Resident Evil Village was warmly received by long-time RE fans and newcomers alike.
It follows the same first-person formula that worked so well for its predecessor but injects a lot more action into the campaign.
The adventure to retrieve the scattered parts of Ethan’s baby daughter from a god-forsaken European village is so crazy, you really need a couple playthroughs to take it all in.
That said, you’ll probably eventually start getting bored – and that’s where mods come in.
Whether you just need a little push of novelty to start a second playthrough, or need a complete makeover to justify starting the seventh, you’ll find plenty of ideas right here.
Unlocking new weapons, cheats, and skins for your characters by playing the game has always been a key aspect of the Resident Evil series, and Village is no different with its Extra Content Shop.
Still, I lack time to sit down and clear the game a second time after the first one just to unlock a gun I’ll be able to try out the third time I clear the game.
There are many games to play and precious little time.
Modder Dziggy helps us enjoy RE Village in its entirety by making all items on the Extra Content Shop 100% free.
Starting on your second playthrough (which unlocks the shop), you’ll have access to infinite ammo, all kinds of figurines, and even special weapons like the Handcannon and the Rocket Pistol.
Few supporting characters in the Resident Evil series have been as hardcore as the Hound Wolf Squad – Chris’s elite BSAA military task force.
For these dudes, fighting bioterrorism isn’t just a job. It’s a lifestyle.
So when Chris asked them to cut ties with the BSAA and go rogue to pursue Mother Miranda, they were down.
This mod by TrieuPham gives these amazing gentlemen the credit they deserve by letting them show their faces without balaclavas, tactical equipment, or sunglasses.
With so many gamers use their PlayStation controllers to play on PC, I’m constantly surprised that we still get no native support for PS-like button prompts.
Luckily for us rebels who refuse to get another controller we don’t need, modders are here to make us feel accepted and valued by the games we spend so much money on.
With this PS4 Button Mod by BoyCalledJames, you won’t have to translate X, Y, A, B to square, triangle, circle, cross anymore.
Resident Evil 4 veterans will jump at the chance to wield the Red 9 to purge an infested European settlement once more.
The Red 9 is basically a C96 Mauser with a different name.
It was the strongest handgun in RE4 in terms of raw power and was chosen by Spaniard scientist Luis Sera to keep him safe after betraying Los Illuminados.
This mod by KendoGunshopYT replaces the V61 custom with our beloved Red 9. While it doesn’t change sound effects or even the in-game name of the weapon, it’s still a neat weapon skin.
Fans who’ve followed the series since its early beginnings will recognize the Beretta 92F Custom “Samurai Edge”.
It’s an iconic gun created especially for S.T.A.R.S. members by Joseph Kendo from Raccoon City’s Kendo Gun Shop.
This gun has accompanied our heroes throughout many games and has been featured as a collectible in others. Now, it makes its way to Village by the hand of modder SilverEzredes.
The mod includes several different grips and finishes for the gun and textures that go up to 8K for those with monster rigs.
Fun fact: Most people think they remember the Samurai Edge from the original Resident Evil (1997), but it was actually introduced in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999) and retconned into the 2002 remake.
If you played Resident Evil 4 half as much as I did, you know Assignment Ada – an unlockable side-mission where you collect five Plaga samples as Ms. Wong.
It features by far the most well-equipped design in Ada’s history, making her look like she’s actually here for combat instead of a ball or a fancy candle-lit dinner.
Games nowadays feature models and textures so detailed, it’s a little bit hard to believe sometimes.
Resident Evil Village acknowledges the fact by including a model gallery where players can marvel at the characters they’ve met and the enemies they’ve defeated.
Modder AlphaZOmega improves this already outstanding feature by unlocking camera controls for the model viewer. You can zoom in and out as much as you need and discover new perspectives to your favorite characters.
Another fantastic improvement is animating some of the models.
So far it includes Alcina Dimitrescu, her daughters, her mutated dragon-like form, and much more.
There’s something about fighting off tons of zombies while waiting for the mystery box’s roulette to stop spinning in CoD: Zombies that gets me pumping adrenaline like nothing else.
The only thing better?
Getting the Ray Gun and blowing up a previously menacing zombie horde to smithereens in a matter of seconds.
This mod by KushAstronaut replaces RE Village’s Rocket Pistol with the Ray Gun, which works more or less the same. While it doesn’t give your projectiles a green glow, the instantly recognizable sound effect makes all the difference.
Lady Dimitrescu’s “daughters” are among the most memorable characters in RE Village, thanks to their disconcerting mix of attractive traits with death and decay.
If you’re especially interested in the “attractive” part and couldn’t care less whether they’re scary or not, the Flies Removal mod by Raq can go a long way toward rehabilitating these dark nymphs.
It’s also the perfect mod to use in tandem with mods that change their physical appearance and clothing – like our next entry.
Given the internet’s obsession with all things 2B, it was a matter of time before someone came up with a way to get some NieR: Automata into RE Village.
Daughters of YorHa by Jtengh gives the trio of man-eating ghouls an android makeover, with a dress resembling 2B’s and optional accessories such as an android visor and a Virtuous Contract sword replacement for the sisters’ sickles.
Thanks to the dresses’ intricate detail and black-and-white color palette, it actually looks right at home in the Dimitrescu castle.
If I see Squidward’s infamous Bold and Brash painting, I click.
This mod by KushAstronaut brings some undersea charm into RE Village by replacing every single painting and picture in the game with SpongeBob screenshots, or in-universe works like Bold and Brash or the talking pirate painting.
This diabolical mix of childhood nostalgia with a horrifying demon-infested village makes this mod the perfect 90s kid nightmare.
I’ve been a fan of Silent Hill (1999) ever since I first walked the foggy streets listening for static on the radio.
And I was thrilled to see how much Resident Evil Village resembles it.
The cursed village with deformed inhabitants, the oddly sexually attractive monsters, and the fact that you play as a father trying to rescue his daughter from demonic powers all hearken back to the PlayStation classic.
This mod by Jewight will let you make the connection more explicit by introducing the famously terrifying Pyramid Head into RE Village… in the most ridiculous way they could think of.
That’s right: this mod puts the rusty helmet that gives the creature its name on your baby daughter’s head – making the first few scenes in the game both hilarious and somewhat disturbing.
We’re all delighted with the fearsome allure of the Dimitrescu daughters, but modder TrieuPham has an even better idea: the Dimitrescu sons.
The mod replaces the girls with three blood-thirsty boys with a whole other style.
They look period-appropriate but way less dark and creepy.
If the daughters are like the witches of European folk tales, the boys are more like butlers serving in Dracula’s castle – or just architecture students who’ve gone one night too many without sleep.
Be sure to get this with the fly removal mod for maximum enjoyment.
One mod you absolutely can’t pass up if you want to enjoy exploring this cursed European village is REFramework by PrayDog, which brings a ton of QoL improvements and performance fixes.
It adds a slider to control the Field of View, severely limited in vanilla, and pursues a cleaner look by removing the excessive vignette Capcom used to highlight the game’s eerie ambiance.
There’s also an all-new freecam that’s fantastic for screenshots, tasteful UI improvements, and manual controls for the flashlight.
Resident ReShade was one of the first fan-made modifications for RE Village, and it remains one of the best to this day.
Instead of dramatically changing the look and feel of the game, this ReShade preset by OnlineGam3r makes some slight improvements that bring out the details – like higher contrast, a bit of sharpening, and some color tweaks to give you that “next-gen” feel.
Get this if you like RE Village’s vanilla visual style but can’t stand washed-out colors.
Resident Evil 2 Remake (2019) reminded players of the terrifying murderous giant that is Mr. X, one of the first mass-produced Tyrant B.O.Ws and your biggest problem throughout the entire game.
Lady Dimitrescu fulfills the role of fearsome giant pursuer just fine, but she could learn a thing or two from Mr. X if she wants to really send a chill down the player’s spine.
This mod by ZombieAli gives the vampire bombshell an extreme makeover by replacing her well-hydrated skin for Mr. X’s rubbery, plastic-like gray cover.
It makes her just a bit less human and a lot more menacing.
Don’t worry. I won’t be including any Thomas the Tank Engine mods out of respect for my readers.
Instead, we’ll take a look at the single most hilarious mod ever made for RE Village.
Mini-Me Chris by Jtegh replaces baby Rose’s face with the grizzled and battle-hardened visage of Chris Redfield, who promptly comes in to steal himself from the Winters.
The sight of Chris leaving dramatically with mini-me Chris is burned into my retinas.
Should you bother downloading and installing a mod just for a two-minute joke? Only if it’s this good.
My favorite Silent Hill has always been the third, where you play as Heather Mason – the baby you end up rescuing in one of Silent Hill’s better endings.
You can do something similar in Resident Evil Village by playing as teenager Rose Winters – the same baby you’re trying to rescue from Mother Miranda and the Four Houses.
Having Rose rescue her past self in her father’s place does sway the genre into hard sci-fi, but that doesn’t make it any less entertaining.
Creator Raq made sure the mod works both in the base game and with Fluffy’s Third-Person mod.
We all want those appealing, state-of-the-art lighting effects, but not everyone has an HDR monitor to go with all the HDR-ready games like RE Village.
For those of you lagging behind in hardware, the HDR FX ReShade by Vanguard1776 offers a free alternative that uses sophisticated lighting effects and filters to mimic the HDR look.
Whether it’s actually similar to real HDR or not will be up to you to decide. But the result is fantastic regardless.
It brings out the details and creates more dramatic lighting that’s perfect for this forgotten European village.
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
