Resident Evil Village Review: How Capcom Made One of the Series' Best Games 25 Years Later

The Resident Evil series has always been a mark of quality for Capcom. Not every installment pleased everyone, but these games have stayed in players' memories for decades. Each entry tried to bring something new and surprise us in its own way. Did Resident Evil Village manage to do the same? Surprisingly, yes. That is exactly what we are going to talk about in this review.The game originally launched in 2021 and later received the Winters' Expansion and a Gold Edition, but this review focuses on Ethan Winters' main campaign.

Capcom Threw Everything Into the Pot

The events of Village directly continue the story of Resident Evil 7 biohazard, so once again we return to the Winters family. We step back into the shoes of Ethan, who somehow manages to find himself at the center of another nightmare. To save his daughter Rose, he has to survive the village, deal with its monstrous inhabitants, and uncover the truth behind what is happening there.This time, the developers did not try to invent an entirely new formula. Instead, the game mixes mechanics, ideas, and moods from several previous Resident Evil titles and blends them together into something that still feels surprisingly coherent.

Resident Evil 4 featured a very similar merchant system

First of all, Resident Evil 4 clearly contributed several familiar ideas: the grid-based inventory, a merchant, treasure hunting, and weapon upgrades. Even some locations and situations feel deliberately familiar. Ethan's first major encounter in the village follows a recognizable rhythm. You deal with one enemy, then suddenly find yourself trying to survive against an entire mob. The reservoir, the windmills, and the gigantic aquatic monster also make it difficult not to remember Leon's old adventure.Castle Dimitrescu, meanwhile, evokes the original Resident Evil and its Spencer Mansion. You wander through ornate corridors, unlock new routes, search for key items, and solve puzzles that gradually open more of the location. Most puzzles are not especially difficult. Sometimes the required clue is sitting almost next to the mechanism itself, while other riddles ask the player to perform only a few simple actions.

Alcina Dimitrescu became the face of Resident Evil Village's marketing campaign

House Beneviento deserves special mention. For much of this section, Ethan is deprived of his weapons and has to find a way out almost defenseless. This creates yet another genre shift. The game suddenly turns into a more traditional helpless horror experience where the protagonist cannot simply solve every problem with a shotgun. It is hard not to remember games such as Outlast 2, where hiding and running away are often more useful than fighting.Exploration also recalls the Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 remakes. You methodically inspect rooms for key items and supplies, while the map helps show which areas still contain something worth finding. Locked doors, puzzles, lockpick opportunities, and other points of interest constantly give you a reason to return to places you have already visited.The cherry on top is a separate episode close to the finale where the gameplay almost completely turns into a military shooter. Call of Duty with monsters. There is really no better way to describe it.

Playing as Chris turns the game into a loud attraction full of gunfire and explosions

So How Does It Actually Play?

First of all, players expecting the same constantly growing sense of fear as in Resident Evil 7 should adjust their expectations. Horror takes a back seat for a large part of Village. The atmosphere is different this time. There are still several excellent scares, and House Beneviento in particular knows exactly how to make the player uncomfortable, but most of the campaign leans much harder into large-scale action and fights against different creatures.Even many of the bosses are not particularly difficult once you understand what the game wants from you. That does not mean every encounter can be solved by simply shooting the enemy in the head. Different bosses still have specific vulnerable areas and mechanics. Moreau exposes the human part of his body, Heisenberg has obvious weak points during his mutated form, and several other encounters demand their own approach. Still, the overall formula is usually straightforward: avoid the dangerous attacks, identify the vulnerable point, and pour ammunition into it whenever the opportunity appears.Mother Miranda is the fight most likely to punish an unprepared player. Arriving with almost no healing items and very little ammunition can make the finale considerably more painful. With a healthy supply of resources, however, the same basic rule still applies: keep moving, learn the attack patterns, and use every safe opening to deal damage.

Mother Miranda is the final and most dangerous opponent in the main campaign

Alongside the loud firefights, Ethan desperately needs the resources scattered around the world. Ammunition, crafting materials, money, and useful items are easy to overlook if you rush from objective to objective. Doing so can leave you almost empty-handed at the worst possible moment. This becomes especially noticeable on Village of Shadows, the highest difficulty, where enemies are far more dangerous and poor resource management can turn a simple encounter into a disaster.

Off to the Village

Some fans may be disappointed to discover that, despite the enormous marketing campaign built around Lady Dimitrescu, Ethan does not actually spend that much of the game with her. She dominates one major section, but she is not the main antagonist. The journey introduces several other characters who are just as important to the plot and gradually reveal what is really happening in the village.Environmental destruction is also quite limited. You can smash crates, vases, windows, and a number of other smaller objects, but most of the scenery itself remains completely static. The shooting and movement physics do not always feel particularly convincing either. Still, the developers put a great deal of work into the objects and interiors surrounding Ethan.The room design leaves an excellent impression, while the wider world successfully creates the feeling of an isolated Eastern European countryside. Homes are packed with patterned dishes, embroidered fabrics, bright curtains, old furniture, and other tiny details that make the locations feel lived in rather than assembled from generic horror assets. Anyone who grew up around similar Eastern European interiors will probably recognize more than a few familiar touches. All that is missing is the classic carpet hanging on the wall.Then the traveling merchant known as the Duke eventually fixes even that omission. Better late than never.

Yes, Resident Evil Village eventually gives us a wall carpet too

Capcom was not afraid to experiment, and the result is one of the strongest Resident Evil games in the series. Village constantly changes its tone and style, sometimes feeling like survival horror, sometimes like Resident Evil 4, and sometimes like a full-scale action game. That variety makes it accessible not only to hardcore fans who love oppressive horror, but also to players who simply want an atmospheric action adventure with puzzles, exploration, and monsters. And by the end, Village also reveals important details connecting Mother Miranda, Ozwell E. Spencer, and the origins of the ideas that eventually led to Umbrella. Five years later, the game still holds up remarkably well.

9/10

NOWGAME SCOREVerdict

A quick look at the game’s strengths and weaknesses.

Pros

• Excellent atmosphere and memorable art direction
• Strong mixture of exploration, action, puzzles, and horror
• Distinct locations that constantly change the pace of the campaign
• Satisfying weapon upgrades, treasure hunting, and resource management
• House Beneviento remains one of the game's strongest horror sections
• Plenty of connections to earlier Resident Evil games without simply copying them

Cons

• Horror often gives way to straightforward action
• Many puzzles are too simple
• Several boss fights are easier and more predictable than they initially appear
• Lady Dimitrescu has much less screen time than the marketing suggested
• Environmental destruction and physics are fairly limited
• The constant shifts between horror and action may not appeal to fans of Resident Evil 7's slower style