Ebola Village (Xbox Series X/S)

3.0 /5

Ebola Village (Xbox Series X/S)

Ebola Village is yet another survival horror title that largely copies Resident Evil, borrowing elements from that cult game as well as other old-school survival horror games. The number of elements that have been "borrowed" or copied could be listed for a long time, but let's highlight things like the healing system using herbs, inventory management, the save system for game progression, atmosphere and environment, first-person perspective, puzzle design, game duration, dolls, door opening…

You start the game in your apartment as Maria.

At the very beginning of the game (before this scene from the image above), Maria is sitting and watching her favorite TV show. She is getting divorced from her husband Ruslan after a turbulent relationship and is left with nothing. It seems she is also lacking clothes. Suddenly, the news interrupts the show to discuss a terrible biological epidemic that has reached Russia.

Maria calls her mother and tells her that she is heading to her, but when she arrives in the village, she discovers that things have gone a bit wrong. She then decides to help her mother and along the way encounters various obstacles and enemies (killing), but whether she will succeed in this, we won't reveal to you.

Before we can even head towards the village, we are forced to find the car keys and a driver's license. These seem like simple tasks at first glance, but to accomplish them, we had to break into someone else's apartment and face some eerie dark moments where we expected the worst, which just wouldn't happen. Just typical for a horror game!

What fascinates or rather evokes nostalgia throughout the game are the interiors that can certainly remind older generations of the era of Yugoslavia. Playing this game, one can clearly see the level of poverty and general neglect, but still, we must admit there is some charm in all of it, whether it's nostalgia or not.

As we exit the apartment onto the staircase, a guy is playing guitar and singing in Russian. We assume it’s the "nothing will ruin my day" song, but we can't confirm it for sure since we don't know Russian. Still, we admit, he's probably the best off, maybe it's safest for him where he is.

The sound is exclusively in Russian, which means you have to rely entirely on subtitles, which would be fine if the localization wasn't so rough. The English translation suffers from poor grammar and sentence structures that often border on nonsensical, making things hilarious, especially when you come across story notes. At one point, you find a diary entry about a madman waving a chainsaw who apparently treats hemorrhoids with cucumbers?!

The gameplay is quite chaotic. The controls felt incredibly stiff, and aiming is at best uncertain and imprecise, with the added issue that the movement logic is quite confusing. So confusing that in one basement, I literally turned around and exited through the door.

As expected, the enemies did not follow me, but when I returned to the same room, I easily defeated the opponents.

The enemy artificial intelligence is mostly dumb, and the enemies blindly chase you, but they possess incredible, almost sniper-like precision when throwing weapons. Close combat is just as messy, and when enemies grab you, the camera awkwardly shifts, creating a disorienting and unrefined visual cacophony. They let you go just enough to get yourself together and make a crucial move to avoid being killed.

As mentioned earlier, the game features puzzles to solve, which are done in the usual Resident Evil style and are fun to tackle. The puzzles are designed in a way that you need to move forward on the map to then return with certain elements to solve the puzzle.

The game has multiple difficulty levels, allowing you to customize what is optimal for you. For instance, at higher difficulty levels, you have weapon restrictions and tougher opponents to overcome.

The game's duration is approximately 3-4 hours, depending on you and the depth of exploration and speed of puzzle-solving. The game is intended to be played multiple times, and achievements/trophies have been created in that way, but we must admit it has been done in a completely irritating manner. The game has no replay value, nor will you reach a different story outcome with a replay. This is more about forcing prolonged gameplay of a game that unfortunately does not deserve it with its offerings.

Final rating: 2.5/5

The game has serious shortcomings that significantly affect the experience during gameplay, but despite that, it may appeal to certain players who are the target audience, namely genre enthusiasts.