Resident Evil Village Review: Belonging to Ethan&Middleot; The Legend of Winters

Do you still remember the heated discussion sparked by the release of Resident Evil 7 (hereinafter referred to as Resident Evil 7) at the E3 exhibition in 2016? At that time, game discussion groups of all sizes instantly exploded - first person+new protagonists. This game, which is named "7" as the orthodox sequel to the series, how can it relate to the series that has a long history of more than 20 years. With suspicion and curiosity, the player delves into the Beck's mansion in the suburbs of Louisiana and experiences a biochemical crisis that belongs to ordinary people.

It was this crisis that made everyone know Ethan Winters. He ventured alone in Longtan, resolved the crisis within a day, and rescued his wife. The iconic hand washing and blood recovery, as well as the easy recovery of broken hands and feet, make players affectionately refer to Ethan as the "God of Hand Washing War". With this game alone, Ethan's image has deeply penetrated people's hearts.

So when "Resident Evil Village" (hereinafter referred to as "Village") was officially released, players found that Ethan was once again caught up in a conspiracy and could not live the good life they hoped he would have. Everyone would feel that he was just too miserable. Even the authorities collectively refer to "Resident Evil 7" and "The Village" as "The Tragedy of Ethan Winters," and state that the new work will come to an end to this tragedy, creating an atmosphere that vaguely characterizes Ethan's fate.

However, rather than being the tragic end, it can be said that "The Village" is a legend belonging to Ethan Winters. Ethan's spirit of putting his loved ones to death and struggling to survive in this work is even more admirable and touching.

Still "bio"

Capcom continues to adopt a first person approach in Village, which is controversial among players. Apart from some who are not physically adapted to this perspective, there are also opinions that traditional fixed or off the shoulder perspectives are more suitable for "Resident Evil.". However, looking at the cumulative sales of the company's games listed on Capcom's official website, it can be seen that "Resident Evil 7" is the best-selling single game in the series (excluding subsequent high-definition versions, full versions, etc.), reaching 8.5 million (as of the end of 2020), and it is also the second best-selling game in the company's history. Therefore, at least for Capcom, "Resident Evil 7" is definitely a successful game, and it is expected that the sequel will continue to use the first person version.

Since "Resident Evil 7", Capcom has been striving to bring the series back to its original style of puzzle solving and horror. If "Resident Evil 7" is an attempt to combine new perspectives and old elements, "Village" is a work presented by the production team to let the new and old "Resident Evil" characteristics blend perfectly, and then incorporate the characteristics of the over the shoulder perspective series.

The village serves as the stage for this work, running through the entire story. Players start from the village and head to the headquarters of the four major lords. After defeating each lord, they will return to the village. At this time, the environment of the village will change over time, and new enemies and storylines will appear. At the end of the story, the village will become the endpoint of everything, which is exactly the intention of using "village" as a subtitle in this work.

The several lords in the game can be said to represent the different environments and gameplay that the series has portrayed along the way. Lord Dimitrescu's castle is like the first generation mansion and the second generation police station, decorated with grandeur and intricate internal structures, with hidden secrets in dark corners. Most importantly, they all have intricate puzzle designs - this is not a derogatory term. If the various strange puzzle props (statues, medals, gems) and scenes of the second generation police station still do not match, the repeated exploration and finding of the way in medieval castles is extremely fitting to the characteristics, and also makes the repeated exploration of the scene new.

Lord Moro represents the nauseating monsters and scene designs in the series: windmill settlements submerged in mud and lake water, as well as the large number of eyeballs rotating behind the fully bodied Moro, making people feel physically uncomfortable; Lord Heisenberg's factory is like a large industrial base visited by late 5th generation players, surrounded by massive manufacturing machinery. The rampaging monsters have semi mechanical flesh and blood bodies, and are also shaped into powerful biological weapons by virus infections.

The most surprising level is none other than the one between Donna and Lord Anji. Although this process is only about 20 minutes long and there are no combat scenes, it contributes to even the scariest scenes in the series. In an unarmed situation, players have to engage in a series of puzzles in a dilapidated mansion. Weak light cannot illuminate the corners shrouded in darkness, and the whispers of dolls in their ears and half open doors are enough to make players shiver. However, the game does not use rigid and numerous horror points for bombing, but instead uses restrained atmosphere rendering to make players tense their nerves. The giant baby monster that comes out after a power outage is even more frustrating. It emits the sound of a baby crying and crawls towards players in the narrow corridor. The flashing red emergency light only shows its outline, and unarmed players can only be frightened and run wildly

With the support of excellent game content, the power of the RE engine is demonstrated. The richness of details in the game room is amazing, and the exquisite level of the screen is even higher when ray tracing is turned on; The performance of the distant view is no longer just a simple texture. Players can directly see the scenery of the Lord's base on the other side of the map, and it can be walked step by step. This kind of immersive exploration is also rare in the series.

In this situation, it is obvious that the first person is the best form of experience. The enemy's gaze in the game is fixed on the character, which is equivalent to staring at the player outside the screen. The player's field of view is smaller than the over shoulder perspective, and they cannot see the situation behind and on both sides, bringing a terrifying immersive experience for all to see.

In addition to the main storyline, the game also provides a considerable amount of side content in the form of treasure maps, further increasing the player's exploration time. These side content each have their own characteristics, which will not make people feel repetitive and irritable, and the experience is extremely comfortable.

However, the rewards given by exploration in this game are too rich, and even in high difficulty, players will receive a large amount of resource materials. Unlike in Resident Evil 7, where ammunition levels need to be kept in mind at all times, Ethan in Village is a humanoid walking arsenal, and even Chris is willing to give up when he sees it. The village at the beginning and the fortress in the later stages have placed a large number of enemies, as well as sufficient ammunition for players to kill happily. For this reason, the vast majority of levels in the game are not too scary. Apart from the fact that Jump Scare itself has much less content than Resident Evil 7, sufficient ammunition also reduces the sense of fear - even if there are powerful enemies ahead, players still have a sense of security in holding weapons, so they will not be so afraid.

Compared to the slightly suffocating indoor battles in the previous installment, "Village" significantly increased the level of excitement in the battles. Ethan has mastered eighteen martial arts skills this time, ranging from ordinary pistols and shotguns to powerful sniper guns and Magreens. He can easily control them and can also purchase new high firepower weapons from merchants for customized upgrades. Although the shooting experience may not be as good as traditional FPS games, players are made aware of the unique features of each weapon through delicate triggers and vibration feedback.

The types of enemies in "Village" are also more diverse than in the previous game. As the main enemy, werewolves are agile enough to dodge Ethan's bullets, move quickly, and engage in collective combat. High difficulty werewolves can even surround Ethan's back and launch surprise attacks. The semi mechanical enemies in the factory have indestructible steel bodies, but their hearts are exposed in front or behind them, and they must concentrate their firepower to shoot the hearts in order to quickly eliminate them. Enemies will always use their hands to protect their hearts, which requires players to use a restraining weapon to hit them hard and straight, and then wrap their backs to output.

Compared to Resident Evil 7, which is more experimental and relies on DLC to enrich its content, Village is more like a complete work. The additional mercenary mode added after clearance allows players to find memories of brushing and brushing back then. The mercenary mode of this game includes four maps, each of which consists of several small levels. After killing a certain number of enemies in each small level, you can directly go to the teleportation gate to enter the next level, or you can choose to eliminate all the enemies before leaving, which is similar to the raid mode in Resident Evil Revelation 2.

In mercenary mode, players can search for and smash yellow light balls as usual to increase remaining time. This game also adds a blue light ball with random ability to choose from three, allowing players to randomly match attack power, health, and other content, making the fun of each challenge possible to be different.

However, the map structure of each small level is very single, and the scale is not large, unlike the previous mercenary mode of constantly challenging to find the optimal route solution. The enemy configuration is also relatively monotonous. Although killing enemies can earn time bonuses, due to the absence of physical skills, combo attacks can only be achieved by shooting enemies with guns, losing the rich gameplay of previous physical skills schools, which is somewhat regrettable.

The Legend of Ethan

Before Resident Evil 7, the main characters in the orthodox series were mostly characters from the first two generations or new members related to them. In contrast, Ethan Winters is a special presence who, as the series becomes increasingly "idol action blockbuster", portrays from an ordinary person's perspective what a biochemical crisis would look like when it occurs on a small scale around him.

Ethan doesn't have the agile skills of the big shots like Christian Lyon. He will be afraid of enemies that are too strong. What drives these ordinary people to fight is not only the desire for survival, but also the heart to protect important people. Therefore, "The Village" once again uses this as a motivation, allowing Ethan to stick to his beliefs. The price of this battle is to make Ethan's battle extremely brutal, and I even feel that Capcom is intentionally "abusing" Ethan.

Although Ethan had his hand and leg broken in Resident Evil 7, it only happened at the beginning of the game, and the enemies in the subsequent process did not have the ability to kill the characters. In "The Village," Ethan can be said to be brutally beaten from head to toe - starting with three fingers bitten off by a werewolf; Dragged by an arrow through his leg; Hanging both hands through, forcefully pulling the blade from the palm with the weight of the body and cutting half of the hand; The right hand was instantly cut off by the Countess; Falling from a height of several tens of meters to the ground... When playing, I have repeatedly muttered to myself, "Big brother is too miserable, this is too cruel, can't bear it anymore, don't hit." This makes people feel that because Ethan "doesn't have the burden of idols," he can easily toss around - although it's a bit uncomfortable - it has made players empathize with Ethan's tragic experience, at least experiencing the physical pain.

However, even in the face of such a devastating crisis that devastated his body and mind, Ethan still did not give up. When the four lords and the Virgin Miranda appeared to discuss how to skinne Ethan and cramp him, Ethan did not back down. He angrily cursed at these powerful beings, rejected the proposal that the enemy's enemy is a friend, and chose to find his daughter on his own. At the same time, he will be saddened by the tragic experiences of the villagers and doubt his own abilities. The love for his daughter enabled him to grit his teeth and persevere, even on the brink of death. It was this love that allowed Ethan to stand up again and continue fighting, facing the tragic end.

This kind of in-depth portrayal of characters is rare in the series, allowing players to empathize and feel Ethan's emotions from the bottom of their hearts, rather than half jokingly saying jokes like "Iron Fist Invincible Chris" - after all, with so many positive depictions in the works, it is difficult for players to accept old characters who are not agile and may shrink back, so ordinary newcomer Ethan has become the best choice.

But on second thought, this method of shaping characters cannot continue endlessly, after all, it is not a good idea to constantly abuse Ethan or make Ethan capable of blocking a hundred. Ethan has already created a complete character arc through Resident Evil 7 and Village, allowing players to accept his way of ending their own story. Therefore, perhaps the best way to end Ethan's story is through Village.

As the orthodox work of the Resident Evil series, Village not only fills in the plot doubts left by Resident Evil 7 (such as why Ethan recovers no matter how he is beaten), but also touches on the core of the series. The unexpected storyline in the final stage makes me exclaim, "How dare you make it up?" The game also uses acceptable scientific evidence to explain why monsters such as vampires, werewolves, fishmen, moving puppets, and metal controlled Heisenberg appear in the game. I have worked very hard.

However, compared to Ethan's successful portrayal, the depiction of the other characters in "The Village" is not very sufficient. Mia's appearance is too few, more like a vase character; The suspicion of Chris's rebellion in the trailer has sparked heated discussions, and the game cover even combines Chris and Werewolf, giving the impression that he will be blackened out. The gimmicky promotion actually shows that Chris's story in the game is not surprising, and there may even be a feeling of inconsistency between his actions, which is truly regrettable.

Rather than being the eighth orthodox work in the Resident Evil series, "Village" is more of a story belonging to Ethan Winters. Capcom has successfully portrayed a tragic hero who is willing to sacrifice himself for love, even if you haven't played any works before Resident Evil 7. Village is enough to bring you an excellent experience.