Review
Played on: Xbox OneReleased: 2017
When you start playing Resident Evil 7 and actually become scared senseless, I realise how completely off course the series had previously become. Moved far away from it's horror roots. One can praise RE4 for it's originality, and large influence on the games industry in general, but it destroyed the RE franchise as a horror series and set it on a path of becoming an action fest.
Luckily, Capcom have done a complete 180 turn with RE7, fundamentally changing the formula once again. Somehow, it manages to feel incredible innovative, yet it goes all the way back to what made the Spencer Mansion so creepy back in 1996. For this newborn horror focus alone, and an extremely promising demo, I decided to purchase RE7 at launch.
In a weekend sprint I finished the game and I'm here to say that I'm incredibly impressed how Capcom have turned the series around. Not only has it been influenced from Konami's, Hideo Kojima produced, P.T. demo, Alien Isolation and other first person horror franchises like Amnesia. It also retains many traditional Resident Evil elements. The return to horror is not only what makes RE7 so great, but also they way it does it in a brilliant and innovative manner. RE4, 5 and 6 fans please leave the room and shut the door behind you, forever.
In a weekend sprint I finished the game and I'm here to say that I'm incredibly impressed how Capcom have turned the series around. Not only has it been influenced from Konami's, Hideo Kojima produced, P.T. demo, Alien Isolation and other first person horror franchises like Amnesia. It also retains many traditional Resident Evil elements. The return to horror is not only what makes RE7 so great, but also they way it does it in a brilliant and innovative manner. RE4, 5 and 6 fans please leave the room and shut the door behind you, forever.
Creepy mansions and survival horror is back!
One might think the RE concept is lost in a first person view, but RE7 proves that this angle works incredibly well for the franchise. Like many other popular horror releases in the recent years, the first person perspective adds a new dimension of depth to the immersion. Giving an eerie sensation of actually being in a creepy place.
Sounds make you turn to look, corners gives you a limited view before actually going around them and there's a constant fear of something creeping up behind you. I love that we finally get to play a RE game the way they intended to in development of the very first RE, but opted out of due to hardware limitations back in the 90's.
RE7 isn't just devoted to horror, it's probably scarier than the RE series ever has been. Sure, you can fire a gun like any other first person shooter, but the sparse ammo and claustrophobic areas leaves you vulnerable. Simply obtaining a gun doesn't give you the safe haven you hoped for.
RE7 isn't just devoted to horror, it's probably scarier than the RE series ever has been. Sure, you can fire a gun like any other first person shooter, but the sparse ammo and claustrophobic areas leaves you vulnerable. Simply obtaining a gun doesn't give you the safe haven you hoped for.
RE7 throws you into gritty fights and the enemies fight dirty, often resulting in desperate melee brawls as you're hanging on for your dear life. The franchise once again awards you for actually avoiding fights, saving your precious ammo and healing items. It's about surviving and escaping, not slaughtering tons of enemies.
The slower, more haunting parts, remind me of the short but sweet P.T. demo, while the sneaking about, trying to avoid the more powerful inhabitants of RE7's mansion, feels like the intensity of being chased in Alien Isolation.
The slower, more haunting parts, remind me of the short but sweet P.T. demo, while the sneaking about, trying to avoid the more powerful inhabitants of RE7's mansion, feels like the intensity of being chased in Alien Isolation.
While RE7 never reaches the pure fear heights of Alien Isolation, or it's consistency of doing so over longer periods of time, it recreates some of those horrendous moments of spotting an enemy turning the corner far away. Leaving you wondering if you are spotted and need to run, or simply can pull back and hide unnoticed.
This feeling of being chased give some of the best and most intense adrenaline moments of the game. Though, I would've enjoyed these scenarios even more if there were more hiding places scattered about. These horrifying chase moments are fairly sparse and short lived, Alien Isolation did a better job of letting you linger on, breaking you down with nervousness over longer periods of time.
However, the shorter lifespan of RE7, we're talking 9-10 hours compared to 20+ in Alien Isolation, keeps the pace flowing better, mixing up new locations and scenarios consistently along the way. It never lets you tediously roam areas over long periods of time, resulting in dull hours along the way. It's a short, but sweet experience.
"RE7 isn't just devoted to horror, it's probably scarier than the RE series ever has been."
Much like the traditional RE games, exploring and solving puzzles is a key part of the experience. From the beginning you're introduced to a worn down kitchen, picking up and checking items. Slowly, you're introduced to a mechanic A that requires part B and so on. It's a familiar and welcome return for RE veterans, and even more so when it introduces locked doors that require certain keys to unlock them.
This curiosity for exploring the mansion pushes you through the horrifying discoveries and tons of jump scares. Sure, some of these scares are a bit cheap and clearly built for showing off the VR hype, but they work. I'm guaranteeing you will be skipping a heart beat here and there.
Shooting and surviving brutal, close combat, fights is also key to surviving. Herein lies perhaps the largest difference from titles like Alien isolation and Amnesia: you can shoot down enemies. The combat difficulty feels right for a survival horror experience too, it's often difficult to get shots in as enemies rush at you from close encounters. The ammo is incredibly limited, so using a pistol or shotgun, combined with knife attacks, is advised.
Some of the later parts, onboard a massive ship, remind me of how the stressing corridors at end of the first Alien movie are. With red alarm lights spinning, steaming industrial pipes and metal corridors, combined with a sub-machine gun and quite a few enemies. It's another example of how RE7 mixes the formula up in just the right places. Granted, tt focuses heavily on slow paced and atmospheric horror, but it dares to throw in a few more higher paced, stressing and action like sequences along the way.
This careful, but never overdone, balance in gameplay variation, combined with the great visuals running at 60fps, with tons of worn down and highly detailed interiors, make way for a pretty and responsive game. Some of the texture choices and more finer details close up can look grainy, but visually it's a highly appealing and unique looking game. It's visual strength lies in it's well designed mansion setting with a lot of smaller detail and finesse. It really looks like a nasty and horrible place to explore all by yourself in fear.
Shooting and surviving brutal, close combat, fights is also key to surviving. Herein lies perhaps the largest difference from titles like Alien isolation and Amnesia: you can shoot down enemies. The combat difficulty feels right for a survival horror experience too, it's often difficult to get shots in as enemies rush at you from close encounters. The ammo is incredibly limited, so using a pistol or shotgun, combined with knife attacks, is advised.
Some of the later parts, onboard a massive ship, remind me of how the stressing corridors at end of the first Alien movie are. With red alarm lights spinning, steaming industrial pipes and metal corridors, combined with a sub-machine gun and quite a few enemies. It's another example of how RE7 mixes the formula up in just the right places. Granted, tt focuses heavily on slow paced and atmospheric horror, but it dares to throw in a few more higher paced, stressing and action like sequences along the way.
This careful, but never overdone, balance in gameplay variation, combined with the great visuals running at 60fps, with tons of worn down and highly detailed interiors, make way for a pretty and responsive game. Some of the texture choices and more finer details close up can look grainy, but visually it's a highly appealing and unique looking game. It's visual strength lies in it's well designed mansion setting with a lot of smaller detail and finesse. It really looks like a nasty and horrible place to explore all by yourself in fear.
Update: This game has since been updated to run on modern consoles, with options of native 4K@60fps, 4K@120fps and a ray-traced mode at 4K@60fps.
I have some complaints though. The enemy encounters, be it the ones occurring in trivial areas, to boss-like battles, can feel over-scripted. The point where you feel you have to do something exactly how the game dictates, otherwise you're wondering if you're actually dealing out damage at all. It looks cinematic when the camera is being thrown around by an attack animation, but it also leaves you wondering if you're in control or not.
As such, I felt the blocking move seemed slow and unresponsive, making me wonder if I should use it or not. The combat could be quicker and the later "molded" enemies have an extremely repetitive design. If you've seen one, you've seen them all.
RE7 is an incredible turn around for the series. Reinventing itself on so many levels, delivering an entirely new gameplay experience. Yet, going completely back to it's eerie mansion setting from the very first release. Capcom really should be praised for this title, finally leaving the action RE behind.
RE7 is an incredible turn around for the series. Reinventing itself on so many levels, delivering an entirely new gameplay experience. Yet, going completely back to it's eerie mansion setting from the very first release. Capcom really should be praised for this title, finally leaving the action RE behind.
Resident Evil is definitely back and I've never felt so optimistic for the series since it's glory days back in the 90's. I've never been so scared of a RE game either!
What a return to glory!
