ComicBook.com's Games of the Year: Resident Evil Village

Resident Evil Village feels like a Greatest Hits compilation of the Resident Evil series. The follow-up to 2017's Resident Evil VII: Biohazard takes players to a remote village (à la Resident Evil 4) where they have to sleuth through a haunted manor (the original Resident Evil) as the returning protagonist Ethan Winters. Despite meshing together so many familiar aspects of the series, Resident Evil Village still finds a way to make new strides within this 25-year-old franchise and proves that the future of Resident Evil remains very strong. 

At face value, it's hard to see what Resident Evil Village does that makes it unique when compared to previous titles. You're tasked with exploring a new region, completing a whole bunch of puzzles, and doing so while trying to punch, kick, and shoot various undead baddies. Despite this familiarity,, it's the moments within Resident Evil Village that leave such a lasting impact despite the familiar structure. It has been over six months since the game first released and I'm still dwelling on some of the more wacky things that this game threw at me over the course of its runtime. Whether it be the game's chilling opening hour, its bombastic boss fights, or even the sheer awe of witnessing a man reattach his hand to his body though the power of health juice (I'm not kidding), there are literally dozens of moments in Village that would steal the show in other titles. 

Where Resident Evil Village differentiates itself from previous installments comes with the types of enemies you have to face. Rather than needing to combat endless hordes of zombies, Village introduces more gothic horror foes such as werewolves and vampires. Upon first glance, the choice to include these enemies in Village doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but the way in which Capcom goes about their inclusion ends up being one of the game's best components. In fact, Village as a whole finds some unique ways to tie back in with the original games of the franchise as a way of making the larger universe feel more cohesive. It's a move on Capcom's part that feels a bit too direct at face value, but it also just continues to deepen the goofy lore of this series in the best way possible. 

Another strong component of Resident Evil Village, and something that the series has found success with for quite a long time, involves its new characters. Even though Ethan Winters himself might be a faceless conduit for the player, other new faces in the game such as Heisenberg, Mother Miranda, or the jolly salesman known only as The Duke are some of the most memorable characters that I met all throughout 2021. This also doesn't even account for Lady Dimitrescu, who is easily the star of the game. Before Village was even released, the 9-foot tall vampire woman had set the internet ablaze with memes, fan art, and other content that isn't suitable to be mentioned on this website. In fact, Dimitrescu was so lauded that Maggie Robertson, the actress behind the character, ended up winning the award for Best Performance at The Game Awards this year. In a series with numerous iconic characters as it is, Lady Dimitrescu found a way to potentially become bigger than any other Resident Evil character has before.

Much like Resident Evil VII, the thing I also appreciated so much about Village is that it tried to once again lean into the horror elements of this series. Over the course of the past decade, Resident Evil as a franchise began shoving aside a number of longtime horror tropes in the pursuit of making the series more action-focused. In turn, Resident Evil Village shows that these games can still feature frequent combat and gunplay, but can do so without losing those horror aspects in the process. Certain sequences in Resident Evil Village are among the scariest that I found in any game this year, proving that Capcom is still one of the best developers in the world with the survival horror genre. 

Resident Evil Village definitely has a couple of rough edges, but it also is a ton of fun from start to finish. Whether you're being chased by a tall vampire mom, shooting werewolves in the face with a shotgun, or going toe-to-fin with a vicious lake monster, there are more moments of pure excitement and horror-induced joy to be had in Village this year than any other title. Not only is it another great Resident Evil game in a long list of winners, but it's by far one of the best games that was released over the course of 2021.