One thing that I've felt dragging Resident Evil games down is the reliance on either tired zombie virus conspiracy plots or, when in doubt, going for an action movie vibe. While Resident Evil Village does that too to an extent, it also is a simple yet effective story about parenthood placed in the middle of a crazy horror trope extravaganza. And I like it.

The basic gameplay of Resident Evil: Village is very familiar to other Resident Evil games. There's stupidly elaborate door opening mechanism puzzles, limited resources, slow imposing enemies, kooky merchants and so on. Compared to it's predecessor, Resident Evil: Biohazard (that I really liked), I feel like Village has a lot more action going on. With this, I don't mean huge explosions and thrilling chase scenes but rather a lot more enemies and combat. In the beginning, I was a bit frustrated with how the combat felt and how much of it there was but as the game went on, I started to quite like the gunplay and selection of weapons. As seems to be the series tradition, there were some frustrating battles and clunky sections but for the most part the game was fun to play.

As for new ideas, Village goes for a bigger emphasis on exploration that is centered around, you guessed it, a village. The village is a sort of a hub that connects all four main areas together. Sadly, the areas need to be completed in order but it still feels like a nicely realised interconnected environment. Also, while the game doesn't go totally 'metroidvania' on you, many times you are rewarded for scouring through old places with new keys and key items.

As I foreshadowed in the beginning, Village doesn't rely on zombies and mutants. It has a whole array of horror cliches chasing you. You got werewolves, vampires, killer dolls, cyborgs, a huge sea monster... To me, this was really refreshing to see. I also feel the developers really got a kick of having so much more horror elements to work with instead of the usual zombie shenanigans. For example, the most memorable part of the game is this mind-bending house full of dolls in addition to a huge a killer fetus chasing you around. Not something you see every day. I also like how Village feels old-school in how it has four distinct bosses you need to take down to reach your goal. And fittingly the bosses are crazy larger-than-life presonalities.

The main story follows up on Ethan Winters' life after RE: Biohazard. In a smart move to counter the off-kilter horror craziness, the main story is a rather simple story of Ethan Winters desperately trying to get his kidnapped child back. Of course, in the end this ties into the horror cliche insanity and wider RE lore but I liked having something as down-to-earth as parenthood as the main main driving force behind the story. The story and the dialog have room improvement, though, and there's pretty flimsy moments here and there. For example the game starts with Ethan Winters' wife dying in front of him and it's kinda weird how little Ethan seems to react to this. The game also has a section where you briefly play as armed-to-the-teeth military meathead Chris Redfield and I was already fearing this dives in the same stupid tone-shift as RE: Biohazard did with its later parts. Luckily, this wasn't nearly as bad or long. Also, at times, the game is just so stupid that you realise it's meant to be like that. And sometimes not. It's a wild ride.

As for presentation, Resident Evil: Village looks really good. There's tons of well detailed environments that are nicely realised with the RE Engine. I played the game with ray tracing on and I think it contributed to some of the more intricate reflections. And on Series X, the game even runs smoothly with ray tracing on. On the audio side, I can't really remember any music from the game but the ambiance and sound design was immaculate at times. Who knew having floorboards suddenly creak near you could be so effective? And the aforementioned doll section of the game was nicely unnerving.

After RE: Village, it is insteresting to see where the series goes. This game was supposed to just be a sort of expansion RE: Biohazard but ended up being its own thing. And I'm glad it did. Maybe having got its start without the expectations and constraints of being a mainline entry contributed to its different vibe? Both RE: Biohazard and Village have been pretty much my favourite games in the series so I'm eagerly seeing if they can continue this streak of effective reinvention with the next entry. I think Village already has sown the seeds for a sequel with even more freedom and worthwhile exploration.

P.S. I also played the Shadows of Rose DLC and it was a nice addition to the overall package. It acts as a sort of epilogue to the main story of the game and offers nice closure to the whole "Ethan Winters saga". The gameplay is a bit more linear than in the main game but there's also some new mechanics and twists to be found. The DLC reuses environments from the base game and, surprise surprise, the "repurposed" doll section is once again the highlight. I guess designing that environment just got the developers really going.

I know what the title says, but first I feel like I should point out that I liked this game. Very much, actually. It's among the best in the franchise when it comes to most elements, especially gameplay and the gorgeous character designs.

I had a lot of fun throughout my whole playthrough but time and time again as I worked my way through I couldn't help but feel...disappointed. Like here Ethan is in this genuinely cool setting. All the enemies look great and for the most part feel pretty good to fight too (though they talked a little too much as I was filling them with lead.):

• Lady Dimitrescu was both intimidating and elegant. Really intriguing character.
• Donna Beneviento had an absolutely terrifying doll. She straight up gives me the creeps and I don't usually get that from dolls. Donna herself also practically embodies shadowy secrets, with her black veil and mysterious powers. I wondered what events could have molded her into the twisted character she is today.
• Moreau was pathetic in the best way possible. I really loved how the way he acts shows you the surprisingly hostile relationships the baddies have amongst themselves.
• Heisenberg struck me as something fresh for the series as soon as I saw him. A dude that can control magnetic fields? That's badass! While the others felt like they each embodied their own brand of horror (Gothic, Doll, and Lovecraftian respectfully), Heisenberg didn't seem to quite fit into any familiar horror media trope, which piqued my curiosity.

So what was the problem? Well, I think I might have set my expectations too high.

Because despite how awesome the big villains looked, this is unfortunately an RE game, and I have yet to find one that manages to deliver on great story and character writing without stumbling hard somewhere along the way (The last quarter of RE7 breaks my heart because we were so close to greatness). I wanted so badly for the villains to feel deep, but each boss encounter just felt shallow. Like I hadn't been given enough time to get to know the person I was fighting, you know? And then they were dead and it was time for the next big bad guy.

I would have loved for each villain's area to give me more about who they are and why they're here, because they're all so COOL looking! But each time it was just the ol' "Get through the puzzles to the boss with a note or two to give slight bits of background on your victim, maybe meet them once or twice along the way so they can threaten you, and then kill 'em and move on."

That's my only major gripe with the game, really. It left me hungry for more that I don't expect to get, unless they do it through DLC-- which shouldn't be a requirement to get solid development for the game's characters.

It's for sure among my favorites in the series, because despite the shortcoming in character development and some minor plot nitpicks, it was a fantastic ride. Maybe I'll pick it back up sometime to play through once more and make use of the unlockable weapons, because those looked really fun. I also have yet to play any of the Mercenary game modes in the franchise...