There was a trailer for Far Cry 3 where Vaas, the villain with the mohawk and the red vest, explained to the player the “definition of insanity:” 

“Did I ever tell you what the definition of insanity is? Insanity is doing the exact same fucking thing, over and over again, expecting shit to change.” Vaas was in almost all the trailers for Far Cry 3. He was on the posters. The promotional art. But Vaas isn’t actually in Far Cry 3 that much. About halfway through, you kill him and the focus shifts to a different villain called Hoyt. After you kill Hoyt there’s another villain called Citra. 

There was a scene in Resident Evil Village where Lady Dimitrescu, the villain with the hat and the big chest, explained to the player that she was going to kill him. “Hm. Starting to go a little stale," she says. "First I must inform Mother Miranda. But later, well, there will be enough for everyone”. Lady Dimitrescu was in almost all the trailers for Resident Evil Village. She was on the posters. The promotional art. But Lady Dimitrescu isn’t actually in Resident Evil Village that much. About a quarter of the way through, you kill her and the focus shifts to a different villain called Moreau. After you kill Moreau there’s another villain called Heisenberg. 

In Ghost Recon Wildlands, the ultimate villain is El Sueno, a drug lord who controls the entirety of the eponymous Bolivian “wildlands.” Before you can fight and defeat El Sueno, however, you must confront his captains, each of which occupy their own unique areas and have various, colourful personalities and special abilities. Over the course of several hours, you work your way across the game’s map gradually conquering and scratching off sections belonging to the successive underbosses, like Ramon Feliz, La Gringa, and La Plaga; the successive underbosses have their own lieutenants, such as Antonio and General Baro, who must also be defeated as part of each repetitive set piece. On defeating these lieutenants, you confront the underboss. On defeating all the underbosses, you confront and kill El Sueno. 

In Resident Evil Village, the ultimate villain is Mother Miranda, a cult leader who controls the entirety of the eponymous quasi-Romanian “village.” Before you can fight and defeat Mother Miranda, however, you must confront her captains, each of which occupy their own unique areas and have various colourful personalities and special abilities. Over the course of several hours, you work your way across the game’s map gradually conquering and scratching off sections belonging to the successive underbosses, like Dimitrescu, Beneviento, and Heisenberg; the successive underbosses have their own lieutenants, such as Cassandra and the Baby, who must also be defeated as part of each repetitive set piece. On defeating these lieutenants, you confront the underboss. On defeating all the underbosses, you confront and kill Mother Miranda.

It obviously did very well, but I think the legacy of the first Assassin’s Creed game still remains mixed—I think there are aspects of it which Ubisoft has been trying to repent, and disprove critics and naysayers about, ever since 2007. Assassin’s Creed was called repetitive, so Assassin’s Creed II had collectibles, side missions, and optional puzzles. Assassin’s Creed had a limited world where you couldn’t interact much, so Assassin’s Creed II let you customise your weapons, your clothes, and even your own house. Partly this is down to shrewd design—there’s something about your game people don’t like, so you fix it in the sequels. But also, it feels like the product of some kind of insecurity, or overzealousness, or vindictiveness. Like these games are giving people what they want, but only to shut them up, and to prove repeatedly that they were wrong to doubt the games in the first place. Like they’re trying to kill us by force feeding us over and over again the food that we once said we wanted. 

It's obviously doing very well, but I think the legacy of the Resident Evil series still remains mixed—I think there are aspects of it which Capcom has been trying to repent, and disprove critics and naysayers about, for a while now. Resident Evils 4, 5, and 6 were criticised for being too action-based and not scary enough, so Resident Evil 7 had a first-person view, sections where you don’t have weapons, and a greater focus on the mechanics of “classic” survival horror, like ammunition and inventory management. Resident Evil in general has become a running gaming culture joke for its simplistic dialogue and amateur voice acting, so Resident Evil Village is verbose and self-serious, a game where the characters repeatedly vocalise their feelings and motivations—even during boss fights, where, naturally, for a host of reasons, it’s abundantly obvious the boss character wants to kill Ethan, they still shout and scream, over and over again, things like, “I’m going to kill you, Ethan”. And Capcom has deployed Maggie Robertson, who plays Lady Dimitrescu, to a series of pre and post-launch interviews, part of an overall attempt to make the voice performer seem like a fundamental consideration in Capcom’s game creation process, thus rehabilitating its reputation for inferior writing and acting. Partly this is down to shrewd design—there’s something about your game people don’t like, so you fix it in the sequels. But also, it feels like the product of some kind of insecurity, or overzealousness, or vindictiveness. Like these games are giving people what they want, but only to shut them up, and to prove repeatedly that they were wrong to doubt the games in the first place. Like they’re trying to kill us by force feeding us over and over again the food that we once said we wanted. 

There was a trailer for Resident Evil Village where Vaas, the villain with the hat and the big chest, explained to the player the “definition of insanity:” 

“Did I ever tell you what the definition of insanity is? Insanity is doing the exact same fucking thing, over and over again, expecting shit to change.” 

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Ed Smith used to contribute to Edge, Vice and Rolling Stone.