Resident Evil Village, the third person horror

Resident Evil Village

The release of the Resident Evil Village Winters expansion brought with it several new features: from the Shadows of Rose expansion to the extra contents of the Mercenaries mode, to finally get to the third-person view. You got it right: it is possible to play the entire campaign of the last chapter of the Capcom series in third person instead of first.

This is an intriguing feature, after all we are talking about a franchise that has always used that type of setting and that just in conjunction with the saga of Ethan Winters has opted for a real revolution, changing perspective on all fronts: a new protagonist who is far from accustomed to similar situations, survival horror mechanics often passive rather than active and indeed a first person view to maximize engagement.

First to third person

Resident Evil Village, Ethan sees Dimitrescu Castle for the first time To activate the third person view in Resident Evil Village just select the option from the settings: at that point the game will remain faithful to this choice even if you want to load a previous save. Let's say right away that in terms of implementation it is clear that this is an addition and not a feature imagined from the beginning, and some details such as the interaction with the environment and the return to the first person in the interlude sequences demonstrate this.

The fact that Capcom has no intention of showing Ethan's face even with the new camera almost turns into a hoax, and whoever has completed the Shadows of Rose expansion (review here) will have understood correctly what we refer to. In fact, the system adopts a series of expedients to ensure that the face of the protagonist is always and in any case covered, but at this point it is legitimate to wonder if there was really a need.

There are three main changes in the transition from the first to the third person. First of all, the view shows many more things around the character and this allows you to approach the action in a different way, strengthened by a greater awareness of what is nearby and above all avoiding that certain enemies catch us off guard.

Distance inevitably translates into less involvement and less tension during the exploratory phases: the jump scare effect is weakened and it is not at all a coincidence, since the developers had imagined the experience in first person and adjusted the events to have some impact with that type of view.

Resident Evil Village, Ethan tries to escape from an enemy attack Finally, the handling of movement and aim has been recalibrated to better suit to the new scenario, and in the end it looks a lot like the setting used for the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3, although it cannot boast the same level of refinement. All things considered, we do not recommend that you approach the game's campaign for the first time with the third-person view, as it is less intense and exciting than the original intentions of the authors. If, on the other hand, you have the desire to replay Ethan's latest adventure in a different way, then proceed with ease.

Resident Evil Village, eighteen months later

Resident Evil Village, a combat sequence in third person The introduction of the third person view has allowed us to relive the experience of Resident Evil Village and to verify its strength after eighteen months. Obviously a second walkthrough is always approached in a more detached way: we remember what to do and where to go, as well as when the enemies will arrive to terrorize us, but the solidity of the system has remained intact.

Definitely more dynamic than the classic chapters, the gameplay of Village basically transforms into a shooter during some stages, although there are variations on the theme. From this point of view, the Gothic settings, in particular Dimitrescu Castle and Casa Beneviento, contribute in an important way to providing non-trivial ideas and some original ideas.

Resident Evil Village, the interlude sequences remain in first person The detachment that we mentioned earlier helps to deal with the various situations in a strategic way, better controlling the movements of the protagonist and managing his arsenal without attaching much importance to consumables, also because in general it is difficult to remain really without them at the level of normal difficulty.

The puzzles are confirmed to be pleasant and never obscure, it is difficult to get stuck somewhere and this undoubtedly contributes to maintaining a certain degree of fun, avoiding excessive backtracking. The third person view also makes it easier to use the knife, adding clarity to close encounters and allowing us to take better measures to avoid damage.

Is the future in the third person?

Resident Evil Village, Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters With the Resident Evil 4 remake on the horizon, one rightly wonders what approach Capcom wants to take for the next episodes of the series. We can reasonably imagine that the third person view introduced in Village is in no way a taste of what we will find in the remake of the fourth chapter for the refinement discourse we did earlier.

That said, we are not we absolutely feel we can exclude the maintenance of the first person for Resident Evil 9 and beyond: it is a solution that has proved to be very effective, able to increase the involvement and to allow the experimentation of solutions that trespass into the territory of passive survival horror, to the advantage of tension.

Who knows, maybe Capcom developers will choose a middle ground, a dynamic system that can adapt according to the context and bring out the best from various situations. The important thing, moreover, is to ensure that the original vocation of the franchise remains intact: it is thanks to it that Resident Evil can count on such an extensive and passionate fanbase.

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