Resident Evil Village: Shadows of Rose - Winters' Expansion Reviews
Resident Evil Village: Winter’s Expansion DLC offers plenty for Resident Evil fans to enjoy, from a short new story and more Mercenaries content, to a new way to experience the main story. Nothing here is without its flaws, but the overall experience is passable enough to enjoy.
It suffers from clichéd situations, recycled environments, and overly-guided gameplay. That said, it's a fairly good DLC that wraps up some loose ends, provides closure, and introduces some interesting mechanics and monsters.
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.
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.
Resident Evil Village Gold Edition introduces a new chapter to the story in the form of Shadows of Rose, a twisting trip through a few of the main game’s most iconic locations in a new adventure starring a new character with special powers and a whole lot of questions.
Winters' Expansion puts a definitive end to Ethan's adventure, with Shadows of Rose which I completed in about two and a half hours. I can say that I enjoyed it quite a bit and was glad to finally complete the story of Ethan and his family. However, the 20 euros that Capcom is asking for, with a campaign with such a short duration, are too much, especially if you're not interested in playing the main game again in 3rd person mode or if you're not going to bother with the updated The Mercenaries Mode.
Review in Greek | Read full review
Shadows of Rose isn’t a spectacular DLC, and it doesn’t necessarily do or say anything meaningful. It feels like a B-tier horror film, which isn’t out of place for Resident Evil, though its sometimes self-serious tone can become tiring, especially after two whole games in the decidedly grim saga of the Winters family. Those invested in their narrative will find something to chew on, and the addition of the third-person perspective makes returning to the base game an exciting possibility. But it doesn’t do anything to further the narrative. Much like Rose herself, it feels less like a stepping stone in the franchise — a gentle nudge toward more plot points that will potentially remain unresolved for years to come.
Those of you who have played through and appreciated Resident Evil Village can definitely cough up the just over 200 crowns that Capcom's latest DLC requests in exchange. Just be aware that the experience is very much the same as the main game. Story-wise, it mostly feels like an unnecessary epilogue. But it's still fun!
Review in Swedish | Read full review
The expansion of Resident Evil: Village uses the most cunning of premises to recycle a couple of areas of the main adventure, reworking them to make them somehow different to go through. We find it to be the quickest way to complete a lazy and uninspired job, both in terms of gameplay and in terms of history. Although the saga of the Winters family has been given the right conclusion, the end result smacks of potential gone to waste.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Finally, even its ending is as unnecessary as it is lazy. It’s the post-game cutscene from the original game, and it makes even less sense being inserted at the same moment after everything that transpired before it within the new scenario. I can’t fathom how anyone could possibly argue that this DLC is not one of the weakest additional content packages out there and the cheekiest in terms of its asking price. Do yourself a favour and wait for a sale if you absolutely must play it. Please. Lady Dimitrescu is not going anywhere.
All of this makes Winters' Expansion a decidedly mixed bag of tricks, though the same could be said about Village, too. It's a bit frustrating to see just how little it moves the story forward once all is done, but one wouldn't expect Capcom to give up too much in a DLC anyway. While it's true it'll offer you a different in-game perspective, it's more effective overall at shaping perspectives of this saga's characters and the future of their storyline.
