Resident Evil Village

Resident Evil Village is an action adventure game, which is the eighth installment of the main series of popular survival horror games, developed since 1996 by the Japanese studio Capcom. Development of the new part was officially announced in June 2020, during PlayStation 5 presentation. The game is a direct continuation of Resident Evil VII: Biohazard, but unlike the seventh one, the action of the sequel is set in a snow-covered Romanian village and its surroundings, including a castle towering over it. The player once again takes on the role of Ethan Winters, following his opponents from a first person perspective (FPP).

Plot

Three years have passed since the events of the seventh installment. Ethan and his wife Mia have moved to Romania, a place under close surveillance by the BSAA. Recently, their daughter Rosemary was born. The couple try to lead a peaceful life, but the nightmare they experienced in Louisiana still weighs on them.

The action of the game starts in an unusual way, with a disturbing story that Mia reads to her daughter at bedtime. As the girl falls asleep, the parents briefly discuss the dark tale, which turns out to be a local story. The woman sees nothing wrong with it, but Ethan is not pleased. They drop the subject and Mia goes to make dinner, not yet knowing that this is the last meal she will have to prepare.

During another conversation, the woman is hit by a series of bullets and falls to the floor. The person who committed the attack is Captain Chris Redfield - the man who was supposed to keep her safe. Chris enters the flat and kills the dying woman. Moments later, Ethan is captured and his daughter taken away by one of the soldiers. The protagonist loses consciousness. He wakes up in the snow, near a dead body and an overturned vehicle. Wanting to find out what happened to his daughter, he sets off as fast as he can, eventually ending up in an unknown village isolated from the rest of the world.

Gameplay

As in Resident Evil 7, the game offers an FPP view and focuses more on exploration. In this part, we get a closer look at the title village and several surrounding locations, including Castle Dimitrescu. Apart from exploration, the main aim of the game is to fight with encountered enemies, solve puzzles and most of all collect four precious flasks, each of which is located in one of the key locations.

RE8 offers us diverse opponents. Each of them has special abilities, moreover, some creatures are also equipped with weapons. One of the first creatures we are introduced to are the lycan, who have made their nest in the village, treating the other inhabitants as their food. The werewolves stationed in this area use more than just claws and teeth in battle. They can also use a variety of weapons, including bows and arrows.

A different kind of horror lurks in the castle, which is ruled by the mysterious Alcina Dimitrescu and her demonic daughters. While exploring the dungeons or the outer areas of this vast location, you'll encounter the undead, charging at you with swords or launching attacks from the air. While they may not be as threatening on their own, they can be quite a nuisance in a group. The ladies mentioned earlier, however, pose a much greater threat. Confronting one of them usually leaves us with no choice but to flee, but there are some sequences where fighting is inevitable.

The village is the central area of the game. Around it are scattered four other locations, which are ruled by Lords. One of these areas is the castle, whose lord, and thus the final boss, is Lady Dimitrescu herself. Defeating the main opponent is connected with finishing the given location. Other places we have to visit include the Beneviento estate, located in the valley of the mists, the reservoir behind the windmills or the factory on the outskirts of the village.

In order to neutralise the wraiths lurking in the darkness, which block the hero's way of escape, we can use both cold weapons and firearms (however, a shotgun or a pistol turns out to be more useful). In order to be able to quickly exchange weapons for another without unnecessary shuffling of inventory, we set the "quick access slots" option for selected items. The game also allows us to protect ourselves from attacks, which reduces the damage inflicted on the protagonist. After taking a defensive stance, the hero can also knock out his opponent with a kick. In addition, the game allows us to move some larger objects, which helps to block certain passages through which monsters could follow us.

Some of the defeated opponents drop bags of money and other treasures, so it is worth carefully inspect the location in which we defeated more creatures, because we can get quite rich. There are also gems hidden in some places - to get them, shoot at the object or wall hiding them. Places in which they are located, shine characteristically. At a certain stage of the game we also get a map, which will greatly facilitate the exploration of the area. In addition, there are places marked on it, where there is still something to collect (locations where there are still valuable items are marked in red).

The inventory system is similar to that of Resident Evil 4 - collected items are gathered in a suitcase with limited capacity. It is important to control the amount of ammunition and healing items you have. Ammunition, weapons and health drinks can be purchased from a travelling merchant called Duke. He will also provide you with a larger case and tutorials, so you can learn how to make mines on your own. Some of the items offered by the merchant are not cheap at all, although some of them can be purchased practically for free. The only expensive ones are weapon upgrades, which allow you to increase their power level, reload speed, shooting range and ammunition capacity. We can also exchange with Duke, giving him selected items in exchange for money. The merchant's offer expands with additional options as the game progresses.

Sometimes buying items may turn out to be unnecessary, because some types of weapons we acquire while searching the locations. The first ones we manage to get are a knife and a destroyed gun, which is given to us by one of the villagers. In this part the developers have also introduced the possibility of crafting, so we can create our own medicine and ammunition. Producing First Aid Med requires, for example, combining one piece of herb and a Chem Fluid. Some herbs and other valuable items are scattered around locations or hidden in items such as vases and chests. To get them, all you have to do is search the room and destroy a few objects.

Goats of Warding figurines also appear in some locations. Finding and destroying them all unlocks additional achievements. Unlike in previous parts of Resident, destroying the figurines doesn't give us special weapons, but in return we'll receive 16000 CP to use in the extras shop after completing the game.

Resident Evil Village is a 3D game, kept in photorealistic convention, developed on the RE Engine. Introduction to the game, devoted to a folk tale, was prepared in a style bringing to mind works of Tim Burton. The game features richly detailed graphics, which effectively build tension and increase the feeling of terror.

The game also offers Photo Mode and the ability to skip cutscenes. Photo Mode is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC. You can also apply filters to your photos. The first time you use this feature on each of the aforementioned platforms, you will receive a different reward (in the case of PC this will be an achievement, for example).

Resident Evil RE:Verse

Along with the purchase of Resident Evil 8, the player also acquires a free online game that allows for PvP gameplay - Resident Evil RE:Verse. This allows players to test their skills in four- or six-player battles as one of their favourite characters from the series. If a character is killed, their body transforms into a powerful biological weapon that can be used against other players. Deathmatches last 5 minutes and the winner is the one who scores the most points. Although Resident Evil Re:Verse was supposed to debut alongside Resident Evil Village, shortly before the release of the second title Capcom decided to delay the online game's release by several months.

MAIDEN, CASTLE and VILLAGE demos

Before the full version of the game hit the market, its demo - MAIDEN - was released on PlayStation 5 consoles. The player has the opportunity to get to know closer the dungeons and chambers of the mysterious mansion, guarded by the vampire Alcina Dimitrescu and her ghostly daughters. Game time is about 10 - 30 minutes. Some time later, on all hardware platforms, two more demo versions appeared, entitled CASTLE and VILLAGE. The first one again allowed us to visit the castle of Alcina Dimitrescu, the second presented the title village.

Lady Dimitrescu - a phenomenon

With the announcement and release of the game's demo, Lady Dimitrescu, also known as Tall Lady, immediately won the hearts of millions of fans. What attracted the attention was her above-average height - including her hat and heeled shoes, the woman reaches almost 10 feet (9'6" feet to be precise, which is 2.9 metres!). Videos, memes and all kinds of content dedicated to this powerful antagonist immediately began to appear online. Interest in the tall vampire was such that on April 16, a fan-made simulator appeared on YouTube, sponsored by Capcom itself - What if Resident Evil's Tall Lady Stepped on You?

Kyle Hill created a simulation that would help demonstrate what might happen if Lady Dimitrescu decided to step on him. It's no joke, although the video itself is full of them. Hill, however, took a serious approach to the issue itself, calculating the body mass index of the tall vampire and then, based on that, estimating what damage would be inflicted on him if the woman stepped on his face. One of the high heels that the antagonist wears on a daily basis would certainly not alleviate that pain....