Resident Evil Village is the true sequel to Resident Evil 4 we’ve been waiting for

Resident Evil Village is the true sequel to Resident Evil iv nosotros've been waiting for

(Image credit: Capcom)

Alarm: this article contains pocket-sized spoilers for Resident Evil Village

Resident Evil Village may technically be a direct follow-up to 2017's Resident Evil seven: Biohazard, but at its core, information technology's actually the spiritual sequel to Resident Evil 4. And it's the game that nosotros've waited more than xv years for.

Whereas RE7: Biohazard took articulate inspiration from the original Resident Evil game, emulating the same sense of tight claustrophobia, Resident Evil Village returns to the mold of 2005's much-loved iteration.

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The comparison goes across the eerily like location of a spooky European village and an imposing castle besides. Both games are nearly identical tonally, and also share Dna in how they empower and unnerve the player.

Resident Evil 4 is undoubtedly a archetype, non just of the survival horror genre but of video games equally a medium. While it's taken united states of america longer than nosotros probably all expected (not to mention a few failed attempts in the procedure, hi Resident Evil five), Resident Evil Village is the sequel to Resident Evil four that we truly deserve.

I call back I've heard this i earlier

The nigh hit, and immediately obvious, similarities betwixt Village and RE4 can be spotted just past watching the game'due south annunciation trailer. Both games are centered around a sinister village, overshadowed past a foreboding castle.

Afterwards Village's explosive opening cutscene, y'all'll discover yourself gingerly walking through a snow-blanketed European boondocks bracing yourself for whatsoever bloodsoaked beasts are going to popular out at you. RE4's opening is also, beat for beat, the same — minus the snowfall, of class.

In fact, the offset large set-piece moment of both games is practically identical. In both Village and RE4, you get overwhelmed by a group of foes (lycans in Village, plain-featured villagers in RE4), and but as all hope seems lost a church bell rings out and your assailants quickly scarper. It's a clear homage.

Resident Evil 4 — (Image credit: Capcom)

Both games also feature a primary antagonist most memorable for their tiptop. The towering Lady Dimitrescu in Hamlet (Who Capcom have officially taken to calling Tall Vampire Lady) and Ramon Salazar in RE4, who takes later on Napoleon in the height section.

Furthermore, both Village and RE4 characteristic a essentially large bandage of villains. Rather than you contesting with a single main antagonist for the entire game, each act sees yous being taunted and toyed with past a new menacing threat. The structural similarities are likewise hard to ignore.

Silly but still scary

The above mentioned similar locations and memorable villains include shared traits that have been apparent since Village was offset appear. And now that I've had actual hands-on with the game, the identical tone is what really stands out to me.

RE4 is a modern classic that withal holds upwardly to this day (I played it for the first time in 2020, and still loved it). But let's be existent for a moment, it's a ridiculously silly game. It's blimp with cheesy lines and a key character who acts more dislocated than scared near the nightmare situation he's stuck in.

Village definitely doesn't commit to silliness quite as wholeheartedly, simply the trait is most certainly present. Ethan reacts to werewolf attacks with little more than than a nonplussed comment: "what is going on here." And while trapped in the labyrinth-like Castle Dimitrescu, he seems barely fazed about the horrors going on around him.

For fans of pure horror, the tonal clash between genuine terror and deadpan humour might be offputting, but information technology's a balance that many games in the Resident Evil franchise have attempted to strike (and plenty have failed at). Hamlet and RE4 are 2 of the most successful at walking that fragile tight rope.

Powering up

While RE7: Biohazard firmly brought the franchise back to its horror root, giving you a protagonist who was ofttimes caught and hopefully outmatched, Village gives you a new type of hero.

Nosotros learn in the introduction that Ethan has undergone military training since his traumatic experience with the Bakers, and it shows in Village. Throughout the game you lot are regularly and then overwhelmed with ammo that it can feel more than like playing a straight shooter than a survival horror — I oft have l+ pistol rounds at manus.

The aforementioned is very much true if RE4. Neither game is really about beingness hopelessly underpowered and having to scrape together whatever ammo or blunt weapon yous can discover to fend off the hordes of hideous creatures around the next corner. The scares in Hamlet and RE4 come more than from scripted moments and the oppressive atmosphere than tense enemy encounters.

This is too seen in the inclusion of a merchant in both games. The merchant allows you to buy upgrades and supplies at regular intervals. Though Village'south world is so generously sprinkled with ammo and healing items that you really don't need to spend currency to obtain more than plenty to see you through.

It's hard for the player to feel agonizing agony from an empty clip knowing that the shopkeep has an overstocked inventory of bullets for buy. Of form, that's non to say that Village's brand of pulpy action isn't greatly exhilarating. Information technology near certainly is.

Learning from the best

Ultimately, Village taking and then many cues from RE4 is a wonderful thing. After all, if there's e'er a game that'south worth cribbing some inspiration from, information technology's ane of the most critically acclaimed and dearest games of all time.

Village still manages to practise enough to carve out its own unique identity, and it improves upon the template set out by RE4 in numerous means (non least of all by ditching the escort missions), but the two games share plenty of DNA that players of both volition undoubtedly appreciate.

Though let's hope the next game in the serial doesn't take whatever cues from Resident Evil vi. That should be left firmly in the past.

Rory is a staff writer at Tom's Guide based in the UK. He covers a wide range of topics including tech news, deals, gaming, streaming and more. When he's non writing hot takes on the latest gaming hardware and streaming shows, he can be establish watching a borderline unhealthy corporeality of movies and beingness thoroughly disappointed by his terrible football team.