Review
Played on: Xbox Series X
Released: 2021
Released: 2021
Introduction
We arrive at a new release of Resident Evil's mainline series. A sequel to my much beloved, Resident Evil 7 from 2017, review here. I've since come appreciate it further, daring to deviate from the main cast and overused scenarios of the franchise. It became something truly unique, clearly the most scary RE ever has been, yet divided the fanbase.
Between RE7 and RE8, Capcom have been busy releasing two remakes of RE classics, both a hit and a kind of miss.
But we aren't here to talk about the remakes, they bear no likeness to RE8 anyhow. No, this is a sequel to the first person RE7. A title where even Capcom wanted it to have a non-numbered entry, with Village being it's main name. But there's a stylised 8 in there and so they opted to have it in the main series after all.
Setting aside my opinion that RE7 & RE8 should've been a fresh rebooted series of their own, let's take a look at a sequel I need to be heavily impressed by to topple my RE7 experience.
Premise
RE8 moves from the plantation swamps of Louisiana in RE7, to a snowy mountain village in Eastern Europe. This massive shift in location helps RE8 visually stand out and distance itself from it's predecessor, while reminiscing RE7 with a similar worn down look. Just as remote as RE7, this new location makes you feel vulnerable and distanced from the outside world.
The story continues the story of Ethan Winters, as such you should play RE7 prior to this. A lot of the references in the plot is continued from that title and feel empty without that prior experience.
Central in RE8's map, serving as a main hub area is it's rural village. With vintage farm houses and snow covered mud roads. With almost every building accessible as you progress, the village serves as an intriguing place to engage in exploring each house. Later on, keys will further open closed doors in a typical RE fashion. From this central village the game branches out to four unique locations, played in a preset sequence. Completing a location returns you back to the village, before you head out to the next of the four.
The first of these four branches is a massive, Gothic themed, castle. With absolutely stunning and wonderfully pompous interiors. Well suited for the, now famous, tall vampire lady to roam and it serves as a throwback to stylish settings of early RE mansions. In fact, later you reach a decadent forest cottage in the second branch from the village, with vibes going straight back to the very first Resident Evil 1's mansion. Locations like these are warmly welcomed by me, I loved them.
You'll also explore a windmill area in a swamp, reminiscent of RE4's grey and brown locations. Variation indeed, but not my favourite of the four branches. The fourth and last area is situated in an industrial factory inspired by Half-Life 2 and Rage 2, with a sprinkle of RE5's factory. It's makes for a brilliantly diverse game, and each of the branch has their own atmosphere and approach to how you play them.
Positives to the variation aside, I vastly preferred the castle and cottage location branches. Longing to stay longer, and for me, they could have cut back on the swamp and factory to compensate. As such, the progression begins scary but ends up with an action focus. They could've mixed these up a little, rather than having two parts of horror then two parts action.
The diversity in locations, buildings and atmosphere bleeds into the vast amount of enemies and main villains. They've done a huge leap up from the limited enemy roster in RE7. While social media has made her famous, characters like lady Dimitrescu, are unique and excellent personas. Bringing variety in dialogue, personality styles and visual appearances. I found Heisenberg to be a ridiculously overdone personality.
RE7 held you by the neck throughout it's playthrough, breaking you down mentally in a typical Silent Hill fashion with a constant sense of fear. RE8 however, mixes things up more. Sure, it has some stalking moments, like RE7's Jack Baker or RE2 Remake's Mr. X, combined with slower paced and creepy areas, but RE8 shifts into action scenarios frequently too. Resulting in a lack consistency in the horror intensity, exchanged for gunfights. A loss for me, for others, maybe not.
I would also prefer they didn't add old RE characters too, at this rate they're almost comic reliefs rather than heroes they try way too hard to make them. The ending gets a barely pass by me. They may have listened a bit too much to hardcore fans that hate change and consistently want famous RE characters turning up.
Gameplay and features
The gameplay is instantly familiar for RE7 players. The first person camera reminded me again of how immersive it is for horror. The feeling of something suddenly jumping out at you, or creeping up behind, is so much more satisfying compared to a third person where you distance yourself away from being there.
RE8's exploration is second nature for RE7 players with scarce ammo and useful crafting items to find hidden in drawers, cupboards or shelves. Thoroughly scavenging all rooms allows the player have more resources to survive and thus making it easier to succeed.
There's faster progress to fancy weaponry this time around, the shotgun for example, is introduced much earlier compared to RE7. There's a shop with upgrades for weapons with currency being gems and jewellery hidden around the world or dropped after killing enemies. These shops are located across the map, ran by a massive and charming salesman, whom fills in small story segments. You can even hunt animals and make him cook food, giving you permanent upgrades, like health and stamina. I enjoyed this expansion of weaponry, upgrades and collecting of crafting items.
Enemy encounters are a typical nod to earlier RE titles. Simple A.I. that attacks you one by one, in a predictable moveset. Although you become run down at times by large amount of enemies. I could imagine it becoming very tricky on harder difficulty levels, even on normal there are parts I simply had to flee, as the ammo wasn't going to cut it versus the amount of enemies.
The gunplay works fine, although it's best suited for more narrow rooms and the slower pace present in RE7. It can seem a little sluggish and suffers from an extremely narrow field of view. Perhaps done this way to intentionally feel close and intense, but in the larger areas of RE8, it feels disorientating. Let players scale the FOV themselves with an option, please.
I'd also like more feedback when hitting enemies, both in sound and visual damage. Just like the downgrade in physics from RE2make to RE3make, RE8 does the same compared to RE7. In the latter, the molded enemies reacted to bullet physics with a proper ragdoll, damaging various limbs, whereas in RE8 they feel old-school, scripted in their animations. They can't be wounded in a detailed fashioned, thus resulting in less satisfying kills.
Video
I feel like I've said this before about the RE Engine, after RE7 and the remakes of RE and RE3, but this game is stunning and once again the engine raises it's bar up. Running at a massive 4K@60fps, with ray tracing, on my Series X is incredible.
Most players will probably see it without RT, on last gen hardware or simply deactivated to get the framerate higher, but it adds an extra layer of beauty. The lighting in the dark corridors of the castle come mind, with gold plated wall decorations that shine in the flickering candle light and beautiful reflections and lighting glow on objects. Combined with great use of HDR, Capcom are on a roll with visuals.
The engine also shows it's strength when it comes to small details scattered about, the often untidy and abandoned environments, with detailed textures of wood panels, stone walls and snow covered landscapes. As well as being able to do so in larger locations than RE7.
This Xbox Series X version truly does feel next gen, whatever that definition is, the 60fps focus helps keep the controls responsive and the picture sharp. While the ray tracing, 4K resolution and HDR are the icing on the cake.
For curiosity, I gave my Xbox One X a spin, choosing the performance mod which runs at a handsome 1080p@60fps, was a nice trade off. Ran smooth and looked nice! A thing to remember if you're in the look out for older and more reasonable hardware, while retaining that crucial 60fps responsiveness.
Base XB1 and PS4 consoles, however, seem to grasp the shortest straw and end up at fairly low settings for textures and 30fps framerate, clearly pushing the boundaries of their limits. After all, this game was considered at one point in development to be next-gen consoles only.
Audio
Modern soundtracks tend to blend in more than the more prominent and noteworthy music from the older RE titles. But this time around I found the soundtrack to perfectly suit the mood. I enjoyed hearing it, as I went about exploring the locations. In typical RE tradition we're treated to a soothing safe room melody too. I found the music score very well done, enhancing the atmosphere further.
The sound mix is fairly standard, I would like a heavier kick to the guns, more bass to resonate their power. The sound when you hit enemies with bullets is disappointing too. A lot of Japanese games lack in quality sound effects compared to the actual music. The voice overs are great though, amazing job on all characters with high quality of acting.
I did like the creepy ambient noises that turn up all around you with earphones, the 3D audio is well done and there's Dolby Atmos support. It helps locate voices when you're being hunted. Hearing distant shouts and calls for Ethan really puts the chills down your spine when roaming the creepy areas!
Summary
RE8 is an great new title in a long running series, and more importantly, a worthy sequel to RE7. While it doesn't retain or reach reach it's predecessors heights of pure horror, it compensates in variety and stands as one of my favourite releases this year.
It's main problem though, once again for Capcom, is that it doesn't know what it wants to be. It tries to satisfy too many types of horror. Choose one and stick with a more cohesive experience. Less is more as RE7 proved.
I'm guessing it appeals to a broader audience than RE7, but diversity in styles has it's downsides. Some parts you prefer, others less so.
I'm excited about what a RE9 might be, with some restraint. Worried of what direction they're going with the ending of RE8. Time will show, but I hope Capcom understands what made RE7 unique was it's narrowed focus, trying to be one rather than many horror styles. And don't bend for the fanbase wanting every RE character, ever made, having to show up.
