Resident Evil Village, the Maiden and Castello demo compared

Resident Evil Village

At least as punctual as Daniela in her attempts to split us up, what a poor thing "I haven't gutted a man for a long time", we spent the wee hours to try the Resident Evil Village Castle demo in sync with the United States: the first impression is it was much higher than the half hour spent in the village, which had the thankless task of contextualizing the situation and therefore leaving little room for action.

The parts have instead reversed at Castel Dimitrescu, whose demo is not linked to the end of the previous one but part in medias res - after the famous meeting with Alcina often proposed in the trailers. We are not here to tell you in detail our impressions, the launch is so close that we prefer to keep all future opinions related to the game itself for the review: instead we move the focus of the article on the comparison between the demos, between the latter tested and Maiden, because retracing the steps taken by the unfortunate (and unknown) girl of the tech demo has left us with a strange sense of déjà-vu. We knew where to go, even with the very small changes in the shape of the puzzles, but not what she would expect.

A disturbing déjà-vu

Obviously the demo takes up a much larger portion than Maiden's, don't worry, but there comes a point where it comes naturally to say "I'm already here. state ". The paradox in this case is that the girl was trying to escape from the castle, while Ethan goes deeper and deeper into it in search of his daughter Rose: if in her role there was the growing relief of being closer and closer to the exit ( only to be greeted by Alcina at the end, because the joys in Resident Evil never), with Ethan being the exact opposite and the tension we perceived was due precisely to the awareness of what could expect in the basement. It didn't matter that we were armed, in fact it was even worse if we wanted to because Maiden gave us the inexplicable certainty that we would never be attacked - and so it was, as long as you didn't try to chase Daniela up the stairs and then you sought her out.

Step by step, however, room after room, we had constant flashes and, curiously, we found various details in their place as if not a single day had passed between the tragedy of the girl and that of Ethan. Some, indeed, we looked for them to see if they were still there - and there were. Not all of them, however. Something, albeit to a lesser extent, had changed. A closed door, a different enigma, previously absent details ... just enough to leave us vague traces of familiarity while the uncertain was ready to swallow us once again.

Resident Evil Village, a very familiar entrance The Descent in the basement, and the natural continuation that was not present in Maiden, has if possible put us even more alarmed as always thanks to an excellent sound design. Knowing that we had already been there, that everything was the same but at the same time different, was the key element that allowed us to (re) experience this section prey to conflicting sensations: curiosity and urgency, the latter given by time limit, to continue mixed with the fear of what we would find that time. It was no coincidence that we looked at every single cell with the gun drawn, certain that sooner or later something would arrive, and we did not let slip the fact that a couple of bodies featured in the Maiden demo were gone. Purely playful reasons, we knew very well that the first time they served the purpose of making us anxious; pity that in a corner of our heads their absence has transmitted us the tension due to not knowing if, how and when we would find them in front of us. In fact it could have happened, given a series of battles that happened to happen in the dungeons, but we cannot be sure.

Resident Evil Village, dungeons known and unknown at the same time Capcom could have chosen any time for the our visit to the castle, even reconnecting with the conclusion of the demo at the village to create a sort of continuity between the two sides, instead he opted to play with the fears of those who lived the tech demo. We could give this second rehearsal due praise for having staged a much more engaging half hour than the first, but the main reason why we appreciated it (and, indeed, we regret having had to play it chased by the stopwatch) was the deliberate contrast between the girl and Ethan.

Pushing us towards well-known shores and precisely for this reason capable of disturbing us more, having no idea what would await us in the dark, worked perfectly in creating the tension necessary to make us react to the slightest noise out of place. As well as finding a particular object collected in the Maiden demo, this time in a different point and with a very specific meaning, even bittersweet. Because we had already been there but in another life, in the shoes of another person, with a completely different purpose: we wanted to escape from the nightmare, while this time we faced it openly and challenged. A call which he did not take long to answer, leaving us only with the desire to have more.

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