Tomorrow marks the release of Resident Evil Village, the tenth mainline title from the now 25-year-old franchise and the direct sequel of Resident Evil 7.
The survival horror game sees the return of Resident Evil 7 protagonist Ethan Winters, whose adventures now take him to a mysterious European village where he must survive vampires and other supernatural threats.
The critical response has been positive so far. As it stands, Resident Evil Village has a Metacritic average of 84%, or generally favorable reviews. For comparison, Resident Evil 7 has a Metacritic score of 86%. Resident Evil Village is a worthy successor to the critically acclaimed Resident Evil 7, said TechRadar s Vic Hood in her 4/5 review. Village builds on it with an experience that draws from all the best moments of the series. Capcom has finally found the formula that promises to thrill veteran fans of Resident Evil, while taking some much-needed risks in the process.
I think the perspective and control of licensors was largely missing from this discussion. Game developers, and project publishers have plenty of solid, creative ideas to bring storied IP into gameplay. It is usually the license holders that tend to be more conservative with depictions of their IP, whether that is with brand representation, budgets, or timelines.
I have a feeling that the EA x Star Wars deal was much more convenient for Disney/Lucasfilm than it was for EA. Besides the assumed paycheck, having only one publisher to deal with when it comes to their tight reigns on narrative development (which characters can appear, how, where, and when) is much easier to plan; especially when you consider the timeline of this deal: just after the acquistion, while they were planning the future of the franchise. Consider that Respawn had a hard time convincing them to let them feature Jedis in