Resident Evil VIIIage

Zero-Cool

Making of "Village of Shadows" theme song for anyone interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg2YEZGAihc

Retr0gamer

Finished it today, well 1.40 am in the morning counts as today. I really enjoyed it although it's just a little off being a classic. Really love the level design, there's something so satisfying about a map that loops back around itself many times. Gave me Dark souls vibes. I don't get the action comments. It was horror all the way up to the boss of the factory and the action bit really only lasted 5 minutes (but was far and away the worst part of it).

Great game, took me 10 hours to beat so relatively brief in this day and age and as a result it's very nicely paced.

What it isn't is better than Resident Evil 4. That's next level crazy talk.

johnny_ultimate

Also finished last night - a classic case of 'ah sure I'll push through to the end' and then it's 3:30am :pac:

I certainly preferred the game to Resi 7, which was perfectly fine but often more tedious than scary. The invincible pursuers idea is clunky rather than terrifying in action, and it's a shame some of the enemies here fall into the same mould (pun of course intended).

But I also really enjoyed the shift towards more of an adventure game. What's great about something like RE2 is the intricate level design: familiar loops, closed doors and valuable keys. A lot of this game falls into the same category, and indeed wholeheartedly embraces it with little design details such as a map that lets you know you'd dug around enough in a particular space.

Particular note to the visual design: there are more technically advance games out there I'm sure, but few that use lighting so impactfully to create a mood and tone. The orange glow of the lamps, lights and torches looks stunning in HDR.

There is a lot of tedious action though. The shooting is simplistic, and the last two or three hours throw waves of enemies at you until it goes straight up Resi 6 levels of blockbuster absurdity at times (

at least its brief shift to a more COD type gameplay during the Chris section is motivated by story and character

).

I've never thought Resi has been a particularly scary series, mainly because it's often so goofy and cheesy at its core. There are certainly creepy sections here,

like the Doll House

which is a cool change of pace. But there's also hints the designers are trying to lean into a sort of Evil Dead style comedy horror, what with the absurd body mutilation Ethan goes through. But the game doesn't quite settle tonally: that comic streak is undercut by a self-seriousness that in some cases enhances the gags and in other cases make the whole thing seems confused. I'd really love to see the series embrace its own long-standing goofiness next time and go full-on Evil Dead 2.

There are a few weird design decisions that come across as strangely half-arsed. Namely the inventory and crafting system. I'm actually not even sure why they have an inventory size limit because you have a ludicrous amount of space that's never, ever an issue as long as you buy the (basically mandatory) upgrades as you go. At least the earlier games made inventory management - tedious and contrived as it often was - part of the game. Here, the two times I needed to move things around to make way for a new item felt completely arbitrary, with nothing in the way of tactical decision-making. Just let the player carry everything if you're going to let them carry everything rather than this pointless hybrid.

A good game all-in-all that often doubles down on what Resi does best: rummaging through a sinister castle or venturing down a hidden pathway with a silly puzzle is the series at its finest IMO. It is all over the gaff quality wise though, and even at a modest 10 hours - admirably short and sweet by modern standards - the pace can't keep up. But it hurls Resi 1, Resi 2, Resi 4, Resi 6 and Resi 7 into a blender, and the results are suitably mad and enjoyably nonsensical. Mostly.

Cordell

and go full-on Evil Dead

Evil Dead will go full Evil Dead hopefully this year https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALpBmM6EqBQ

SMC92Ian

After two play throughs I've only found out you can upgrade your space and upgrade Ethan. The game does a poor job introducing the UI mechanics to the user.

recyclops

SMC92Ian wrote: »

After two play throughs I've only found out you can upgrade your space and upgrade Ethan. The game does a poor job introducing the UI mechanics to the user.

Really, I thought it was fairly self explanatory, the attache case is the first thing in the shop row ( well it was when I played) and with the upgrading ethan its the biggest selection for the duke, he even says it too you and each explanation clearly states what your upgrading.

Surely its not system specific

Markitron

SMC92Ian wrote: »

After two play throughs I've only found out you can upgrade your space and upgrade Ethan. The game does a poor job introducing the UI mechanics to the user.

I don't think they could make it any clearer without inundating the player with tutorial pop-ups and reminders. I think this one is all on you tbh.

Retr0gamer

UI has issues.

I myself went hunting animals and sold a lot of good meat because I thought it was just a commodity to be sold. Then later the game unlocked the recipes section of the shop after I'd sold about half the meat available in the game so I only got about half the stat upgrades available. I'd imagine a person that cares about achievements would be even more annoyed.

Zero-Cool

I read a kotaku article saying the same, they sold most of their meat before unlocking the upgrade system. I found it weird as i hadn't come across an animal until the upgrade system unlocked which i figured was by design.

As for the trophies, resi franchise is notorious for have some ****ing awful grindy ones, puts me off even trying to get trophies.

Retr0gamer

Well I tried to attack a chicken to see what would happen and then got attacked by an angry pig before it unlocked.

johnny_ultimate

Stabbing comically at the awkwardly animated fish swimming around a pond to grab their upgrade item is such pure, nonsense video game logic.

Cordell

No matter what anyone tells you, there's no fish in mititei If they smell fishy, don't eat them.

Retr0gamer

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Stabbing comically at the awkwardly animated fish swimming around a pond to grab their upgrade item is such pure, nonsense video game logic.

I found the Catfish hilarious and strangely accurate to their natural environment that the little feckers were so hard to see in their murky muddy watering hole.

Markitron

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Stabbing comically at the awkwardly animated fish swimming around a pond to grab their upgrade item is such pure, nonsense video game logic.

If you weren't using a shotgun for killing the fish then you are playing videogames incorrectly.

johnny_ultimate

Markitron wrote: »

If you weren't using a shotgun for killing the fish then you are playing videogames incorrectly.

Well la-dee-dah Mr ‘I have enough shotgun ammo to be using it on the fish’ :pac:

Retr0gamer

Some smart arse is going to tell us that the real macho way is to use a pipe bomb.

Markitron

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Well la-dee-dah Mr ‘I have enough shotgun ammo to be using it on the fish’ :pac:

Back in the day I was playing RE2 with a mate of mine, he walked into one of the rooms and shot a shotgun round into the air. I asked him wtf he was doing wasting a precious a shotgun shell and he said 'have to let them zombie bastards know I'm coming'.

This is how you play RE games.

SMC92Ian

recyclops wrote: »

Really, I thought it was fairly self explanatory, the attache case is the first thing in the shop row ( well it was when I played) and with the upgrading ethan its the biggest selection for the duke, he even says it too you and each explanation clearly states what your upgrading.

Surely its not system specific

There was no briefcase in my first playthrough you can see it on my YouTube as I streamed the full thing.

Markitron

SMC92Ian wrote: »

There was no briefcase in my first playthrough you can see it on my YouTube as I streamed the full thing.

It is 100% there in the Duke's shop, unless you have some extremely specific and rare bug occurring I don't know how you can miss it.

Mr.Fantastic

Think I am nearing the end of this just beat

Moreau/Fish man

House benevito was really twisted, jaysus I actually felt scared playing it.

Was it just me or could you not walk or run as fast in the basement of that bit?

Markitron

Mr.Fantastic wrote: »

Think I am nearing the end of this just beat

Moreau/Fish man

House benevito was really twisted, jaysus I actually felt scared playing it.

Was it just me or could you not walk or run as fast in the basement of that bit?

At best you are only at about the 60% mark

Mr.Fantastic

Markitron wrote: »

At best you are only at about the 60% mark

Ah okay , good bit to go so says only 5 hours play time, really enjoying it but dipping in and out don't want to binge it.

Markitron

Mr.Fantastic wrote: »

Ah okay , good bit to go so says only 5 hours play time, really enjoying it but dipping in and out don't want to binge it.

10 hours seems to be about average if you do a bit of digging in the village each time you go back.

SMC92Ian

Markitron wrote: »

It is 100% there in the Duke's shop, unless you have some extremely specific and rare bug occurring I don't know how you can miss it.

I saw it on YouTube someone else also didn't have that or the Ethan upgrades from Siftd.

Grumpypants

Really enjoying it. It feels like an "old fashioned" game with the amount of looping around the map and discovering treasures in random places. But without it feeling "old" mechanically.

The gameplay is....infectious :pac:... The number of times I was meant to go to bed, but there was one more treasure box right over there, or I had just found a crank and can now open a gate. Even when I did make it all the way back to a save point and save the game.... I'd start itching to play one more bit.

I've cleared the castle, the dollhouse and the fish fella. Glad the pace slowed down after the castle which was a bit too action-packed to be scary. But then again I hated the dollhouse right up until I finished it and was safe. Then I loved it

Grumpypants

In the factory now, so I think I am pretty close to finishing it. I'm just under the 10 hour mark.

I'm playing on Stadia. I reckon I've played about 4 hours on my phone in bed, 3 on the big TV in the games room at home, and 3ish on the PC in the chrome browser at work during lunch breaks.

No Windows, Steam or PSN updates, no game patches, no drivers to install. No save files to transfer. Just click the red button and start playing from the last place I finished anywhere with the internet.

SMC92Ian

Grumpypants wrote: »

In the factory now, so I think I am pretty close to finishing it. I'm just under the 10 hour mark.

I'm playing on Stadia. I reckon I've played about 4 hours on my phone in bed, 3 on the big TV in the games room at home, and 3ish on the PC in the chrome browser at work during lunch breaks.

No Windows, Steam or PSN updates, no game patches, no drivers to install. No save files to transfer. Just click the red button and start playing from the last place I finished anywhere with the internet.

It's like that on PS5. Turn on, click play, no loading. Although PS5 is 60fps HDR and ray tracing.

recyclops

SMC92Ian wrote: »

It's like that on PS5. Turn on, click play, no loading. Although PS5 is 60fps HDR and ray tracing.

minus the attaché cases and Ethan upgrades. :pac::pac:

this was going to be my entry into stadia as the deal was a really good one, but then I had enough MS points to get it half price and then game share knocked it to 75% off so sadly stadia was put on the back burner again.

1huge1

Grumpypants wrote: »

In the factory now, so I think I am pretty close to finishing it. I'm just under the 10 hour mark.

I'm playing on Stadia. I reckon I've played about 4 hours on my phone in bed, 3 on the big TV in the games room at home, and 3ish on the PC in the chrome browser at work during lunch breaks.

No Windows, Steam or PSN updates, no game patches, no drivers to install. No save files to transfer. Just click the red button and start playing from the last place I finished anywhere with the internet.

Same, I played it on Stadia as well, have to say, the experiece was flawless playing it on my TV screen. I've no next gen console and I think my pc would of really struggled with this game so it was a great alternative.

After the factory, I'd say there is around 30-40mins left in the game.

Finished it yesterday, around 10-11 hours of gameplay, wasn't rushing myself. Story was a bit meh but really enjoyed the gameplay.

recyclops wrote: »

minus the attaché cases and Ethan upgrades. :pac::pac:

this was going to be my entry into stadia as the deal was a really good one, but then I had enough MS points to get it half price and then game share knocked it to 75% off so sadly stadia was put on the back burner again.

It came with a controller and chromecast ultra if you bought it on stadia, thats what sealed the deal for me. I would never pay €69 for a game otherwise.

SMC92Ian

recyclops wrote: »

minus the attaché cases and Ethan upgrades. :pac::pac:

What game doesn't have a bug. Second playthrough everything was there.

SMC92Ian

1huge1 wrote: »

Same, I played it on Stadia as well, have to say, the experiece was flawless playing it on my TV screen. I've no next gen console and I think my pc would of really struggled with this game so it was a great alternative.

After the factory, I'd say there is around 30-40mins left in the game.

Finished it yesterday, around 10-11 hours of gameplay, wasn't rushing myself. Story was a bit meh but really enjoyed the gameplay.



It came with a controller and chromecast ultra if you bought it on stadia, thats what sealed the deal for me. I would never pay €69 for a game otherwise.

Wait you still had to buy the game? It's not a sub?

recyclops

1huge1 wrote: »

It came with a controller and chromecast ultra if you bought it on stadia, thats what sealed the deal for me. I would never pay €69 for a game otherwise.

yeah thats why I jumping on it but MS make digital so user friendly and cost effective i just know i would never use it.

I have been playing the merc mode a fair bit and its great for a quick blast

1huge1

SMC92Ian wrote: »

Wait you still had to buy the game? It's not a sub?

Sure, you still have to buy the game.

Basic Stadia is free to use, just have to buy the games.

You can get Stadia Pro (€10 a month), this gives you 4K & HDR gaming with free games every month (last month was Resident Evil 7 for example among others, this month I got Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order).

I played it on my 55" Sony tv using HDR10 and 4K and I thought it looked amazing, no input lag in the slightest.

recyclops wrote: »

yeah thats why I jumping on it but MS make digital so user friendly and cost effective i just know i would never use it.

I have been playing the merc mode a fair bit and its great for a quick blast

Ya I just unlocked the merc mode yesterday after completing the game for the first time, only played it for a few mins so far but enjoyed it.

Grumpypants

SMC92Ian wrote: »

Wait you still had to buy the game? It's not a sub?

Stadia is a platform and it is free to use. They have an additional sub tier that is like PS+ where you get a benefit of extra "free games" and a 4K stream.

The value is that instead of spending €500 on a console and then €70 on the game you just buy the game for €70 and start playing.

They had an additional promo on RE8 where you got €170 bundle (controller and chromecast ultra) for €69.

The best bit was like last night. I was downstairs playing RE8 on the big TV downstairs. I was getting tired and wanted to go to bed but didn't want to stop playing. All I had to do was turn off the game, whip out the phone attach it to the controller and I was playing from the exact same place, on my phone, at AAA quality.

brady12

Finished this today I loved it . My second resi evil after 7 . Iv been completely sucked in now and I will start playing them all . I got really sucked into the story of 7 and 8 and watched several videos after it just clear up everything in my head .

Some of the locations in the game were insanely beautiful and level design was serious .

I'm going to be vague so won't ruin Game for anyone . In the final cutscene who was the person on the road up ahead as the car drove away? . Iv a Fair idea but I'm not going to post incase anything Gets spoiled for some one .

1huge1

brady12 wrote: »

Finished this today I loved it . My second resi evil after 7 . Iv been completely sucked in now and I will start playing them all . I got really sucked into the story of 7 and 8 and watched several videos after it just clear up everything in my head .

Some of the locations in the game were insanely beautiful and level design was serious .

I'm going to be vague so won't ruin Game for anyone . In the final cutscene who was the person on the road up ahead as the car drove away? . Iv a Fair idea but I'm not going to post incase anything Gets spoiled for some one .

Was it revealed who is was, I thought the point was to keep us guessing, possibly Ethan coming back somehow?

I've been playing Resi since I was a kid, played all the main ones bar 6 (which I have no intention of playing).

My recommendation would be to give RE2 remake a go next, not first person like RE7/8 but the mechanics are similar to what you've played so far.

If you really get into it, then move onto REmake. Completely different from what you've experienced so far but it is a masterpiece.

Zero-Cool

Have to give REmake 1 a go if you haven't played, especially with the callback to it from a note you find in Resi Village.

Retr0gamer

The best thing about the two remake games is they are so different from the games they are based on. The old Resi 1 and 2 are still incredible games and give a very different experience to their remakes that they are still worth playing even if you've played the remakes.

recyclops

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Have to give REmake 1 a go if you haven't played, especially with the callback to it from a note you find in Resi Village.

Finished Jill last night, will take a break to play soma then go back to chris its still a classic, I was more cautious than usual and tried to only use handgun except boss fights, got the good ending though

Zero-Cool

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The best thing about the two remake games is they are so different from the games they are based on. The old Resi 1 and 2 are still incredible games and give a very different experience to their remakes that they are still worth playing even if you've played the remakes.

When ranking Resi's, I tend to ship them together like the below. Even though they are very different, I honestly can't choose a favourite between them. Nostalgia versus modernisation.

1 - Resi 1 / Resi 1 REmake
2 - Resi 2 / Resi 2 REmake
3 - Resi Village
4 - Resi 4.......will probably go back to no. 3 when my Village hypes dies down
5 - Resi 7
6 - Resi 3
7 - Resi 5


























































8 - Resi 6

1huge1

Zero-Cool wrote: »

When ranking Resi's, I tend to ship them together like the below. Even though they are very different, I honestly can't choose a favourite between them. Nostalgia versus modernisation.

1 - Resi 1 / Resi 1 REmake
2 - Resi 2 / Resi 2 REmake
3 - Resi Village
4 - Resi 4.......will probably go back to no. 3 when my Village hypes dies down
5 - Resi 7
6 - Resi 3
7 - Resi 5


8 - Resi 6

Assume you're referring to the RE3 remake (which I've yet to play), I loved the original RE3.

Retr0gamer

Found the original 3 disappointing compared to 1 and 2. Still good but it's not the best. I'd rank it below them and above Code Veronica.

Zero-Cool

1huge1 wrote: »

Assume you're referring to the RE3 remake (which I've yet to play), I loved the original RE3.

Ah I forgot about 3 remake, I must play that some day but the OG 3 was luke warm at best for me so I'm guessing the remake would site around that as well going by people's reviews. I never played Code Veronica.

1huge1

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Found the original 3 disappointing compared to 1 and 2. Still good but it's not the best. I'd rank it below them and above Code Veronica.

I wouldn't go as far as that but I agree, it didn't reach the highs of RE1 and RE2. Code Veronica is the only RE game I started and never finished, just couldn't really get into it. It kind of felt like Capcom had milked that formula as much as they could by the time it came out. In saying that REmake and Zero came out after it and were much better games (especially REmake).

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Ah I forgot about 3 remake, I must play that some day but the OG 3 was luke warm at best for me so I'm guessing the remake would site around that as well going by people's reviews. I never played Code Veronica.

Seems I'm in the minority here, I still really enjoyed the original RE3.

I'll give the the RE3 remake a go when the price drops lower, usually around the €10-€15 mark is the sweet point for me when it comes to buying Steam games on Instant Gaming. I'd imagine it'll reach that in a year or so.

I think Resident Evil Village is the first time I've bought a game on launch in a long long time. Probably not since Twilight Princess when I got my Wii on Launch date.

Zero-Cool

1huge1 wrote: »

Seems I'm in the minority here, I still really enjoyed the original RE3.

One of my friends, who loves the series has Resi 3 as his top game. It never clicked with me like the first 2, still a good game though. That's the one thing you can't take away from Capcom, they haven't been afraid to mix things up instead of putting out the same rebranded game every release. Sometimes that's paid off......and sometimes it hasn't

petes

Played both original Resi 3 and remake, only played the remake as I got it for 20 quid, far to short to pay full price for it! Still enjoyed it though but Resi 2 remake was far better and same with the Resi 1 remake.

Penn

RE3:Remake was definitely a step down from RE2:Remake. Far more linear, zombies less of a threat, Nemesis poorly used, fewer puzzles. Plus only one campaign so even though Leon and Claire's campaigns in RE2:R were more similar than the original, here you only get one campaign anyway.

It's worth playing if you enjoyed RE2:R especially if you get it cheap, and I did enjoy playing it a lot, but RE2:R is just utterly fantastic.

Retr0gamer

I'd never say Resi 3 is bad but it's just not the same high quality as the first two. The world and level design just isn't as good and I still remember the infuriation I had with the nemesis boss fight where you had to spray acid on him. It felt broken.

I'd still take it over zero.

Zero-Cool

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I'd never say Resi 3 is bad but it's just not the same high quality as the first two. The world and level design just isn't as good and I still remember the infuriation I had with the nemesis boss fight where you had to spray acid on him. It felt broken.

I'd still take it over zero.

Another one, Zero, I haven't played. I'm tempted but can't bring myself to ever try. Think I'll leave it float away in the wind. Never played the Revelation games either.

Retr0gamer

I enjoyed zero back in the gamcube days. Just couldn't play it again.