**Disclaimer: Possible Spoilers for Resident Evil Village & previous titles. Particularly Resident Evil 7: Biohazard**

Where does Resident Evil Village take place?

It looks like the game's two main locations might have fairly different vibes to them!

Resident Evil Village is the latest horror game in the Resident Evil games series and a follow up story to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard which was released back in 2017. As we have seen from the trailer, it features a snowy, and almost gothic, eastern European village setting. The exact location of the village is unknown but we could guess that from all of the clues given, it is set somewhere in Romania.

Lady Dimitrescu is one of the main clues to support this idea since her last name is historically common in Romania. For that matter, the idea of vampires, ghouls and the supernatural is also a strong suggestion that the location could be related to Romania's largest region, Transylvania. Plus Dimitrescu is basically a huge vampire lady so it would definitely make sense right?

Whilst everything we have seen leads to this idea, you have to take into account that Resident Evil uses a combination of real and made up locations to effectively build up their environments. This is evident in Resident Evil 7 where the location was a fictional town in Louisiana, Resident Evil 5 was set in a fictional country in Africa, and Resident Evil 4 took place in an unknown village in Spain.

• Want to learn more about the Influences of Resident Evil Village's environment and enemy design? Check out this amazing video by eurothug4000

The Village

The game opens up with you making your way through the village and although it is dangerously cold, covered in snow and has Lycans roaming around every corner, it is actually a pretty beautiful area to explore. Even the most mundane rusty pot and floor debris are beautifully crafted. If you love your architecture like I do, then you'll probably find yourself staring at the scenery more than you will be worrying about the monsters trying to kill you.

• (Image via Capcom)

Castle Dimitrescu

If you didn't know, Castle Dimitrescu is inspired by Peles Castle, which is located in Transylvania. It comprises of exquisitely decorated hallways, expensive furniture, velvet carpets and marble floors, and it is also filled with many statues and extravagant paintings. Although it is beautiful, it does have some contrasting features compared to the rest of the castle.

The castle's lower recesses are host to a storage basement, a wine cellar and a dungeon that is filled with fortified iron cages used for violent activities on the prisoners that are contained within them.

• (Image via Capcom)

Resident Evil Village Characters

Ethan Winters is the main protagonist in the game but it also includes other notable characters such as your wife, Mia, your daughter Rosemary and Chris Redfield who now is a part of a team, named The Hound Wolf Squad.

You will also meet a few new faces within the village but more importantly, in the castle there is The Duke, Alcina Dimitrescu, Salvatore Moreau, Donna Beneviento, Karl Heisenberg, who is Dimitrescu's brother, and lastly, Mother Miranda.

Mother Miranda is the ruler of the village, with four lords serving under her. Her true face is unknown and hidden behind a mask and it is just one of the many mysteries surrounding her in the game.

Who is the main Villain in Resident Evil Village?

Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters are pleased to meet you.

As we all know, our protagonist Ethan Winters is the star of the show but fans all over social media have been saying otherwise. The title has honourably been passed over to Lady Dimitrescu (pronounced "Dimitreesk") also known as "Tall Vampire Lady" who, although has some great assets, stands at a terrifyingly 9'6 inches tall and stalks the halls of the Castle along with her three daughters, named Bela, Cassandra and Daniela.

Twisted Family

Mother Miranda infected Lady Dimitrescu with a bio-organic weapon called a Cadou, which granted her with superhuman healing, strength and immortality. The downside was that it also required her to consume large amounts of human blood and flesh to survive.

A few years after this, Dimitrescu used the Cadou parasite's eggs to create three of her very own daughters who had similar powers and also relied on consuming human blood and flesh for sustenance. However, because they were only taking on the forms of human women and were insectoid creatures, this left them unable to survive the cold temperatures outside of the castle, ultimately leaving them trapped.

• (Image via Capcom)

What is Resident Evil Village about?

The story is set in the shoes of the main protagonist, Ethan Winters and takes place a few years after the events of the Baker Family mansion. He and his wife Mia are seemingly settled down with their new baby daughter, Rosemary Winters. If you've already played Resident Evil 7, you will know that there was a choice to save either Mia or Zoe Baker by administering one of them with the curative serum.

If you choose Mia, she helps to rescue Ethan when he’s captured by Eveline. If you choose Zoe, Eveline kills Zoe and Ethan is forced to kill Mia later. Ultimately, no matter what your choice was, in Resident Evil Village we see that Ethan and Mia have settled down and are expecting a baby girl. This means choosing to save her would have been the more canonical choice for the game.

We all know that Resident Evil is not known for its happy families, so after a fateful encounter with Chris Redfield, Ethan Winters finds himself awoken in a village filled with mutant creatures and is now on a quest to find his kidnapped daughter and figure out why she was taken from him.

So who is this Chris Redfield?

For those of you who don't know who Chris Redfield is, he made his debut as a playable character in Capcom's Original Resident Evil 1996 video game and is one of the two main protagonists, the other being his partner, Jill Valentine. Chris has been a continuous character in the franchise starring in Resident Evil CODE: Veronica, Resident Evil: Deadly Silence and and many other games. Most importantly, he was featured at the very end of Resident Evil Biohazard and also has his own DLC, "Not a Hero".

• (Image via Capcom)

What is the connection between Not a Hero DLC and Resident Evil Village?

If you have played the DLC "Not a Hero" after completing the main gameplay of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, you will know that the story follows Chris Redfield as he teams up with the now reformed Umbrella Corporation. Their mission is to apprehend Lucas Baker and uncover evidence on the mysterious group that created Eveline, called "The Connections".

Lucas leads Chris on a pursuit through the salt mines which are an immediate area near the Baker Family home. After many puzzles, unsuccessful attempts in saving his fellow captured Umbrella soldiers, and disarming the bomb attached to his arm, he finds his way into a hidden Connections research lab.

Lucas Baker, who had already killed off the Connections researchers in attempts to betray the organization, was cornered and then evidently shot by Chris. This triggers a mutation in his body but Chris manages to eventually kill Lucas and stops him from transferring all of the data on Eveline to an unknown party.

But wait, there's more!

All seems to be over until Chris rushes off to the Umbrella base camp for an urgent call. What is that call exactly? Well, we can only assume that because the call was advised to be taken at the camp, it was of high importance and must be kept secret. It is possible that because this was the ending of the demo, the importance of the call might be explained in Resident Evil Village since Redfield makes an appearance in the game.

There are many other questions related to the "Not a Hero" DLC such as who The Connections might be, why was Lucas Baker working for them and why he then decided to betray them, who this other party might be, and most importantly, what was said on that phone call. Perhaps Resident Evil Village will explain this and go into a little more depth about Redfield's involvement in the story.

• (Image via Capcom)

What is the gameplay like for Resident Evil Village?

In Resident Evil Village, you'll be exploring both the Castle and the surrounding village whilst solving puzzles along the way. It is designed to be one seamless map with a greater emphasis on exploration compared to previous Resident Evil's.

The Collector's Edition version of the game includes a cloth map which reveals a rough layout for the game world, including a few interesting locations like Heisenberg's Factory and Moreau's Reservoir.

The games are always about backtracking to open up locked areas, but this time there's more of an open world feel to it. It's not strictly free-roaming though but the size of the map almost certainly seems like it.

You will also be playing in first person like Resident Evil 7: Biohazard but in Village, we have seen a much greater variety of enemies to look forward to.

This is good news for those of you who thought that Resident Evil 7's combat against the Moulded was just too similar, as now Resident Evil Village offers a much more diverse combat style. Guarding will be of greater importance in the game to help Ethan Winters counter enemies and he will also be able to push them back. This can in turn help the player to be able to deliver a counter attack.

The Merchant is back!

Like Resident Evil 4, Village has a merchant of its own known as The Duke. His shops allows the player to stock up on ammo and healing items, buy weapons and upgrade their equipment, increase their inventory space, and buy recipes that allow for crafting things such as different ammo types.

• (Image via Capcom)

So anyway, I started blasting

You might think you have good accuracy but be careful to reserve your ammo when in stressful situations. Enemies might start jumping at you from all angles so it is easy to lose your cool and miss fire your weapons. Its best to check your inventory regularly so you don't end up eating all of your ammo.

• (Image via Capcom)

Crafting

There is also a new crafting space in your inventory that allows you to craft first aid medicine. Your inventory management system will also be the same as previous games where you'll have to move and rotate items for better storage space.

• (Image via Capcom)

Hunting

Players will be able to hunt animals in different locations around the game and have them cooked into dishes by the Duke. By eating these side dishes, the player is able to gain certain advantages such as decreasing the damage taken whilst blocking.

• (Image via Capcom)

Saving

The way you save your progress is also the same but instead of using tape recorders, as you will have seen in Resident Evil 7, you can now save your game by locating and using typewriters.

• (Image via Capcom)

This Resident Evil game looks like it is shaping up to be a fantastic follow up to Resident Evil 7 but in many ways a follow up to the mechanics and themes of Resident Evil 4. Whether creeping carefully or going in guns blazing, I'm sure this gothic nightmare will be a blast to play for everyone!

• If you have not done so yet, check out the official trailer for Resident Evil Village here!

Is Resident Evil Village a Multiplayer game?

Resident Evil Village does not come with a multiplayer option but it includes "Re:Verse" for free which is an online multiplayer game. Released to celebrate 25 years of Resident Evil history and features a third person over the shoulder experience, unlike Resident Evil's first person view.

You will play in four to six-person survival horror death matches and the gameplay mode is divided into two types of players, survivors and bioweapons. The ones you can chose from will be some of your favourites such as your main boy Leon S. Kennedy, Ada Wong, Claire Redfield, Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, and Hunk.

At the start of the game you will be playing as one of the human choices and everyone will be fighting each other to the death. If you are unlucky enough to be killed, you will then be turned into a bioweapon but which one is dependent on the number of virus capsules you collected when you were alive. The Bioweapons are Fat moulded, Hunter Y, Jack Baker, Nemesis, an Super Tyrant.

When will Re:Verse be released?

• (Image via Capcom here)

Although it was supposed to be released with Resident Evil Village on May 8th, it has been delayed. It is not set to be released until Summer 2021 but news of the exact date is yet to be given by Capcom.

Resident Evil Village Demo release?

Capcom released the Maiden demo which is exclusively for the PS5 but since not everyone was able to get one, they have announced another demo that will be playable on all other platforms. It was originally announced that the gameplay demo would be available for 24 hours on May 1st, however this was extended so that you could play the demo anytime up until May 9th. Since then this demo is no longer available

This demo was limited to 60 minutes of gameplay where you would explore and solve puzzles in the village and in the castle. If you were to finish both experiences before the 60 minutes, you could still go back and continue exploring until the time was up. Players had to be careful not to waste this time since the clock would not pause when you were inside menu's.

It was a good way for players to experience a bit of the game's visual identity and hype them up for its release!

Can my PC run Resident Evil 8: Village?

See below the recommended specs to play Resident Evil!

Recommended Specs for the ultimate gaming experience!:

• OS: Windows 10 (64 bit)
• Processor: Intel Core i7 8700 | AMD Ryzen 5 3600
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 | AMD Radeon RX 5700
• DirectX: Version 12

What PC do I need to play Resident Evil 8: Village?

Here at AWD-IT we have a massive range of affordable and high end Gaming PC systems which will be capable of running Resident Evil Village, so we've done the work for you and have selected some of our favourites below!

• (Image via Capcom)

Checkout these featured Gaming PCs for Resident Evil Village