My first post was never going to be anything except a deep-dive into my favourite game of 2021. And what better place to start than the very beginning?
SPOILER WARNING for Resident Evil: Village, Biohazard, and other RE games!
Mother Miranda, I must protest. Heisenberg is but a child, and his devotion to you is questionable. Give the mortal to me and I will make sure...he is ready. (Capcom, 2021)
When Capcom announced their follow-up to 2017's Resident Evil: Biohazard (the seventh canon game in the RE franchise), the fan following elicited mixed responses.
It's safe to say most of us whooped with delight at the notion of a creepy Eastern European village overrun by werewolves, vampires, haunted dolls, and whatever Lovecraftian creature poor Moreau was meant to be.
The strikingly beautiful Lady Dimitrescu, a giant vampiress who features heavily in the trailer, dazzled viewers from day one. Sauntering about her sprawling gothic mansion with her three undead daughters at her behest, wielding an impressive pair of...claws (what else?), the Reddit threads and YouTube comments were overrun with predictions for the games' plot. Would "tall vampire mommy" be the main big bad, hunting you throughout the game much like Mr X in RE2 or Nemesis in RE3? And more importantly, do we really have to run away from her?
When the game dropped on May 7th 2021 however, thirsty gamers learned that Village would be much more than being chased by a towering vampire-dragon lady who lives in a beautiful house.
Not being able to return to Castle Dimitrescu was a huge bummer. I mean, look at it!
Unfolding like a twisted fairytale from the same storybook featured in the prologue, Ethan Winters returns as our unwilling hero following the traumatic events of RE7.
After a shocking reunion with franchise mainstay Chris Redfield, Ethan finds himself on a mission to rescue his infant daughter from the clutches of an evil force, one nestled deep in the moulded heart of this this strange, secluded Eastern European village.
Basically, it's like that film Taken- but with werewolves and and better scenery.
Having Ethan as the protagonist in itself was a decision which divided gamers. Some had utterly loathed him in RE7, with his everyman persona allowing him to sink into the shadows and be upstaged by the dynamic villains he encounters. Biohazard was a smash hit, praised for reviving the franchise and breathing life its forgotten survival horror roots, so any follow-up had very large shoes to fill. Many players assumed that Ethan and Mia Winters' fight against the moulded would begin and end in RE7, and to this day there are a portion of players who wish it had.
Enter Resident Evil: Village.
When I first played REVillage I thought big-man Urias might have swung in to save me from the bloodthirsty lycans... (hint: he didn't)
The village, with its sublime gothic landscape, mirrors the setting of RE4 (largely heralded as the best RE game of all time- or at least the most revolutionary). Trapped in a foreign land and isolated from society, the sense of unease is magnified by the first-person viewpoint which debuted in the seventh instalment.
One of my favourite things about this game, however, is the voice acting. Capcom have done it again, managing to get us invested in their characters despite being given sparse background information, and a lot of this has to be credited to the marvellous actors who bring them to life.
Specifically, I'm talking about the Four Lords, because they are four of the most fascinating video game villains I have ever come across. I use the term "villain" very loosely.
Let's start off with....
Lady Alcina Dimitrescu
Ahh, Lady D. The 9ft6-tall collection of pixels who stole our hearts and wallets when the Village trailer came out in February 2021.
She is the first Lord you face in the game, and is the undisputed favourite of those of us plagued by crippling fascinations with vampires, glitzy castles, girls who are really mean to you, and the setting of the Spencer Mansion from Resident Evil 1 (Capcom, 1996).
Mother, we bring you fresh prey...
This section of the game is one of the longest, save for the Factory scene. It featured so heavily in the trailer than a a great deal of fans thought the game would take place predominantly inside its grounds.
It echoes themes of Bram Stoker's 1800s classic horror novel Dracula, as Ethan navigates the sprawling castle to make his escape, solving puzzles, levelling up weapons (courtesy of The Duke), and evading the bloodthirsty Dimitrescu ladies until you can free yourself from its crumbling confines- only to face Alcina one-to-one.
This is no cheap imitation of Transylvania, however.
Resident Evil bosses are never what they seem. Battling through Cassandra, Bela, and Daniela reveals the daughters to be sentient clusters of flies rather than a trio of vampires. By reading files hidden about the premises you learn of a mysterious parasite which resides in Lady Dimitrescu, explaining her unnatural height and thirst for "man blood" as it alters her biochemistry over time.
I could have easily played an entire game at Castle Dimitrescu. I cannot tell you how many times I accidentally got skewered by its adamantium-clawed mistress as I marvelled a moment too long at the main hall's interior. The ray tracing is especially impressive here, casting candlelit shadows to accentuate the tension as you duck behind pillars and slip behind doors.
"Rest while you can! Because I will hunt you, I will find you, and I will break you!
The desolate snowscape you are met with as Ethan crests the roof is devastatingly beautiful too, rusted metal gates and spindly turrets fully leaning into the castle's Gothic inspiration. The winged monsters, with their gnarled leathery batwings and sharp whiplike tongues (Re2's Lickers, but like...flying, basically) reminded me of the Wicked Witch of the West's simia minions circa The Wicked Witch of the West, an they become a frequent nuisance in the game after their introduction at Caste D.
Hint: try to wait for these suckers to swoop down to attack before gunning them down- or else you may miss some valuable treasure as they drop to the ground.
It doesn't just stop at the scene design, though. The voice acting of Maggie Robertson brings Alcina Dimitrescu to life, as various random cut scenes are triggered during your traverses through the castle. After defeating Bela or Daniela, you may encounter her summoning her final (favourite?) daughter once or twice. The first time, she implores her to avenge her sister's murderer by hunting Ethan down immediately. The second? She is horrified to find that Cassandra, being defeated by Ethan, does not appear before her, sending Lady D into a fit of rage as she vows to vows to make Ethan pay for what he has done to her family.
The passion in her voice and genuine mourning for her children paints Alcina (briefly) in a sympathetic light. Bereft of his wife and fighting for survival in a snowy wasteland, Ethan's fierce love for his daughter means he will stop at nothing to rescue her. This theme of parental devotion is reflected in Lady Dimitrescu's own grief-filled mission to destroy the man who robbed her of her own family. She too is left alone in the world, doomed to travel it eternally as an immortal.
This triggers the first of many "sympathy for the devil" instances throughout the game. Sure, they captured Ethan and dangled him above the ground by piercing his hands with literal hooks, but are Alcina Dimitrescu and her three (adopted) siblings the real villains at play?
"The entire bloodline of House Dimitrescu is done in? By the likes of you?"
Truly, it is a shame you cannot backtrack to this part of the map after defeated the mutated Dimitrescu- but perhaps that is because we would have had no reason to journey on, really, and would have missed out on some truly formidable characters and settings yet to come.
Listen, I just killed the love of my life. The least Capcom could've given us was free reign of her mansion as a consolation prize.
"You're a luck man, Ethan. Besides Miranda, you're the only one to ever see me in this form. Too bad you'll pay for it- with your life!"
Rating: 9/10 (on account of how I would have loved more areas to explore in her lair, and perhaps more backstory regarding her seemingly ongoing spat with little brother Heisenberg)
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Next Lord: Donna Beneviento and Angie the Doll
By Jasmine Gould-Wilson