Resident Evil Village: Shadows of Rose - Winters' Expansion
OpenCritic Rating
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Resident Evil Village: Shadows of Rose - Winters' Expansion Media
Resident Evil 8 Village DLC Shadows of Rose - New Teaser Trailer (4K 60ᶠᵖˢ)
RESIDENT EVIL 8: VILLAGE || SHADOWS OF ROSE - D.L.C. || OFFICIAL TRAILER (4K) Capcom Showcase 2022
Shadows of Rose RE: Village DLC world premiere trailer (Capcom Showcase)
Critic Reviews for Resident Evil Village: Shadows of Rose - Winters' Expansion
When we look back at Resident Evil Village, The Winters’ Expansion probably won’t be considered an essential part of it for either story or gameplay reasons. Its story is short and the third-person mode takes out some of the scares. At least Mercenaries mode gets more Lady Dimitrescu!
The Winters' Expansion for Resident Evil Village is a must-buy for fans of the base game, with plenty of scares and classic Resident Evil gameplay.
Shadows of Rose is a shorter, worse version of Resident Evil Village. It’s so committed to recreating a micro-version of Village and following it beat-for-beat that it even copies its major flaws. It concludes in the same location with the same info-dump of lore that quickly wraps up all the loose threads. It ends with the same boss fight (somehow even clunkier and more frustrating this time), and unbelievably, also ends with the exact same cutscene. The scene where Rose visits her father’s grave at the end of Village isn’t the start of Shadows of Rose - it’s the end of it. There’s no new context that makes this scene more meaningful, and in fact, that weird line where the driver calls her Eveline is an even more bizarre thing to say after these events. Capcom is quickly running out of Resident Evil games to remake, and this expansion didn’t give me a lot of hope for the future.
An uninspired retread of Resident Evil Village's best moments, which squanders the opportunity to experiment or provide a hint about the franchise's future.
To dive deeper would reveal important story beats, none of which stand out as being a major highlight, but I enjoyed learning more about Rose, revisiting locations from Village with a new perspective (both literally and figuratively), and getting more context on her role in the universe. Considering her potential importance in the future, I assume Shadows of Rose will be an experience worth having played, but I wouldn’t go quite as far as calling it required reading. For something more abstract and focused on horror within the world of Resident Evil, Shadows of Rose is worth exploring.
New additions to The Mercenaries make the Winters' Expansion for Resident Evil Village worthwhile, but Shadows of Rose is a fleeting slice of forgettable story DLC.
At $19.99, the Resident Evil: Village Winters’ Expansion DLC is worth it for the new Mercenaries content alone. Shadows of Rose is a decent story and worth playing through for fans, and the third-person camera in the base game gives an extra little bump of replayability. But, overall, Resident Evil 7 had better direction with its DLC, and there were more pressing stories to be told than Rose’s romp through familiar territory.
Solid and definitely have an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun.
