4.5/5 ★ – ElementaryGaming's review of Resident Evil: Village.

Resident Evil 8 is one of the best action-horror games I've played. It's almost a metroidvania, in a good way, with evolving environments and meaningful backtracking. Dare I say it's better than RE 4, the game it pays homage to and takes inspiration from. It starts off very strong, with the exploration of a mysterious village with an impressively nervewracking and anxiety-inducing introduction that leaves you helpless, surrounded by monsters. Then, you enter a perfectly-designed castle which offers a great balance of fighting, running away, and puzzles. It's open-ended, but not overwhelmingly-so and still offers a concrete path and objectives for you to follow. There is amazing attention to detail found in the environments, which feel completely real. A few small adjustments have been made to the gameplay in order to alleviate frustration from past R.E. games, which were much appreciated. For instance, there is no more guessing about which keys go to which door, or what items need to be combined together, as the game simply tells you. Purists may object to this, but these aspects of the game always involved an annoying amount of trial-and-error, and this new update is much appreciated. It keeps the pace moving consistently by removing dated design. The game offers an awesome mix of horror and action. While the enemies can be intimidating, killing an individual one doesn't consume too many resources, and you're also rewarded with extra money for doing so. The game constantly rewards you for fighting through enemies, rather than constantly dodging them (which is always an option too, of course). The bosses are super cool as always, and are often quite fun to fight thanks to the shooting mechanics working so well. There is a wide variety of scares on display here. You never really know what's going to be thrown at you next. (mild spoiler: the baby). The game follows the time-tested '"defeat the four evil bad guys before facing the true final boss" formula, and it works perfectly. Each boss has their own environment and gameplay emphasis, with some leaning towards action and others towards horror setpieces, so the pacing continuously remains interesting. All in all, it's a stellar game and easily the best in the series.