Resident Evil Village

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JaySevenZero
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Resident Evil Village

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Resident Evil Village for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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designermatt
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Re: 538: Resident Evil Village

Post by designermatt »

Before Village, the only Resident Evil I'd played was 4 - I'd been intrigued by 7 but too scared to play!
I loved being thrown into Village's intriguing mystery and the thick, unsettling atmosphere got me immediately. I had so much fun with this! House Beneviento in particular was just terrifying and I almost - almost - chickened out at that point! My favourite part though was returning to the snow-covered village time after time to explore. It's such a beautiful, detailed world and I loved my time spent there getting to know every corner.

For me though, the game went off the rails after the factory section. Suddenly it switched to being Call of Duty and I was fighting a giant robot and calling in airstrikes, which felt like a different game. I saw it through to the end but the story was a messy disappointment once it was all told.

I've since listened to the Cane and Rinse series on the Resident Evil games (well done guys, loved it!) and turns out messy plots are are a bit of a thing for the series, but I do wish they'd avoided all the bombast and stuck with the gothic horror they did so well for most of the game. I'm now trying the Resident Evil remake and having a great time with it. Thanks for the recommendation.
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Tolkientaters
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Re: 538: Resident Evil Village

Post by Tolkientaters »

I think Resident Evil Village is a good game that is hampered by it's own attempts to recreate RE 4. For some background I haven't played that many RE games, just ReMake 2, 3, and 7. So I played RE4 for the first time shortly before Village Released and it immediately became my favorite Resident Evil game.

I think that RE4 just set a high bar that Village just couldn't quite reach. It does a lot well with a really memorable villain in Lasy Dimitrescu, 4 pretty distinct areas with slightly different gameplay styles each time with the Doll House area being a real horror standout. I like the environments and definitely prefer fighting werewolves to boring mold monsters. But despite a lot of fun fantastic elements it feels like less than the sum of it's parts. It's a good game, but it doesn't feel cohesive in a way that brings everything together.

The story is absurd and stupid which is on par for Resident Evil, but it doesn't come together in a way that's fun, I guess the twist with Ethan makes sense, but the attempt to make me really care for him and his fate fell completely flat for me. Village is a good game, but it just doesn't quite standout which is a shame.
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stvnorman
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Re: 538: Resident Evil Village

Post by stvnorman »

I’ve not been as hyped about a game as much as this one since the mid-eighties, and while it’s not perfect and it’s definitely not Resident Evil 4, it was easily my game of 2021. Castle Dimitrescu is just jaw-dropping to me, and while I could happily stay there forever, the rest is well-paced, occasionally tense and almost always fun. And having just written this I think I’m ready for play-through number five!
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Gadget8Bit
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Re: 538: Resident Evil Village

Post by Gadget8Bit »

Village isn’t the best RE game. That goes to 2, 4 or 7, depending on your particular level of incorrectness (we all know REmake is the correct answer). But what it is the best at is the thrill ride.

Its predecessor, 7, was a slow and pondering horror game where for the vast majority of the game you were extremely vulnerable as you were chased and tortured by the demented Baker clan. But Village flips the script. Even from the first moments of action gameplay, Ethan Winters is very rarely overwhelmed or vulnerable.

The opening crawl through the titular Village is a beautifully orchestrated set piece that’s more akin to a fairground ride than a panicked scramble against hordes of enemies. But it’s fun. Running through the village and popping shots at a mass of Lycans is surprisingly cathartic.

Each of the games four zones give you a different flavour of Resident Evil gameplay. Castle Dimitrescu is your classic mad mansion. The swamp is a reasonably tense puzzle map with a pretty tanky boss fight at the end. Heisenberg’s factory is grand in scale and full of tight meandering corridors reminiscent of almost every RE lab level.

But the dollhouse. Well that’s where this game does it’s best work. Equal parts PT and Outlast, the game takes your weapons away, puts you in the dark and gets freaky as hell with the atmosphere. An absolute triumph in horror set pieces. Sure, it’s incredibly polished and ultimately one of the most “staged” sequences in the whole game, but man, does it stay with you.

Village is a great game, but far from the best RE game. The additions to the already convoluted lore of the franchise are, quite frankly, bonkers. Chris Redfield is utterly pointless in the narrative and his little level at the end of the story is far and away the weakest part of the game.

But I look at the game fondly. I really enjoyed my time with it. However, unlike pretty much every other game in the franchise, I have zero impetus to go back and replay it. It was great. I had a lot of fun. But it just doesn’t inspire faster or harder runs.
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Sage + Onion Knight
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Re: 538: Resident Evil Village

Post by Sage + Onion Knight »

I'll be honest, I think Resi 8 is possibly my favourite experience with a Resident Evil game. Having come to the series quite late, I've really come to enjoy what they seem to be doing with the series at the moment. As someone who played the games wildly out of sequence, I have no real interest in the specifics of the lore – but I really like (one) the beautifully un-subtle running theme of huge corporations thoughtlessly unleashing literal Hell around the world; and (two) how, since 7, they seem to be using this convoluted web of lore as a jumping-off point to explore different sub-genres of horror.

In particular, I thought the decision to explore the maybe more obscure sub-genre of folk horror was really inspired and really highlights the confidence-boost that Resident Evil 7 gave to the franchise as a whole. The best moments in this game are a real masterclass in how games can get under the player's skin and build up an unsettling atmosphere (with moments of safety that feel meaningful, too). As much as I wish the story, as a whole, could maintain that atmosphere (this was always Silent Hill's strength), I love what Resident Evil is doing with this new wind of inspiration. Based on the ending, I'm predicting now that Resident Evil 9 might draw on something like Stephen King's 'Firestarter'.
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caponeadam
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Re: 538: Resident Evil Village

Post by caponeadam »

I love this series but one consistent gripe I have is that almost every game’s peak is often the first act of the game, typically the more traditional settings of mansions and creepy buildings. RE8 is no different.

To me, what makes a great RE game is familiarizing yourself with an environment and slowly unlock piece by piece.

Unfortunately as is usually the case with this series, you are then funneled through smaller less memorable areas at a much faster pace and in a more linear fashion, with the level design never quite matching the tight structure of the initial setting.

This again results in a somewhat diluted resident evil entry but one which at times felt like the series at its absolute best, capturing the magic of what made the first two games in particular so effective.
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GlobalSaturation89
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Re: 538: Resident Evil Village

Post by GlobalSaturation89 »

As a long time fan of the series I was interested to see where Capcom would take resident Evil village (or RE 8age).

I watched and consumed every screenshot, YouTube video and article about the game which seemed to lean heavily towards making this a hybrid of the popular RE4 and the revolutionary (for the series anyway) RE7:biohazard. I eventually saw enough to preorder the game and wait eagerly for release.

Since then I have spent hours in Resident village through multiple run throughs and have managed to obtain most of the achievements in this game except for the mercenaries mode which I have maybe spent 2-3 hours on max.

From my multiple play throughs I have made a few observations. This game is not a masterpiece nor does it do anything particular groundbreaking. But what it does do it does extremely well.

The village is a brilliant staging point until you enter the dungeon like areas which fit the themes of the relevant boss at the end. Each one having its own identity and quirk which made it slightly different to the other and forced the player to change their play style to fit it.

I was disappointed with house dimitrescu given that a lot of the advertising showed the infamous lady D slicing Ethan in two whilst scores of submissive men lapped it up. This section was relatively short or your time being chased by lady D fairly negligible, I thought their was potential for her to be as imposing as Mr X from Re2 remake but alas she only really acted as a minor inconvenience as a hid behind a plant pot waiting for her to get bored and wander away. I also thought her interactions where very scripted and I very quickly came to learn that once I had completed action X she would come through the door to make my escape that little bit less easy. Given how popular she was and how much Capcom had relied on her to sell the game it was a shame they did not use her as more of a constant foil opting for the charismatic (and in my opinion much better written and acted) Heisenberg to act as a protagonist before having you dispatch him and the true protagonist being shockingly or not so revealed.

House beneviento was a stand out section of the game and genuinely made me feel unease throughout my multiple play throughs and really invoked a sense of vulnerability and dread. Also as a father the sound of the baby’s shrill cries twisted my stomach up in knots to the point where I played this section with the sound off.
Again however this section was far too short and just as the tension was ramped up to unbearable levels it was over and I was back to blasting werewolves in the face.

The Moreau section was forgettable but acted as a nod to the re4 lake boss fight. I felt too much time was spent with Heisenberg who, whilst being the most interest character in the game with some fabulous voice acting, did pull me away from the survival horror aspect of the game and heavily into a run and gun shooter. Ammo and weapons by this point where not scarce and the tense battle in the village with 12 handgun bullets and a bookcase in front of a door seemed a distant memory. Replaced by me packing a fully upgraded magnum that made short work of most foes including bosses.

However each area had its own identity and provided some nostalgia to past resident evil games. The graphics where beautiful and the story telling through the environment and the many letters and diaries made for a thoroughly entertaining experience and allowed you to see how the villagers lives were turned upside down moments before my arrival.

All in all this was an enjoyable game but not as challenging as past entries into the series.
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Seph
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Re: 538: Resident Evil Village

Post by Seph »

It's fitting how this great series had to pretty much die before bursting back to life to chew off the faces of its competition. While not hitting the heights of its predecessor, Resident Evil Village still ranks as one of the best games in the series and one of the most fun things I've played in recent years. As soon as the storybook opening began I knew I was about to experience something special.

Resident Evil has always leaned into the camp side with its presentation, and here they fully embraced the silliness with Village's assortment of weird and wacky monsters inspired by the horror genre's most famous creations. Of course, the internet lost its collective mind with the reveal of the giant vampire lady and I can't but feel that Capcom accidentally ended up disappointing that part of the fanbase once they realised she was only the first of many villains.

The Lady D section of the game was incredibly fun and had the frenetic feel of both RE 4 and the RE 2 remake. Sure, it was a little short, but the quality of the environment and enemy design in this section was incredible. You know you've made a great level when people are desperate for more of it. Similarly, I liked the dark and dingy windmill section, with the underground section terrifying me so much I forced myself to stealth my way through it. The Moreau chase was also incredibly tense with the already incredible soundtrack going into overdrive. This part also provided one of my favourite moments of voice acting in the whole series with Moreau's painful but angry yell of "I'm the best!".

House Beneviento is a masterpiece. You could probably do an entire show on this level alone and it was easily the highpoint of Village for me. At first it felt like a recreation of the escape room section of VII with added jump scares, but then "it" happened and felt my heart try to burst out of my body. I find intensely scary games almost unbearable, but this part of the game had the right amount of scares and didn't drag on too long that it didn't absolutely destroy me. I hope Capcom have taken notes from the reaction to this section and are able to conjure up something just as horrifying in the next game. But please keep it short...

As much as I enjoyed this game and will sing its praises, it's not a perfect experience. It's when Ethan has to take down Heisenberg that Village takes a nosedive in quality. From the stronghold onwards, it drops the creativity and just becomes an outright shooter. The factory section, despite having an incredible setting and atmosphere, could have been lifted from an alpha version of Evil Within.

Capcom were so close to knocking it out of the park like the did with VII, but lost their nerve and decided that gamers really do only care about killing things. Despite everyone dirtying their trousers over Lady D and complaining about her lack of screen time, I feel like Heisenberg was the big wasted opportunity as he had to potential to be Wesker-type recurring villain who is always playing everyone against each other.

The whole Chris section is even worse. At this point the Lycans had evolved from being scary beasts that made me panic when I saw even one of them to a mindless annoyance. The wave section in the middle of the village felt like you were swatting flies than actually fighting off an army of monsters. This, coupled with the (now obligatory) lore dump room, almost made me lose hope. Thankfully, Ethan Altered Beasts himself back into existence and brings a game redeeming emotional conclusion to the entire experience.

I will say as a fan of this series I've never been more excited to see what's coming next. I'm hoping for something more akin to VII as a follow up, but given where the story might be heading in terms of the BSAA being a bunch of bad bastards now, I'm expecting more of the shooty bang-bang stuff than a dark and solitary spooky experience.

Three-word review: never have children.
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Taz
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Re: 538: Resident Evil Village

Post by Taz »

I'm such a big Resident Evil fan that I bought a Playstation 5 specifically for Village as I wanted to experience the best possible version of this game. I was especially fond of RE7 and so my hopes for this one were high.

I'm sorry to say that I found Village rather disappointing in the end. In my opinion, the game plays as if it had an unlimited budget and a design team with zero focus, who've thrown every possible idea at the wall in hope that some of them will stick. And plenty of them do stick, there's some great stuff in here. The opening, where the player is chased through the village by werewolves and has to barricade doors behind them to escape was terrifying – this was such a strong start, but the game doesn’t really do anything with this idea later. Any future levels with the werewolves play out like a traditional first person shooter, where the monsters are clearly just hanging around where the designers left them waiting for the player to come along, instead of actively chasing and hunting you as they were at the beginning. They were quickly relegated from a genuinely fearful enemy to just another thing for me to shoot.

Later on, in Lady Dimitrescu's castle, the game borrows the whole 'invincible antagonist' thing from Frictional Games but I don't think it’s well implemented here - those sections are very linear and there's no mechanics supporting that style of play, there’s no way to distract or get around Lady Dimitrescu or her daughters that I could ascertain, I just ran into them and took a hit to get passed them. They could have iterated on some of the ideas from the game’s opening here, couldn’t they? If the castle were a little more non-linear, like the village, and if some of the doors could be locked behind you to get away from the witches chasing you, I feel like that could have been a nice progression of those ideas introduced at the beginning of the game. It’s as if different designers worked on different parts of the game in total isolation from each other.

Next, the game has the obligatory P.T-like section where they take your guns away and a giant fetus chases you for a bit. I heard many people describe this level as a highlight, but I didn’t find it particularly scary or engaging and the puzzles were very simple. It's just so ham-fisted and contrived, to have this level dumped into the middle of what was otherwise a very action-focused experience. Then they give your guns back so you can fight clockwork cyborgs created by a man in a cowboy hat or something. It's like a horror tapas, with sections and ideas that are clearly borrowed from other horror games, played with for a short while and then dropped. Some of it works really well, and some of it doesn't. If I could wave a magic wand I'd throw half of the game away and then focus in on the good stuff, and develop some of those mechanics and sections that were used all too briefly.

And as for the plot - Resident Evil games tend to have a very strong opening and then cascade into total madness in the second half, it's all Secret Labs and moustache-twirling villains and I don't mind all that much, I'm not here for the story. But Village lost me straight away. When Chris Redfield guns down Mia at the start of the game, and then later inevitably reveals that it wasn't Mia after all because it was actually Miranda in disguise; why didn't he simply tell Ethan that at the time? I'll tell you why - it's so they could have a dramatic reveal halfway through the game. It's such a contrived twist, it's really stupid even by Resident Evil standards. I find Ethan to be a charisma vacuum and I’m not sure why exactly; it could be something as simple as the first person perspective, so I feel less of a connection with the character.

On a final note - Chris Redfield lecturing the player on shape-shifters when he looks totally different in every single game he's in is delightfully ironic.
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AGoodJo
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Re: 538: Resident Evil Village

Post by AGoodJo »

I am not super experienced with the Resident Evil games, having only played RE7 and RE2 Remake before Village came out. This game was a great roller coaster ride after the survival horror style of RE7, but the story did lose me towards the end, especially with the fake out death of Ethan, which is a particular pet peeve of mine in most stories.

The quality of the game wildly fluctuated between areas, with Moreau's lake section feeling almost unfinished and Heisenbergs factory section feeling a little bloated to me, while the Beneviento and Dimitrescu areas were fantastic. However, the gameplay and light puzzle solving pulled me through to the end with ease. I hope that RE9 can strike more of a balance between RE8 and RE7s styles, however I am worried that Capcom will repeat past mistakes and think that they have to go BIGGER and BETTER and MORE ACTION and MORE STORY with the sequel, especially with the implications of the ending tease of this game.
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Fermis Parasol
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Re: 538: Resident Evil Village

Post by Fermis Parasol »

Resident Evil fascinates more as a continuing series than any individual game. Where was there to go after the original trilogy nuked a city but soft camp. And so RE IV redefined the genre from survival horror to suspenseful action (almost like a Dark Souls precursor in its emphasis on tactical combat) in a Spanish village, but with jokes. From there, RE had nowhere tonally to go so was reduced to mimicking popular gameplay mechanics with its Gears of War type shooting in REV and it's "all of the above" style for REVI.

It wasn't until RE had gone full circle that it could find itself back at its beginning with REVII, which was both a return to form with its haunted house setting and a (less welcome) departure with its film-influenced torture porn. With the remakes taking the space for a followup to REVII along the lines of REII and REIII, we find ourselves yet again at a thinly veiled reinterpretation of REIV for RE Village.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed almost every minute of Village. The level design, enemy diversity, puzzles, weapon scarcity -- they are all perfectly calibrated to make the player feel capable but not invincible. To incentivize exploration and upgrades. The plot is absurd and a tad too self-serious for my taste, but to each their own. It's better than Devil May Cry and Monster Hunter.

What I fear is what comes next. Capcom can't simply update gameplay mechanics with this series like its others. People expect a story, characters, and intriguing environment. With Village over and the actual REIV remake near completion, are we back to REV and REVI? The horror... The horror...
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Hyperdeath84
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Re: 538: Resident Evil Village

Post by Hyperdeath84 »

Resident Evil Village is something of an oddball entry for me with some incredible highs and disappointing lows. Protagonist Ethan Winters feels like he has a bit more agency and personality this time round but still isn’t anywhere near as compelling as Leon, Claire or Jill. As with RE7 he is set against a fun group of crazed monster people who contrast strongly with his rather flat personality. The standout among these is clearly everyone’s favourite giantess Lady Demitrescu, though all the antagonists are pretty distinct in their own way. The game is divided into very clear chapters with Ethan venturing into the domains of each boss character and defeating them in turn. The upside to this a great deal of variety, with Demitrescu’s ghastly castle pairing nicely with Beneviento’s terrifying escape room scenario. The downside is that that throwing so many things into one game makes it feel jumbled and it descends into action schlock and a tedious back end that nearly soured me on the whole experience.
Spoiler: show
The Heisenberg boss fight on the hardest difficulty is one of the most frustrating gaming experiences I’ve had in recent memory, one that seems to depend on luck to win. If you don’t happen to damage his limbs before he gets to you, you’re pretty much screwed and it doesn’t feel like you accomplish this by skill at all. The fact that the boss fight is a ludicrous tank battle is bad enough, but making it so unforgiving just feels insulting to those who like to play RE on their hardest modes as that is usually the best way to experience them. Not so with Village. The Mother Miranda fight is also very frustrating and she takes a mountain of ammo to defeat in a fight that really felt unfair on that difficulty. The Chris section is also incredibly unwelcome and highlights how modern RE games can’t make machine guns feel good to use at all. The machine guns in 7, 3 Remake and this all feel awful and underpowered and make me wish for the reliable punch of a good shotgun instead. I’m also getting entirely sick of Chris Redfield being the mascot of this franchise despite being far and away the least interesting and likeable of all the main characters. There’s just nothing to him beyond the most basic grizzled soldier template and I wish they’d let Jill or someone else take over as the linking feature going forward.
Overall Village is a fun time so long as you don’t slog through it on the hardest mode, it has good enemy variety, some incredible environments and fun callbacks to earlier entries. Yet it also feels like it’s trying to be too many things at once and has some fairly egregious sections towards the end. The recent announcement of a 3rd person mode and a DLC that is designed in 3rd person makes me wonder if this is the last of the 1st person mainline RE games for the foreseeable future. If the RE4 remake does well (and let’s be honest, unless they totally screw it up, it will) then I think RE7 and 8 might stand out as a pair of interesting experiments in gaming’s premiere horror franchise.

3 word review:
Fun but disjointed
Tbone254
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Re: Our next podcast recording (24.9.22) - 538: Resident Evil Village

Post by Tbone254 »

The change to first person in Resident Evil VII was a pretty welcome change, but it was hampered by some rather boring combat, uninteresting characters, middling level design, and downright abysmal enemy variety. It made VII feel more like a proof of concept rather than a fully funded game from one of the most revered horror series in the medium. WIth Village, though, Capcom really hit its stride. Combat sees a big improvement here. I feel like this is a bit of a controversial change, but I thoroughly enjoyed the more actiony parts of Village. Enemy variety received a massive boost. I do feel like there could be even more variety, but I was happy with what was created.

The real highlight of Village for me was the characters. They’re campy, over the top, and excessive in all the right ways. It seemed everyone fell in love with Lady Dimitrescu when she was initially revealed, and rightfully so, she’s wonderfully designed, but I think Karl Heisengurg, Donna Beneviento, Salvatore Moreau, and the Duke are equally as impressive. Personally, I think the Duke is my favorite character design in years. The weak link for character design in Village comes from Ethan Winters himself, he’s pretty much just a generic dude, with all the personality of a 2X4.

Village’s story is a bit of a low point if taken in isolation. But I think the gameplay, characters, and level design more than make up for what is a pretty meh story. Ultimately, I had a ton of fun exploring these gorgeous environments and characters while blasting away at werewolves, vampires, and weird fish monsters.
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