Shadows of Rose Review | Into the Moldverse
In October of 2022, following the success of Resident Evil Village, Capcom released the Winters Expansion. This added new characters to the game, new stages to the Mercenaries mode, the option to play through the story in third-person, like the previous games, and Shadows of Rose. Set 16 years after the end of Resident Evil Village, Shadows of Rose was meant to bring the Winters storyline to a close before the series moved on. Now that we are just a few weeks from Resident Evil Requiem, with rumors abuzz, I figured it was about time to see it through to the end.
To set the stage, Resident Evil 7 and Village are, together as one storyline, one of my favorite game experiences of all time. Of course, they are not without their flaws, some of which are reflected in this story DLC, but the games are intense, fun, and well-made with an ending twist that’s hard to forget. Shadows of Rose follows Ethan’s orphaned daughter after the events of the main game. Rose feels cursed with powers she doesn’t understand, and in an almost Silent Hill approach to the character, the game spends a lot of time on her tough childhood. In a short and sweet opening cutescene, it is established that the secret to getting rid of Rose’s powers and understanding the capabilities of the mold is that her subconscious must enter the mold.
And so begins our roughly three-hour journey through the different areas of Village. In that way, Shadows of Rose feels like an encore, playing through the hits of the main game in bite-sized pieces with little twists to the formula that are more cerebral than Village. In one moment, Rose will be fighting off mold creatures in the Dimitrescu castle, and the next, she will be two feet tall, avoiding killer dolls and giant mannequins. Its condensed runtime makes the series of fetch quests not quite so tedious, and a well-paced dose of scares keeps the tension high. Though at times the suspense is merely a byproduct of Rose being a slow-moving character without a dodge button, rather than a creepy narrative design.
The key difference between Ethan and Rose in gameplay, other than the mandatory third-person of the DLC, is that Rose has powers. They aren’t that effective against enemies (although neither are bullets, for that matter), but they help solve puzzles, find resources, and traverse through the levels. Joining Rose on her Inception-like mold trip is a mysterious voiceless helper. Without spoilers, the interactions between Rose and her “spirit angel” are a mixed bag. On one hand, they can be poorly written, with Rose explicitly stating the obvious in Netflix movie-style dialogue exchanges with herself. (Presumably to help people who weren’t paying attention to follow along.) On the other hand, within the context of the last game, there is a surprising amount of emotional weight behind these moments if you can look past the aforementioned stilted writing.
It’s no surprise that Shadows of Rose looks and sounds great thanks to the RE Engine. It’s packed with detail that shines in the opulent areas, like the Dimitrescu castle, while retaining its own identity. Which is probably why, even though the RE9 reveal was supposed to be a surprise, keen eyes might have spotted the telltale signs of the engine before the title card dropped. Being a DLC, there are some drawbacks in production quality with fewer cutscenes and dialogues, and the soundtrack didn’t leave a mark, but these can be overlooked in the backdrop of a shorter experience.
In the end, Shadows of Rose is a great time for fans of the two main Resident Evil games that came before it. It’s got some fun scares, it plays well, and provides much-needed context for the end of Resident Evil Village. We will have to wait to find out if this really is the last we will see of the Winters family, but if prior games in the series are a sign, I suspect not. That said, the $20 pricetag can be steep if you’re just looking for story closure. But bundled in with the rest, the Winters Expansion does pad out the runtime of Village. Resident Evil Village and the Shadows of Rose DLC are available now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
