With a thrilling blend of horror and action — but a bit of an identity crisis compared to the games it takes its cues from — Resident Evil Village is an anthology of terrifying puzzle rooms and monstrous battles, tied together by a story that does its best to raise the series’ high watermark for morbid absurdity.

The terminally bland Ethan Winters returns as protagonist following his accidental introduction to the world of magic and zombies (I mean, “Bio Organic Weapons”) in Resident Evil 7, and with him comes that game’s first-person perspective and wet, foul but gorgeously rendered interiors.

But this time Ethan’s had military training and is searching for his stolen baby in a creepy devout European village, opening the door for sprawling outdoor areas and a guns-and-exploration gameplay style straight out of Resident Evil 4. That game also serves as a big inspiration for a lot of Village’s design outside of the action, like the inventory management, weapons upgrading, bizarre animal hunting and grotesque-but-intriguing side characters.

The village itself serves as a hub you return to time and again, gradually offering up its treasures and hidden upgrades as you gain capabilities and keys over time, while a number of paths spoke out to self-contained areas you tackle one at a time, each with its own themed puzzles and bad guys.

It’s an inspired setup for a Resident Evil game, as you cut down on back-tracking, while maintaining the tension of being hunted or overwhelmed and the fascinating ridiculousness of all the puzzles and notes strewn about. Ammunition is scarce enough that even generic zombie enemies can be truly frightening, while finding weapon upgrades and vital crafting components can make for a tangible and gratifying increase in your odds of survival.

Some sections are genuinely haunting, such as an escape room puzzle in a retro-styled clinic, focused around an eerily life-sized wooden dummy. Meanwhile others, for example a festy mine joined to a malodorous sunken village, are more focused on combat and pressing forward. And then of course there’s the blood-stained refinement of Castle Dimitrescu, where a nine-foot tall vampire lady stalks you relentlessly with razor-sharp claws.

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But while I love the monster movie feel of having four distinct boss ghouls in their four distinct habitats that you need to take down before you can approach the big bad, the game does have some structure problems. Most sections feel lighter than I expected, with maybe two hours of exploration culminating in a quick boss sequence, while one later in the game drags on far too long. These sections also close to you completely once finished, without warning, meaning certain loot can be made irretrievable.