From Bioweapons, mutants & blood-curdling monsters to Zombies, Chimeras & Spine-Chilling Adventures, Resident Evil Series has came long way, and taken the horror survival genre to another level. Earlier this year, Capcom released Resident Evil Village which was not only successful but stupendously remarkable making it one of the most successful games of the Year. The title won Reddit’s Game of the Year, four Golden Joystick Awards and One The Game Award with nominations in 6 different categories for The Game Awards 2021.
In its previous titles Capcom not only kept its focus the on a single story line but also maintained the success of the franchise and kept the story streamlined. But since Resident Evil Biohazard, Capcom revamped people’s perspective of Horror Survival Genre and setting the bar to the next level.
Storyline and Gameplay
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Resident Evil Village picks up the story a later after where it was left in its prequel Resident Evil Biohazard. Ethan and Mia Winters are living peacefully with their new born baby, Rosemary somewhere in Eastern-Europe. Even though Mia don’t want to remember what happened at Bakers Estate, those horrors are still haunting Ethan to this date. A small fight breaks among them as Mia tries to tell Ethan that she don’t want to remember the past and as they speak, Chris Redfield and his team storms their house, kills Mia, knocks Ethan out and kidnaps their daughter Rosemary. After a while, Ethan wakes up & finds himself injured in a car crash in the middle of a snowstorm and that’s where the game lets you precede to the enigmatic and adrenaline-fuelled experience.
Just like any other classic Resident Evil title, you start with a standard pistol and works your way up by gathering the useful resources you will find across the game and utilising them in manner that helps you survive in horrendous situations that the game will certainly put you in. The game not only lets you wander around to explore the places but allows you to interact with the multiple stuff across the game making it as engaging as possible while maintaining the thrill and the feeling of trepidation. The aiming and shooting mechanism is quite impressive even after considering the facts that the enemies and monsters are not easy to kill. The character can survive a number of hits and incoming damage but the best way to handle it is to keep moving around and persevering ways to solve the puzzles and keeping yourself alive.
Each location in the game is different and culminating in its own way. If considering the Village alone, it will be appropriate to say that every part of it is unique and creates a whole new experience no matter which part you explore. The player need to explore concealed and uncharted places across the map while withstanding the attacks of various monsters. However, the encounters drastically starts to diminish as the character finds his way to the castle where you will find Lady Dimitrescu.
Monsters
The encounters with monsters across are the game are overwhelming and excruciating. The very first monster player will stumble across be lycans. These ferocious werewolves looking like monsters will be as annoying as they can be. Though Rare, some lycans can be armed with ranged weapons. As you find you way to the castle, the treacherous dangers awaits you. You will have to defeat several monsters like Moroaică, Samca, Soldat Eins and what not. If you thought that this is all you can manage, you’ve got another thing coming. On the contrary of all these monsters, Lady Dimitrescu and her Daughters are not worth taking the risk. You can’t kill Lady Dimitrescu but you surely can run from her. There will be tasks and puzzles to solve while being chased by Lady Dimitrescu that are needed to accomplished by making proficient decisions. Her Daughters are as tedious and as exasperating they can be as well. Though they can’t be killed simply by shooting bullets but they can be forced into dispersing into a cloud of flies by doing so.
Inventory and Story Progress
When compared to the last titles, Inventory management is surely surpassing. Picking up important Items to ascend the storyline doesn’t mean you will have to sacrifice the space for weapons & other items. You can buy a number of items from a merchant you will find in game known as The Duke. He is an important aspect of the story as he helps Ethan to rescue his daughter. You can also find several treasures across the game and can be sold to him in exchange of the in game currency.
In game progress can be saved on Typewriters which can be found as various levels across the game saving players from the hassle of worrying about losing the hard earned progress. Resident Evil Biohazard had the tape recorders for saving the progress but Capcom implemented the typewriters instead that can be seen in the last two remake titles which firstly appeared in the game in Resident Evil 4.
After finishing the storyline in the game, an extra content shop is unlocked where you can purchase a number of things like special weapons, Infinite Ammo, In game Character figures, Concept Arts, Picture Books, and a lot of stuff. Capcom also planned to release Resident Evil Re: Verse, an online only Multiplayer title along side with Resident Evil Village but it is delayed to 2022 without any confirmed release date.
Conclusion
Resident Evil Village is an exceptionally remarkable Game in the genre of Survival horror packed obnoxiously horrifying characters and and troublesome tasks & puzzles in the game. Capcom did it’s best to make sure that the game lives up to the expectation by maintaining the originality of the game with a hint of indispensable changes which not only made the gameplay but the storyline as astounding as possible and excites the fans even more not knowing what Resident Evil might surprise them with in the future.