With Resident Evil Village reviews out in the wild, let’s walk through the verdicts and decipher what to expect come Friday.
The game is currently sitting at an 84 on Metacritic, with overall positive reviews. Here’s a look at a few of the reviews:
Game Informer gave Resident Evil Village a 9.25, praising the game’s polished combat, compelling narrative, and detailed environments. Here is what they had to say:
“Resident Evil Village is an impressive package. I loved the recent remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3, but I’m excited to see Capcom push the series forward again. Village expands on Resident Evil 7: Biohazard’s approach to first-person combat, offering a series of white-knuckle encounters that perfectly complement Capcom’s unnerving environmental design. Thankfully, Village’s amplified action doesn’t diminish its horror. If anything, Village maintains a sense of dread that few games can match. If you have the intestinal fortitude for intense terror, playing Resident Evil Village is a great way to check your pulse.“
Gamespot gave the game a 9, praising a wider variety of enemies compared to Resident Evil 7 and varied settings through the game’s runtime. The reviewer also noted that the final hour of the Village felt like an action set-piece inspired by Resident Evil 6 for better or worse. Here is their take:
“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. Though it captures some of the same things that made RE7 such a breath of fresh air (or maybe rancid, stale, mold-filled air, but in a good way), Village evolves to become its own unique creature. It makes you wonder what beautifully twisted fiend Resident Evil might mutate into in the future.“
IGN gave Village an 8, noting throw-backs to Resident Evil 4’s faster-paced action, with a few disappointing boss fights sprinkled in. Here is their verdict:
“Roaming the streets of Resident Evil Village is like visiting a disturbing and deadly Disneyland, where every attraction is a house of horrors. I got just as big a thrill out of revelling in its frenzied violence as I did retracing my steps through the gradually revealed recesses of its sizable village setting to uncover the darkest story secrets of its monstrous main cast. Boss fights are a bit of a letdown but the great variety of enemies throughout keeps things tense, especially on Hardcore mode. The fact that it’s very much a throwback to the fast-paced action of Resident Evil 4 also means it largely takes a step back from the slow-burn scares of Resident Evil 7’s excellent opening hours, which may well disappoint those who prefer more psychological dread to blowing off heads. But if you have an itch for action-heavy survival-horror, then Resident Evil Village will scratch it like a fistfull of Lady Dimitrescu’s freakish fingernails.”
Digitaltrends gave Village a 6, citing disappointment with the action-heavy focus of the back third of the game. Here’s what they had to say:
“Resident Evil Village is an uneven anthology of horror movie send-ups. Sometimes it offers a truly exciting vision of the series’ future with imaginative world-building and rewarding exploration. Other times, it’s a fairly run-of-the-mill shooter that struggles to provide any real stakes or tension. Those two tones are often at odds with one another, highlighting all of the franchise’s best and worst instincts in one eclectic package. Chalk it up to a quarter-life crisis.“
Based on reviews, here’s what to expect:
- A tense first half followed by an action-focused back half, similar to previous titles
- Average play-through of about 10 hours, with classic RE re-playability
- A mash-up of varying environments and settings – but don’t expect Lady D. to hang around too long
- Expanded enemy variants and RE-style guns
- Less scary than its RE 7 counterpart
We plan to play Resident Evil Village once it comes out on Friday. Check back next week for our review!
Gaming with the Bros 