After having my mind blown by Resident Evil 7, I was particularly excited to see what was next for the beloved horror series. I had experienced genuine fear, delightfully dreadful characters, and fantastic combat mechanics in first person, and the idea of more of this had me positively giddy. When I finally got the chance to play Resident Evil Village it just couldn’t live up to my expectations. I didn’t fear its characters, and the focus on action wasn’t what I really desired after 7. Now a few years later I want to give Resident Evil Village a second chance, and what better way to do so than with the Switch 2 version.
Following on from Resident Evil 7, Village opens with Ethan, Mia and their new baby Rose having a perfectly normal evening. This all comes to a crashing halt though when Mia is filled with lead and resident bland man Chris Redfield loads Ethan and Rose into the back of a van. One big crash later and you arrive in a Romanian village, that wouldn’t you know it is full of werewolves and other nasties. The four lords of this land have dismembered Rose for a ritual and she’s now in four pieces, which you try to get back to reassemble your daughter. It’s about as utterly unhinged as it sounds, and that’s before we introduce these four main antagonists.
The journey through Romania to take down these lords is pretty damn perilous, and that’s mainly down to the lords themselves. Anyone with access to the internet in 2021 will know of Lady Dimistrescu, the massive vampire lady that all the perverts obsess over. As an asexual gay man it’s a little hard to see the appeal, but she sure is tall and fancy. There’s also a puppeteer who leads you through a creepy doll’s house, a man who’s basically just Magneto, and a gross fish fella. Although they maybe aren’t quite as memorable as the previous Resi villains, they provide an interesting path through this twisted fairytale.
While the big bosses of Resident Evil Village are somewhat of a mixed bag, the same can’t be said for the more standard enemies. The lycans are ferocious, fast, and can leave you pretty damn overwhelmed if you’re not careful. There are plenty of moments where you’ll have to take down foes from all angles to survive, and the opening especially (which is clearly a nod in the direction of Resident Evil 4’s village survival sequence) makes you feel trapped by these almost unstoppable foes in a way that I wasn’t prepared for. Truly heartbreaking pounding stuff.
The sheer amount of enemies you face in Village means that combat is significantly faster paced than most Resident Evil games. Thankfully you have plenty of weapons at your disposal, each of them satisfying to use and fully upgradable. By taking the currency you find to The Duke (easily the best character in the game like The Merchant before him) you can upgrade firepower, rate of fire and ammo capacity to tune up your favourite firearms. It’s a satisfying process, and a good reason to explore the gorgeous world.
I could never deny that the titular village and surrounding areas are a joy to explore, and it’s packed full of goodies too. Everything from destroyable goat statues to crafting recipes can be found if you look carefully enough, and given you’ll want to find all the ammo and cash you can alongside this it’s worth checking every dead end. There are even plenty of optional puzzles and areas containing some seriously rare and valuable stuff, and especially if you’re playing on a harder difficulty you’ll need all the help you can get.
Once you’re done with the main game there’s still more to do, because on Switch 2 you’re getting the Gold Version of Resident Evil Village. The main chunk of bonus content is Mercenaries mode, which fans of the series will be more than familiar with. This arcade score attack mode is seriously fun, and features multiple stages and characters to unlock alongside upgrades to purchase mid run.
There’s also a piece of story DLC included in this package, which stars Rose as the protagonist and is set sixteen years after the main game. This is specifically set in third person, although that’s a little less novel now you can play the main game from both perspectives. It’s a fun piece of content that ties up some loose ends, and involves using special powers to fend off enemies instead of pure firepower. It doesn’t feel massively essential to play though, and doesn’t really last long enough to add much to the overall package.
I was a little hesitant to see how such a gorgeous sprawling game would run on the Switch 2, but for the most part it’s very well. There are noticeable framerate drops when you pan to a particularly impressive view or face a ton of enemies at once, but it wasn’t to a level that detracted from the game much for me at least. The visuals still look outstanding too, and I could barely tell they were a downgrade from home consoles on the smaller screen. Obviously for some the home console experience will be superior, but I think the small sacrifices are worth it to play such an impressive game on a handheld.
I enjoyed Resident Evil Village much more on my second playthrough, but it does still have some issues. There’s a distinct lack of horror if that’s what you’re looking for, and the action focus wasn’t really the direction I wanted for the series after 7. The individual chapters of the game are a little hit and miss too, with some of the lords having much more enjoyable sequences associated with them than others.
It may not be the sequel I was hoping for, but Resident Evil Village is undeniably a great horror action game. Fighting through hordes of werewolves simply doesn’t get old, and exploring the game’s gorgeous world is a delight. Getting to play through the whole thing on the Switch 2 was a wonderful experience too, and now I wouldn’t want to go wolf hunting anywhere else.
