The village begins with a terrifying encounter that leaves you so overwhelmed with enemies that you have almost no choice but to run and hide, and the whole action retains that energy. You struggle to keep your balance while mastering the controls and combat mechanics, making your journey through the quarry, the lake and back to the church tense and sometimes overwhelming. It all ends with the cabin barricade, the iconic sequence mirroring the intro by forcing you to face the crowd at close and personal distance instead of running away. By the time you get through this fight, you’ve mastered the basics and you have a real sense of success for the first time.
For as groundbreaking and important as Resident Evil 4, this is a game that gets progressively worse over time. Some might even say that it culminated in the opening fight in the village, and I would hardly argue that point. But while the remake retains the original’s structure, the pacing of the entire game has also been redistributed. Not only was the island significantly improved, but it also became the strongest part in the entire game. The remake has a fascinating flow from one part to another.
Then, in the castle, you turn the tables on the bad guys. As you move from room to room solving puzzles and eliminating cult cultists, you start to feel like you’re in control. Your aim becomes more precise, ammo savings become more manageable, and you learn all the little combat tricks that will keep you up to the challenge. He still throws you a lot of curves and surprises, but you never feel scared again. In the end, when you take down Ramon, you’ll feel like you’ve achieved something beyond just surviving – that’s all you can really say about the Village.