Ebola Village PS5 Review: The Resident Evil Spirit is Alive
Ebola Village drops you into the shoes of Maria, who heads out to a remote settlement after a broadcast warns of a massive biological threat. It is a first-person survival horror experience that feels like a massive throwback to the 90s era of scares and narrow escapes. You’ll be navigating a fully 3D world, scouring for resources and trying to survive the weird events unfolding in the dark. It’s a moody, atmospheric trip that doesn’t hide its inspiration, focusing on puzzles and staying alive against the odds.
Developer: Indie Games Studio
Publisher: Axyos Games
Genre: Action Survival Horror
Release Date: January 23, 2026
Website: axyosgames.com
UK Store: PlayStation Store Link
Quick Nav: Specs | Gameplay | Performance | Settings
Ebola Village PS5 Review: Specs & HUD
- Download size is decent and won’t kill your storage.
- Features a Platinum trophy for the hunters out there.
- Three game difficulties to choose from: Easy, Medium, and Hard.
- The map is simple but effective, showing the layout and where the doors are.
- Navigation is made somewhat easier with floppy disc save room icons and place names on the map.
- The interface scale slider is available in the gameplay settings.
- Any interactive elements in a level will show button prompts.
- Five save slots are available, and you save via the phones you find in the world.
- A central storage box holds items and has the same contents no matter where the box is in the world.
Gameplay Review & Mechanics Breakdown
This one is heavily inspired by and a love letter to the Resident Evil games. It is action survival horror gameplay in a first-person view in a fully 3D game world. When going into a room, it’s a door opening loading screen; if you played Resident Evil, you know the score. You’ll find collectable Slavic amulet dolls hidden in the world, and find lore and story from papers and books you find and read. Puzzle elements are throughout and are very much a case of finding the missing part or key; they usually require finding something and returning it. Plants are used for healing and can be found in the world, and you can combine items to make new items or combine plants to make them better. I do like how easy and quick it is to swap out items when picking up things when full. Zombie shooting feels good as it’s first-person, a bit too sensitive on the turning and aiming, but it is satisfying. You can shoot the heads off zombies, and they do react to being hit. Best bit? You can shoot projectiles out of the air! You don’t know cool until you shoot an axe destined for your head out of the sky! I also like the short but scene-setting in-game cutscenes and character interactions.
Ebola Village PS5 Review: Performance & Fidelity
- Decent graphics overall, with locations that are basic but suit the mood and story they have set up.
- The atmosphere is great; music stays throughout, but it’s the little sound effects and pangs for jump scares that create the mood.
- Fast loading times keep things moving.
- Zombie movement is not always great and is very wooden.
- The graphics can sometimes load in slowly, so you just have this weird, blue-faced, melted-face zombie coming towards you.
- The opening game movie is a YouTube link, so the game boots up your browser, which is a bit of a weird one.
- Button prompts show through the wall, which is frustrating.
- You have to be really precise with button prompts, as if it’s not lined up right, it won’t register.
- Not all button prompts show; it seems to be a case of sometimes they use it, and sometimes they don’t.
Settings, Customisation & Control Details
- Controller settings – can remap the buttons, invert the axis, and adjust the sensitivity sliders.
- The settings, like remap controls and shortcuts, are displaying the PC version buttons, which is a bit of a Con.
- Graphics settings include a Gamma slider and a field of view slider.
- Gameplay settings have a subtitles toggle.
- Extra game settings include camera shake, interface, Crosshair, vibration, and Crosshair colour.
- When grabbed or knocked down by a zombie, the camera goes crazy and shaky, and I am personally very sensitive to it, and it makes me feel sick.
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Ebola Village
Summary
THRILLS & HIGHLIGHTS
The atmosphere is great, music stays throughout, but it’s the little sound effects and pangs for jump scares that create the mood. It’s a good spin on the Resident Evil games, and if you are new to the genre and have never played the Resident Evil games, then it’s a good entry point. Zombie shooting feels good as it’s first-person, a bit too sensitive on the turning and aiming, but it is satisfying. You can shoot the heads off zombies, and they do react to being hit. I like the short but scene-setting in-game cutscene,s and you can shoot projectiles out of the air! You don’t know cool until you shoot an axe destined for your head out of the sky!
KEY NEGATIVES
The settings, like remap controls and shortcuts, are displaying the PC version buttons. The opening game movie is a YouTube link, so the game boots up your browser. Button prompts show through the wall, which is frustrating, and you have to be really precise with button prompts, as if it’s not lined up right, it won’t register. Zombie movement is not always great and is very wooden. The graphics can sometimes load in slowly, so you just have this weird, blue-faced, melted-face zombie coming towards you. The signposting to help move the game along is not always great and can be straight-up bad at times. When grabbed or knocked down by a zombie, the camera goes crazy and shaky, and I am personally very sensitive to it, and it makes me feel sick, hence why the review took so long. I had to reset my head and play like a pro, which didn’t happen.
OVERALL VERDICT
Ebola Village is a proper love letter to Resident Evil, and while it’s got some rough edges that’ll make you swear at the screen, it nails that ’90s survival horror soul. It’s got the puzzles, the storage boxes, and the door-loading screens we all grew up with, making it a solid entry point for anyone new to the genre. The precise button prompts and technical quirks like the PC-style menus and camera shake are annoying, but for a budget-friendly throwback, it delivers enough scares and satisfying zombie head-pops to be worth the trip. If you can handle the jank, it’s a decent little horror spin.
