SPOILER WARNING: As this expansion takes place after the major events of Resident Evil Village, there will be some story spoilers for the sake of context. Please do not try to play this expansion without first completing the base game.

If Resident Evil Village juggles various different facets of the Resident Evil franchise in a fun, suspenseful and action-packed package, then the Shadows of Rose DLC expansion is almost incredibly simple by comparison. The ending of Village strongly implied that Rose will be the protagonist of the next mainline game in the franchise moving forward, and the main goal with this expansion seems to be to expand upon Rose as a character while also pulling at our heartstrings along the way. While previous RE games introduced side stories for the sake of adding context to what other characters were doing during main events, Shadows of Rose feels much more integral to the larger narrative that was set up in Resident Evil 7 and Village. I do think it is a little too short as a DLC chapter, but I would be lying if I said it didn't get me as emotionally invested as Village, further increasing my excitement for what CAPCOM has next for the franchise.

Unlike every other protagonist in the Resident Evil franchise so far, who were more-or-less regular humans dealing with supernatural bioweapons, Rose is a character that was born as anything but normal. As we dive deeper into Rose's subconscious, we get a better picture of what life was like for her growing up as somebody that was bullied and ridiculed without a lot of emotional support. She has no father, it's implied she doesn't see much of her mother, and who knows what plans entities like Blue Umbrella have in store for her. While I do think the game could've gone a bit further in highlighting some more of the specific struggles that Rose went through, there's just enough here to justify her tough and stubborn exterior. She is very much like her dad, but the circumstances for how she got to that point are very different, creating a surprisingly organic parallel between father and daughter. The apples certainly didn't fall far from the tree with this one, and if you liked Ethan as a character from the past two games, then I think you'll appreciate these connections from beginning to end.

A surprising amount of Rose's backstory is told visually, with the second half of the expansion in particular leaning very hard into some very morbid and macabre imagery. Revisiting familiar territories with similar assets and music might feel a bit monotonous for some, but I was impressed at how some of those assets were reused to create scary situations that felt appropriate for the story being told while still feeling in line with the setting. Even returning characters from previous games were used in appropriate yet unexpected ways. Combine this with a few additional enemies and Shadows of Rose shows that Resident Evil hasn't lost its fear factor. That said, I will admit that this chapter is nowhere near as scary or intense as the original game, and part of that might come down to the controls.

Unlike Resident Evil 7 and Village, you play through Shadows of Rose in a third-person perspective. In fact, one of the bonuses offered by this DLC is the ability to play through Village in third-person as well, and it certainly is a change that can grant a fresh experience to your playthrough. However, the controls don't feel as fluid compared to the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3, and this was most apparent in the second half of the chapter where unorthodox movements were required to progress. Thankfully, the abilities that Rose gains access to help circumvent this, and I look forward to seeing how they'll be utilized in a different game with a different setting as it feels like we've only really gotten a taste of those abilities here. .

In fact, my biggest issue with Shadows of Rose is that there isn't more of it. The campaign runs roughly two and a half hours long, which I suppose is fair given the price tag. However, I definitely think there was enough material here with the overall premise to double that length, and I would've happily paid a little more in order to have a more fleshed-out story focusing on Rose. After all, since Rose's backstory and characterization is done here, I think it's fair to assume that subsequent games won't focus as much on it moving forward. So if this is all we're going to get, I can't help but feel like it is a missed opportunity to really get inside her head more given the overall setup.

The gameplay is similarly sparse. Puzzles are incredibly simple, and while Rose gets access to a variety of interesting abilities, the chapter isn't long enough for us to really get a feel for them. The way they are introduced can feel a bit lopsided as well; the first of these new abilities feels like a reward for reaching the end of a mini-exploration only for subsequent abilities to just be handed to you at designated story beats without much of an in-story explanation as to why. And while the designs for the few new enemies we encounter are nice, only one of them really offers any unique challenge, which I suppose makes sense given the fact that your weapon pool is incredibly limited.

Still, what ties this all together is a rather beautiful conclusion to Ethan's story and while that conclusion might be predictable, it is no less emotionally rewarding. Despite its technical shortcomings, Shadows of Rose feels like a satisfying epilogue to this story in the Resident Evil franchise. It's not always about the scars or the action, it's about the characters and how they continue to deal with the continuously screwed-up circumstances that they never asked for. Would I have liked more? Yes, but I'd rather be asking for more than wonder what the point was in the first place.