One of the most incredible story-driven games I have ever played. It's a perfect follow up to Resident Evil 7 and uses so many story elements from it that it enhances the experience of it's predecessor upon a second playthrough, now knowing things that Village unveiled. Almost all of the sections are fun, creative and fresh, and the puzzles are well integrated into the gameplay. I don't understand why Redfield went through another design change, but his place in the story is enough to enjoy his role, but not so much that it takes away from what is supposed to be Ethan's story.

Ethan is a well done character. As a random dude in RE:7 thrust into a world he had no hand in creating that persevered to the very end. His death too (though is he actually fully dead? I doubt it) was a gut punch that actually gave me pause, the emotions of the characters were very well conveyed at the end. My only gripe with him is that he's a bit dense for someone that canonically solves all these complex puzzles. I think the community gives him a bit too much of a hard time about it, because most people wouldn't be of sound mind in his situation either, but why did he just go along with everything the Merchant, Heisenberg and Dimitrescu said about Rose? The whole point of the game is getting her back and Ethan essentially hands her to Miranda by putting her parts in the altar. But besides that, the characters are all awesome and engaging, especially Heisenberg and of course, Lady Dimitrescu. I'd be interested in how the story would have played out if Ethan had teamed up with Heisenberg upon his offer. The hints dropped about Heisenberg throughout the story leaned towards him being a potential ally, but Ethan throws it away saying 'You can't have my daughter!' despite him pretty much giving her to Miranda as I said before. Another example of Ethan not being the smartest, but at least we got an incredible boss fight with Heisenberg out of it.

Something that improved from RE:7 was the variety of enemies. The last title featured the bosses, Molded, and that's about it. Village has only a slight bit more variety, with the bosses, sub bosses, Lycans, the zombie maid things, Heisenberg's cyborgs, and variants of most of them, but it's spaced out enough to spice up the combat when it starts to get repetitive.

However, not everything improved between 7 and Village. I do wish there were a couple extras in the game that had other perspectives, like what RE:7 did with The End of Zoe and Not a Hero DLC, but even without that, there were a lot of extra modes in 7 that added a lot of replay ability; Village lacks that for the most part. The Mercenaries is a fun mode, and it's certainly a blast to go back through the main story to complete all the challenges, use infinite ammo, etc, though a couple more small mode would have been a welcome addition

Overall, this game deserved it's GOTY nomination at the Game Awards, and should've won it in my opinion, but at least it won the Steam Awards GOTY. 9.5/10

One of the most incredible story-driven games I have ever played. It's a perfect follow up to Resident Evil 7 and uses so many story elements from it that it enhances the experience of it's predecessor upon a second playthrough, now knowing things that Village unveiled. Almost all of the sections are fun, creative and fresh, and the puzzles are well integrated into the gameplay. I don't understand why Redfield went through another design change, but his place in the story is enough to enjoy his role, but not so much that it takes away from what is supposed to be Ethan's story. Ethan is a well done character. [spoiler]As a random dude in RE:7 thrust into a world he had no hand in creating that persevered to the very end. His death too (though is he actually fully dead? I doubt it) was a gut punch that actually gave me pause, the emotions of the characters were very well conveyed at the end.[/spoiler] My only gripe with him is that he's a bit dense for someone that canonically solves all these complex puzzles. I think the community gives him a bit too much of a hard time about it, because most people wouldn't be of sound mind in his situation either, but why did he [spoiler]just go along with everything the Merchant, Heisenberg and Dimitrescu said about Rose? The whole point of the game is getting her back and Ethan essentially hands her to Miranda by putting her parts in the altar.[/spoiler] But besides that, the characters are all awesome and engaging, especially Heisenberg and of course, Lady Dimitrescu. I'd be interested in how the story would have played out if [spoiler]Ethan had teamed up with Heisenberg upon his offer. The hints dropped about Heisenberg throughout the story leaned towards him being a potential ally, but Ethan throws it away saying 'You can't have my daughter!' despite him pretty much giving her to Miranda as I said before. Another example of Ethan not being the smartest, but at least we got an incredible boss fight with Heisenberg out of it.[/spoiler] Something that improved from RE:7 was the variety of enemies. The last title featured the bosses, Molded, and that's about it. Village has only a slight bit more variety, [spoiler]with the bosses, sub bosses, Lycans, the zombie maid things, Heisenberg's cyborgs, and variants of most of them,[/spoiler] but it's spaced out enough to spice up the combat when it starts to get repetitive. However, not everything improved between 7 and Village. I do wish there were a couple extras in the game that had other perspectives, like what RE:7 did with The End of Zoe and Not a Hero DLC, but even without that, there were a lot of extra modes in 7 that added a lot of replay ability; Village lacks that for the most part. The Mercenaries is a fun mode, and it's certainly a blast to go back through the main story to complete all the challenges, use infinite ammo, etc, though a couple more small mode would have been a welcome addition Overall, this game deserved it's GOTY nomination at the Game Awards, and should've won it in my opinion, but at least it won the Steam Awards GOTY. 9.5/10