Shadows of Rose from the Winters’ Expansion borrows heavily from Resident Evil Village, yet the game feels fresh due to its mechanics and clever design.
Once the dust had settled, Capcom welcomed players back to Resident Evil Village, and almost eighteen months after its release, Resident Evil Village is receiving some actual narrative content.
Over the last several months, Capcom has occasionally provided pieces of details, keeping us on edge about the comeback to Ethan Winters’ storyline. Thus, both Shadows of Rose and The Winter’s Expansion will cap off a year in which excellent post-launch material was widely available.
Rose, in her fictional take on the original game’s universe, uses her magic and conventional weaponry to find an antidote to her affliction. The package includes the Third Person Mode, also found in the main game, plus three additional characters and two levels for The Mercenaries Additional Orders.
Shadows of Rose from Winters’ Expansion borrows heavily from Resident Evil Village, both in terms of visuals and settings, yet the game manages to feel fresh thanks to some clever changes to the mechanics and design. Due to the extensive plot spoilers, I advise playing through Resident Evil Village first.
This expansion emphasizes the Shadows of Rose plot; therefore, those who haven’t finished Resident Evil Village should do so before reading further. Most of Rose’s journey takes place in either Lady Dimitrescu’s manor or House Benevento.
Still, the developers have used clever techniques to make both settings seem worthwhile destinations in their own right. The Mercenaries Additional Orders mode receives three new playable characters, Chris Redfield, Alsina Dimitrescu, and Karl Heisenberg, along with two new maps. Shadows of Rose, an extended narrative campaign, enhances Winters’ Expansion by fleshing out the Resident Evil Village‘s backstory and introducing new gaming elements and circumstances.
The narrative opens with Rose having made it through the incidents in the Resident Evil Village but having difficulty with her everyday existence due to her usage of supernatural abilities; she is now a lonely outsider seeking a way out.
Her personality offers many benefits in various contexts; nonetheless, it has caused her social position to decline, and she has been the target of bullying. There is a way out of this for her, and it’s not easy. She meets someone called K, tasked by Chris Redfield to assist her in regaining her usual self.
According to K, her mutation can be permanently removed from her body using a cleansing crystal. The one exception is that Rose must hack into the Megamycete’s mind to locate him. So, Rose finds the lab, touches the virus, and is sent to Dimitrescu’s castle; from there, the tale continues over many Resident Evil Village locations and a few more. Here, Rose is forced to confront her deepest apprehensions and anxieties and relive some of her life’s most traumatic experiences.
The Megamycete virus sampled these settings from people’s memories; therefore, there are differences between them and the original, such as the presence of new opponents. The narrative of Shadow of Rose might be recounted as a brief aside that centers on the Winters family.
Neither the original conclusion nor a new one is established throughout this narrative. Thus, it cannot be read as a prequel or sequel. In reality, the three-hour runtime of this game is dedicated to telling a single short tale, which is then resolved at the very end. The only good aspect of the narrative is that it focuses more on the characters who were less covered in the original edition and the seventh issue.
The Rose chapter has a few unique situations but mostly repurposes the same environments and resources from the Resident Evil Village chapter in a more conventional story progression. The finest parts of most Resident Evil games come when you’re exploring a vast area with several keys and rooms, which is precisely where the additional material shines.
Most of the action occurs in a sealed-off portion of the castle that Ethan rushes through and features skeleton-like monsters who drain Rose’s visage by horrifyingly sucking off her face.
In fact, the killing scenes in Resident Evil are stretched out even farther than expected because of Rose’s earsplitting screams. The delay between tries isn’t worth it, but the game over screen and music are both impressive. Though graphically appealing, the new enemies don’t provide enough diversity to make the battle seem as exciting as it did in the first game.
Shadows of Rose shares the same settings as Resident Evil Village but includes distinct riddles because of the link that functions as memories. It’s going to be much simpler to go about and find what you’re looking for if you can recall the area’s layout.
Running and crouching are only two of the many simple actions Rose can do with a third-person camera. Although there aren’t many weapons, the fact that she has powerful abilities is her best strength.
They start little and develop as you go, but their initial purpose is temporarily to stun enemies so you may safely move past them or take it easy with the handgun. It takes special ammunition to perform this stun using R1. Some plant species that act as her abilities eliminate moldy cores. Similarly targeted with R1, the destruction of these cores opens up previously sealed doorways.
The original three zones from the base game are carried over into the Shadows of Rose, and minor tweaks are made to each of them. In the first and third acts, you’ll be shooting through stages, solving simple puzzles, using Rose’s abilities, and engaging in monster confrontations.
While the first and third passages rely primarily on overt mechanisms, the second stands out because it employs stealth strategies. When put together with the nightmare-inducing monster designs, the result is pure horror: vicious and scary.
Without a doubt, The Passage is a masterpiece in its field. However, I won’t give anything away, as the creepy ambiance is more effective when you are caught off guard. The expansion’s addition of a Third Person Mode is its creative highlight.
Both cameras can be switched out whenever you want by returning to the main menu. On the other hand, Shadows of Rose cannot be played in any perspective other than the third-person perspective.
The new characters that appear in The Mercenaries Additional Orders are the second highlight of this DLC, adding two more bonus levels to the Mercenaries section of the game, enabling Chris as well as Heisenberg and Lady Alcina Dimitrescu.
The initial part of the game takes place in a village known as The Village, followed by The Castle, The Factory, The Mad Village, and The Bloody River, each with unlocking conditions. Compared to the other characters, these three are absolutely overpowered. It is in this Village that Ethan embarks on his trip after the game has started.
In order to play The Bloody River, Ethan must cross to reach Beneviento’s House during the campaign. Both feature at least a few places to explore, each of which has a variety of enemies, from Lycans to some really epic bosses that appear in the game’s narrative gameplay.
You can access Chris Redfield, Lady Dimitrescu, and Karl Heisenberg; however, only Chris is available when you buy the Winters Expansion. Because there are now more playable characters, these two new levels have a more hectic atmosphere than before; keeping this in mind, it is imperative that you devise a plan to protect your more potent weapons and that you do so strategically.
In addition, other instances are the high points of the additional storyline, which activate the tension spectacularly, often with stealth; nevertheless, I should not kill the suspense. New creatures, a new boss, a new consumable that restores Rose’s abilities, dismal times, and plenty of flecked plasma; adversaries that come from ceilings and floors, providing nerve-wracking pursues.
Unfortunately, not everything works out, so you’ll have to keep returning and forth between locations throughout the DLC. Rose’s journey and her character come out as relatively undeveloped since the DLC’s limited duration doesn’t allow any significant plot points to fully develop.
No actual resolution to Rose’s tale will be provided to players either. As it stands, Rose’s narrative of overcoming her bullies by having her abilities taken away takes a back seat to what happened to Ethan.
Though fascinating background information about the Mutamycete and its activities can be uncovered, it is mostly redundant. This is a real pity since Capcom had many possibilities for expanding the narrative with the game’s characters and scenarios, particularly with Dimitrescu.
Since it was played in the same third-person perspective as the rest of the series, some might feel that they could do better during the game’s more challenging sections and boss fights. Although it made the gameplay more intriguing, the consistent shift in viewpoint during cutscenes felt like a drawback.
Due to Resident Evil Village‘s more personal approach, in which the first-person perspective is a crucial aspect of the player experience, it felt necessary to maintain these moments from Ethan’s point of view. Capcom adjusted their plans based on the circumstances since the game was not designed for that perspective. But overall, it’s done in a manner that should satisfy the tastes of this series’ fans.
The redesigned perspective in Winters’ Expansion makes it far harder to assess the game’s visual quality. You’ll eventually get the impression that the game was designed around the first-person perspective. Even though the first two areas in Shadows of Rose are essentially rehashed areas, they offer a terrifying spin on familiar settings infected by the Megamycete.
Although the attacking movements and Rose’s death sequences are handled nicely, the fact that each monster dies in precisely the same manner is apparent and draws attention to itself. Some of the new enemy kinds have a visually bland appearance.
The voiceover is incredibly done with all the characters, and the soundtrack makes good use of the songs utilized as a hidden, noisy environment. While there were possibilities for different chapters in the Winters family narrative, Shadows of Rose brings a fitting conclusion for a story that adequately serves as an expansion.
The story’s success stems not only from the character’s likability and the clever ways their abilities are used but also from the fact that it begins with such a strange idea and concludes conventionally with just one surprising turn to serve as a beacon.
Overall, it’s an entertaining plot extension lasting about three hours and has some excellent scares in the middle while it fizzles out a bit in the climax. Content-wise, Winters’ Expansion is great, especially if you purchase the Resident Evil Village Gold Edition.
Despite not being pushed to its maximum potential, The Winters’ Expansion is for those who want their teeth into more of Capcom’s newest horror thriller, as they add a good narrative DLC to an already excellent survival horror ride.
