Today’s PS5 stream brought the reveal of Resident Evil 8: Village. This game is set up as a sequel to Resident Evil 7, and once again puts us in Ethan Winters’s shoes. This time, it looks like we’ll be fighting mutated monsters and madmen through a small village surrounding a giant castle.
The debut cinematic didn’t give us much to go on. However, from what I’ve seen so far, it looks like Resident Evil 8 will combine the best of classic and modern RE for a genuinely harrowing experience.
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What is Resident Evil 8: Village about?
Fortunately, I have just a bit more than the cinematic to go on. A press release from Capcom gives a bit more insight into what we can expect from Resident Evil 8. The new game is set a few years after the events of RE7. Ethan and Mia have settled down together and started a new and peaceful life. At some point, Chris Redfield breaks into their house, shoots and kills Mia (or something that looks like Mia), and kidnaps Ethan.
Some time afterward, Ethan finds himself in a village outside of an imposing castle. Again, Ethan has to fight for his life as mutants and monsters run rampant around him. As for whether Chris Redfield is friend or foe is yet to be known. We do see cult-like iconography throughout the trailer, so Ethan will likely be contending with both mutant and human enemies as he tries to make his escape.
Why will Resident Evil 8: Village be a good RE game?
I can’t be sure just how good RE8 will be without actually playing it. However, the small bit we’ve seen so far looks like the game will go a long way toward blending classic and modern Resident Evil into a cohesive package. Resident Evil 7 is seen as a return-to-form for the franchise after the financially-successful, but widely-panned RE6 alienated many fans of the series. It makes sense then that Resident Evil 8 would be a further evolution of the modern take of the classic RE formula we saw with RE7.
Thematically, the jump between RE7 and RE8 seems to be similar to the one we saw between RE2/3 and RE4. The scope of the game is broader, with the village outsizing the Baker estate, and we can assume there are more threats to Ethan as well.
One of the significant criticisms leveled at Resident Evil 7 is the lack of enemy variation, with every foe besides the bosses being a Molded. In the trailer, we get to see a werewolf man, and whatever giant thing scooped up the guy with the shotgun, so that’s a big step in the right direction already.
Resident Evil 8 also looks like it’ll embrace some of the over-the-top characters that were a hallmark of RE4 and RE5. In particular, a woman in an evening gown is seen in several scenes in the trailer, which looks to be a key player in RE8. Capcom did a great job evoking films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes with the Bakers, and I hope we’ll get more exciting adversaries in our explorations of the village.
One of my qualms with RE7 that I hope will be addressed in RE8 is the lack of connection with the rest of the series. Aside from Blue Umbrella and Chris Redfield, there was little to tie RE7 to the other games in the franchise. We know Chris will be a part of RE8, but I hope they go a step further and add more callbacks In the trailer we see a series of icons surrounding the familiar Umbrella Corporation logo, so it’s possible the now-defunct company had something to do with the strange occurrences happening in this location.
Today’s trailer was a grand reveal for Resident Evil 8: Village, and I’m optimistic about how the game will turn out. Surprisingly, RE8 is set to launch sometime next year, so we won’t have to wait long to see what’s happening in the village for ourselves.
