CAPCOM's Resident Evil VILLAGE, the ninth numerical installment in the Resident Evil franchise, is a game that I feel almost shouldn't work as well as it does when you consider the sheer amount of goals it is attempting to accomplish. Not only is this game acting as a direct sequel to the acclaimed Resident Evil: Biohazard (a name that continues to be funny to me when you consider the fact that the franchise is called BIOHAZARD in Japan), but it also seeks to complete a specific character's story, payoff foreshadowing from the previous game, weave a compelling mystery, set up a new story for a future game, and go out as this big celebration of the entire Resident Evil franchise. I think we all know at least one game that feels like it tried to do too much with the amount of time allocated to its run only for the final product to end up suffering in the end. However, while there are a few relatively brief moments where the game buckles under such huge ambitions, I cannot deny the sheer range of genuine emotions and pathos I was left with after my 10 hours of playtime.

It has been three years since the events of the last game and our favorite, perfectly normal everyman Ethan Winters is trying to live a normal life with his wife and newly born daughter Rose. Unfortunately, the universe really hates Ethan, so a series of shocking and questionable events leads him to the titular village in a quest to find his missing daughter. Resident Evil VILLAGE is divided into sections that each focus on a distinct environment that veterans of the franchise will no doubt be familiar with. In fact, I'd even go a step further to say that every section of the game feels like a callback to a specific game in the franchise. One section will have you exploring a beautifully rendered mansion, being chased by an unkillable enemy signified by music cues. Another section will leave you in a seemingly abandoned house shrouded in pure darkness and dead silence. And yet another section will be a tough-as-nails gauntlet of enemies. At every corner, there's a new obstacle to deal with.

This can be seen as a downside if you're someone who prefers one style of gameplay being refined throughout the course of a single playthrough, which is especially noticeable if you play this game right after Resident Evil 7. Resident Evil 7 had a far more consistent sense of tension from beginning to end. However, I'd argue that VILLAGE presents a natural evolution to the gameplay style established in the previous game: maintaining the claustrophobic, first-person perspective but with a snappier, adrenaline-filled sense of progression that makes you want to keep moving forward while still being terrified about what you might find behind every corner. Controls are snappy with switching between weapons and shooting at enemy weaknesses being satisfying to pull off. Inventory management makes you consider the best way to approach the next situation, and exploring the distinct environments are rewarding more often than not.

I played the game on my PlayStation 5 and aside from one or two relatively unimportant elevator scenes, the frame rate stayed consistent and smooth. There is nothing about the overall control scheme that hindered my ability, and although there were some moments towards the latter third of the game where I notice a bit of texture popping, they are mildly distracting at best. As far as graphics go, the game utilizes CAPCOM's R.E. Engine which has been responsible for rendering a lot of their recent games in stunning detail, and VILLAGE is no exception. Characters are beautifully rendered to the point where they could almost look photorealistic at mid-distance and environments are packed full of detail. This can backfire though; sometimes key items aren't always distinguishable from what's around you, and even though the game very early on encourages you to fully explore every pixel, it can dampen the pacing when the rest of the game is usually so kinetic. This also extends to the game's puzzles, where some are predicated on looking for something very small and specific while others literally have the solution next to you. Sure I could have spent another two hours trying to collect and solve everything to potentially make my time easier, but I wanted to move to the next area because at the time I couldn't fully assess the safety of the area I was in and because I was curious about what Ethan had to go through next.

This is a man on a mission who has a better idea of how dangerous this world is compared to his previous adventure, yet he is still kept in the dark just enough that you can understand his frustrations with those around him whether they be friend or foe. The game's Western marketing heavily featured the character Lady Dimitrescu, leading many people to believe that she would be one of the main cornerstones of the entire game. And while she does possess every bit of raw presence as we could've expected, she only seems to make up roughly two hours of the overall game, as VILLAGE features a wide variety of colorful characters who make an impact even with limited screen time thanks to inspired character designs and distinct voice acting. It would be nice if the music was just as memorable, especially since there are moments where specific themes are tied to encounters. However, while the sound design is brilliant in eliciting that sense of tension and fear, I admit that I didn't walk away from the game remembering anything from the actual OST aside from the credits theme.

Speaking of the game's ending, this does bring me to my biggest complaint regarding the game's structure. Resident Evil VILLAGE does a good job eliciting a sense of mystery and wonder as you look for clues regarding why your daughter was taken and what everyone's part in this larger world might be. Once we reach the conclusion, we're left with just enough mystery to be excited for what might be in store for us in a future game without being deprived of a proper, emotional conclusion. I feel that this is definitely a story that you will only be able to fully appreciate if you played RE7 first in order to understand exactly what led some characters to this point. Recaps and flashbacks are given, but they can only do so much to emulate the same intended effect. What's more, while I left the game's story feeling mostly satisfied, looking back I did begin to realize some of the more forced moments of storytelling that were done to get us to this point, particularly in the latter quarter of the game's campaign. Reasons are given for character decisions and you can maybe rationalize why some things played out the way that they did, but there had to have been a more organic way for us to reach those moments.

Overall, Resident Evil VILLAGE accomplishes most of what it wants to do and then some. While it does retread a lot of what came before, the elements it pulls from blend together just enough to create a memorable experience. Things are fast and more chaotic as Ethan gets dragged further and further into hell, but this is another journey that you want him to see through till the end. How we get Ethan from point A to point B could have been handled a bit better, and I wish the music was more memorable, but I would still personally rank this in my top 3 Resident Evil games. At the absolute least, this is another solid entry in continuing the franchise's legacy and I am very excited about what the future has in store.