Resident Evil Village: Shadows of Rose DLC Review - A Rose by any other name...

With the release of Capcom’s Resident Evil Village: Winters’ Expansion comes the debut of the Shadows of Rose DLC, which serves as the finale to Ethan Winters’ time as the current series protagonist. Here’s BioShocker with her verdict on the DLC!

Note that this review will cover only Rose’s storyline, and not the Mercenaries mode or RE: Verse content, not the entire Winters’ Expansion. It will also be free of spoilers outside of the general premise and some spoilers for Resident Evil Village.

Resident Evil Village was quite a popular game when it came out in May 2021. I'm not just talking about the now legendary Lady Alcina Dimitrescu, although lord knows she probably helped. It's one of the best-selling games in the Resident Evil franchise, which is itself the best selling horror game series. It was the second most-awarded game of the year in 2021 and was quite well-liked by critics and audiences alike. In fact, this DLC was created only because of all this; Capcom has been relatively straightforward, stating that there was no planned DLC for the game initially. Winters Expansion was caused just by high sales and fan demand, and that's just swell. You can tell, as it took a full 17 months for this DLC to come out. So, was it worth the long wait?

The Winters Expansion, which is going for $20 or your regional equivalent, takes the form of 3 major aspects. The story expansion, Shadows of Rose, a third-person mode for the main campaign, and a heavy reworking of The Mercenaries, now labeled Additional Orders. Third-person mode is more or less just that, a new angle to play the game. Some people think the camera is perhaps a bit more floaty than previous third-person RE games, but to me, it works well enough. Mercenaries: Additional Orders is a much-needed improvement on a mode that was less than well-received by the majority of the fanbase, but for most people, Shadows of Rose is the main attraction.

Before we get to Shadows of Rose, a quick word on DLC for Resident Evil in general, it's been a concept since Separate Ways for RE4 back in 2005; every game in the series after RE4, with the exception of RE3 remake in 2020, has had DLC. Some of them, like Separate Ways or RE5s Lost in Nightmares, are pretty well-liked expansions that expanded the plot and provided new gameplay. Some of the DLC is like The Ghost Survivors for RE2 remake; take it or leave it small chunks with no real importance. Village’s predecessor, Resident Evil Biohazard, had the most extensive sum of DLC in the series. Partially this was because the game's ending left two major plot points hanging, partially because development finished early, leading to some free time for the devs.  

Who can forget the first time we laid eyes on our tall, dark vampire goddess?

Most of it consisted of mini-games like 21 or Bedroom, which were more fun experiments than anything plot-related. Stuff like Daughters or Not A Hero are plot related but are relatively short and only either tease out backstory or close plot threads. The best DLC in 7 was the last one, End of Zoe, a standalone story resolving the titular character's story by introducing Joe Baker, a bare-knuckle boxing old man who lives in the swamps and punches out alligators and mold people in order to save his niece. Compared to the other DLC, this was supremely silly. Whether you like this or not tends to put you in two camps, the fans that prefer the Resident Evil series to be more grounded, or when it goes off the rails. Judging by the critical reception, the majority of people in this instance preferred the latter, which isn't shocking; there's a reason “Punching a Boulder” is a now-beloved phrase for the franchise. This is important to mention as the tone of Shadows of Rose is very elastic, to put it mildly. 

So, Shadows of Rose takes place a full 15 or so years after the ending of RE8. Ethan Winters, the famously faceless pincushion of a hero, dies saving his daughter Rose from the clutches of the century-year-old witch Mother Miranda in a small Romania village. Or, well technically, he was already dead from the previous adventure, and Rose was more reborn, Silent Hill style, but you get the point. Rose has grown up to be a very conflicted teenager; it seems the superhuman soldier Chris Redfield has been her guardian rather than her actual mother, Mia, and she has problems at school. Rose, due to being both the daughter of a mold zombie and thus connected to the bacterial super-organism called the megamycete, has superpowers. Well, some sort of powers; the game is very vague on what she can or can't do, but it does seem to have made her the target of relentless child cruelty by those who find her weird, and as anyone who has ever spent an extended time on Twitter can attest, this wears on you after a while.

Rose would like nothing more than to be an ordinary child, so when an associate of Chris says there's possibly a way to rid herself of these powers, Rose jumps at the opportunity. She delves deep into a fragment of the megamycete, accessing its network of long-dead souls and memories in order to find a way to end her little nightmare forever.  

Methinks he has something to show us…

This is quite the setup, a mixture of a teen drama and a mid-budget superhero flick plus the shadowy world of dreams and the dead. It's notable for not including any of the mainstay Resident Evil characters, and for taking place in the far future of 2036, a creative choice that will definitely affect the eventual Resident Evil 9, but in what way, we haven't a clue.  

Throughout Rose's journey, she will traverse familiar places from the Village, including the iconic Castle Dimitrescu and other, more traumatic locations. Although all these locations have appeared before, and thus a lot of asset reuse is in effect, it's not that distracting. All these old places feel quite different when filtered through a land of the dead, like a blurry memory of times gone by.  

But these memories do hurt; alongside this journey is a new enemy type, a mixture of the molded seen in Resident Evil Biohazard and the pale heads of older RE games. Dubbed face eaters because, oh well, take a guess; they are slow-moving but take quite a few bullets to kill. Bullets you really don't have as ammunition is very sparse, more in line with the classic RE games than the recent first-person ones. Running is often preferable, especially since face eaters have problems getting through doors. There are other enemies, including some stalker types, but they are more context-sensitive than anything else. That's not to discount these other entities; some of them are genuinely terrifying in ways the RE series has never quite touched.

“Hey, Rose, I met your dad once! He seemed like a fungi.” Ba-dum-tish!

Ultimately, you have two weapons to use in Shadows of Rose, and you can't block like in the main game, so your options are rather limited. Gunplay in general is the same solid RE8 loop but with far fewer ammo reserves. If all you had access to were a dainty pistol and a shotgun, it would be a rather dull affair, but you have other things to help you survive.

First, you have a guardian angel of a sort. Throughout the DLC, letters will appear from an unknown friend going by the name "Michael"; he will occasionally give you ammunition and point you in the right direction alongside words of encouragement. You also get to use some of Rose's powers, which can help deal with enemies and the environment itself. The abilities aren't too out there, but they do add a nice variety of options. You do eventually get access to some really interesting powers, but only at the tail end of the DLC.

Plot-wise, it's not the most elegant of storytelling; Resident Evil might be a beloved franchise, but it's never going to win an award for best writing; it's not Bioshock. A couple of twists are incredibly easy to predict, and many aspects are not the most original. But they are done quite well; Rose's plight is quite relatable to many people. I remember being a teen and wishing myself to be idyllic and normal. Looking back, I’m amused, but it's a yearning many will understand. Rose herself is a wonderful little character, brought to life by anime voice actress Jeannie Tirado. Jeannie brings a mixture of the stubbornness Rose's dad had, and an innate sense of vulnerability but also warmth and optimism. She's sarcastic but also knows when not to joke around; not every line she says is a swear, a common problem with teenage characters. When she's in trouble, Jeannie absolutely sells it with what has to be some of the most intense screams the RE franchise has ever had. Voice acting in general is top-notch, with several returning voices doing some of their best work in the franchise. It's quite clear the RE franchise is likely to stay closer to the award-winning performances of people like Maggie Robertson, and less the hammy schlock of "OH MY COD!" that characterized the original games. Although who returns and who doesn't might be a tad off-putting for some people.

Wonder Rose powers, ACTIVATE!

Without tipping away too much information, some people like Mia Winters don't appear at all, leaving their plot progression and frankly, ultimate fate, very unclear. This is likely due to events that will transpire in RE9, but it's still frustrating. Equally so are some characters people wanted to appear; despite having a good chunk set in Castle Dimitrescu, the lady of the house is not present at all. With much of her backstory ambiguous and the fact anything that died could come back in this nether world, it wouldn't have been hard to feature Dimitrescu, Donna Beneviento, or Karl Heisenberg and perhaps even expand story details. Dimitrescu and Heisenberg do appear in the Mercenaries update, so it's not like Capcom is unaware these characters have a sizable fanbase, but their lack of presence in story content is a bit disappointing regardless if you were hoping for more of them.

What is not remotely disappointing is the sound design. I don't know who the sound editor is for the recent Resident Evil games, but whoever does it rivals DICE when it comes to quality. You will hear every footstep and every drop of blood and sweat, it will make even mundane locations stomach churning, and it will make the scariest parts unbearable, which is good. 

Discussions over the "horror" aspect of the Resident Evil franchise and of Village could be its own essay. Many people felt it was perhaps a step down in terror from Resident Evil Biohazard, with the exception of one already infamous child-inspired abomination. I personally disagree with that assertion; Village has more peaks and valleys when it comes to frights, but those peaks are pretty unparallel in the series, until now. There is one segment in Shadows of Rose that's arguably more terrifying than anything in Village or the series as a whole. I won't say what it is, but you'll know what it is when you reach it. It does rather shamelessly take inspiration from a certain popular British TV show, but it doesn't make it less ghastly to deal with.

Little did Rose know that the entity helping her was the ghost of Michael Jackson.

Speaking of frights, let's discuss tone; it's very much all over the place. Resident Evil has often been a franchise that just throws everything at the wall, from genuine family drama to singing leeches, from punching boulders to confronting war crimes. From creepy little girls to the terror of eugenics, even at its most stable, the series never quite consistently keeps a tone. Shadows of Rose is that and so much more. I've discussed the teen drama aspect and the horror that goes from body horror to gore to psychological, but the DLC keeps going. It has stealth sequences that play like a lost section of Resident Evil Revelations 2's Little Miss DLC, to several boss fights that run the gauntlet between bullet sponges and anime fights. It features immediately after the soon-to-be infamous heart-stopping horror sequence, a genuinely moving scene of a child confronting the loss of a parent that wouldn't be out of place in a Disney film, and the list keeps going. This isn't even mentioning clear inspirations from anything from Evil Within to Silent Hill Shattered Memories. As a friend once said, it's the gumbo of gaming; just throw all the ingredients in there, it'll maybe work. It's a real swing at the fences, and I can definitely tell this will not play well for everyone. But to me, it airs closer to the new Wolfenstein games, rapidly changing and knowingly goofy at times while never losing sight of what matters, versus a Tommy Wiseau production where everything is truly deranged and is bereft of meaning.

I mentioned emotional power, and this is really worth bringing up. Just like writing, Resident Evil was never the series you'd see on a Buzzfeed list of saddest gaming moments; it was never remotely The Walking Dead or The Last of Us (Ed. note: or even A Plague Tale! - Neoplasmic). There were tiny hints of emotional depth in games like Revelations 2, but it was still relatively thin. But starting around Resident Evil Biohazard, things began to change; one of that game's best scenes was a heart-to-heart with one of the main antagonists where he explains solemnly why he had been trying to kill you. This isn't played as a villain's speech; it's a tearful apology from a good man overtaken by things he couldn't control; it ends with said character begging you to end the suffering of his family. This one scene was a sign of things to come, Resident Evil 2 remake would heavily rework the last scene of doomed scientist Annette Birkins to be a tragic acceptance of her mistakes, and Resident Evil 3 would make Raccoon Cities final moments more haunting than before.  

Village would continue this slow build-up of emotional power, the entire plot is Ethan trying to save his only child, and the lengths a parent will go to do it. It's not original, but it's surprisingly well done, and its ending is genuinely tearful. Shadows of Rose one-ups this with a scene that honestly could make the Buzzfeed top moments. It's nakedly earnest, not afraid to be what it is. Although a second emotional moment during the ending is perhaps a little hampered by the absurd camera angles used.  

“So, like, Molly and I went down to the mall, and there was, like, totally a horde of zombies there! Oh em gee!!!”

The ending in general is good, although its use of reused aspects starts to way a tad thin by the time credits roll. It's nothing that makes the DLC not worth playing, but it might sour the mood slightly, although even this does improve upon a second playthrough. Overall gameplay time is complicated, I finished it around six hours after starting, but I was playing on hardcore mode, made sure to collect every item, and played at a speed where even a sloth might give some pointers on being quicker. The average game reviewer puts completion time at roughly 3 to 4 hours; some feel this is short, and yes, it's not very long; Resident Evil Village usually takes about 9 hours to complete if you do everything, but it's still good length for what it is. The Resident Evil Biohazard DLC, the story expansion ones anyway, were at most two hours a pop and could be sped through in under an hour if one so desired.

Replay-wise, there are a bunch of new challenges, from speed running it in 90 minutes to collecting all the diaries and plot notes. These unlock challenge points which can be used to unlock concept art and weapons in the main game. These challenges are nice, but there isn't anything new to unlock; Winters Expansion doesn't add new weapons or character models to view. So if you had unlocked all those extra content items prior to the DLCs launch, then you aren't going to spend those challenge points on anything, which is regrettable. Equally unfortunate is the lack of Shadows of Rose-specific unlockables. In RE7s DLC, you could unlock game-breaking weapons, infinite ammo, and other amusing stuff, which helped add replayability. Shadows of Rose doesn't have anything of the sort, which does hamper the number of times you will replay it.  

So is it worth it? I would say quite so! Despite some missed chances when it comes to characters, a few wonky choices near the end, and a tone about as stable as the Titanic after ramming that iceberg, I very much recommend Shadows of Rose and the greater Winters Expansion. If this is the end of the Winters family, and Capcom claims it is, although I have some doubt, it's a good send-off. It'll make you laugh; it'll make you cry; it will make you have to change your pantaloons; it has all the elements that made the Resident Evil franchise persist for over 25 years. It is the most Resident Evil of Resident Evil DLC, and I don't mean that as a slam. It's one of the best pieces of DLC in the franchise and one of the better expansions Capcom has put out. As a great woman once said, "Come now, don't be shy! Show me your terror!"

A final note: If you pre-ordered the Winters Expansion, you got a free costume for Rose called the Street Wolf outfit, which is almost the spitting image of a Limp Bizkit hoodie. Rose Winters being a Fred Durst fan is perhaps equally the most disappointing thing and yet also the most logical. Maybe she's an honorary member of the Fred Durst Society of the Humanities and Arts…

A special thanks to you, dear reader, for taking the time to check out this review! We hope you enjoyed it! Let us know what you think of the DLC in the comments below!

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