As she pursues, you have to hunt for objects to unlock the main gate, which involves some light puzzling and, in true Resi style, mentally mapping the building.Ĭastle Dimitrescu is perhaps the best showcase of Resident Evil's impressive visuals-but the entire game is just obscenely pretty. It's an incredibly atmospheric setting, and the imposing Lady D bearing down on you (crouching to squeeze through doorways that are much too small for her) is thrillingly nerve-wracking. Her 15th Century castle is an opulent labyrinth of ornate, gilded corridors and shadowy drawing rooms, lavishly decorated and softly lit by candles. In another section you're hunted by Lady Dimitrescu, the aforementioned lofty vampire. You genuinely never know what fresh weirdness the developer is going to throw at you next.

But it's worth it for the variety this approach offers. You often get the sense that Capcom had the ideas for the game's many brilliant set-pieces first, then decided how to connect them all together at the last minute. Admittedly, this can make it feel inconsistent at times, as if all the parts are flimsily strung together. What I love about Village is that it never settles on being just one kind of horror gameĮach section is so wildly different, Village almost has the feel of a horror anthology. And it manages to keep this up for pretty much the entire duration of the game. It's a game overflowing with cool, memorable ideas, constantly inventing clever, surprising new ways to raise your heart rate and jolt you out of your comfort zone. Each villain's lair features a very different take on the genre, from breathless, action-packed survival against hordes of enemies, to a more slow-burning, psychological brand of horror.

What I love about Village is that it never settles on being just one kind of horror game.

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