Resident Evil Village has taken up residence in the cloud. The eighth (numbered) entry in the Resident Evil series, it's the most terrifying, most beautiful, and most action-packed entry to date, taking terror to a whole new cloud layer.
This castle is not meant for creatures like me. At least, not as guests, maybe as the dinner special. I slink through vaunted marble halls, desperately keeping an ear out for the sharp tick of high-heeled shoes on stone. Lady Dimitrescu is out there, hunting, hungry. My guns, with good aim and a quick trigger finger, can down her minions, the cold can kill her daughters, but I don’t know if anything can kill her. So, I hide and try to survive this horror.
Maybe I want her to catch me...
Resident Evil Village is a direct sequel to the plot of Resident Evil 7, keeping Ethan Winters as our protagonist; it sees him moving deep into eastern Europe, keen on escaping the eyes of Umbrella and others who may want to do his family harm.
That hope is short lived though, as, over what should’ve been a delightful family dinner, his wife who he fought so hard to save in 7, is gunned down in front of him, and his daughter is taken from him. Hurrying after her kidnappers, he finds their vehicles ravaged and torn apart, with them lying dead all around, and his daughter nowhere to be found, secreted away somewhere into the strange old village he finds himself in.
Thus, begins Resident Evil Village, which, though sharing much of the same DNA with the likes of Resident Evil 2, feels more like a descendant than a sibling. There is no apocalypse, at least not yet. Instead, this is the story of one man embroiling himself in the strange plots of monsters and madmen, with the simple goal of saving his daughter.
No matter how many scary dog-men he has to fight to save her.
Resident Evil Village makes horror grander than ever before, and gleefully takes from every kind of fear at the table with its rogue’s gallery of nightmares. Body horror, psychological horror, ghosts, zombies, werewolves, even nine-feet tall vampire women who break the internet. Resident Evil Village has it all, and somehow, it all works. A particular standout for me is the dollhouse, and you’ll know exactly why when you get there.
Overall, this is a game much more focused on spectacle than Resident Evil 7, which may turn some people away, after the quieter ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ story told there. However, for me, the action movie vibe that Resident Evil Village sometimes gives really works for it, and it’s helped along in a big way by its truly jaw-dropping visuals.
Resident Evil Village is easily the best-looking entry into the series and playing it in the cloud on my Ultimate membership was an absolute treat. Whether taking in the ramshackle maze of the village itself or drinking in the awe-inspiring villages afforded by the balconies of Dimitrescu’s castle, there’s always something beautiful to see, brought to life by the RTX 4080 infrastructure in the cloud.
Capcom has very recently announced that there is a new Resident Evil game in the works, making this the perfect time to sink your teeth into Resident Evil Village. Play it at its beast, I mean, best, in the cloud, and then wait anxiously with me for what fresh horror awaits us.
This spotlight was written by CloudGG team member Motley and does not represent the opinions of NVIDIA or CloudGG.
