Not the towering achievement its early levels suggest

It’s tempting to stand and watch her ladyship move around, but also fatal.

© CAPCOM

YOU HAVE BEEN LIED TO. In trailers, early showings, and generally all press materials, Resident Evil 8 was shown to be a game about a tall vampire lady who pursued you through a crumbling mansion. And it’s really kinda not.

There is a tall vampire lady, of course, and she’s one of the best things about the game, but her presence takes up barely 25 percent of its runtime—she’s effectively the tutorial. The section involving her is also over too early, frontloaded in a plot that also involves her daughters, four other boss characters, werewolves, faked deaths, parasites, bio-organic weapons, Chris Redfield, the kidnapping of a baby, and that strange crossover between religious cults and the biological sciences.

A direct sequel of Resident Evil VII, Village does something it thinks is clever with a Roman numeral but mainly just recycles the main character, Ethan Winters. Otherwise it feels like a completely different game. Each new Resi game since Resi 4 has redrawn the boundary between horror and action, and Village is no exception. There is indeed a village, acting as a hub between what you might call levels, or possibly “adventures.” And while the presence of the village brings out some distinctly Resident Evil 4 vibes, this game attempts to tip the balance slightly further toward the horror side, bringing in familiar tropes such as the European vampire family, a dreadfully sinister talking doll, and the werewolves (sorry, lycans) that make up the bulk of the things you’ll kill.