Look at the time! It's schlock o'clock! Time to add another layer of total nonsense to the Resident Evil canon.

Did Albert Wesker invent ghosts? What a virus! It's nice that Rose can still go to school and live in a thriving city, some twenty years after apocalyptic global events. Look - I played through all four acts of Resi 6. The only thing I ask for in return is the freedom to relentlessly rip the piss out of the state they've left the Resident Evil storyline in.

Shadows of Rose is a mixed bag, starting out fairly strong with a new take on Resi 8's castle section, descending to a fairly tedious retread of the scary puppets bit alongside a crap stealth section, and tapping out before bringing back anything from the game's two other major sections. Maybe they're saving those bits to frame another DLC campaign around, maybe they had to scale back this campaign midway through production. Either way, their absence seems weird, given how much else they've dredged up.

I'd have been fine if they just did the castle bit. That's pretty much what I thought they'd done when it started to wrap up. I like these wee Bowser's Fury things that sum up the appeal of a bigger game in a tight little campaign. It's Resi, but it holds back on much of the key finding and, instead, uses big patches of Malice from Breath of the Wild to keep you from your destination. Rose has to run around them until she finds their weak spot and deactivates them. It's a fine little system that keeps goals and progression tangible, while stripping back on the scale of your searches. I'd have recommended the DLC if this is all it was.

The campaign then delves to further passionlessly plod through a clichéd, shallow and shockingly juvenile storyline. It's Frozen meets Casper in a PEGI 18 horror game. I just wanted it to end. The writers seemed to care as little about it as I did.

I had to try the last boss three times, because it requires you to do a new move in the last section, and you'll only know that if you have tutorial pop-ups turned on in the menu- I had them off since the second time Resident Evil Village reminded me what the reload button was, back in May 2021.

DLC mileage will vary depending on your enjoyment of the base game and 7. At its core Shadow of Rose has the same things that I dislike about both games. That being the game/story is super geared to the first time playthrough. It's a roller-coaster ride and once you know all the beats you see past the smoke and mirrors making it never as effective as the first time.

The """stealth""" in this dlc gave me flashbacks of the evil within one. Having you awkwardly shimmy around a box crouched trying to see if the monster is look towards you or not. Its like a bad game of game mechanics telephone started with the last of us passed to the evil within then now to re8.

The gameplay itself is fun enough and the set pieces are pretty creative but i can't see myself ever playing this dlc again.

While Shadows of Rose doesn’t quite take Village to the next level, it’s kind of insane that they were able to create something worthwhile out of so many reused assets.

It’s a bite-size campaign that condenses and simplifies the RE8 experience: key hunting, some puzzles, some shooting, an unbelievably scary bit, and a bombastic/very Japanese final boss fight. Not groundbreaking, but it works despite obvious conveniences.

I was invested in the Shadows of Rose story, but the dialogue can be corny and overwrought. The Mercenaries additions are neat (play as boulder boy, booba lady, and neckbeard!), although I still wish it were more like Mercenaries from RE4. Third person is a welcome inclusion but isn’t entirely necessary (aside from getting people to stop asking for it). If you enjoyed RE8, it’s likely you’ll enjoy this, but you probably knew that going in.

I personally love Village and am glad to have more of it, but part of me wishes they would have created tons of all-new environments and weapons and enemies and made it a full game… and called it Resident Evil 9.

But that’s a lot to ask from a $20 DLC.

Having to crouch to fit into normal rooms as Lady Dimitrescu made me giggle, Heisenberg and Chris are cool but she's definitely the best part of this expansion and gives that Dead By Daylight-esque dumb fun of being this tall, powerful thing without getting bullied by people with 1000 hours in the game. Think her and Bayonetta would be friends irl. Was not expecting to get much from the Mercenaries stuff since I barely touched it in the base game but I'm really enjoying it and I can't imagine playing without this expansion stuff.

Shadows of rose kind of sucks though. It has Castle Dimitrescu again without the charm of the Dimitrescus and House Beneviento again with an ok twist before descending into just feeling silly from a horror perspective and a bit messy from a gameplay one.

If it wasn't for the mercenaries stuff I wouldn't recommend this, but that mercenaries stuff is really fun so I'm kind of 50/50. Probably best to wait for a sale.

(i've also still to check out the main campaign in third person which i may or may not idk i'll see)

It's quite apparent that all hands are on deck working on the RE4 remake and they left the D-Team to figure out how to squeeze fans out of $20. They did not do a good job...

Shadows of Rose is the worst piece of content to ever plague the mainline Resident Evil series. It has a dreadfully boring story with horrific made-for-teens writing about a character that's insanely hard to give a shit about. The TPS perspective is a total afterthought and feels more like a janky fan mod than a proper implementation. The DLC takes you on a dull trek through hilariously recycled areas in a painfully linear fashion, and combat manages to feel really limp between the piss poor enemy variety and your only two available firearms being the weakest pistol and shotgun of the base game. It's insane how worthless this story expansion is, and that's really driven home by the fact that the final cutscene is... a repeat of the base game's final cutscene.

As for the other offerings of this expansion... 2 characters for Mercenaries mode which I don't like as much as 4-6's and TPS mode for the base game, which just gives you a worse-feeling game. Like I said, this view mode feels poorly thought out and it's embarrassing that it's an entire third of what $20 will get you when it feels like something most games would add for free in a patch..

As far as value goes this expansion is just sad. RE7's $30 expansion gave you a lot of content with varied gameplay, and an extra free DLC on top of that. 2 of these DLCs provided much appreciated expansions to the story that made it feel truly complete. Your $20 here gets you an awful 3 hour slog, shitty TPS mode, and a whopping 2 characters for Mercs mode. Embarrassing.

Shadows of Rose was a nice little revisit to RE8. I like how they emphasize survival horror a little more than in the original game. I also think the game is gorgeous looking. Maybe one of the best looking games I’ve played. And for me, the prettiness kinda makes up for having to play through the same rooms that we already did in the base game. Which I was a little split on actually. I thought it was cool to revisit the environments I really liked like the demitrescu castle but then when we had to revisit other environments that I didn’t care for too much, I kinda wished for something new. But yeah overall it was cool. It was like a RE8 Best Hits album. Oh and what everyone is saying is correct, there is a very scary part in it lmao. It was so scary that I was falling asleep while playing it and then the scary part started and it woke me the fuck up lol. 3rd person mode is way better for this btw imo tbh.

Third Person Mode: Didn't enjoy it, it actually made feel sick.

Mercenaries: Enjoying this mode so much more now. Chris is so fucking fun, I LOVE punching the shit out shit. Heisenburg is pretty cool. Demitrescu is really interesting and fun. All the characters are fun and their kits are put together well.

Shadows of Rose: The first part is fine, a little annoying and I kind of don't like playing Dead By Daylight with the enemies and Boss. The second part is dope because it probably has the best iteration of the "Don't look away" enemy type I've seen, AND you get to be small. The final boss is a little clunky on keyboard, but fulfills my desires of doing cool powers. The story definitely doesn't fill me up as much as the main game, but I can imagine it if it did.

Initially a fantastic showing, with effectively crafted scares even with the shift to 3rd person. The DLC expansion unfortunately falls apart in the second half, ending abruptly, and with much of the potentially interesting ideas complacently explained away on collectible documents towards the very end of the DLC. Asset re-use is incredibly prevalent here, and it's a twin-edged sword. The repurposing of RE8's content to play with expectations and craft new experiences is great, but it comes at the cost of not feeling particularly invigoratingly new.

The claustrophobic corridors of many of RE8's repurposed environments are both a help and hinderance in the enjoyment of this new content. Proximity based button prompts were already an issue in the base game's original first person mode, and this problem is exacerbated in third person. Third person camera made some sections tense in ways that are completely unique to this content, but I can also see the case where someone would argue this would undercut tension by being able to check around corners. For the most part, the transition between perspectives has worked well (even if the environments were not originally designed for this greater field of view and freer camera control.

Clocking in at roughly 3 hours of play time on my end (and I took what felt like a slower jaunt through this DLC than others) this expansion feels overpriced currently. This is particularly true if you have no interest in playing the base game in 3rd Person or in new Mercenaries content. If the Shadows of Rose DLC had been purchasable separately at somewhere closer to $8 instead of $16, it'd be an easier recommend.

I've only briefly messed around with the new Mercenaries content. Punching things as Chris is entertaining enough. What strikes me as somewhat bizarre is how buying this expansion pack only offers you the chance to play as the Lords from the base game - dependent on your skill ceiling and ability to score highly - rather than simply letting you use the characters you have just shelled out over $15 for.

All in all, fine enough content - but lower expectations and maybe wait for a sale or to simply purchase the Gold Edition of RE8 if you have yet to buy the game at all.

Não Capcom, não é assim!

Eu não queria estar escrevendo esse review da forma como eu vou fazer, mas é inevitável. Como um fã aficionado pela franquia, peguei a DLC exatamente assim que ela lançou, as 01h00 da manhã.

Foi uma maratona extremamente exaustiva pois fiquei madrugada adentro jogando e se pelo menos tudo tivesse sido bom, teria compensado o tempo, mas não foi bem assim. No final, a sensação era péssima e só sobrou o gostou ruim na boca com a insônia de um dia já amanhecendo.

Vou destrinchar cada uma das coisas novas dessa DLC!

1 - Câmera em terceira pessoa na campanha principal (Duração: 2 horas e 37 minutos)

Essa é de fato a única coisa nova para campanha e, como eu já sabia a história toda por ter zerado o game antes, eu só me preocupei em ver a gameplay durante todo o trajeto e, por isso, usei meu new game plus com todas as armas liberadas com munição infinita.

A experiencia é boa? Sim! Vale a pena? Sim! Foi uma belíssima adaptação que a Capcom conseguiu fazer, mas ainda falta uma fluidez maior pq primariamente o jogo não foi pensado pra ser em terceira pessoa. Então, quando se compara a jogabilidade com o Remake do 2 e 3, ainda existe um gap considerável. Além disso, as cutscenes são feitas em primeira pessoa, e teriam que ser feitas mesmo pq não daria pra ser diferente.

Conclusão desse primeiro item: para alguém que já tinha jogado várias vezes o game principal, essa nova visão se tornou chata com 20 minutos de jogo, pois não agregou muito valor para mim. Porém, acho que para quem vai jogar pela primeira vez, vai ser uma ótima experiência.

2 – Adições no Mercenaries (Duração: 47 minutos)

Resumidamente, duas novas fases e a possibilidade de jogar com Alcina, Heisenberg e Chris. As duas novas fases são legais, o desafio é bom, os inimigos foram bem selecionados e eles reformularam a inteligência dos inimigos, então agora eles são mais agressivos e vem, de forma mais feroz, atrás de você.

Agora sobre os personagens novos... Jogar com Chris é divertido, porém similar demais ao Ethan pq a visão é em primeira pessoa. O que muda é a estética das mãos, as armas e a possibilidade de socar e chutas os inimigos.

Heisenberg possui uma jogabilidade extremamente chata! Os poderes e armas não são divertidos de usar e o martelo, principal arma dele, parece bugado ao acertar os inimigos, pois parece que você não tá batendo neles.

Dimitrescu já possui uma jogabilidade mais legal. Os poderes dela são legais e divertidos. Jogar uma estante gigante nos inimigos foi o ápice da criatividade que eu achei bem bacana.

Conclusão desse segundo item: uma DLC que não chega a ser chata, mas não é divertida como a Capcom tentou vender. Se ela não existisse não faria falta nenhuma.

3 – Shadows of Rose (Duração: 2 horas e 22 minutos)

Deixei o principal para o final pois foi a parte que mais me decepcionou. Sério, um ano de desenvolvimento para entregar isso é de uma sacanagem sem tamanho. TODOS os cenários foram reaproveitados e requentados, não existe nade de novo praticamente e isso é ridículo.

Sobre a história, beleza, existe uma explicação que dá pra engolir, pelo fato da “realidade alternativa” e dos “poderes”, mas pelo amor de deus Capcom, sério isso? Eu engoli essa dlc, mas foi por isso que fiquei com gosto ruim na boca, pq a verdade é uma só, é ruim.

Para quem jogou o principal e lembra da parte da casa beneviento, imagina isso durante praticamente 1 hora de gameplay? Eu não tenho problema com terror, mas a gameplay é basicamente só isso e chega uma hora que cansa. Para quem sempre falou que Resident Evil tava com pegada Outlast e Silent Hill, agora esse pessoal tem certa razão em falar isso.

Para não dizer que tudo é ruim, tem uma cena que é MUITO emocionante e, pessoalmente, me tocou muito e gerou gatilhos por questões pessoais, mas ainda sim é uma parte mal feita pq toda a construção da DLC de “tudo vai se explicar e chegar ao fim” nada disso acontece. O jogo termina e continua a sensação de que existem muitas perguntas não respondidas e buracos na história, ou seja, serviu de nada.

Conclusão sobre esse terceiro item: Uma DLC que mais engana do que entrega. A prometida resolução da história não veio, os cenários são todos requentados, a câmera em terceira pessoa é bem ok e o novo mercenaries não agrega valor. A Capcom deveria ter usado o um ano de desenvolvimento totalmente para a shadows of rose e não dividir com os outros dois itens.

A DLC é cara para o conteúdo disponível, lembrando que a Capcom tinha dito lá atrás que ela seria de graça. 94 reais e aproximadamente 6 horas de não diversão, mas sim de POR FAVOR ACABA LOGO.

There's a random file in the opener of this one's Rose campaign that reads:

"To create art, simply add to the rabbits' carcasses. Decay is not an issue. Spruce them up with a bit of makeup, it makes them seem more alive."

???????????? I couldn't have surmised it better myself??? What the hell guys... You're making it too easy.............

OOOH it's your typical 'haunted house' ass rundown of the game and its mechanics in an abridged and overly simplified little package you'd expect from this kinda thing. Has no value past the first playthrough, but I assume we all like Ethan Winters well enough to wanna hang out with his kid for a little bit, so ehhh it's cute for that.

romping through the village engine again just gets me reminiscing hard though. RE4 is SO much more polished and satisfying than this wannabe! What a weird one, huh?

Only took a bit over 2.5 hours for the new story. Would have liked it to be a tiny bit meatier, even just another hour.

What we did get from the new story is cool though. They use it's concept to find weird creepy stuff it wouldn't make sense to do otherwise. The story gives a good conclusion to the Winters family's story in the RE games.

Some new additions to the gameplay can feel a bit clunky here unfortunately but otherwise it's an enjoyable experience overall

MagnificentMrMads Halloween Marathon #7

As someone who absolutely loves Village (it's in my top 5 for the series) I was definitely excited for the Winters expansion but came out a bit underwhelmed. The actual Rose expansion is just a retread of the original (without the incredible factory bit) that explores Rose who is just a whatever character with the most predictable arc I've seen in a while. Has some cool bits but just play the original.
What really was good is the new mercs content. Can't really say I like this new mercs layout (the areas and predetermined enemies kinda suck) but the new characters are a ton of fun and the finale bit in the new levels is so fucking cathartic and a blast!

I'd reccomend the Winters Expansion but definitely not for full price. 10 bucks max I'd say for a middling expansion and fun stuff in mercs (third person mode is neat too)

7/10

I mean it's alright...

I took advantage of the DLC and replayed the entire Village campaign in third person, it didn't really add too much to my previous experience other than taking some of the "scare" out of the game, which was kind of interesting in an of itself. That being said though, you can tell this game was 100% intended for a first person perspective and a lot of the self discovery between story beats didn't hit quite as hard, not really close. Other moments like traversal on foot and in the boat felt a little awkward, especially the latter which didn't feel like it was animated correctly for the third person perspective. It was fun replaying the game though as this is easily my favorite RE entry and took a quick six hours to complete. I streamed it for friends and it was a good time, made even moreso by the third person perspective's lack of fear factor, making it spectator friendly for the non-horror inclined. RE8 is a fantastic game, but I think the new camera perspective removes a good bit of what makes the game "special."

After beating the campaign again I moved onto the Shadows of Rose DLC and I expected, something better honestly. Revisiting the locations from the first two bosses of the main game is on paper okay, but didn't feel very fun in the expansion. Even though you've got different objectives and the enemies you're fighting/dealing with are not the same as in base Village, the entire loop and locations repeat which makes it feel like a rehashed experience. Rose is an interesting character and I'd love to see more out of her in the RE franchise, but I felt that the story didn't do her character justice. Maybe I had the wrong expectations going in but this wasn't as fun for me as RE7's "Not a Hero" DLC which was short, but fundamentally different from the main game. My takeaway is more like mine for "End of Zoe" was, which also re-used a lot of the same scenery and gameplay loop, but to a far lesser extent than Shadows of Rose. I really digged some of the horror elements (like the mannequins that were Doctor Who-esque) and would love to see Rose again in a scenario like that, but that may be wishful thinking.

In all, I would recommend this to RE8 fans for some closure, but only if they are adament that they'd like more.

Infelizmente é uma DLC bem fraca, me decepcionei demais com ela, a movimentação da Rose é muito dura, as armas que ela carrega (LEMI e Shotgun), são horríveis, sem upgrade nenhum, os inimigos são bem mais rápidos, o jogo te coloca a todo momento em situações que você fica perdido e tem que fazer ações em um curto período de tempo, me senti jogando um Silent Hill. O final é emocionante, mas não passa aquela sensação de complemento na história da Rose, o Duque aqui age como um jigsaw, outra coisa bastante triste é o reaproveitamento de cenários, não tiveram a capacidade de criar algo novo. Essa DLC só saiu pra dizer que "olha, vocês não queriam tanto uma DLC pro village? Toma ai essa bomba então"

This wasn't really worth it for me. I don't think the 3rd person mode works for this game. It doesn't ruin it, but why would you play it if 1st person works better?

For Mercenaries, I wanted to try Dimitrescu just for fun but turns out you need to spend hours to unlock a character that you already paid for.

Shadows of Rose was the only interesting part, but it's just revisiting zones of the original game, not even all of them. The only really good part was Beneviento's House.

Overall I wouldn't recommend getting this at full price, wait for a discount.

So, when I talked about RE8, I had 2 major complaints. They should've focused more on action then amusement park spook house moments and I wasn't too keen on how much the game seemed to lean more into magic powers over science fiction.
Shadows of Rose taking place in what's essentially a teenager's dream really hampered the tension. You get to actually fight for only around half the game with a very neutered weapon set. Then you get a somewhat neat but less scary equivalent to the dollhouse section from the main game, followed by an extremely boring stealth section that really over stays its welcome. I know there's a lot of people butt hurt about RE6 saying, "Resident Evil isn't an action series" but I just plain think they're wrong. When RE works it's a mixture of action and problem solving with a hauntingly beautiful horror setting. At least that's my take.
I was also very confused by them taking away the heal button and I now had to go to the menu for it. Turns out that was literally just because you get a new skill that uses that button right a the very end for one short section. This would almost make sense... except I'm playing on mouse and keyboard and there's a million keys it could've been set to while keeping the heal button. I even had to change it since the button set up the expected me to use (and by that I mean didn't put any consideration into at all) was completely rancid. I also feel like they had to hold back given the teenage protagonist. Seeing "you are lost" instead of "you are dead" just felt like I was watching a tv edit of a rated R film.
I can totally understand someone enjoying this but if most of this ends up being indicative of RE9s direction, then you can probably count me out.