Resident Evil: Village Gold Edition - Winters' Expansion | Review

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Same story, different emotions.

Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition is the expansion made for this eighth and beloved game with the intention of complementing the players' experience in a way that mainly adds three new paths for players to carry out the campaign normally, but this time in third person: the mercenaries mode and the DLC Shadows of Rose. It was recently released on October 28 and developed by Capcom. It is available for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

Capcom is a Japanese game developer and publisher, based in Osaka, founded in 1979, and quite old, so you can expect a certain quality in their games, since this company owns great successes beyond Resident Evil, such as Street Fighter, Mega Man, and Devil May Cry.

So in this review I have the great intention of presenting the new features delivered with this release, but in case you haven't played one of the best games in the franchise, rest assured that the information will go through all the major details prior to this update.

Before anything, it's important to note that it may be necessary to demand a little more from your PC, but not that much either, since the game is surprisingly well optimized. Anyway, the recommendation is to have 16 GB of RAM, a video card AMD Radeon RX 5700 or higher and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 and a processor AMD Ryzen 5 3600 or higher and Intel Core i7 8700.

Haven't played the 7th?

Talking about the lore and, of course, avoiding spoilers to not mess with your experience, considering that you haven't played it before, it is worth mentioning that will be necessary to minimally know the history of RE7 (Resident Evil 7), but if you haven't played, rest assured, the game itself at the beginning of the main campaign, will offer a very brief and explanatory summary of the previous story. A piece of advice: Pay attention to it even if just to refresh your memory, it will not take your time and you will feel more integrated with our hero, Ethan Winters.

Speaking a little more, Ethan, who in the previous game was considered one of the worst protagonists, with very little charisma, in RE8 he is for sure one of the bravest characters I've ever played, obviously, he will follow your commands and, even unwillingly, at various times we will have to face monstrosities, After all, it is a fact that the zombies in this franchise have long since crossed the common sense, but in his lines, completely well dubbed and subtitled (extremely positive point), you notice a great bravery, a desperate father who is after a newborn daughter and would do anything, face anyone, to get her back.

Exciting, isn't it? The problem is that at the time you will not even remember these feelings, the concern and the issue is that at the time you will not even remember these feelings, the concern and tension created by the sum of setting and narrative put everything aside for the sake of your survival.


(Chris Redfield)

The plot itself, without the exposition of puzzle solving or surprises thrown in for players, revolves all around the family of the main character, Ethan. At first, he and his wife, Mia, live somewhere in Europe with their daughter, little Rose (literally a baby), however, in a twist, Chris Redfield (brother of Claire, a famous character in the franchise) with a team, carries out a mysterious attack and captures the child.

After this, the transport train also suffers a raid, which Ethan wakes up totally lost and alone, in an unknown and isolated place (a village that reminded me a lot of the small town in Outlast 2, visually speaking), when he is captured and introduced to the dear and surprisingly charismatic villains: Lady Dimitrescu (vampire), Heisenberg (a man with Magneto-like powers), Beneviento (will remind you a lot of Annabelle, lol), Moreau (an aquatic being) and the cult leader, Mother Miranda.

Finally, our mission is to recover Rose while facing these dangerous "beings". Also, in this game we will have good and intriguing surprises, such as some plots being explained from the previous game, important facts about Ethan and his daughter, and revelations about the Umbrella Corporation and its foundation.


(Some of the villains, in order: Lady Dimitrescu, Beneviento, Heisenberg, and Moreau)

The gameplay and the marriage with the novelty

The game is an FPS with very standard movement. The keys, if you play on a PC like me, will be very common. That said, it is already possible to state that the commands and controls mapped by the developers will not make your life harder because everything was done with a certain mastery to promote excellent gameplay.

The novelty of the movement in third person will leave you nostalgic, reminding you the beloved Resident Evil 4, which is particularly one of my favorites, however, I admit that it caused me a certain degree of strangeness, since it seems that the character is a little limited, but this is a matter of time, since the habit comes quickly and this is no longer a concern.

For fans of third-person mode, you will definitely want to try here, although the scares are less frequent compared to the first-person mode, this is obvious and expected, because the monster in this case is literally in your vision sight, the tension of not only feel the enemy chasing you but being able to visualize it will leave you in a cold sweat.


(Third person image)

The relation with terror

I'm already tired of praising, but it's just like Thanos, inevitable. Honestly, at its release, I do not know how this game did not win the game of the year prize, but talking about graphics, this is certainly one of the best optimized games from Capcom. Surprisingly, the engine used was the same as RE7, but here it is very well developed, the creators were concerned about the smallest details to positively surprise, and they succeeded.

The art is splendid, beautiful, and will contribute in a huge way to your experience. Seeing your enemies characterized in the smallest detail, (here still a special note to Lady Dimitrescu, who gave good shivers with their facial expressions) will leave all the muscles in your body tensed. Your worries about moving as fast as possible are totally caused by despair, so, here the developers did VERY WELL!

Not unlike the audio in the game is excellent, the soundtrack is totally immersive and precedes the action, which means, through the music, you will know if you have to run or run a lot. That's for sure another positive point. Moreover, it is impossible to not comment, despite having already mentioned it before, how much the dubbing was exciting and complete, it encouraged me a lot to continue the story because of this.


(More from the amazing Lady Dimitrescu)

Mercenary mode

Of course, the update did not add only the third person mode, believing to have already presented the game well even for those who have not played it before and fulfilling the opinion of those who know the game, it's time to talk about the other additions delivered by the Gold Edition.

The classic mode is played with a character of your choice, in this case with the incredible Chris, Ethan, Heisenberg or Lady Dimitrescu (!), the addition of these characters, particularly, was a great shot from Capcom to promote this game mode, so we go through the campaign maps killing everything and everyone while trying to survive, the weapons are still subject to improvement, making everything more fun. Not only that, it still comes with a very intriguing novelty: it is possible to find blue spheres that will give abilities to the character, such as increased mobility, distance damage and so on.

As a reward, and this already existed before the update, so I do not consider it a spoiler, the game will give you a simply legendary item if you complete everything, a ''Jedi'' sword, but calm down, you need to beat all the maps in SS rank, so it can be a little complicated. 


(The 3 new additions)

A good surprise

Talking about the new DLC, Shadows of Rose, which, for me, owns the spotlight among the surprises of the Gold Edition, you must be aware of the need to know the story of the main campaign of RE8, besides, of course, some main parts of the previous game, this, before starting this new mode, the developers already make it very clear with a message: ''We recommend that you complete the main campaign before playing Shadows of Rose''.

The game takes place in third person mode and with a new protagonist, the adult Rose, daughter of Ethan and Mia, but here Capcom has chosen a different style of gameplay, combat, story and others since instead of running away in search of only saving herself or saving someone, Rose tries to get rid of something she considers an evil, which we will get to know during the main campaign.

Rose, já adulta
(Rose, as an adult).

To be clear, I speak this way because I want to avoid spoilers since it is very complicated to quote any fact about the narrative without delivering something unwanted, as the approach given by the creators is new, any fact will be a surprise, including, the way the gameplay begins is totally different from anything you've probably seen, we'll experience everything in a kind of dream induced by a fungus, and, in addition, the villain surprised me a lot, because we already knew him before.

It is worth mentioning that the setting through which we will pass is already known, so in terms of location you will not have as many problems, and with this, you will probably be able to access and accomplish the missions more quickly and effectively. That said, although it is the same, the location is even more horrifying, the images can be more disturbing, especially in relation to what we will be facing.

Anyway, the new DLC does not get to be a masterpiece such as the main game, however, the style, the gameplay added with the graphic and sound features, make this a pleasant experience and will surely appeal to fans of this giant franchise.

Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition is available for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/Sand PC.

Thanks to the PR team at Capcom and Theo Games, who provided the game key and made it possible to create this content.

Veredito
93
Excelente

In one of the best games of the Resident Evil franchise, and particularly one of the best of its launch year, new surprises have been added that are very pleasant, especially for big fans. Get this new expansion and explore as much as you can without the fear of being disappointed.

Scoring

  • Gameplay
    90
  • Graphics
    95
  • Audio
    90
  • History
    100
  • Controls
    90
Scoring Criteria
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Alex
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Rockstar Games fan!
About the game
Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition

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