We’ve played the demo for Resident Evil Village, watched the trailers and dreamed about being chased by Our Dear Tall Vampire Lady. Now, all that’s left to do is to read through the already published reviews to try to get the full picture of what the next installment of the Resident Evil franchise brings both to long-term fans and newcomers alike.
Though these reviews are spoiler-free, those wanting to go in completely blind should just know that the game holds a positive score of more than 80 out of 100 on Metacritic, for all the platforms the game’s available. The most flattering reviews point out how the game shines when it leans towards horror while bringing back the action sections a lot of fans missed on the last installment. Comparing both titles, Gamespot writes that “Resident Evil 7 was an excellent return to the horror underpinnings of the franchise, but cunningly altered with new ideas and a new perspective. Similarly, Village is an intelligent reintroduction of the best action elements of Resident Evil.”
In the same line, Vgames critic says that “Resident Evil Village is a love letter to old and new fans of the series, while including the style of puzzles of the old games with the newer action aspects of the series.” PC Gamer goes further to point how Resident Evil Village is “a grimly beautiful collection of killer horror set-pieces, with some of the most memorably grotesque enemies in Resi history.”
Not everything works perfectly in the new game, though, and even highly positive reviews, such as the one from Trusted Reviews, states that the action can be damaging to the horror atmosphere, since it’s hard to make the player feel defenseless but powerful at the same time. In Trusted Reviews’ critic, the outlet points out the only downside to Resident Evil Village “is that its increased focus on combat can make it feel a little too easy, even when played on the normal difficulty setting. If you’re looking to experience the true horrors on offer here, I suggest you crank up the difficulty.”
Rock, Paper, Shotgun is less forgiving with its review, underlining how the change of pace of the game makes it easier to realize some sections are better than others. In their review, we can read that “Resident Evil Village felt like it wanted to provide something for everyone, but to its own detriment. Those early bits which serve horror fans more were so, so good, and it was such a shame it lost sight of what made things engaging as it careered towards the end.” This disappointment is also shared by GamesRadar, which says that “a strong start and okay finish makes this average out as decent but not amazing installment.”
Resident Evil was always a strange franchise, filled with as many memorable moments as ridiculous ones. If Village is somewhat inconsistent, it seems the cause is that the franchise already walked so many different paths, it’s hard to put everything together in a satisfying way. Even so, most of the reviews state that the game is fun to play, besides its flaws, and that the positives strongly compensated for the negatives. As The Guardian points out in their review, Resident Evil was always a campy franchise, and its flaws are part of its charm, as “none of it really matters when you’re being chased up some stairs by a gigantic slime creature that giggles like a baby.”
Resident Evil: Village comes to PlayStation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Stadia, and PC on May 7. Look for our own video game editor's review coming as soon as he stops screaming!