Review: ‘Resident Evil Village’ Is a Great Sequel, but Misses the Mark

Resident Evil Village released on April 18 by Capcom and is the sequel to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.

Resident Evil, Where do I start? With the new generation of Resident Evil games, a lot has changed … some for the better and some for the worse. With beating Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and seeing the final scene with Chris Redfield, I had a lot of excitement to look forward to for the series. With finally finishing the sequel, Village, I’ve actually had those expectations and excitement taken down a bit. The game really has a bunch of high and some lows, with some of the lows being Gunplay, Ethan’s walking speed and just in general game mechanics. In addition, the game has some pacing issues in the beginning whereas in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, it starts off in a memorable way.

Graphics

I played the game on PS5 and have to say the visuals were on point! With 4K/60fps visuals the game always had something nice to stop and stare at. Although I did experience some frame drops in some areas only when there were a lot of monsters on screen, it was such a short moment that it didn’t take away from the gameplay whatsoever. Capcom really did step this category up compared to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard for sure. 

Gameplay

After changing from third person and over the shoulder camera systems from previous Resident Evil titles to the current first person change, things were exciting and new for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard but with Resident Evil Village it really starts to show its flaws. For one, gunplay feels really outdated with this “Goldeneye” aiming system that feels slow and sluggish, especially when the game has a lot of fast-paced moments you sometimes feel you just can’t keep up with what’s coming at you. Additionally, one of least memorable moments of the game was the shopkeeper and how it was handled. While playing on HARDCORE difficulty, there were multiple moments where I had excess amount of money with nothing really to buy or upgrade.

Story

I enjoyed the story overall, and without spoiling the game, I think it had a lot of cool moments especially after completing what I think is the first act of the game. All the characters that are in Ethan’s way are all memorable in their own way, from the blue rock selling Magneto-man himself to everyone’s favorite Andre the giant Lady Dimitrescu, all of these characters knock it out of the park. I think the actual plot at times gets a little weird with not much information being given until the end on what’s actually happening in the story. 

Overall, I think the game was great as a sequel but it did miss the mark on my expectations. I really wanted to see more from previous Resident Evil characters that have cemented the series but it just ignores them mostly. With how things closed out, I’m not sure I’d be into another sequel and this was the first time I finished a Resident Evil game and wasn’t excited for the next piece of the story. From slow combat to bad pacing at times, I honestly expected more from this game. I think i’ll be sitting out on the next one and just watching the story online. 

Rating: 6.7/10