Resident Evil VIIIage

[huxley]

Winters expansion is discounted on CDKeys
PC £12.99

https://www.cdkeys.com/pc/resident-evil-village-winters-expansion-pc-dlc-steam

Xbox live £14.99

https://www.cdkeys.com/xbox-live/resident-evil-village-winters-expansion-xbox-ww

[Atticus]

I'm tempted by the Bernie Winters Expansion but it's landing on the same day as Bayo 3 and CoD. Looking forward to hearing any impressions. Village is such a great game.

[fuse]

Heads-up if you were thinking of buying the "Gold" physical edition of Village - in contrast to 7 where the "Gold" version had the content on the disc, here it's just the basic game on disc with a one-time DLC code. Don't buy it pre-owned.

[huxley]

Looks like the winters expansion is about three hours long. Gonna wait for a sale.

[112]

Heads-up if you were thinking of buying the "Gold" physical edition of Village - in contrast to 7 where the "Gold" version had the content on the disc, here it's just the basic game on disc with a one-time DLC code. Don't buy it pre-owned.

Thanks for the heads up. So with this in mind, buying the original release of Resident Evil Village at its current reduced price and then just buying the DLC, would probably work out cheaper then… Maybe…

Disappointed to hear it’s not all on disc.

112

[huxley]

After the recent updates the controls no longer work on Steamdeck for village. Was fine before, worked on defaults with no problem.
Tried setting it up manually to no avail. Deleted and reinstalling atm.

[Dogg Thang]

After the recent updates the controls no longer work on Steamdeck for village. Was fine before, worked on defaults with no problem.
Tried setting it up manually to no avail. Deleted and reinstalling atm.

That seems to be a thing that can happen. Alan Wake got a few visual glitches on Steam Deck after working perfectly before. I guess it’s always the risk with updates.

[huxley]

Thats a shame i was going to replay that next.
FYI they broke the controls for the Resi village VR mod so its unplayable as well.

Update -

I think I caused my own problems by playing this on Steamdeck and then installing the VR Mod on my desktop PC copy. Steamcloud sync had a hissy. Removed from my steam deck and installed a fresh copy on my pc started it as normal and set controls to default, reinstalled PC mod and its fine. I might replay this on steamdeck with the third person at a later date.

[Golgo]

Just finished the Beneviento section. Brilliant stuff. The whole thing is entirely linear, elementary (at best) puzzles, and yet somehow it's all so well set-up and choreographed with such a superb atmosphere that it feels spontaneous and totally gripping to play. Coming back to the central village to unlock new paths and piece together treasure clues is also a great touch. I admire how the devs change the tone and pace from section to section.

[Ouenben]

Just finished the Beneviento section. Brilliant stuff. The whole thing is entirely linear, elementary (at best) puzzles, and yet somehow it's all so well set-up and choreographed with such a superb atmosphere that it feels spontaneous and totally gripping to play. Coming back to the central village to unlock new paths and piece together treasure clues is also a great touch. I admire how the devs change the tone and pace from section to section.

It's fun and something a little different for the first playthrough but an annoying slog to go through on subsequent playthroughs sadly.

[JU!]

Just finished the Beneviento section. Brilliant stuff. The whole thing is entirely linear, elementary (at best) puzzles, and yet somehow it's all so well set-up and choreographed with such a superb atmosphere that it feels spontaneous and totally gripping to play. Coming back to the central village to unlock new paths and piece together treasure clues is also a great touch. I admire how the devs change the tone and pace from section to section.

Yeah that section is creepy. Think DLC Rose stuff has some more creepy stuff like this.

[dazza_cole]

Is the 3rd person mode any good?

[Golgo]

Finished this including DLC. Was terrific overall. I really enjoyed the diversion into the Winters story through 7 and 8, although the earlier game is the more coherent and inventive one I think. It was cool to learn more of the origins of the Umbrella story in 8, though. The DLC was 100% recycled environments but they were used well and definitely deserved a second look, especially Castle Dimitrescu which is wonderful. Some super-creepy moments in Beneviento Mansion that even outdid

->Open Spoiler<-

the giant baby in the main campaign - I'm talking about the manikin/'statues' section, which was brilliant.

The return to the 'molded' environments of 7 was also fun. Made me appreciate how unnerving and effective it was to have a situation where a monster could materialize out of the environment at any moment. There were however some timed sections/chases where a slight misstep would lead to instadeath and these were as irritating as they always are.

There are aspects of the franchise that are now well overdue for improvement, though, I feel:

1. Enemy AI: the whole stumble, duck and weave thing that they started in Resi 4 is getting stale. This gets really exposed if, for example, you knock down a group (such as with a grenade), and they'll all get up at the same time with the animations re-set and will come at you ducking and weaving in sync, like Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video. It's daft. They need smarter enemies that do more than this (and no, not just ones that make a beeline for you fast either). Not geniuses, but maybe 'Last of Us' levels of inquisitive smartness.
2. Puzzles: in Village they have now attained a state where they are so elementary they might as well not have been there. There's no satisfaction in the 'solving' of them, they don't hold up your progress, and they seldom add to the story. In this current state they are pointless.
3. Bosses: again, very elementary in 8. Fun and spectacular but they require no working out, and usually the game will just tell you what buttons to press in order to win. This was especially the case in the DLC.

As a horror-filled roller-coaster full of brilliantly camp characters, though, I think 8 is tremendous. I love The Duke and am currently hunting for a plush. The art design was outstanding. I had a look at some of the figurines in the gallery afterwards and nearly spewed at the ickiness of the close-up detail on the Moreau figurine (1st mutation). Architectural and interior design was exceptional - really authentic feeling and almost painterly. The castle kitchen, with its rich textural detail and lighting/shadow across the hanging meats and stuff, could almost be mistaken for a genre piece/still life by Chardin - such was the sense of chiaroscuro and even, dare one say, impasto.

I lump it below with some other snaps I took on my ancient PS4.







...and finally, the gorgeous fat man: