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Resident Evil Village’s Shadows Of Rose DLC is the perfect Halloween gamePlenty of tricks and horrible treats
Plenty of tricks and horrible treats
I was beginning to think I’d lost the capacity to feel anything at all. Heck, the real horror show this month has been the collapse of the entire UK nation state, and yet I still cannot bring myself to muster anything beyond a tired sigh. Then I got to the second act ofResident Evil Village’s Shadows Of Rose DLC and, oh yes, hello fear. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?
Resident Evil Village Gold Edition - Story Trailer - Winters' FinaleWatch on YouTube
Resident Evil Village Gold Edition - Story Trailer - Winters' Finale
It’s not long, Shadows Of Rose. My playthrough on its standard difficulty mode came in at just over three hours, with each of its three acts taking roughly an hour apiece. That might not seem like much for a £16 / $20 add-on, but let’s not forget that the “Winters Expansion” as a whole also includes the third-person mode for the base version of Village, as well as the addition of three new characters for its free Mercenaries mode, including everyone’s favourite (slightly less tall) vampire queen, Lady Dimitrescu.
Taken altogether, it’s a moderately more convincing package than just a three-hour DLC adventure, especially if you’ve been looking for an excuse to go back to Village for a second time. As I said in myShadows Of Rose preview last month, shifting the camera away from first-person to back over the shoulder in the style of Capcom’s more recent Resi remakes does bring an extra frisson of tension to Village’s dread-filled locations, and I’ve been enjoying revisiting them from this new perspective. If nothing else, I can at least pretend I’m sort of playing the upcomingResident Evil 4 remakefor a few seconds, thanks to Ethan’s floppy blonde mop cutting a startlingly similar profile to old Leon Kennedy.
But even if the Winters Expansion didn’t have the third-person perspective mode, I reckon that second, middle act of Shadows Of Rose is more than strong enough to recommend it on its own merit. Unfortunately, I cannot go into the specifics of it, but let’s say this. If you’ve been craving more Resi horror in the style of what you encountered in the Beneviento mansion, then just go and play Shadows Of Rose. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
The mold retains the memories of those who died near it, you see, setting the scene for a remixed medley of Village highlights as Rose delves deeper to find what she’s looking for. As such, there are no new locations in Shadows Of Rose, which may come as a disappointment. After all, thebest DLCdoesn’t simply retread what’s come before, but also offerssomething newfor players to wrap their head around. Shadows Of Rose is partially successful here, as while the set dressing is the same, the route you’ll take through it is not. Castle Dimitrescu, for example, has now been daubed in undulating patches of ‘liquid void’, a hypnotic jam-like gore from which its new, ashen mold men enemies will bubble up from to chase Rose down its newly encrusted hallways. Bar a couple of still locked doors, the castle is now a much more open space than it was in the base game, giving you almost free run of its various wings, attics and basements.
Really, though, it’s all about that second act for me, the hour I cannot talk about - nor would I want to, as it’s definitely best experienced on its own terms. Instead, I will leave you with this. Thanks to its main conceit of diving into the mold’s memories, Shadows Of Rose puts a nice cap on the Winters' family saga, tying up a few loose story threads, but also not shutting the door so firmly that it’s closed forever. Its short run-time also just makes this a great Halloween snack of a game, as it’s not only best experienced in a single sitting, but it’s got some properly good scares and creepy bits in there as well. It is the game that reminded me I still have a pulse, after all, which is really the best treat of all.
