I've always liked the RE / Biohazard saga a lot and, after the flop that was the sixth game, I thought it was extremely valid and accurate the change it made to 7, being in first person and changing enemies.
That said, I expected a similar experience on Village. And I can say that I was attended and not attended to at the same time.
As the seventh game in the franchise, it is in first person and we continue following the story of Ethan Winters who, in this game, had a buff in charisma, married Mia and together they had a daughter, Rose. In the first 10 minutes of gameplay, Chris Redfield, yes himself, steals the kid and shoots Mia, and after a while, we wake up in the snow, in an extremely dark night.
This beginning trick a bit and is one of the most horror moments in the game, as the rest is more like RE 4/5. In the game you will be introduced to 4 Lords and they are: The beautiful Lady Dimitrescu, the bizarre Donna Beneviento, the disgusting Moreau and the Heisenberg, who I like to call the Magnet.
During Dimitrescu Castle, the game looks a lot like RE 2/3, running away from it as if it were the MR. X or Nemesis. At Casa Beneviento, the game goes back to extreme terror, my recommendation is that I play at night to have the best experience in this part, in which you lose your weapons and have to solve the famous "puzzle", while bizarre things happen. At Moreau Reservoir, the game returns with some puzzles, but still with the weapons, plus a RE4-style boat ride. Finally, the Heisenberg Factory returns to RE4-like gameplay, changing completely during the boss fight.
Besides the Lords, we have the most enigmatic character in the game, Duke. A merchant, just like in RE 4, who always gets to places before you, so he can sell you more weapons and upgrades as you progress through the game. He is also the one who explains the game's history and plot, proving that he knows many things.
One of the things I liked the most for sure was the continuation of Ethan's story. We were able to get closer to the character and see that he is willing to literally do everything for his family, thus creating a really cool bond with the character. He also connects the story with some events of his predecessor, tying up some loose ends.
Returning to my point at the beginning. Why did he met my expectations? On behalf of the Beneviento house. It was the location that Capcom clearly wanted most to be scared of, and they got it. It's surreal how this part completely clashes with the rest of the game, bringing out the ghastly, puzzle-like atmosphere of RE7 and the original trilogy. In fact, a creature appears, which I won't put a photo to avoid spoiler, which made me quit the game right after passing by it.
On the other hand, the part that let me down should already be pretty obvious: The rest of the game is more action-focused than horror. Unfortunately, I can't tell you what happened before the last boss fight, as it would be another spoiler, but it shows that action part of the game.
Regarding NG+ there is not much to talk about. All bosses become extremely easy, as you already know how to kill them, release weapons with infinite bullets and extremely powerful melee weapons, which takes away some of the urge to zero again and again, unless you want all achievements, which was my case.
There are some treasures scattered around the map, each one from a boss, that can give you a certain amount of work to find them. But nothing that takes too long.
All that said, my final grade for the game is 7.5/10. It's no masterpiece, it doesn't reborn the franchise like its predecessor, or even the RE 2 Remake, and it fails in some ways, but it's quite competent at making us connect with the protagonist, bringing an atmosphere of horror/action , it has interesting bosses, which unfortunately are not so explored, and it has the return of Mercenaries mode, which earned him 1 more point.
*Unfortunately, I had to format my PC and I ended up losing all the screenshots, so I had to get it from google, but I tried to bring the ones that best fit the article.