself out of space, but then again, I purchased the inventory upgrades as soon as they became available. You'll also come across treasure, and just like in the fourth numbered entry, some treasure can be combined to add even more sale value!

 The shooting part of the game works really well, not only will you be getting multiple weapon types, but multiple weapons for each type. There's no reason to carry two different pistols since they use the same ammo source, but it's nice to have options. You can also upgrade your weapons when you are at the merchant. The one thing I didn't like so much is that you only get four shortcuts. That's fine... at first, but you'll want to have the knife at hand, which while completely useless in a fight, trust me, I tried fighting the very first enemy with the knife and got myself killed, it's the best way to break vases, and then you get three slots. Maybe the pistol, the shotgun and the Rifle? That's fair, but... you've also got mines, you've got grenades, you've got the grenade launcher, you've got the Magnum... there's too much weaponry for only four slots. I think maybe having double taps(Like pressing left on the digital pad twice) to have up to 8 slots would've worked well. Short cuts aside, I've no qualms with the combat. It's slow paced, if you shoot like a madman your accuracy will decrease a lot, but it's a survival horror game, so it makes sense in this context.

 There's a very simple crafting mechanic, which you'll use to get healing items and more ammo. I played in the Standard difficulty setting and a few times I cut it really close with running out of ammo, a few times I had to use my money, which I saved up for weapon upgrades, on ammo. Like in the REMAKE games, the map will highlight in red areas in which you haven't found every item, which was pretty useful.

 The game has an interesting pace. The first lord, Lady Dimitrescu, is sort of like Clock Tower, you must explore her castle while solving puzzles, but be ready to run at any moment as both her and her daughters will randomly spawn near you. The castle isn't big enough for the stalker mechanic, I think, and it's pretty easy to just run to the merchant's room, since they can't get there, and watch them through the open door, since you are invisible to them while inside that room, until they are gone. That said, since the castle isn't too big this is not too annoying and you'll be able to clear this area without too much hassle, but it's certainly one of the longest bits in the game. The next Lord is puzzle-based, you are deprived from weapons and even the fight is just a puzzle. The game isn't very scary, but this is probably the scariest part in the game.

 The next lord has no gimmicks, it's got a few puzzles and a bit of shooting, but it's not like Dimitrescu's castle in which you went round and round, gathering items to solve puzzles. And, the fourth lord is pretty much completely based on fighting, and you'll wish you had more ammo! These firefights can get intense because their numbers are so high and your ammo isn't. Well, it's certainly a very varied game, which works well in this game, but it also means that there are parts you will probably like more than others, so it's a bit of a double edged sword.

 Beating the game unlocks the Extras shop, where you can buy weapons with infinite ammo as well as The Mercenaries. It's a bit more limited than other Mercenaries mode, you can only play as Ethan and all 8 stages are made up of recycled environments, not even repurposed. But hey, it's fun, and you can collect perks as you beat baddies.

 Lastly, back when the game was only announced for current-gen games, there were rumors that Capcom wanted to release the game on older hardware but it ran very poorly. Well, I played the game on the base PS4 and it ran amazingly. It runs above 30 fps, looks great and if the game had slowdown it was barely noticeable.

 I had quite a bit of fun with Resident Evil Village. I really liked the Metroidvania elements, as it made going back into the village to get goodies quite rewarding, never feeling like I was wasting time. That said, and this is my personal preference, I prefer Resident Evil when it's in third person, as the first person does nothing for me and it doesn't make the game any scarier. That said, the game played so well that I didn't mind it being in first person. On the other hand, I think the game's weak point is its plot, because everything revolving around Chris falls apart, even if the rest of the plot isn't so bad.

 8.5