Resident Evil Village – Video Review | Here I Go Again

Hey it’s Nick here from WhatsGood and I’m pretty excited to chat a bit about Resident Evil Village today

I just rolled credits on the game last

night and I’ve had a pretty good time

with it took me

a week to finish it

just over a week

some people will finish it quicker than

me but  yeah I’ll get into those

sort of reasons in just a bit so let’s

get going with Resident Evil Village

so what is it exactly it’s a direct

sequel to Resident Evil 7

so much so that in the beginning you can

even watch a little video that catches

you

up on what happens in the previous game

it’s been two years since I played

Resident Evil 7 because I played it also

um

when it came out there my reviews up on

what’s good  but

I couldn’t remember some of the details

if I’m honest and I had to

really have a bit of a head scratch at

what was going on again so

I started by not watching the video

thinking that I know it’s cutting so

I’m cool and then not too long in I’d I made a

plan to go and watch the video from the menu so that I

could understand what was going on

because I was just sort of missing some

details and getting a bit confused

so  that said the video I think could

have actually been a bit more detailed

so I wish they explained a few more elements again just

that I could be super clear on it

going into the game so if you’re

going to play it I do recommend

you know maybe even go on to YouTube

find a video that explains everything that happened in

Resident Evil 7 and just sort of get a good refresher

course of course if you haven’t played Resident Evil 7

do that it’s amazing although it is very scary

so I can understand if you don’t want to do something like that

you’re going to want to your going to want to

maybe  just catch up on it before you jump into

it so all right Resident Evil Village now takes place

after Resident Evil 7 and you’re playing the same protagonist

Ethan winters but now you’ve moved somewhere else to try and get away from

all your worries and of course that doesn’t go so well

so I think first of all I just want to say that I’ve really enjoyed resident

evil village it was it was a hell of a ride and  it was good fun

I think the major differences to start up a bit of a comparison with

Resident Evil 7 is that they you know they they’ve toned down the scares

and they even said that it’s according

to some gaming research they did that

they decided to tone down the scares because

Resident Evil 7 was hella scary

and I personally struggled in that game

because the environment and the

setting of that game to me was

just like so much worse than even this

one so  they I think in a sort of

attempt to try and make the game a

little bit more mainstream friendly they

turn down the scares a notch and they’re

happy that people like me are saying

exactly that but that’s not to say that

this game isn’t scary because

it has its moments and it will scare the

pants off of you when it feels like it

so I had a good couple of run-ins with

with it over my playthrough um but

aside from that what’s really

interesting about this game

is that it actually progresses forwards

it evolves from Resident Evil 7

by being kind of  not afraid to

change pace  quite a few times they

wanted to create a game that was

not your traditional horror

sort of game that sticks to one set of

pacing or ideas

so in the main game there’s something

related to the story

that splits things up there’s sort of

let’s call it like a minibus sort of

substructure of the of the game

that has you going to different areas to

go and achieve certain goals

and because of this they took they took

the opportunity to essentially create

almost like miniature

you know miniature games within the game

so while

some areas are quite scary I mean the

beginning of the game scared the hell

out of me I’ve found myself incredibly

uncomfortable getting used to everything

because you don’t know what to

expect yet

and then you’ll move into areas which

are you know

a lot of people have seen from the

trailers and so on the big castle

the mattress

with the nine foot tall lady some of

those areas feel a bit more traditional

Resident Evil one to me

and they are gorgeous at times I mean

there’s just beautiful

these interior designs with chandeliers

and couches and

hallways and so on and then other places

will be grimy gritty dirty areas and

when you’re in the castle for example it

feels like

that traditional Resident Evil feeling

that I mentioned because you’re sort of

clearing rooms you know solving puzzles

um you know I recently

played the Resident Evil 1 remake that

they

released a while back and it did sort of

you know feel like it vibe with that

quite well

whereas then in different areas they’ll

they’ll

be happy to completely change it up and

say okay well now it’s going to feel a

little bit more like

maybe some of some other horror games

you’ve played before maybe you know

remove certain elements from the

gameplay that you had before

or add something to it that you know

changes the way you have to approach

that area

and I really like it I think it gives

quite a varied experience

later on what  you know for better or

for worse

um I found that there were parts of the

game as well where they just

were happy to lean into the shooter

element quite a bit

and it actually reminded me at times the

the game that came to mind was

doom three that came to my mind at

some of the later sections where you

it’s a horror game but it’s clearly

a horror

shooter and that that’s sort of where

it felt like it was at that time so

yeah so I mean the gist of what I’m

saying here is

it’s a bit of it’s got a bit of

this and a bit of that

and I think at the end of the day it’s

it maybe dissolves or dilutes the

experience somewhat but at the same time

I think it also

provides quite a cool unique experience

especially for people who are going to

replay it

sort of fun to know that you’re going to

do this section again in that section

again

I found

to go into a few of the sort of elements

of it that I liked and disliked

the graphics in the game are really

really amazing at times I’m playing on

an Xbox series x so I’m getting quite a

a great experience I’m playing it at 4k

with ray tracing on and for the most

part it’s locked at 60 with only a few

moments where it sort of falls a little

bit down

and it’s completely just it just felt

like I was playing like a premium

experience

but  on that note

there this game isn’t a full

you know new generation game it is a

cross-generation game though I mean this

thing runs on a

launch Xbox one um you know and the

difference in power between an Xbox one

and

Xbox series x is just huge so the this

re

engine that capcom have is just

unbelievable it’s incredible it did

what in what it can do and

what they’re able to do with it so for

me it was a great experience but there

are definite trade-offs at times and I

don’t know if that’s because they can’t

lean into the new hardware just yet

one thing I did find is that when I was

for example

in an outdoor area like in the village

areas

the you could definitely see detail

popping pretty heavily like as you’re

as you’re walking in front of you

can see

quite a lot of level of detail changes

happening all the time as you’re moving

so

it’s pretty heavy popping and not what I

would have expected but

it’s yeah it’s not terrible

but

it could that definitely could have been

better

and I did briefly get to try it on an

Xbox series s

and it  it looks pretty

it looks pretty actually amazing on that

on the series s

but  the one the one major issue is

ray tracing if you have ray tracing on

on a series s

it drops frames it’s sort of an unlocked

frame rate somewhere between 30

40 it’s not great it feels very

inconsistent and ultimately

if I have to play it on if I had to play

it on series s I would

switch the ray tracing off because the

ray tracing

is awesome on the series x it’s the

first game I’ve played that’s really

this dynamic with

ray trace reflections and everything and

it was it’s awesome it really adds to

everything but

on the Series S it just became a bit

janky so I would turn it off

um so on the series s once you turn that

ray tracing off it just

it’s like locked at 60 and it looks

great still

not as good but really still very good

and  yeah the other thing that of

of course doesn’t

get affected by the hardware as much as

the sound design and being a resident

evil game and a horror game

you get some incredible sound design you

know that’s the thing I love about

horrors is that with

the horror movies and games is it just

feels like it’s

the best place for creators to flex

their muscle when it comes to sound

music the you know whether it’s

cinematography or art direction and so

on you just

you just really seem to see creative

people firing on all cylinders

and there’s no you know it’s no

different here there’s some

some  the there’s some areas in this

game where the sound design just really

adds to the atmosphere and

they cheat a bit by making little you

know twigs crackle and

pop you know around you while you’re

moving especially like I was playing it

on a surround sound system

and  yeah it really keeps you on your

toes

in terms of the story I would say

that

it’s a little bit you know it’s

a little bit crazy but it’s resident

evil and Resident Evil has never been

afraid to get crazy

so that’s that is it is what it is you

know

in many Resident Evil games it starts

off feeling like

you know one thing it’s maybe a story

about a you know

police station or a mansion with some

you know creepy zombies

you know milling about and then the next

thing it’s you know

you’re in some high-tech lab or some

crazy magic shit’s happening and that’s

just Resident Evil and

yeah I think this is sort of a greatest

hits

in a sense  you know before I played

it I had some people telling me that it

feels a bit like Resident Evil 4

and a bit like Resident Evil 1 and

so on and yeah

I think that that that’s a pretty

accurate way of saying it because it

really does go all over the place and I

think that’s one of the features of this

game as I mentioned before is that it

it’s

sort of it provides a bit of a varied

experience

but with the story as I mentioned we’re

we’re following Ethan winters now as he

has to

I don’t want to go too much into story

because I don’t like spoilers too much

but

you know you have to save the day in

a sense and

you know there’s some baddies and you’ve

got to make your way to

figure out this big great mystery and

what I will say is that it does

it does come to an interesting

conclusion with an ending that

I found is you know it puts the

whole franchise as a whole in a pretty

interesting place

so yeah that that’s I’m looking forward

to seeing what they do next

I must say the first person

shooter element of the game is one that

you know they introduced in the previous

game and now we’ve got it in

in eight as well  and I do like it I

mean it’s nice

for many reasons it is very immersive

and

you know it is the it’s a great way to

experience a horror game

that said I I’ve been enjoying you

know Resident Evil 2 remake was so good

and  as someone who must Resident Evil

3 who played

the remake only you know I enjoyed that

as well it just makes me it you know

it makes me really badly want to

experience a new

Resident Evil game  in third person

from these guys you know not just

something that we’ve sort of seen before

just to get back to the first person

shooter element

it’s there was you know the camera

is really important

and when I started the game something

just felt really off like I

didn’t know what it was but I

immediately wasn’t feeling so good I’m

someone who

struggles with VR and I don’t get too

dizzy playing games normally but VR

kills me

um but I started and I felt a little

bit out of sorts and I just felt like I

didn’t have control like my thumb sticks

felt very laggy

it felt like I just had very bad

response and when I fiddled around with

the controls I eventually found out that

the setting called  you know

acceleration or sort of camera

acceleration on

on the camera just I turned it off

and suddenly everything just felt

snappy and responsive and awesome it

just sort of had a bit more of a

one-to-one

response to my thumbstick

movements and you know you think it’s

just you but even when I jumped onto

twitter

a while later I saw um Brian Altano from

IGN

had actually posted up a screenshot of

some of his settings or a list of his

settings

as well just to just sort of tell people

when you play the game you know

set your settings like this and they

were nearly identical to mine so

it’s so weird to me that they do

all that testing and playing

with the game and then when they release

it like a couple of people will

immediately

sort of find another setting that just

feels like it’s right  but anyway

that’s anecdotal

and  you know personal preference in a

sense so

yeah just you might want to take

a look at that if you play the game just

that camera acceleration thing trust me

on that one

it makes a huge difference

okay  getting I want to talk about

some gripes with the game

can’t all just be sunshine and roses and

all that

um they’re getting you know the sort

of way

I mentioned earlier that the pacing goes

all over the place it is it is a good

thing but I think at the same time it

can

sort of mess a little bit with the

experience the um

some of the acts are stronger than

others as a result especially because

you know

half the game might want to you know

give you a heart attack and then the

other half you feel a little bit like

Rambo it reminds me

a lot of Clive barker’s undying

back in the day when I played that

game I think the first

hour of that game is maybe some of the

most

like the most it’s I don’t know

if I’ve ever been almost as scared as I

was playing the beginning of that game

and I don’t know why it just got me so

good

and it was terrifying I remember

playing it in the middle of the day and

I had to like pause the game and go take

a walk outside because I just felt like

I couldn’t breathe

and yet towards the end of that game you

were just so powerful

that everything about it was

lost it sort of

you started one way and then by the end

you just felt like you could wreck

everything and

you know and this isn’t that this isn’t

that bad but it gave me a bit of a

reminder of that and made me feel like

you know it reminded me of that made me

feel like hey you know there’s there are

times

some of this is explained a little bit

in the story mind you but

but yeah let me anyway let me carry on

so the graphics as well as I mentioned

a little bit it’s a bit of a

cross-gen game so while it looks really

beautiful

there’s some really weird places where

like you’ll look at

you’ll look at something up close and it

just looks like a really low res mesh

texture like blobbed onto something

like instead of even modelling something

they’ll just sort of like texture it

with some

some junk literally sometimes and

you know they’re like that’s okay

reminds me a little bit of

Resident Evil  final fantasy

7’s remake

where it feels like they very

selectively sort of said okay we’re not

going to care about

these things we’re just gonna you know

put a lot of quality into other areas

and you know in a way if it makes the

budgets manageable or the

you know lowers crunch or anything like

that I’m sort of all for it I’m okay

with that you know if

making it worse you know in areas where

people don’t really focus I’m fine with

that

but there was a few times where it’s

weird like you’ll pick up a piece of

treasure

or a collectible  to s that you can

sell or something but it’ll be something

that comes with an examination function

like

you’re the game wants you to pick

things up and look at them and you’ll

pick it up like a coin or something and

it’ll just have like the

most trashy terrible low quality texture

on it

um so yeah I don’t know I don’t know if

they they’re planning any sort of

lighter updates when they do you know

maybe like a next-gen

only update or something but I don’t

know  and then

yeah so that combined with sort of the

controls and all that is only the only

real

gripes I’ve got I mean for the most part

this game has been a blast

um I took

my play time  on my save game said

13 hours to finish it although I’ve

heard people saying it’s pretty short

and you know they’re like  it’s

it’s cool but it’s a bit short because

apparently people are finishing it in

seven or eight hours

um now I am someone who has now caught

on to this idea with Resident Evil games

that  it can be quite fun and

worthwhile to clear all the rooms so I

did spend a lot of time

sort of moving through the maps making

sure that every room that I was in that

was red I turned it

you know blue or green or whatever to

get through everything

so that does add quite a bit of time but

that is the fun of Resident Evil you

sort of

clear the areas out as you go so you can

play it a lot faster but I wouldn’t

recommend it and you could probably play

it a lot slower as well

I must say even though my save game said

13 hours

if I went to my Xbox’s stats section

I’m pretty sure it will say that I spent

well over 20 hours because I

I tend to do things like um you know you

know

it’s the time you play versus the time

logged only in pure gameplay

either way I put some decent

dedication into playing it and it took

me a week

um you know I’m sure some people will

smash it over like a weekend

but I found I by the end I was

sort of happy for it to end I didn’t if

I think

if it went longer than that I probably

would have started getting annoyed with

it

so for me that’s great so I’m

sort of

happy with the length and there’s these

games give you quite a couple of reasons

to

play them again then when I finished it

there was some cool bonus content and

things you can unlock

and then there’s also um a mercenaries

mode

which you might be aware of um you

unlock you start in like a village

section you have to

buy some stuff run around kill a bunch

of things before the time runs out

sort of like an arcade mode and it won’t

be everyone’s cup of tea but it’s kind

of fun and it does add some extra value

so

between the length of the game plus the

replay ability and the mercenaries mode

made me feel like there’s pretty good

value for money

games are pretty expensive these days so

you know I wouldn’t never say don’t wait

for a sale or something but

if you want to jump on you know you’re

getting a quality game

so on that note I’m going to give my

final verdict and say that

you know I really had a great time with

this game I think it was a nice

evolution over

you know from Resident Evil 7 it’s a

little bit manageable for those who have

you know maybe

find themselves too scared by horror

games but overall

looked beautiful it was fun to play a

lot of different environments and

takes the interesting story it takes in

an interesting direction so

um I highly recommend it check it out if

you think you might be interested

that’s it for me I’m nick from

what’sgood.com thanks for listening

thanks for watching

cheers