Resident Evil Village: Winters Expansion Review – A Hauntingly Good REVisit

Putting on the cap on the Winters story. Resident Evil Village Winters is an expansion returning players to some of the iconic places from the main game. Experiencing it this time through the eyes of Rose in “Shadows of Rose” with new horrors to endure and fight. A new third-person perspective and further Mercenary challenges to take up.

Resident Evil Village: Winters Expansion Review – A Hauntingly Good REVisit

Capcom are releasing a new chapter for the survival horror Resident Evil Village called Winters. The expansion is just in time for Halloween. Making for a great choice for RE Village fans who want just a bit more from the hit horror title. The Winters expansion adds a new story to follow, Mercenaries Additional Orders and a third-person view to experience the game in. We’ll go over the gameplay, combat and what this expansion has to offer Village fans. 

Welcome back to the castle in Shadows of Rose

Resident Evil Village Winters Story 

Diving back into the Village is just what you’d expect, getting to relive some amazing areas of the main game, but with a new story to follow 16 years later. This time instead of following Ethan, you are carrying on the legacy with his daughter Rose. Rose has been having a bit of a hard time fitting in, as she is quite different from everyone else feeling isolated and alone. She is blessed or in her eyes cursed with a unique power that has caused her to be outcast by the people around her. The whole chapter is based around Rose trying to find a cure for her powers, to become “normal” once and for all. 

Falling into new nightmares

This Seems Familiar…

The only flaw in this plan is she will have to step into a world through the consciousness of the Megamycete that is far more deadly than the outside world. Here she will have to face the evils in very familiar places in someone else’s memories. Exploring the iconic locations from the main game armed with her powers, guns, and grenades. But not everything is as straightforward as it seems. She finds another girl that looks exactly like her… Be prepared to meet some old “friends” of Ethan in this warped revisit.

Insert Spider-Man meme here

Rose is put through her paces not only physically, but also emotionally. Not knowing her own father and trying to find her place in the world is trying. You will definitely feel the struggle that she has to go through dealing with these strange abilities that she didn’t ask for. Kind of like a superhero but with some far more paranormal side-effects and a lot of emotional damage. She’s guided by a strange voice or rather written messages that seem to be helping her, but to what end?

Scrawled writing appears and asks “You OK?”

As the expansion story is separate from the main game, you will need to go into the extras section to start your journey in ‘Shadows of Rose’. As this is a continuation of the main story, this is the final act of the Winters’ tale. 

Resident Evil Village Winters Combat & Gameplay 

There is a slight difference in what’s available to you weapon-wise as well as how you fight off the horrifying zombie-like creatures that plague the castle. As you play as Rose, you are more limited to the type of actions available. You won’t have a punch to send enemies flying. The weapon choices are also more restricted, but what you do have are some interesting abilities that are fueled by the Mutamycete.

The only drawback is you need a certain limited plant in order to unleash these abilities. While not a huge issue throughout the game on Normal mode, I could see this being quite the hindrance if you face the game on a harder difficulty. You can freeze enemies in place and gain further abilities along the way. 

Rose’s uses her powers to stop there otherworldly blooms

In true Resident Evil fashion, you will find materials to craft bullets and first aid limited. The classic balance of ammo versus health. I appreciated how this was still enough to provide a challenge with the balancing act, but forgiving enough to get you through each area. I will say that abilities in this version of the game I played didn’t seem to be explained well when it came to combat. They could be easily overlooked especially when it came to harder battles. It felt a little easy to skip over them if you are not careful.

How Puzzling

As Rose has a special ability to turn these strange overgrown flower buds to mould dust, the game mixes this into puzzle-type exploration. This reminded me a little bit of the game Control, but adds its own RE flavour. As you would expect you will have a number of enemies to face as you try to solve these puzzles without being taken out in the process. There are sections of the game where stealth is key. Think Little Nightmares mixed in with the worst horrors of the game. It’s hard to go into detail without spoiling this chapter, but I feel like it’s unlocked new terrors to haunt my sleep paralysis.  

Welcome to the doll house

The funny thing is, while jump scares were minimal, I was lulled into a false sense of “oh this isn’t so bad” compared to the main story. I was wrong. Things definitely amped up and the creepiness was well executed, slowly dialling up the heat. Playing in third person gives a whole different perspective, which you can even use in the main game. I feel I prefer this view as it feels more like the old-school RE games such as Resident Evil 4 which I’ve been playing through recently. 

A slow painful death…everytime you die

A Painful Death

Dying is unforgiving. Each time you die you are subjected to a horrifying death, being taken under by these soul-sucking blob monsters as Rose screams into the abyss. This became really tiresome as there is no way to skip these long scenes, even if you’ve experienced this for the third or fourth time (hey don’t judge my death count). While yes it’s understandable to convey your mistake, I just felt the ability to skip and get back into the action would be better for momentum. At least after experiencing it a couple of times at least.

Mercenaries Additional Orders 

The arcade mode is back now with more characters to do battles against hordes of enemies. This mode is just a bit of fun to play to test your skills as three new characters including Chis Redfield, Heisenberg, and Lady Dimitrescu. You will have access to Chris from the get-go, but will need to unlock further characters by achieving S grades through different challenge locations. The mode is just a fun extra to have, and who doesn’t want to know what it’s like to wield the long talons of the infamous tall vampire lady? 

Become everyone’s favourite vampiress Lady Dimitrescu in the arcade-inspired mode Mercenaries Additional Orders

Resident Evil Village Winters Audio & Visuals 

As per usual this game is visually stunning in Resident Evil Village: Winters. But as you are revisiting the same areas from the main game, this hasn’t changed much location-wise. I will say Village remains a sensory overload in this chapter, with sound effects that bring new levels of gross. Squelching, fear-inducing footsteps and blood curdling screams are just some of the stand-out sounds that are hard to get out of your head, even after you play. This paired well with horrifying art pieces, decaying bodies and weird oozing slime that tries to consume you like possessed quicksand. 

Final Thoughts 

Resident Evil Village: Winters while not as long as the main game, is a nice way to round off the Village game. You are revisited by some familiar faces and to my detriment, some familiar nightmares. The expansion costs around $20 or is included in the Gold Edition of the game, which provides some new experiences and further story but no new areas. How many hours you will spend will depend on the difficulty level you play and how thorough you are. It might be worth experiencing the main game again in third person, to see it from a new perspective.

There is also the expanded Mercenaries, which should provide those who are looking to play as their favourite villain Lady D, some fun. You will need to unlock some of these characters by completing challenges, and cannot jump right in as the tall lady vampire. If you’re a fan of the main game, want to take on new experiences in these old haunts, new third-person perspective and like the idea of using abilities as well as weapons, then you’re in for a treat and some tricks.

If you looking for more reviews be sure to check out next God Of War Ragnarok Gameplay And Hands-On Impressions – First 8 Hours and Tunic Review – A Wonderful Zelda-Like Gem (PlayStation And Nintendo Switch Release).