Winter’s Expansion is a trio of mostly unrelated extras from last year’s Resident Evil Village (opens in new tab)A third-person camera for the main campaign, new characters for the game’s arcade-inspired Mercenaries mode, and, best of all, a whole new (shorter) story about protagonist Ethan’s daughter, set long after the end of the Village. It’s ready.
The third-person camera is worth $20/£16 on its own for motion sickness-prone horror fans. No more battling headaches and nausea as blood-drinking fly daughters and muscular werewolves attempt to injure Ethan’s hands in cruel and unusual ways.
The optional new perspectives generally blend nicely with what was already in Resident Evil Village. Combat, puzzles, and crawling through tight spaces feel as if they’ve always looked this way. A pair of floating scissors. The new camera works with existing saves if you return to save a campaign that ended in the middle.
The additional Mercenaries characters feel like the weakest additions to the set. Three new fighters join the mode, but only Chris and his surprisingly disappointing punch are unlocked by default. Both playable bosses are sadly trapped behind relatively intense in-game achievements, watering down the simple dream of jumping in and shredding everything as the main game’s better bosses While it may technically be welcome when new characters are unlocked, the fact that The Village expects players to pay less mercenary surcharge than other Resident Evil handed out for free. I can’t help but pay attention to
The biggest addition is a short new scenario, Shadows of Rose. This finally gives us an expressive face that rivals the Winters family sass. Rose is a fun character to spend an afternoon gaming with, and like her father, heroic determination, understandable vulnerability, and the latest Byzantine taunting rage against her puzzles and mutated bosses. find the right balance between
Sadly, the new powers she brings—the ability to temporarily stun enemies and shatter any growth that blocks their path—feel a little underutilized. I have never found the opportunity or need to use it.The scenarios themselves are equally straightforward, with even the simplest puzzles accompanied by explanatory text, hand-drawn maps, and other extremes. literally glowing arrow pointed directly to the door I had to go through.
The Winter Expansion Is Clearly A Budget Release, But The Problem Is Clearly That feel Like a budget announcement. It’s DLC built around expected revenue, not story. Almost every model Rose talks to or shoots is an existing model either dressed a little differently or pulled directly from her one of Ethan’s adventures.
Rose herself reuses some distinct “Ethan” animations, but slightly reloads her handgun as she pours a first aid potion into her left hand and a challenged appendage on her father’s finger. It was hard to walk into a “new” room and not immediately go, “Oh, I remember this part from the beginning.” We mimicked our major campaign counterparts.
House Beneviento once again contains the best scares in gaming. This time the infamous Doctor is riffing on his Who.blinkepisode. It’s clear that this approach is a practical way for developers to release something new with this amazing level of graphical fidelity without charging a large amount of money. Standing 24/7 over your shoulder.
winter expansion (opens in new tab) A strange bundle of DLC. A collection designed to contain enough valuable material in each of three separate areas to encourage you to open as many wallets as possible. The computed task succeeds, but that’s it. There’s no denying that Village is arguably a more rounded game with these additions than without them. Seen alone, it just isn’t enough.
Mercenaries’ sparseness of new features (especially Chris, who was already a fully playable character in the main game) and Shadows of Rose’s overly enthusiastic recycling of props, people, and plot points are, by definition, a big deal. Anyone other than a very motion-sensitive fan like myself, who many players are already well aware of, uttering the cursed phrase “Looks nice, but I guess I’ll wait for a sale.” A little too easy.