Resident Evil 8 Winter’s Expansion Review: Horror in Creative!

First of all, a little warning: There are spoilers for the eighth part of Resident Evil. Our test video for the DLC will follow next Monday. When Capcom announced a soft reboot of the Resident Evil series in 2016, fans were initially skeptical. Part five and six of the cult series were quite controversial, part seven should now change that – and did it with flying colors! It got louder again survival horror set, the shooting passages scaled back. With Ethan Winters a mysterious protagonist moved in, which we in Resident Evil: Village have also taken over again. At the End of part eight we got a view of how it’s saved with its daughter goes on. We are now experiencing her story as part of the Winter’s Expansion DLC With Shadows of Rosethe first and probably the only one Expansion for Resident Evil 8. For this test, we primarily dealt with Shadows of Rose. And the new chapter manages to convince us with creative ideas, varied areas and a new camera perspective, even if there are still minor weaknesses.

Mushroom mutations at its finest

In the new Resident Evil: Village story expansion (buy now ) we no longer slip into the role of Ethan Winters, but that of his daughter Rosemary. At the end of the main game, there was already a hint in a post-credits scene that something was wrong with her.

Now we learn that she still carries her abilities through the Megamycete. And at school she is not bullied because of her father’s worn jacket, but because her mutations make her different from her classmates.

In “Shadows of Rose” we play the daughter of Ethan Winters. It was mutated by the Megamycetes, but actually wants to get rid of its abilities as quickly as possible.

Source: PC Games

That’s why she works for Chris Redfield and his gang of mercenaries, whom we met in the main game. What exactly she is doing there and why she is repeatedly sent on mysterious missions is not explained to us. However, Rose does not find this work and its mutations that cool and would much rather lead a normal teenage life.

When she gets the chance to get rid of her powers, she seizes it and sets off once again to the horror village in Romania, where her father fought all kinds of monstrosities years before. There, a cleansing crystal is said to have the power to rid them of their mutations. There’s a catch, however: in order to get her hands on the crystal, she must penetrate the Megamycete’s mind.

This is the mysterious mushroom that Arch villain Miranda researched back in the main game. When Rose begins her search, she ends up in the torture chamber of Castle Dimitrescu. And the horror begins again.

Old walls, new possibilities

Although no new areas await you in the expansion, the old ones have been redesigned and peppered with new puzzles and enemies.

Source: PC Games

Shadows of Rose does several things differently than the main game: The most obvious is of course the new camera perspective. We can now choose between first and third person in the main menu. In terms of gameplay, it doesn’t make a big difference, the new third-person camera plays well and is probably most comparable to the one from the two remakes of parts two and three.

Although we can’t always react perfectly in the new perspective, especially in hectic situations, that doesn’t detract from the gunplay and the atmosphere.

A new mechanic also provides a change from shooting around: Because Rose was mutated by Megamyzet, she can use her powers to bring down opponents in a new way.

This brings a little bit of tactical depth into the game, because on the one hand you only have limited charges for the abilities and on the other hand you have to decide again and again on which opponents you want to use the valuable charge.

And the abilities also allow Rose to remove the disgusting soup that drips from the ceiling and oozes through the walls in the ancient walls we move through. This unlocks new paths and is useful for many other things that we don’t want to reveal at this point.

Basically, we move through well-known terrain with Rose: We already know Dimitrescu Castle as well as the horror house of Beneviento from the main game. With the difference that this time we get new puzzles and opponents, weapons and characters play a little differently.