LADY KILLER

RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE is a collection of bizarre, beautiful haunted houses, with some of the scariest moments in the entire series.

- Andy Kelly

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT? A first-person survival horror game

EXPECT TO PAY £50

DEVELOPER Capcom

PUBLISHER In-house

REVIEWED ON RTX 2080 Super, Intel i7-9700K, 16GB RAM

MULTIPLAYER Yes

LINK residentevil.com

Beginning with a scene of domestic bliss, our hero Ethan Winters (returning from Resident Evil 7) and his wife Mia prepare dinner and look after their newborn baby, Rosemary. Then something bad happens – I won’t say what, because it’s pretty shocking – and soon Ethan finds himself lost in an isolated village in a snowstorm, searching for his kidnapped child. It’s a sharp, sudden intro, but an effective one, immediately setting the stakes high and establishing Resident Evil Village’s brutal, sadistic tone.

It’s never explicitly stated where the village the game takes its name from is located, but a few clues point towards it being nestled somewhere in the wintry mountains of Romania. The village itself is a scrappy, ramshackle scattering of wood and brick houses, farmer’s fields, and the occasional church. Over it looms a gothic castle with immense spires, and there are also traces of ancient ruins, suggesting a long and strange history. It’s a magnificent setting, dripping with atmosphere, menace, and mystery. I wanted to explore every dingy corner of it.

DEADSET