Resident Evil Village PlayStation 5 review in progress
The story behind Capcom’s anticipated follow-up to the much-beloved horrorshow Resident Evil 7: Biohazard has been focused almost exclusively on the large and over-sexualised feet of one of its main antagonists, Lady Dimitrescu, but Resident Evil Village has much more to offer than big, hot vampires.
Digital Spy has been playing this nerve-wrenching new title on the PlayStation 5 for a few days now, creeping our way through the towering halls and snow-soaked streets of a village plagued by strange goings-on, never quite sure when the next danger will rush at us.
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We’re still working our way through it, so this is still a review in progress, but from what we have seen so far, this could be one of the best games in the franchise.
Resident Evil Village Next-gen Performance
As we said, we’ve been playing Village on the PlayStation 5 (though it's also available on the Xbox Series X, the previous generation of consoles, and PC), and were curious to see how the blood-soaked claws of our enemies would look with ray-tracing turned on.
We turned our settings up to the max, enabled HDR mode on our TV, and plunged into the hellscape below. And what we found was that, while everything looked truly horrifying, from blood-soaked corpses to rat-infested cupboards, visually, it’s a stunning game.
If you’ve played any of the previous Resident Evil games, you’ll know that you’re often funnelled into narrow corridors and small sections to hunt for precious resources or fight off some sort of awful monster.
Village’s five main locations serve for a good mixture of different settings, switching from a frost-bitten village full of abandoned shacks to an opulent manor house full of ornate statues and twisting corridors to an underground complex of ruins and temples.
Each of these sections were illuminated wonderfully, with the PS5 managing to maintain 60FPS throughout, all in 4K resolution. The ray-tracing was brilliant in low-light areas, with dampened cellar walls glistening in the gloom and only exacerbating our heebie-jeebies.
There’s a significant lack of interactivity with the DualSense controller, with no haptic feedback featured in any of your movements, and you don’t even get creepy noises coming from the built-in mic, so we were a tad disappointed at that.
We did wonder if there could have been more done visually to make certain parts of the game look a little more polished. Having soldiered our way through Demon’s Souls on our next-gen console, we couldn’t help but compare the dark, dingy dungeon-look between the two games.
It definitely looks gorgeous, and the sudden emergence of a shuffling demon from the shadows looks as good as it ever has, but there certainly could be more from your surroundings.
Resident Evil Village Story
While Lady Dimitrescu might be taking up the vast majority of the marketing for this game, she’s actually one of four main Lords you’ll be taking on.
The game takes place six years after the events of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, and sees you return to Ethan Winters. Despite his traumatic experience throughout that game, he must now venture out to save his daughter, who has been taken by the mercurial Chris Redfield, a towering figure from the franchise.
As you’ve come to expect, the odds are most definitely stacked against you, as seemingly immortal monsters, vampires, and ghosts attempt to stop you from working your way through the village to save Rose, your daughter.
You’ll slowly work your way through this nightmare world, picking up weapons and resources to help you survive, and eventually running into the 9ft 6in vampire who had fans a little hot under the collar when she was first revealed.
But don’t worry, she isn’t your main target, as you must hunt for Mother Miranda, a mysterious, crow-like woman who holds the village’s faith and worship.
To get to her, you’ll have to fight against the super-powered domains of Karl Heisenberg (a telekinetic, hammer-wielding torturer who looks as though he’s stepped right out of Bloodborne), Salvatore Moreau (a shrouded, hunched figure who can be found at the reservoir), and Donna Beneviento (a widower who manipulates her truly horrifying doll dressed up as a bride).
The Resident Evil franchise has been a long, complex, and twisting story and we must say we found it hard to remember the events that have led us to this point. Fans of the series will love the odd reference and surprise cameos, while first-timers will simply enjoy a shock-filled ride through the world of genetically enhanced monsters.
Resident Evil Village Gameplay
As with all tight-chested horrors in the Resi franchise, the terror comes with just how underprepared and under-resourced you are throughout your journey. Bullets are scarce and enemies require several blasts to the face before dying, prompting you to pick your battles carefully.
At no point do you feel safe as you creep down corridors with an ever-growing sense of dread, armed only with a knife, a handful of bullets and your own rattling nerves to help you survive.
You’re constantly harassed by crunches, groans, and maniacal cackles from distant rooms while creeping to your various objectives. Our shoulders were hunched and our palms drenched each time we approached a closed door that hid a low, murmuring wail, or the clipping of a giant villainess’ heels behind it.
The fear is ever-present, and gave us some of the more memorable shocks that we can remember from previous games. Enemies roam the world in unpredictable patterns, and can appear behind any corner, slowly advancing on you as if they are cut from the same menacing cloth as Nemesis or Mr X.
As before, there’s a simple crafting system to scavenge together bullets and salves to miraculously cure your wounds, and you can always visit the bloated Baron to purchase weapon upgrades and a few trinkets to help you on your way.
Other than that, you’ll have to find your bullets in smashable boxes or planted remotely across the world. You’d better hope you don’t miss those bullets, as a stray shot can be the difference between life and death.
Resident Evil Village Verdict
Returning to the world of Resident Evil after the well-made Biohazard is an exciting and nerve-wracking venture, even if you’re a die-hard fan well used to the tropes of the horror genre, and we plunged right in, with no hesitation, to find out what happens in the story next.
Ignoring the thirsty fans who might only be playing this to glimpse at Lady Dimitrescu, there’s plenty of fun to be hard in Village. The main story is fairly long (we’ve sunk about 15 hours into our play-through and are not quite at the end yet) and there are plenty of nooks and crannies to explore if you’ve got the guts for it.
We won’t pretend like we understood the plot, as it follows the same confusing pattern of betrayal and surprise appearances that are rife in the franchise, but we loved fighting our way through this dense world and learning about its horrible occupants, even as we blew their heads off.
Boss battles are suitably epic and deranged, and we often found ourselves picking our jaw from the floor as each matchup unfurled before us - seriously, this is gory and utterly bananas, a perfect cocktail to spook out a reaction from even the most stoic of gamers.
This game manages to find new ways to thrill, excite, and stomp all over your poor, terrified little heart – which we suppose is great for people who have that sort of kink. Whatever floats your boat, we suppose.
Resident Evil Village is available from May 7 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Google Stadia, Microsoft Windows.
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