WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Resident Evil Village, available now.
Castle Dimitrescu is the second major location in Resident Evil Village. After exploring a remote town in the Transylvanian countryside (and barely escaping the horde of Lycans who attack therein), Ethan Winters barely escapes a series of death traps, only to find himself trapped in Castle Dimitrescu. Throughout this experience, players are treated to one of the best levels in the entire history of the franchise.
An elegant and massive manor filled with beautiful artwork and lavish decorations, Castle Dimitrescu is home to Lady Dimitrescu and her three daughters, Bela, Cassandra and Daniela -- seemingly vampiric women who seek to capture and kill Ethan. Despite the glamor, the manor hides a number of terrifying secrets as well as plenty of monsters, the worst of which are Ethan's four hosts. Castle Dimitrescu combines everything great about Resident Evil into one level, and is a serious contender for the franchise's most engaging setting ever.
While the early levels -- and later ones for that matter -- recall the extreme and rustic horrors of Resident Evil 4, Castle Dimitrescu derives more elements from across the franchise as a whole. The labyrinth-like manor with its hidden doors and clever puzzles is reminiscent of the first Resident Evil, which largely took place in a similar building in the outskirts of Raccoon City.
The descent into the castle's deeper crevices -- with malicious hunters roaming the halls in search of the player -- recalls the paranoia-inducing tension of Resident Evil VII. Notably, Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters will stalk the halls in search of Ethan, becoming unkillable ghouls always on the prowl for blood, which is evocative of Mister X from Resident Evil 2 or Nemesis from Resident Evil 3.
The castle blends all these elements well, along with the self-awareness that helped entries in the franchise like Resident Evil 4 embrace the bizarreness of the series to be entertaining on top of frightening. Lady Dimitrescu especially is a treat, a towering, over-the-top threat who will casually walk up to the player in her finest clothing while insulting them as an upper-crust villain -- only to grow her fingers into massive claws that allow her to slash the player to ribbons if she gets the chance. She's easily one of Resident Evil's most memorable villains.
The Dimitrescu house embraces the history of the franchise while still tweaking it to great effect, especially with the effect of the Dimitrescu sisters being nigh-unstoppable until Ethan can discover their weakness. But, the game still forces the player to scramble to outmaneuver and defeat them. It blends many of the franchises' strengths into a truly memorable setting that feels perfectly like Resident Evil while incorporating enough new elements and scares to still feel original -- building to a massive and impressive final battle to escape the grasp of the Dimitrescu family.
While the game as a whole is a blast, Castle Dimitrescu isn't just the highlight of this game but of the franchise as a whole. It's a perfect summation of everything that works about Resident Evil as a series. It tweaks and embraces these elements, all packed into one efficient, engrossing and utterly horrifying set of challenges. It's great.