Resident Evil Village & RE7 Are Each Better At Different Things

When it comes to the survival-horror genre, Capcom’s Resident Eviltitles might be the most iconic of them all. They’ve been terrifying gamers since the 90s, and they’ve been doing a solid job ever since. However, Resident Evil 7 introduced a first-person perspective to the equation, which for many players only made the game even tenser to explore. The long-awaited Resident Evil Village has now released, following up on the events of Resident Evil 7, but it ultimately has different strengths (and weaknesses) than its predecessor.

The original Resident Evil entries released on the PlayStation 1 focused on offering players terrifying experiences in which they’d need to explore a labyrinthian map while desperately maintaining their resources. Many players enjoyed how utterly scary these segments could be, since it heightened immersion and gave these games a vibe of their own. Once the GameCube rolled around, Resident Evil 4 shook up the franchise and gave it a more combat-centric focus which made it less scary, but it was an excellent action game with plenty of elements of survival-horror still intact. This became the new norm for the franchise until Resident Evil 7 took everything a step back and went back to the franchise’s survival horror roots.

While games like Resident Evil 4 and 5 certainly had plenty of fans, there were loads of players who appreciated the change of pace Resident Evil 7 brought. It’s littered with unsettling environments and monsters, with a scarcity of resources to boot. The map design returned to the Metroidvania style of the classic Resident Evil games, and the new perspective only helped make RE7 even more frightening. After the thrill of the Baker household, fans were ready for Resident Evil Village to progress the story, even though it was apparent through marketing that the game was leaning back into what made Resident Evil 4 so great.

Resident Evil Village And Resident Evil 7 Have Different Strengths

Resident Evil Village certainly has its scary moments, but it seems more inspired by Resident Evil 4 overall. The game features way more enemies than Resident Evil 7 did, and, beyond that, there’s more variety in what players will find as well. Players are geared with much more resources than they were before, and the environments are much brighter on average. Because of the amount of enemies, weapons, and ammo on hand, Resident Evil Village has much more exhilarating combat than RE7, since players will spend less time cowering and more time managing space while they decide what’s the best way to take out large groups of enemies.

On the other hand, Resident Evil 7 excels at being a quality horror experience. Each member of the Baker family is extremely intimidating due to their unpredictable natures, and the environments players explore are much darker and creepier on average. The lack of light only exacerbates this feeling, and many of the monsters have much more unsettling designs to them – although one Resident Evil Village creature in particular may be scarier than anything else in either game. Resident Evil 7 is more slowly paced, but its psychological horror and imagery make for a memorable and compelling experience. Both Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village are high-quality adventures, but they’re different enough for fans to develop preferences for one or the other based on what they want from the Resident Evil franchise.

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