Resident Evil Village releases today for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Stadia. It's the tenth main installment in Capcom's action-horror series and a narrative sequel to Resident Evil 7.
Resident Evil Village picks up a few years after the events of RE7 with Ethan Winters living with his wife Mia and daughter Rosemary in a new location. Just as they are building their one life together, tragedy befalls them. Chris Redfield shows up and, without getting into spoiler territory, Ethan winds up awakening in a mysterious European village that's governed by four different mutant lords and must set off to rescue his daughter.
That's the overarching plot of the game, but how does it actually play? Early reviews for Resident Evil Village are out now and with 72 critic reviews counted on Metacritic, it currently has a score of 84. Most reviews have been generally favorable towards the game. Here are some of the more positive reviews:
Game Informer - 93
Village doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to horror, but a consistent rollout of new weapons and tools makes it hard to walk away from these terrors.
GameSpot - 90
Resident Evil 7 was an excellent return to the horror underpinnings of the franchise, but cunningly altered with new ideas and a new perspective. Similarly, Village is an intelligent reintroduction of the best action elements of Resident Evil. Though it captures some of the same things that made RE7 such a breath of fresh air (or maybe rancid, stale, mold-filled air, but in a good way), Village evolves to become its own unique creature. It makes you wonder what beautifully twisted fiend Resident Evil might mutate into in the future.
IGN - 80
Resident Evil Village is a genuinely engrossing and increasingly combat-heavy continuation of the Ethan Winters story.
Comicbook.com - 80
With as far as Village reaches and as much as it tries to incorporate into one short experience, it has more successes than shortcomings to show for its efforts. It’s not perfect, though it shows how Resident Evil can grow outside of its comfort zones while still managing to pay respects to history and satisfy all types of players.
Not everyone was enthralled with what Resident Evil Village had to offer though. GamesRadar called it a "decent but not amazing installment" while VideoGamer was ultimately "disappointed at where the series had ended up."
Overall, it sounds like Resident Evil Village is a fun play, although it may be more action-oriented than previous games in the franchise. While it sounds like there are some moments of horror in it, the combat far outweighs the scares.
Resident Evil Village is now available on PlayStation and Xbox consoles, PC, and Stadia.