Resident Evil Village

Similar to how RE7 was a soft reboot/reimagining of the first (and series as a whole), Village seems to skip a few games and comes off as a structural reboot of RE4, which makes me wonder if they're going to continue in a more action based route as 5 and 6 did before starting over again, or if they've found a comforting pattern in this new approach to the series. Either way Capcom has to be careful with what they do from here on out if they don't want to find themselves running the series into the ground again.

Still, as relatively simple as the level design is in Village, it's near perfect for what it is thanks to the inspired art design, comforting gameplay loops and immersive familiarity that each Resident Evil offers. What's different here is how every "house" offers unique slices of the horror genre, and each are masterfully executed in their own way.

One criticism is that while there are countless shortcuts and interconnected routes throughout the game: I was a little underwhelmed by the lack of incentive to return to any of these locations as most puzzles and treasure are found during your first (and only) visit. most Resident Evil games have a high satisfaction in discovering shortcuts partly because you continue to use them. Being an "open world" (which it really isn't: structurally it's hardly different from the Spencer mansion and other RE settings) with separate locations ironically makes the game feel slightly more linear than 7 and earlier entries in the series, but it's a small criticism for the whole package.

Overall I think 7 has better pacing and was a little more cohesive and realised as a whole, but asides from the factory, which I didn't even dislike except for how it dragged as a result of easily getting lost (I'm sure this was intentional), and which I still don't know how I feel about having been the final level: I loved every second of this game... ending felt a bit abrupt though, but it will get any Resident Evil fan excited for the next game... It felt like we were just getting to know Ethan...