Resident Evil Village isn’t just a catchy title for a game; it’s also a description of where the game will take place. We recently got our first look at the titular town, and it seems rife with potential for atmospheric horror. While the Village isn’t a real place, it takes inspiration from real towns in Northern Europe, and all the history they contain.
We got our first look at the Village map courtesy of IGN, which posted some new screenshots from the game, along with some thoughts from the game’s director, Morimasa Sato. While there’s no guarantee that the Village map covers every single location in the game, it should give prospective players a good idea of what to expect from the latest Resident Evil entry.
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The map itself is a sepia-toned, hand-drawn affair, presented in a gilded frame on top of a cluttered wooden desk. There are 12 named locations, four of which have bigger, bolder titles than the rest. This suggests that they might be more central to the game’s story, whereas other locations might be shorter or optional areas.
The “prime” locations include House Beneviento, Heisenberg’s Factory, Castle Dimitrescu and Moureau’s Reservoir. In terms of Resident Evil locations, these seem like pretty standard fare: a mansion, a factory, a castle and a lake. IGN drew comparisons with similar locations in Resident Evil IV, which also took place in a remote European village.
Some of the smaller locations include a windmill, a stronghold, a series of houses, a bridge, and an intriguing “ceremony site.” (We imagine the ceremony in question will be something bloodcurdling, based on every single Resident Evil game in the past.) There are probably smaller transitional areas between these locations as well, although we’ll have to wait to play the full game before we see exactly how the whole Village fits together.
While the map doesn’t communicate the weather, Sato pointed out that snow will play a pivotal role in how players traverse the Village.
“We went to Europe for research during spring one year, but due to an unseasonable cold snap, the scenery was covered in snow,” Sato said. “This inspired us to implement snowscapes into our game. We use snow not just for visual presentation, but as gameplay elements as well.”
As such, expect some outdoor areas to have a distinctively wintry feeling. The “gameplay elements” Sato mentioned could be anything from impeded movement, to blocked-off areas, to special equipment that helps you navigate better.
In any case, Resident Evil Village fans now know that the game will, indeed, take place in a Northern European village. And if horror tropes over the last 200 years have taught us anything, it’s that remote Northern European villages are the perfect place to set a scary story.
