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Resident Evil Village DLC
It’s not a secret that I’m a lifelong Resident Evil fan. I started to play the games in the end of the 90’s when Resident Evil 2 was released. Yes, I was about 12-years old and the games freaked me out.
Resident Evil Village was released in 2021 and it was an instant hit. There was supposed to be a DLC for it soon after the release, but the developer said that they were so taken from the good feedback and reviews from the game that they wanted to take time and deliver as good DLC. So, little over a year later and we got Winters’ Expansion that includes the long waited DLC Shadows Of Rose. The Winters’ Expansion also has Third Person Mode for the main game and The Mercenaries Additional Orders. I didn’t play them, so this review is only about Shadows Of Rose.
Back to the village
Shadows Of Rose happens years after the Village. Rose was saved from there as a baby and now she’s a teenager. She has powers, such her dead father, Ethan, had. Rose wants to get rid of her powers and she travels to the consciousness of the Megamycete. It takes Rose to a mysterious place where memories are twisted and warped to a nightamerous form. She is back in the Village where everything started, back to the Dimitrescu Castle.
The story was rather interesting and it swallowed me wholy. The beginning was short and the main theme was the horrors of the mind of the Megamycete. The Castle was different. It was ran by the merchant from the Village -game. He wanted to stop Rose’s journey and he could control enemies to go after her. In the Shadows Of Rose there was new type of enemies; the “Face Eaters”. Theres also other enemies, but I’m not gonna spoil it.
Rose also was different from Ethan (the gameplay from the Village), she couldn’t use Guard, so there’s no guarding from enemies’ attacks. But Rose had something else, she had powers she can use against the enemies. She could freeze them for a short period of time. She also use her powers to unblock obstacles. All the powers weren’t given her in the beginning of the game, so it was gradually given to her which made the gameplay even better.
What was interesting addition to the game was a “ghost” that helped Rose. It gave ammo and health, and told me what to do and sometimes even where to go.
Shadows Of Rose also had some typical Resident Evil puzzles. They were easy, but I did like how the developer added something nostalgic to the game.
There were also other areas than just the Castle. The gameplay got even better each time I got thrown into a new place. There was even extremely psychological-horror area, which was rather similiar like in the Village -game. That was section where I was freaked out and even screamed a little.
Playing this whole DLC with headphones on, I gotta say, it was even more scarier. All the noises enemies made to the ambient sounds, it was all just pure horror.
Graphically the game looked next gen and as beautiful as the Village was. Technically there was zero issues; no frame-rate drops or other isssues.
I did die a at least five times. There was moments where I was pure in survival mode, no ammo and health low, but I just pushed forward. It also helped that there was checkpoints in addition to the manual saves.
Only negative what I did find, was the final boss. It really didn’t took much of effort to beat it. I was readied myself to die a lot and take the battle of my life. So, I think the whole game should be played in harder difficulties to REALLY amp it up.
The Final Verdict
The Shadows Of Rose was about 3 hours long. It felt much longer than that, because the game was designed in a way that every new scenario was completely new. I did enjoy this DLC a lot and I’m gonna play it many times over. I really can’t say anything negative. The game played really smoothly and there was no hiccups or anything technical issues. Only negative thing were maybe that the puzzles were too easy and the final boss was also rather dull to beat.
Winters’ Expansion is available on PS5 (reviewed), PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC.
SCORE:
5/5
“There were also other areas than just the Castle. The gameplay got even better each time I got thrown into a new place.”
One More Level 