Finished it last night. Absolutely loved it. Might be the shortest time I've finished a RE title in (slightly less than ten hours) but the fact that there's such a staggering amount to see and do is a testament to how excellently paced and hands-on it is for the player. Once the game gets going, it barely stops to catch a breath. There's almost zero downtime, it's all good.
Thoughts
+ This is RE7 times ten, in all the best ways. In fairness it has the double advantage of both springboarding from that game's established format, and enjoying the benefit of player feedback, which you can see in very facet of the game. Everything good from 7 is better, and everything bad is heavily improved or gone entirely.
+ More enemy types, more location variety, more exploration, more weapons, more gameplay styles. RE7 took the 'less is more' approach after 6's excess, and it worked for that game. Village leans towards the 'more is more' approach and never lets up.
+ This is by far the weirdest and creepiest RE yet.
+ The sense of adventure is incredible. Exploration and paying attention always pays off, even in unexpected ways. There's tons of great stuff you can easily miss (which I have, I'm looking forward to playing again and figuring out where I didn't look). The map design is incredibly intricate and packed full of secrets.
+ For the most part, it looks absolutely fucking stunning, particularly the interiors and character models. Terrific lighting.
+ Modern updates on vintage monsters from classic literature is a welcome and novel idea.
+ High replay value is apparent already.
+ Much bigger budget means the game is stretched less thinly than 7.
+ Way, WAY better written than 7.
+ Ethan doesn't completely suck anymore!
+ In many ways it's first person RE4, and the nostalgia here for that game is strong and replicated with love.
+ Chris still smokes cigarettes! A nice nod to RE1.
+ Easily the best game Capcom has created with the RE Engine so far.
- Miranda is a weak villain who basically just turns up at the end to become a Bloodborne boss. I feel like she needed more of her own 'area' to convey her personality like the other bosses did. She basically has a single room lab with a massive lore dump and that's it.
- Umbrella's role in the game feels under-utilised and shoehorned in for the sake of it (nothing new there), but it was still pretty cool nonetheless.
- No actual lab to speak of, despite decades of research and experimentation taking place.
- Played on PS5 which apparently circumvents loading issues (no idea how this is done on PS4), but there was still a bit of palpable chugging while streaming in new sections.
- The intro was kind of weak. Ethan's cosy home life and that eventless trudge in poor visibility until reaching the village both went on a little too long. This is one aspect where RE7 was actually better.
- It peaks early with the castle imo. A minor complaint, as most of my complaints are, because the game is still otherwise superb.
Fantastic. The best RE in many years.
SlimySnake
J3nga
yes. Even on 3080, I had to reload to menu and back to game from time to time.
