At a time when there are almost no other major releases, Village fired harder than expected. I am laying out on the shelves why this happened and whether the new Resident Evil is so good.

Yes, I was not here for a long time, I had to do all sorts of adult and important things. But, nevertheless, all this time I closely followed what was happening in the gaming industry. Yes, there are so few major releases this year that even some gaming sites (forbidden to be mentioned here) have collapsed. For this reason, “Resident” was expected by everyone with impatience. Come out at the same time with other major projects, the alignment was completely different. Moreover, horror games are not very popular. Although we will talk about the “horror” of the new “Eldritch Blast 5e“.

So the CAPCOM clap in an empty room was a real explosion. The digital space is bursting with G8 content of varying degrees of quality. The Internet is saturated with this game so much that any mention of it causes a clearly tangible rejection. And here it is extremely important to find a person who could put everything on the shelves without unnecessary equivocations, tell about the game competently, efficiently and quickly. Congratulations, you have found such a person. It’s me.

Atmosphere

The first impression is the most important. So they say. The judgment is controversial, because, as you know, they are seen off according to the mind. Be that as it may, in the first location I could not get rid of the thought that the game reminds me very much of the last part of the Metro game series. Snow-covered paths, dilapidated houses and wretched utensils did not just breathe, but the barrel of “Exodus”. I was still waiting for the voice of Colonel Melnikov to come from the radio and the creatures would begin to creep out of the nearest ditch. The latter, by the way, did not keep themselves waiting long. In short, the atmosphere in this game is as follows.

The events of the “Village” unfold somewhere in the Romanian outback. This is hinted at by the local currency. Hence the devastation, climate and other familiar pictures. I will not stoop to speculations about the depths of the Russian soul and its perception of such landscapes, I will only say that the local bareness and their huts did not make much of an impression on me. I see this every November. Even “Firebolt 5e” monsters do not fix the situation. They would have had a good kick, so that they would not be rowdy, locked up to sleep it off, and in the morning pour a cure for a migraine and that’s it, now we are not facing a bloodthirsty ghoul, but Uncle Kolya’s golden hands and just a good person. So he patches and mends boots that you are amazed. For nothing, that he himself is without boots.

In houses you orient yourself like a fish in water. There is a kitchenette here, a bedroom here, there is even a red corner. And what hangs in this corner is of little interest. In our outback, and not so on the wall hang. That’s what I want to say. The fact that the Western player is likely to cause anxiety, horror or even fear, I have a deja vu with a touch of nostalgia. The game is not scary from the word at all. However, here it is necessary to make a reservation. The developers are not like trying to make the game scary. I’ll tell you more about this when we analyze the gameplay.

Plot and characters

I did not consider the plot separately, because people are very afraid of spoilers. Although, as for me, there is nothing to be afraid of. Who cares about the plot of the latest REs anyway? Who still thinks it is logical and reasonable? No one is sane. The plot in the game is akin to thrash-horror a la “Wrong Turn”. “Niazdannye pavaroty” are foreseen strongly in advance, you cease to take plot decisions seriously and to analyze after several episodes with a vowel hero. But the label “trash-horror” in the context of Resident Evil: Village is by no means a verdict. On the contrary, this is a deliberate decision of the developers.

There are not so many characters in “VIII”, and there are absolutely no fools, except for those who die at the first meeting or the Dimitrescu sisters. We kill them very quickly. And this is not a spoiler! You didn’t think that we would be friends with the local contingent, did you?

Speaking of Dimitrescu, the noise around her is not worth a dime. The excitement around this “sex idol” is due only to the fact that the gaming community is yearning for simple female characters, devoid of a trace of progressive modernity. When you are surrounded by some transformers, an ordinary woman with rounded shapes involuntarily attracts attention. Even her hatred of men does not scare away, but rather fuels interest. But it quickly fades away, because the tall maiden’s timing is short and ends very quickly. And the gameplay with her has already been eloquently described. Dimitrescu is a Tyrant in a skirt, and that says it all.

Next up are the barbie Benevento, from Moro’s flying ship, and, ahem, Mr. Now Say My Name Heisenberg. These weren’t touched by the advertising campaign, so I didn’t look at them very closely. And they, I must admit, did not want to impress me. Perhaps Heisenberg. This one puffed up, tried, joked, but as much as destructive wave 5e  wanted to make him a charismatic character, it cannot be said that they did it. The points, Magneto’s abilities and the giant hammer are clearly not enough. But the fight with him was entertaining. Here, in principle, the boss fights are made with high quality. Although from a gameplay point of view, they are identical, the production was decided.

Gameplay

When Part 7 came out, which became the relaunch of the series, fans agreed that the first half was great. It was a creepy and atmospheric horror, in the second half turned into an ordinary shooter. It was this transition that fans scolded. I must say that CAPCOM listened to customer complaints and even took some measures. That is, I did the opposite! The game already starts with the shooting of critters. But shooting is not a strong point of the game at all. It is impossible to aim normally, the arsenal is meager, the customization is poor, the behavior of the weapon is primitive, the enemies are armored, and so on. It seems to me that shooting in this performance should have become an appendage, an addition, but not the main mechanic of the game. CAPCOM wanted a shooter, but it definitely didn’t work out.

Other mechanics don’t help. In addition to shooting, which, in fact, the game consists of, there are mechanics, but they are just as stripped down and boring. Lurid stealth, no interactivity of the surrounding world, elementary riddles – everything that the game has to offer you.

CAPCOM’s decision to move away from horror to an action or shooter is easy to explain. Horror was, is and will be a niche genre. If the publisher wants to sell the game as successfully as possible, then horror is not the best option for this purpose. The modern player doesn’t want to get scared, strain his brain, and so on. He would have a skating rink in “Varzona” and “on the side”. CAPCOM understands this better than anyone else. But it cannot be said that the change in the vector was beneficial to the game. On the one hand, yes, the game is popular, but on the other, its quality leaves much to be desired.

conclusions

So you look, and it turns out that the game is average. Passed through and forgot, as they say. The game owes its assessments and admiration exclusively to the prevailing circumstances, namely, to the absence of other major releases. A short (I got about ten hours) and rather beautiful game with entertaining, but no more, characters, with a completely non-interactive world around, with genre uncertainty and primitive gameplay now has every chance of becoming the brightest release. And this is the most offensive thing in Game of Thrones S08E03 Torrent. Had it been released in 2018, the ardor of the players would have been a hundredfold lower. Norm is a game, no more.