Resident Evil Village wins the Not Perfect But Most Memorable Award for 2021

Every single game award ceremony worth its salt has a “Game of the Year” category. It’s intended for the game that is the closest to technically perfect, tells the best story, has the best art direction — just the best game to come out this year. But I want to recognize a game that, while I acknowledge it’s not perfect, was the one that actually stuck in my mind the longest: Resident Evil Village.

Resident Evil has had a very confusing few years. First we had the very action-oriented Resident Evil 6, a very hard turn from survival horror. Then the series came back strong with the excellent Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil 2 Remake. The Resident Evil 3 Remake was a bit of a stumble — not as good as it could have been. But really, it was the series’ game to lose this year, no pun intended.