Resident Evil 8 Village gives up one of the basic elements of “survival horror”

Resident Evil Village has given up one of the basic mechanics in survival horror, the scarcity of resources and ammunition. Will he be able to maintain the terror?

Capcom can be considered the inventor of modern “survival horror” (even if we take into account the influence of classics like Alone in the Dark). The Japanese company laid the foundations of the genre with Resident Evil; to mbientación terrifying combination of puzzles and confrontations, and limited resources of the protagonists. And it has been refining these elements over the years.

In fact, when the Resident Evil saga has moved away from these parameters (in particular with the high doses of action of Resident Evil 5 and 6) an essential part of its approach has been lost. They are games that have had a worse critical reception, but whose sales (RE 6 reaches more than 11 million copies) and Resident Evil 5 more than 13 million) has surpassed the “classic” deliveries.

With Resident Evil 7 Biohazard it changed the third-person perspective for a subjective camera, and still managed to maintain the essence of this series, thanks to a perfect setting and that unique feeling of feeling helpless. Now, Resident Evil 8 Village (a direct sequel to the previous one) seems to lean towards action again and give up one of the basic mechanics: the shortage of ammunition and resources.

At the moment we have only had the opportunity to play two demos (Maiden, which was a sequence that will not be in the final game, and Village, with 30 minutes in Dimitrescu village) and attend a one-hour game sequence, with the first section of the castle. Why do we say that you are inclined to action?

The first reason is that we found numerous weapons from the beginning of the game. Ethan receives a CZ RAMI 9mm pistol and the Winchester M1897 cartridge shotgun, and before the first hour of play is up he also gets an FR F2 rifle with a telescopic sight. It is considerable firepower, to which we add a knife (an unbreakable weapon that will accompany us throughout the game) and antipersonnel mines, which we can place as a trap for the Lycans.

To these weapons must be added others that have been seen in trailers, such as the Skorpion submachine gun, the AK 47 and Colt AR-15 assault rifles, and contextual elements that can be used to our advantage: shooting an explosive barrel will kill them all. surrounding lycanthropes and sacks of flour will create a cloud of dust that temporarily blinds enemies. It seems like a lot of weapons for such a short stretch of time.

There is also no shortage of ammunition, both those that we can collect directly in the supply boxes or those that we can create with materials, gunpowder, and scrap metal, which are scattered around the stage. And this crafting system also works to heal us, instead of the typical plants.

In general, we have the feeling that the game encourages us to kill all the enemies, instead of escaping from them as in the classics. Downed Lycans drop lei (the in-game currency, which is a translation of the Romanian leu) to buy ammunition and upgrades from Duke’s shop. And the scenarios hide a series of relics that we can also sell.

And speaking of improvements, in the store we can modify the power, the reload time, the magazine capacity and the rate of fire. Or expand Ethan’s permanent skills, hunting animals and cooking their meat (also in the store).

After this offensive display, Resident Evil 8 Village seems to give up on the “survival” part, how do you maintain the terror, then? Again, we can judge only by what we have seen in the trailers, in the unreleased gameplay, and in the two-game demos.

The game manages to be scary thanks to the setting (in the little we have seen there are already a few scares and areas in which Ethan remains hidden while observing the main enemies; Lady Alcina Dimitrescu and her daughters, Heisenberg or Mother Miranda).

The second aspect is the presence of survivors, who help the narrative. As we said in our impressions after watching gameplay of a little more than an hour: we not only have fear searching a dark house, listening carefully to the crunch of footsteps, and discovering with horror the trail of blood that seeps from the Upstairs but we have a new perspective; the terror that the villagers go through.

We are going to meet a group of survivors, wounded and in need of help, who are going to put us in a situation. They are devout and superstitious characters, who hide from the lycanthropes armed with what they have at hand (there are also strings of garlic hanging in their houses).

Lastly, to make up for Ethan Winters’ arsenal, nothing like enemies that are invulnerable to conventional weapons. At the moment, this is what Alcina Diimitrescu, the huge vampire woman, has seemed to us. He is a character who chases us around the castle, appearing at the time we least expect it, like Mr. X in Resident Evil 2, Nemesis in RE3 and Jack Baker in Resident Evil 7.

The fact that it is “indestructible” forces us to escape instead of going to a confrontation, and puts our adrenaline level through the roof (leaving aside the great design of the character). It’s a very clever way to compensate for how easily we can take down Lycans.

On May 7, with the launch of the game, we will know what other resources Resident Evil 8 Village uses to maintain the terrifying setting of the saga, which this time leaves aside the zombies and takes refuge in elements of Eastern European folklore like witches, vampires and werewolves.