I fucking love this game so much. It's the game that saved resident evil and each time I replay it I just appreciate that even more. Re7 is an absolutely perfect game.
For a start the music is phenomenal, it does an amazing job at getting a response from the player whether that's Fear, sadness, or curiosity. Also the gameplay in biohazard is top notch, it is fun throughout. This is largely due to its fun and innovative puzzles, great gunplay, and horror elements.
For me at least the worst part about re7 is the Mia portion on the ship. Now this is by no means a bad portion it's just slightly tedious at times with you having to go up and down all the time. Another fantastic portion of this game is the story, in my opinion it is one of the best in the series, while it loses me a bit at the end due to its more actiony supernatural elements it still makes for a fun time.
I think one of the main reasons for this is the games antagonists for a good chunk of the runtime, the Baker family. They get introduced first at the dinner table scene, showing their dynamics with one another and being a family were the player can already tell something is wrong with them. It's by the end of the game that you realise that the bakers were kind people until they were infected by eveline. Which makes them much more compelling 'villians' then Mr X or Nemisis because they aren't evil tyrants created in some lab, they are just a normal family who's minds have been corrupted inadvertently by their kindness.
I could ramble on for ages about this game but in short, it's a terrific game that is a good entry point for new fans whilst reviving the series for the old fans. I can not recommend this game enough, if you haven't played it already what the hell have you been doing for the past 7 years! (Side note: how the hell was 2017 seven years ago)
For a start the music is phenomenal, it does an amazing job at getting a response from the player whether that's Fear, sadness, or curiosity. Also the gameplay in biohazard is top notch, it is fun throughout. This is largely due to its fun and innovative puzzles, great gunplay, and horror elements.
For me at least the worst part about re7 is the Mia portion on the ship. Now this is by no means a bad portion it's just slightly tedious at times with you having to go up and down all the time. Another fantastic portion of this game is the story, in my opinion it is one of the best in the series, while it loses me a bit at the end due to its more actiony supernatural elements it still makes for a fun time.
I think one of the main reasons for this is the games antagonists for a good chunk of the runtime, the Baker family. They get introduced first at the dinner table scene, showing their dynamics with one another and being a family were the player can already tell something is wrong with them. It's by the end of the game that you realise that the bakers were kind people until they were infected by eveline. Which makes them much more compelling 'villians' then Mr X or Nemisis because they aren't evil tyrants created in some lab, they are just a normal family who's minds have been corrupted inadvertently by their kindness.
I could ramble on for ages about this game but in short, it's a terrific game that is a good entry point for new fans whilst reviving the series for the old fans. I can not recommend this game enough, if you haven't played it already what the hell have you been doing for the past 7 years! (Side note: how the hell was 2017 seven years ago)
Resident Evil 7 is such a baffling game to me. It's a game that manages to be the best Resident Evil of the modern era in some respects while also the worst modern Resident Evil in others. Whenever I think about this game and its imperfections, I always find myself with a lot more to say about it than I think I did, so I decided to replay this game and it's DLC to finally be able to get it all out in words.
If you looked at just the gameplay and presentation of RE7 you would see nothing really wrong with this game. RE7 was the first RE game to shift to a first-person perspective and I think it works surprisingly well to the point that the third person perspective hardly feels like a series staple anymore. This first-person perspective also adds to the horror element of this game, which when paired with the setting adds up to make one of the scariest RE games I've played. The setting of the Bakers secluded and condemned Louisiana estate is a really good one, each area in the estate matches to one of the Baker family and they all have a different brand of horror to go with them, making each of these main sections feel unique and interesting. The puzzles, combat, and resource management gameplay are all really good here as well and what you'd expect from an RE game. The game is also just really good looking. The way the environments are crafted both visually and in terms of details just feels so real and that adds to the eeriness of the game as a whole.
So if the gameplay, setting, horror, and the presentation of the game are this good what's holding it back you may ask? Well, that'd be the story dear reader, the story is a fucking mess. To give it one thing, the basic plot setup and the way the game starts off. Ethan, being a normal guy who gets dragged into all the game's madness because he's looking for his wife is a good setup and the motivation for him to stay and try to save her is believable. It's in the unbelievablly stupid twists the game takes and the lackluster explanations of whats going on here that this game falters. This is where I get into spoiler territory so if you want to read on just press this link (https://pastebin.com/BhaFdRAE) and it'll take you into the rest of the story section.
The last thing I want to talk about is the DLC. I hadn't played the DLC prior to this playthrough, making it some of the only modern RE content I haven't touched yet and now that I've played it I can say it's alright. Starting off with the Banned Footage, which is where the main meat of this DLC comes from, I'd say this is pretty good. This shows the story of Clancy, another one of the Bakers victims that has to endure and survive their gauntlet of challenges. The Nightmare tape sees you surviving a hoard of nearly endless molded enemies as you try to survive until dawn in a sort of tower defense like mode, the Bedroom tape is an escape room of sorts where you have to use the items and clues available to you in the room all the while avoiding making a lot of noise to avoid attracting Margurite to the room and making sure to put everything back where you found it before she comes back each time otherwise she'll realise you're trying to escape, and the 21 tape sees you playing a few sadistic rounds of blackjack against another victim in Lucas' warehouse, the winner of which is allowed to go free and the loser of which is killed gruesomely. These are all pretty fun ideas that don't outstay their welcome for the most part and are neat little additions. The fourth Banned Footage tape works as a prolouge to the main story thatb shows us from Zoe's eyes the day that things went to shit, showing how Eveline corrupted the Bakers with her gift and how Zoe manages to escape meeting the same fate as the rest of her family, even if she can't leave the estate. There's also two other DLCs that serve as epilouges in "Not a Hero" and "End of Zoe", Not a Hero focuses on Chris Redfield going after Lucas Baker who turns out was much more evil than the game initially showed and is related to the Umbrella corporation, this mode is just a really short epilouge with basic RE gameplay that only really serves to tie the events of this game into the main RE story. End of Zoe focuses on Uncle Joe Baker finding Zoe in a crystalized state and searching for a cure for her all while a swampy version of Jack Baker follows him, the mode has you using Joe's bare fists and brute strength as weapons rather than guns and feels pretty fun and satisfying in that way, it's also nice to see Zoe's story get concluded so satisfyingly and brings closure to the events of the main game as a whole. Overall I'd say this DLC is mostly worth it, it's not a lot to write home about but it's something and if you get it on sale it'll provide you with a few more hours of entertainment if you liked the base game.
Despite its glaring story flaws that hold it back from greatness, Resident Evil 7 is still a really fun game and a good return to form as well as innovation for the RE series. The excellent gameplay, setting, and horror elements add up to what I believe to be the most genuinely scary Resident Evil
game and without it being made and returning the series to it's roots I probably wouldn't be such a big RE fan today.
If you looked at just the gameplay and presentation of RE7 you would see nothing really wrong with this game. RE7 was the first RE game to shift to a first-person perspective and I think it works surprisingly well to the point that the third person perspective hardly feels like a series staple anymore. This first-person perspective also adds to the horror element of this game, which when paired with the setting adds up to make one of the scariest RE games I've played. The setting of the Bakers secluded and condemned Louisiana estate is a really good one, each area in the estate matches to one of the Baker family and they all have a different brand of horror to go with them, making each of these main sections feel unique and interesting. The puzzles, combat, and resource management gameplay are all really good here as well and what you'd expect from an RE game. The game is also just really good looking. The way the environments are crafted both visually and in terms of details just feels so real and that adds to the eeriness of the game as a whole.
So if the gameplay, setting, horror, and the presentation of the game are this good what's holding it back you may ask? Well, that'd be the story dear reader, the story is a fucking mess. To give it one thing, the basic plot setup and the way the game starts off. Ethan, being a normal guy who gets dragged into all the game's madness because he's looking for his wife is a good setup and the motivation for him to stay and try to save her is believable. It's in the unbelievablly stupid twists the game takes and the lackluster explanations of whats going on here that this game falters. This is where I get into spoiler territory so if you want to read on just press this link (https://pastebin.com/BhaFdRAE) and it'll take you into the rest of the story section.
The last thing I want to talk about is the DLC. I hadn't played the DLC prior to this playthrough, making it some of the only modern RE content I haven't touched yet and now that I've played it I can say it's alright. Starting off with the Banned Footage, which is where the main meat of this DLC comes from, I'd say this is pretty good. This shows the story of Clancy, another one of the Bakers victims that has to endure and survive their gauntlet of challenges. The Nightmare tape sees you surviving a hoard of nearly endless molded enemies as you try to survive until dawn in a sort of tower defense like mode, the Bedroom tape is an escape room of sorts where you have to use the items and clues available to you in the room all the while avoiding making a lot of noise to avoid attracting Margurite to the room and making sure to put everything back where you found it before she comes back each time otherwise she'll realise you're trying to escape, and the 21 tape sees you playing a few sadistic rounds of blackjack against another victim in Lucas' warehouse, the winner of which is allowed to go free and the loser of which is killed gruesomely. These are all pretty fun ideas that don't outstay their welcome for the most part and are neat little additions. The fourth Banned Footage tape works as a prolouge to the main story thatb shows us from Zoe's eyes the day that things went to shit, showing how Eveline corrupted the Bakers with her gift and how Zoe manages to escape meeting the same fate as the rest of her family, even if she can't leave the estate. There's also two other DLCs that serve as epilouges in "Not a Hero" and "End of Zoe", Not a Hero focuses on Chris Redfield going after Lucas Baker who turns out was much more evil than the game initially showed and is related to the Umbrella corporation, this mode is just a really short epilouge with basic RE gameplay that only really serves to tie the events of this game into the main RE story. End of Zoe focuses on Uncle Joe Baker finding Zoe in a crystalized state and searching for a cure for her all while a swampy version of Jack Baker follows him, the mode has you using Joe's bare fists and brute strength as weapons rather than guns and feels pretty fun and satisfying in that way, it's also nice to see Zoe's story get concluded so satisfyingly and brings closure to the events of the main game as a whole. Overall I'd say this DLC is mostly worth it, it's not a lot to write home about but it's something and if you get it on sale it'll provide you with a few more hours of entertainment if you liked the base game.
Despite its glaring story flaws that hold it back from greatness, Resident Evil 7 is still a really fun game and a good return to form as well as innovation for the RE series. The excellent gameplay, setting, and horror elements add up to what I believe to be the most genuinely scary Resident Evil
game and without it being made and returning the series to it's roots I probably wouldn't be such a big RE fan today.
So this is what Florida is like!
When it comes to the resident evil franchise I’ve never properly played a game in it. Sure I’ve played a few seconds of the original and even got pretty far into code Veronica before just getting fed up with its shit, but I’ve never properly sat down and put all my attention into a resident evil game. So when I heard the 8th game, village, was £18 at my nearest cex, to say I was tempted was an understatement, but I knew that if I wanted to play it I would have to first finish the game before it: biohazard. And I can’t lie…for the first 2 parts of the game…it’s really good. But I’ll get onto my opinions after I’ve gone through the story and the gameplay.
So what’s this resident evil crap all about? Well you play as Ethan winters after receiving an email from his wife who he assumed was dead. His lead takes him to an old house previously owned by the baker family, which he soon discovers…are still lived in by the baker family. After finding Mia who definitely has something wrong with her, you then get taken by the baker family who must perfectly describe every American family ever! But before we continue the story…let’s get into the gameplay.
The gameplay takes cues from previous resident evil games and improves on them pretty well. You have a limited inventory and you have to manage what you need and what you don’t need with some of your weapons taking up 2 slots. You’ll also have healing items which can be crafted alongside ammo which brings me onto my next gameplay point. Crafting is a pretty big part of the game. You have the opportunity to either craft something like ammo to go on the offence or you can craft something that will heal you. The thing about this is both use similar items so it’s either one or the other. You’ll also have to manage when you use your items. In most games that would come off as an annoying mechanic but in biohazard it actually doesn’t. If anything it only adds to how desperate the protagonist actually feels so to see that get reflected in the gameplay is pretty excellent.
Anyway back to the story…so after a while you’ll end up going into the basement and finding these weird creatures simply known as the ‘molded’. Not only that but the bakers also seem to have regenerative properties. But after you’ve properly killed the father, Jack baker (I refuse to not believe that this was not some sort of reference to the shining), and killed the mother, Marguerite Baker, you finally have to face up to the son, Lucas baker.
Lucas has my favourite section in the entire game. He makes you go through these saw like challenges to get to your wife and Zoe (the only one who’s been helping you) and these challenges are brutal and very clever. And also Lucas is just an absolute maniac and oh man I love this section so much. After you finally get through it and make the serum you’re forced to fight a very weird form of Jack baker. But after hitting him with the serum you have to choose who you save: Zoe or Mia?
Have you ever watched the worlds end? The comedy film by talented director Edgar wright? The film is actually really excellent for the first 20 minutes or so and has some of the best writing in any of his films, but then the entire film changes as soon as the characters go into the bathroom and it only seems to go downhill from there…well the same applies to resident evil 7. As soon as you get the choice of who to save the game only seems to go downhill. It turns out that the thing infecting the bakers and creating those creatures was a little girl named Eveline…yeah ok. And you end up basically having to kill her, “but it’s ok! She turns into an elderly lady so that means it’s ok!”. I found the whole plot twist to be pretty lame and would’ve just preferred it to be something that connected it further into the resident evil games. And the choice I was talking about earlier was also pretty stupid in my opinion. Like the first time around I chose to save Mia but like…why wouldn’t I? You’ve just met Zoe when like you’ve known Mia for a long time in the story so to me it wouldn’t make much sense if you chose Zoe over Mia.
Resident evil 7 isn’t bad. If anything it’s a great return to a franchise which starting to sour for many. But of course there were some really silly decisions in the story for me which made me take it less seriously. The soundtrack is really nice as well, I did really adore the ambience and the nods to previous resident evil games were nice. But whether this is the best horror game I’ve ever played is debatable and definitely not the best in this franchise. Who knows, maybe village might up what biohazard did but who knows. Also just quickly: I like how for the sub heading of this game they made it the actually name of resident evil in Japan: biohazard. That sun heading also kind of makes sense. I also like how they swapped it around for the Japanese version so uhh…yeah…
Great story up until the boat, really good gameplay, nice ambience, Lucas’s section was the best part, “kiss my ass”
When it comes to the resident evil franchise I’ve never properly played a game in it. Sure I’ve played a few seconds of the original and even got pretty far into code Veronica before just getting fed up with its shit, but I’ve never properly sat down and put all my attention into a resident evil game. So when I heard the 8th game, village, was £18 at my nearest cex, to say I was tempted was an understatement, but I knew that if I wanted to play it I would have to first finish the game before it: biohazard. And I can’t lie…for the first 2 parts of the game…it’s really good. But I’ll get onto my opinions after I’ve gone through the story and the gameplay.
So what’s this resident evil crap all about? Well you play as Ethan winters after receiving an email from his wife who he assumed was dead. His lead takes him to an old house previously owned by the baker family, which he soon discovers…are still lived in by the baker family. After finding Mia who definitely has something wrong with her, you then get taken by the baker family who must perfectly describe every American family ever! But before we continue the story…let’s get into the gameplay.
The gameplay takes cues from previous resident evil games and improves on them pretty well. You have a limited inventory and you have to manage what you need and what you don’t need with some of your weapons taking up 2 slots. You’ll also have healing items which can be crafted alongside ammo which brings me onto my next gameplay point. Crafting is a pretty big part of the game. You have the opportunity to either craft something like ammo to go on the offence or you can craft something that will heal you. The thing about this is both use similar items so it’s either one or the other. You’ll also have to manage when you use your items. In most games that would come off as an annoying mechanic but in biohazard it actually doesn’t. If anything it only adds to how desperate the protagonist actually feels so to see that get reflected in the gameplay is pretty excellent.
Anyway back to the story…so after a while you’ll end up going into the basement and finding these weird creatures simply known as the ‘molded’. Not only that but the bakers also seem to have regenerative properties. But after you’ve properly killed the father, Jack baker (I refuse to not believe that this was not some sort of reference to the shining), and killed the mother, Marguerite Baker, you finally have to face up to the son, Lucas baker.
Lucas has my favourite section in the entire game. He makes you go through these saw like challenges to get to your wife and Zoe (the only one who’s been helping you) and these challenges are brutal and very clever. And also Lucas is just an absolute maniac and oh man I love this section so much. After you finally get through it and make the serum you’re forced to fight a very weird form of Jack baker. But after hitting him with the serum you have to choose who you save: Zoe or Mia?
Have you ever watched the worlds end? The comedy film by talented director Edgar wright? The film is actually really excellent for the first 20 minutes or so and has some of the best writing in any of his films, but then the entire film changes as soon as the characters go into the bathroom and it only seems to go downhill from there…well the same applies to resident evil 7. As soon as you get the choice of who to save the game only seems to go downhill. It turns out that the thing infecting the bakers and creating those creatures was a little girl named Eveline…yeah ok. And you end up basically having to kill her, “but it’s ok! She turns into an elderly lady so that means it’s ok!”. I found the whole plot twist to be pretty lame and would’ve just preferred it to be something that connected it further into the resident evil games. And the choice I was talking about earlier was also pretty stupid in my opinion. Like the first time around I chose to save Mia but like…why wouldn’t I? You’ve just met Zoe when like you’ve known Mia for a long time in the story so to me it wouldn’t make much sense if you chose Zoe over Mia.
Resident evil 7 isn’t bad. If anything it’s a great return to a franchise which starting to sour for many. But of course there were some really silly decisions in the story for me which made me take it less seriously. The soundtrack is really nice as well, I did really adore the ambience and the nods to previous resident evil games were nice. But whether this is the best horror game I’ve ever played is debatable and definitely not the best in this franchise. Who knows, maybe village might up what biohazard did but who knows. Also just quickly: I like how for the sub heading of this game they made it the actually name of resident evil in Japan: biohazard. That sun heading also kind of makes sense. I also like how they swapped it around for the Japanese version so uhh…yeah…
Great story up until the boat, really good gameplay, nice ambience, Lucas’s section was the best part, “kiss my ass”
I don't know if watching Sphere Hunter vids and/or talking with my gf has made me bias but for the 3rd time this past month I've revisited yet another Resident Evil title I wasn't big on and come away with a much higher appreciation for it than I did on release.
It's telling that I gave this a 3/5 but couldn't even remember why, besides a vague memory of the molded enemies being annoying af and the boat section being kinda weak - which they both absolutely are - but to take away from the rest of the game so much as to knock 2 full stars off seems crazy now.
This entry revived the franchise after the shitshow that was RE6, took a new direction with First Person Horror and re-implemented some of the things that had slowly crept out of the series over the decades. With a focus on exploration, tense atmosphere, resource management and puzzles throughout the Baker House and it's extensions.
The early half of the game is by far my favourite, and with the exception of the basement area being so brutal when you first start, I really enjoyed my time there. As touched on earlier the later half drops off a bit in my opinion, going more shooter than horror again but eh, at least the combat feels good even if I suck at it.
Last thing to mention is the bosses: Disappointingly enough, they're kind of awful. Don't get me wrong I love the bosses themselves, and many of the environments and designs/attacks are really cool! But fuck me they're all such bullet sponges, there's really no need for them to walk off so many shots to weak spots even on Normal. Makes them feel less fun and more tedious imo.
Anyway, I'm gunna try my damnedest to speedrun through this on easy with my newly earned items in the hopes of bagging that circular saw and attempting Madhouse... My partner says I can do it so, here's hoping she's right!
It's telling that I gave this a 3/5 but couldn't even remember why, besides a vague memory of the molded enemies being annoying af and the boat section being kinda weak - which they both absolutely are - but to take away from the rest of the game so much as to knock 2 full stars off seems crazy now.
This entry revived the franchise after the shitshow that was RE6, took a new direction with First Person Horror and re-implemented some of the things that had slowly crept out of the series over the decades. With a focus on exploration, tense atmosphere, resource management and puzzles throughout the Baker House and it's extensions.
The early half of the game is by far my favourite, and with the exception of the basement area being so brutal when you first start, I really enjoyed my time there. As touched on earlier the later half drops off a bit in my opinion, going more shooter than horror again but eh, at least the combat feels good even if I suck at it.
Last thing to mention is the bosses: Disappointingly enough, they're kind of awful. Don't get me wrong I love the bosses themselves, and many of the environments and designs/attacks are really cool! But fuck me they're all such bullet sponges, there's really no need for them to walk off so many shots to weak spots even on Normal. Makes them feel less fun and more tedious imo.
Anyway, I'm gunna try my damnedest to speedrun through this on easy with my newly earned items in the hopes of bagging that circular saw and attempting Madhouse... My partner says I can do it so, here's hoping she's right!
I want a VR headset just for this game and Village, anything else is an extra bonus.
Extremely solid horror game for a first playthrough. Unfortunately, most of the scares are scripted and the last third of the game drags on for too long, which is annoying on replays.
the plot is nothing and your investment in it is only as thick as your willingness to go with the shreds of characterization Ethan gets (he can be charming in his own way, but let's face it, he's a faceless horror protagonist). the systems are tight and well designed but hindered by some insanely repetitive enemy design, horrifically obtuse level layouts, and one of the most perplexing control schemes i've ever been forced to get used to.
really don't know why this blew up the way it did, especially considering i've never played resident evil before and as a result can't understand what it brought to the series beyond an obvious change in perspective and setting, but even those just feel sort of weird to me: from an outsider's point of view i've always associated resident evil with a particular aesthetic and feel, and at many points i found that so gone that resident evil's trademark inventory management and crafting systems felt a bit out of place. this game feels like outlast with chainsaw duels and flamethrowers, and i don't mean that in a good way — it lacks personality and character of its own. when ethan picked up that samurai edge at the end i felt the only amount of elation or joy this game ever gave me, if only because it reminded me that wait, yes, i recognize that gun! this is resident evil!
anyways, i played this just to play village, so maybe i'll have more fun with that. and i did have fun with biohazard and i think it was a good way to break in my ps5 and get to know the controller! but in spite of that i don't really think it's very good.
really don't know why this blew up the way it did, especially considering i've never played resident evil before and as a result can't understand what it brought to the series beyond an obvious change in perspective and setting, but even those just feel sort of weird to me: from an outsider's point of view i've always associated resident evil with a particular aesthetic and feel, and at many points i found that so gone that resident evil's trademark inventory management and crafting systems felt a bit out of place. this game feels like outlast with chainsaw duels and flamethrowers, and i don't mean that in a good way — it lacks personality and character of its own. when ethan picked up that samurai edge at the end i felt the only amount of elation or joy this game ever gave me, if only because it reminded me that wait, yes, i recognize that gun! this is resident evil!
anyways, i played this just to play village, so maybe i'll have more fun with that. and i did have fun with biohazard and i think it was a good way to break in my ps5 and get to know the controller! but in spite of that i don't really think it's very good.
Thus far, the Resident Evil I’ve played and seen is the fun kind of horror, your John Carpenter, George Romero kind of horror. This one dips into some hard-ass David Cronenberg, Wes Craven kind of horror, your grotesque, grungy kind of horror, your loved ones trying to kill you, upsetting, psychological kind of horror. Also unlike the other ones, it never lets you get to that point where you feel you’re ready to take on anything guns ablazing, you’re always second guessing whether or not you’ll be ready for what’s around the next corner. Ethan isn’t a cop or a soldier like you play as in the other games, he’s just some guy and you feel that vulnerability. It feels like an everyman’s perspective on the events of a Resident Evil game and it’s far more intimidating and suspenseful as a result.
This game is a bold departure from it’s predecessors while at the same time staying faithful to the franchise’s roots, and I honestly think it’s one of the series’ best.
This game is a bold departure from it’s predecessors while at the same time staying faithful to the franchise’s roots, and I honestly think it’s one of the series’ best.
this game is near perfect until it becomes a resident evil game
I love how genuinely nasty this is for a AAA release in 2017; in one game you get your hand chopped by a chainsaw in first person, fist a dead guy's neckhole, watch a crackhead rip his nails off and shoot a half-naked grandma's bulging beehive crotch inbetween moments of listening to her give birth to a swarm of locusts. There's something beautiful in the fact that under all the Evil Dead and Texas Chainsaw inspiration, Biohazard makes room for its own irreverence as one of the filthiest games you'll ever play from a high-budget studio production.
I don't have much to add to the gameplay discussion that hasn't been said yet. I guess the last third was not nearly as bad as people build it up to be, it's decently short and functions well enough as a climax. Hope nothing bad happens to the Winters family after this kooky quest!
I don't have much to add to the gameplay discussion that hasn't been said yet. I guess the last third was not nearly as bad as people build it up to be, it's decently short and functions well enough as a climax. Hope nothing bad happens to the Winters family after this kooky quest!
A good return to the classic Resident Evil formula. Not quite as good as the highs of the series, but still a pretty good game. This game was always creepy, you never had a sense of safety anywhere around the Baker Mansion or the ship. The mold enemies were pretty cool and they always found a way to creep up behind me and jumpscare me. This game however, feels like filler in the series. It feels like a game that was churned out and is a test to see if the old formula is successful. Thankfully, it is, and Resident Evil is back to being enjoyable again. Solid game, now onto Resident Evil 8.
Pra mim, esse jogo tem a melhor representação do terror, ou horror melhor dizendo, de todos os Resident Evil, apesar de não ser o meu favorito. Eu acho incrível como eles trouxeram a gameplay em primeira pessoa pra franquia, no início eu achei que ia ser meio estranho mas combinou demais, é muito imersivo, a atmosfera é muito boa, bem opressora e assustadora, além da história ser muito boa e bastante interessante. Mas o que eu mais gosto nesse jogo é como eles abordaram os três pilares ou três vertentes do horror clássico, que são representados pelo pai, a mãe e o Lucas que é o irmão. O horror slasher, de assassinos e serial killers, o horror sobrenatural, de monstros e coisas assustadoras, e o horror gore, de violência explícita e etc. O pai é o slasher, a mãe é o sobrenatural, e o Lucas é o gore. E colocar esses três pilares do terror em um jogo só pra mim foi absurdo, faz a experiência ser bem diferente e variada. Fora o fato de que também tem o VR, um dos pouquíssimos jogos triple A que tem experiência em VR, e o VR desse jogo é coisa de louco, muito bom. Ele também conseguiu trazer de volta a alma dos clássicos, aquilo de exploração e resolver puzzle, mas conseguiu inovar e trazer uma abordagem completamente nova e maravilhosa pra franquia. Um dos meus favoritos da saga.
This review contains spoilers
54
Clearing My Backlog #11
I’m not too familiar with Resident Evil as a franchise, so I had no expectations going into this whatsoever; what I found was an extremely mixed bag to say the least.
The first two acts are great — they’re some of the best survival horror content I’ve ever played. The atmosphere is so eerie, but doesn’t take itself too seriously thanks to the hilarious antics of the Baker family, giving it this perfect middle ground between comical and generic edginess that’s found in a lot of survival horror. I don’t get scared easily — especially in games, but this managed to creep me out on my first playthrough, which is a huge testament.
But then… the rest comes. The third act is atrocious, it’s probably one of the worst third acts I’ve ever played in anything. It takes such a massive tonal shift which doesn’t work and just feels… weird. On my first run I genuinely thought the game was ending when you had to pick who you were going to cure (which doesn’t really add anything to the game and is a useless choice, like why is it even there), but then it takes you to a new area, and the game goes on for another two fucking hours… like what? I would’ve given this a 4/5 if that entire boat section didn’t exist, it’s abysmal. The environment itself is dull, the layout is convoluted, and the entire section feels dragged out and endless; I wanted it to end 10 minutes in. It doesn’t help that I find Ethan and Mia insufferable, so an entire third of the game being just these two and an annoying child as the focus wasn’t going to be all that enjoyable.
RE7 is at its best when it focuses on the Baker family, they’re fantastic villains and the actors give some great over-the-top performances. I also love that a big aspect of this game is body horror, with limbs being severed at every given opportunity, and the transformations that the Baker family undergo are straight up nuts — Marguerite’s especially reminded me of Other Mother from Coraline, with her freakishly elongated limbs — and the way she crawls on walls in her second boss fight, shit’s seriously cool as hell! The boss fights are probably one of the best parts of RE7, they’re all so enjoyable and creative in their own ways, even if they’re extremely easy once you know what to do.
However, one of the weaker aspects of the game is enemy variety; the Molded are some of the blandest enemies I’ve ever seen, it’s almost like they chose the concept art versions of these things and put them into the final build of the game, could they really not come up with anything better? If you told a ten-year-old to come up with a scary monster design, I bet that they would make something 10x more interesting than what we got here.
Enemy variety isn’t even the worst thing, it’s the fucking characters, man. Ethan Winters takes the cake for probably the single worst protagonist in all of gaming, there’s nothing more forgettable than this man; everything about him, his personality — or should I say lack thereof, his voice (oh my god his fucking voice)… everything about this man is irritating. There was only one time he managed to make me feel something, and it was due to the hilarious “Daddy?” line, I literally burst out laughing from how shit that voice acting was. It’s actually funny how most of the characters you’re supposed to be rooting for kinda suck, it’s only the villains who are interesting and have any sort of real presence.
I also noticed how technically outdated this game is, it’s weird because I always have to remind myself that 2017 was almost seven whole years ago, I feel like I’m still living in 2020 — but yeah, the textures on some of those effects when you kill each of the Bakers are akin to something from the PS2 era, I’m not even exaggerating… games on the PS3 had better textures than that dogshit effect. The game is also weirdly blurry when you first arrive at the Baker house, but then it fixes itself as soon as you get inside, which is just strange. The RT support that came out roughly a year ago is shockingly bad — at least for reflections, which are basically broken; the lighting is great though.
Now it’s time for the DLC!
Playtime: 20.6 hours
Every Game I've Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
Resident Evil - Ranked
Clearing My Backlog
2017 - Ranked
Clearing My Backlog #11
I’m not too familiar with Resident Evil as a franchise, so I had no expectations going into this whatsoever; what I found was an extremely mixed bag to say the least.
The first two acts are great — they’re some of the best survival horror content I’ve ever played. The atmosphere is so eerie, but doesn’t take itself too seriously thanks to the hilarious antics of the Baker family, giving it this perfect middle ground between comical and generic edginess that’s found in a lot of survival horror. I don’t get scared easily — especially in games, but this managed to creep me out on my first playthrough, which is a huge testament.
But then… the rest comes. The third act is atrocious, it’s probably one of the worst third acts I’ve ever played in anything. It takes such a massive tonal shift which doesn’t work and just feels… weird. On my first run I genuinely thought the game was ending when you had to pick who you were going to cure (which doesn’t really add anything to the game and is a useless choice, like why is it even there), but then it takes you to a new area, and the game goes on for another two fucking hours… like what? I would’ve given this a 4/5 if that entire boat section didn’t exist, it’s abysmal. The environment itself is dull, the layout is convoluted, and the entire section feels dragged out and endless; I wanted it to end 10 minutes in. It doesn’t help that I find Ethan and Mia insufferable, so an entire third of the game being just these two and an annoying child as the focus wasn’t going to be all that enjoyable.
RE7 is at its best when it focuses on the Baker family, they’re fantastic villains and the actors give some great over-the-top performances. I also love that a big aspect of this game is body horror, with limbs being severed at every given opportunity, and the transformations that the Baker family undergo are straight up nuts — Marguerite’s especially reminded me of Other Mother from Coraline, with her freakishly elongated limbs — and the way she crawls on walls in her second boss fight, shit’s seriously cool as hell! The boss fights are probably one of the best parts of RE7, they’re all so enjoyable and creative in their own ways, even if they’re extremely easy once you know what to do.
However, one of the weaker aspects of the game is enemy variety; the Molded are some of the blandest enemies I’ve ever seen, it’s almost like they chose the concept art versions of these things and put them into the final build of the game, could they really not come up with anything better? If you told a ten-year-old to come up with a scary monster design, I bet that they would make something 10x more interesting than what we got here.
Enemy variety isn’t even the worst thing, it’s the fucking characters, man. Ethan Winters takes the cake for probably the single worst protagonist in all of gaming, there’s nothing more forgettable than this man; everything about him, his personality — or should I say lack thereof, his voice (oh my god his fucking voice)… everything about this man is irritating. There was only one time he managed to make me feel something, and it was due to the hilarious “Daddy?” line, I literally burst out laughing from how shit that voice acting was. It’s actually funny how most of the characters you’re supposed to be rooting for kinda suck, it’s only the villains who are interesting and have any sort of real presence.
I also noticed how technically outdated this game is, it’s weird because I always have to remind myself that 2017 was almost seven whole years ago, I feel like I’m still living in 2020 — but yeah, the textures on some of those effects when you kill each of the Bakers are akin to something from the PS2 era, I’m not even exaggerating… games on the PS3 had better textures than that dogshit effect. The game is also weirdly blurry when you first arrive at the Baker house, but then it fixes itself as soon as you get inside, which is just strange. The RT support that came out roughly a year ago is shockingly bad — at least for reflections, which are basically broken; the lighting is great though.
Now it’s time for the DLC!
Playtime: 20.6 hours
Every Game I've Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
Resident Evil - Ranked
Clearing My Backlog
2017 - Ranked
I live in mortal fear of Marguerite.
Fair play to Capcom, they realised RE6 was a complete abomination and took on board the criticism. The first two thirds of this game are bordering on a 5/5 but as is always the case with Resident Evil these days they had to include some over the top gun toting nonsense by the end.
Alas, don't let that detract from the sublime craft of the Baker House. I would argue it is the best setting Resident Evil has ever devised.
Fair play to Capcom, they realised RE6 was a complete abomination and took on board the criticism. The first two thirds of this game are bordering on a 5/5 but as is always the case with Resident Evil these days they had to include some over the top gun toting nonsense by the end.
Alas, don't let that detract from the sublime craft of the Baker House. I would argue it is the best setting Resident Evil has ever devised.
The most unrealistic thing in this game is how people phone each other using smart watches, like who does that?
some delightfully goopy visuals and sets aside, i am honestly stunned by how completely this failed to work for me. i am by no means one of the resi 6 faithful but i found myself constantly wishing i was playing that while trudging my way through this turgid exercise in insecurity. this to me far more aptly demonstrates the air of extreme desperation many people accused resi 6 of, a supremely unconfident attempt to play catchup to an entire history of the horror zeitgeist. texas chainsaw massacre, evil dead, the shining, the ring, blair witch, the hills have eyes, escape rooms, even america's most haunted and ghostwatch...it's all been thrown in and blended together until all that remains is a tasteless textureless black sludge.
the found footage angle is one i found particularly shockingly poor, as someone who counts the blair witch project a personal favorite, and who jumped back into resi 7 because of letshugbro's reflections on this point. aside from the reality show pastiche at the start (easily the highlight of the game for me) there is absolutely zero consideration at any point given to the camera or it's presence or physicality: we simply plainly see through the eyes of the character with a generic vhs filter put over it. it's brazenly pillaging the most basic imagery signifiers of this form possible without a single iota of consideration for the intent or form, purely cynical exploitation in the meanest sense of the word, a reference to it's influences as shallow as a MCU quip.
this is the entire game, a rickety haunted house built on the thinnest veneer imaginable, where every element is never deeper than the skin. the stiff and robotic movements of the bakers, with their glitchy animations, clinically transactional relationship with the player, and scripted sequences based almost entirely on simply waiting around running in circles for the switch to flip in their head that makes them do something that lets you progress, annihilates any sense of organic living atmosphere the game strains to affect, revealing these walking pathfinding algorithms for what they really are. the overtures towards being a return to classic resident evil is similarly merely an illusion that falls apart under moderately close inspection: the inventory management and shared stash is here but the considered map and encounter design that necessitates careful planning and macro-tension across the experience is wholly absent, a build of resources towards a payoff that never arrives, a series of engagements against a single enemy type that never meaningfully intimidates or frightens. a fractured facsimile of classic resident evil is here, but none of the effects it produced is, and what remains is a tedious series of empty frictionless jogs between item transactions to unlock the next area of this vacuous escape room.
if all this wasn't enough, biohazard might honestly be in contention for the narrative low point of the series as i have experienced it. at least resident evil 5 has wesker. the game sure mentions the word "family" a lot but anything it might have to say about that is rendered so completely incoherent by this dangerous combination of shockingly underwritten narrative and tedious "the writer has just had a bad breakup" misogynistic energy that it can scarcely be believed. i was wondering whether or not this was a 1-star or 2-star affair but learning that not being unflinchingly loyal to your cartoonishly evil wife (whose evil is basically never so much as remarked upon by a game that instead chooses to heap infinite mean-spirited scorn upon a child turned by her and her compatriots into a bioweapon) gives you an unexpected Wrong Ending an hour after you make that one choice is what made me decide on the score i did. i am by no means going to defend the travails of prior entries like resident evil 5, but at least that game has been deservedly dragged through the mud for it's perspective. the fact that, five years on, the nightmarishly terrible gender politics of this title have gone almost completely unremarked upon speaks volumes to the degree to which mainstream critics in this medium are completely willing to turn the blinkers on for anything that affects even the thinnest veneer of Western Prestige.
like i say, the word of the day is desperate. frantically pillaging from every horror movie it can find without any care for intent or meaning or context, desperately floundering for relevancy in a world that rejected the apex of what it was pushing towards post resi 4. and yet, ironically, despite my total failure to invest in it, resident evil 7 can only be called a success in terms of reinvigorating the series and giving it a new direction: theme park horror, a series of shallow pastiches, a linear sequence of homage, that has laid the groundwork for the tremendous critical and financial success of resident evil village. and for those who are loving this direction i say, go with god, but there is no way in hell i am getting on board a rollercoaster with foundations as completely rotten as this.
the found footage angle is one i found particularly shockingly poor, as someone who counts the blair witch project a personal favorite, and who jumped back into resi 7 because of letshugbro's reflections on this point. aside from the reality show pastiche at the start (easily the highlight of the game for me) there is absolutely zero consideration at any point given to the camera or it's presence or physicality: we simply plainly see through the eyes of the character with a generic vhs filter put over it. it's brazenly pillaging the most basic imagery signifiers of this form possible without a single iota of consideration for the intent or form, purely cynical exploitation in the meanest sense of the word, a reference to it's influences as shallow as a MCU quip.
this is the entire game, a rickety haunted house built on the thinnest veneer imaginable, where every element is never deeper than the skin. the stiff and robotic movements of the bakers, with their glitchy animations, clinically transactional relationship with the player, and scripted sequences based almost entirely on simply waiting around running in circles for the switch to flip in their head that makes them do something that lets you progress, annihilates any sense of organic living atmosphere the game strains to affect, revealing these walking pathfinding algorithms for what they really are. the overtures towards being a return to classic resident evil is similarly merely an illusion that falls apart under moderately close inspection: the inventory management and shared stash is here but the considered map and encounter design that necessitates careful planning and macro-tension across the experience is wholly absent, a build of resources towards a payoff that never arrives, a series of engagements against a single enemy type that never meaningfully intimidates or frightens. a fractured facsimile of classic resident evil is here, but none of the effects it produced is, and what remains is a tedious series of empty frictionless jogs between item transactions to unlock the next area of this vacuous escape room.
if all this wasn't enough, biohazard might honestly be in contention for the narrative low point of the series as i have experienced it. at least resident evil 5 has wesker. the game sure mentions the word "family" a lot but anything it might have to say about that is rendered so completely incoherent by this dangerous combination of shockingly underwritten narrative and tedious "the writer has just had a bad breakup" misogynistic energy that it can scarcely be believed. i was wondering whether or not this was a 1-star or 2-star affair but learning that not being unflinchingly loyal to your cartoonishly evil wife (whose evil is basically never so much as remarked upon by a game that instead chooses to heap infinite mean-spirited scorn upon a child turned by her and her compatriots into a bioweapon) gives you an unexpected Wrong Ending an hour after you make that one choice is what made me decide on the score i did. i am by no means going to defend the travails of prior entries like resident evil 5, but at least that game has been deservedly dragged through the mud for it's perspective. the fact that, five years on, the nightmarishly terrible gender politics of this title have gone almost completely unremarked upon speaks volumes to the degree to which mainstream critics in this medium are completely willing to turn the blinkers on for anything that affects even the thinnest veneer of Western Prestige.
like i say, the word of the day is desperate. frantically pillaging from every horror movie it can find without any care for intent or meaning or context, desperately floundering for relevancy in a world that rejected the apex of what it was pushing towards post resi 4. and yet, ironically, despite my total failure to invest in it, resident evil 7 can only be called a success in terms of reinvigorating the series and giving it a new direction: theme park horror, a series of shallow pastiches, a linear sequence of homage, that has laid the groundwork for the tremendous critical and financial success of resident evil village. and for those who are loving this direction i say, go with god, but there is no way in hell i am getting on board a rollercoaster with foundations as completely rotten as this.
Immortal images
Anyone who's played a Resident Evil for more than a few hours will come to understand the game as a series of discrete short and long-term trades - collecting smaller items and using them to complete a bloody and violent Art of the Swap in pursuit of some higher goal. For example, to open a door with a snake on the front: Dodge zombie -> Collect herb -> Collect 5 handgun bullets -> Combine handgun bullets with handgun -> Use 3 handgun bullets to take down the zombie who is standing in the way of a brain in a jar -> Collect brain in jar -> Collect shotgun -> Trade some hitpoints to use the shotgun on a bigger zombie who is standing the way of a statue -> Use brain on statue -> Reveal a key shaped like a snake -> Use one herb to replenish health spent fighting the bigger zombie -> Use snake key on snake door -> Use remaining bullets on snake boss hiding behind snake door. A real time Dungeons & Draggers campaign, a constant evaluation of inventory and comparison with the variables in the current equation of the puzzle box, where skilled play tasks the player with thinking further and further ahead in order to secure flawless success.
As the series has moved forward, the complexity of these sequences has expanded and contracted in all shapes and sizes. Games like Resident Evil 2 have tried to run multiple sequences in parallel, finding replayability for players in the ways it allows you to plan multiple interdependent logistical movements in the same manner one would plan a camping trip to the countryside; games like Resident Evil 4 have tried compressing the sequence into shorter spaces of time, tasking you with minor maths calculations while running from a chainsaw; games like Resident Evil 6 have tried to more or less throw the sequence concept out of a thirtieth-story window in pursuit of cinematic success (no one is counting this bullets in an action movie).
Resident Evil 7 is probably at its most interesting when these sequences simply do not exist. Perspective is key here - whereas most Resident Evils of yore used fixed-perspective views to create a voyeuristic distance between player and hero in a manner evoking the giallo and j-horror of its era, biohazard does quite the opposite, and places The Ring on you (literally you, an amnesiac with no face), directly within the Final Destination of a skull that is being Sawed right this second. A video tape early on has you assume the role of a cameraman in a Louisiana Ghostwatch-type scenario; it's almost 15 minutes of "gameplay" that constitutes nothing more than self-amusement (depending on how amusing you find fear) derived from roleplaying as a gonzo cameraman in the depths of a deserted hell. Not a herb, handgun or key in sight. Just undead dudes dying in the moment.
Imagine my joy when I was forcefully guided into a sequence later in the game where you watch a VHS tape that lets you watch someone watch an mp4 recording of a different VHS tape on a laptop. The game is clearly obsessed with its own movement to the first-person multiple, constantly taking advantage of perspective and changes in perspective through a Connection of videodromic mediums - the eyes, the CCTV, the TV, the eyes of others, the eyes of others watching the TV, the eyes of those filming the TV. Kudos to Capcom for not just blithely saying “Resident Evil is an FPS now” and rather choosing to explore the true implications of horror as experienced first-personally vs. the 3rd-person-protective of Resis past.
Resis past are ultimately the game’s (partial) downfall. In a truly linear sequence of events like this, I don’t think there’s that much value in having the player take on the burden of inventory and item counting/combining. We all hate that feeling of a game requiring you to be an actor - stand here, press this button, watch this cinematic, stand over here, pick up the gun, shoot it now, step backwards to dodge this scripted animation or you will be replaying this sequence again and again and so on, etc., and Resident Evil 7’s insertion of one-way this->that->those sequencing problems too obviously reduce the concept of a video game down to a series of predetermined outcomes. Jack and Maggie carefully matching the pace of pursuit with the player is a perfect exemplar of this - everyone’s on rails; the Baker House vis a vis It’s A Small World; you and the CPUs just playing terrified roles on Capcom’s stage. It’s a wonderfully horrifying performance, though.
Anyone who's played a Resident Evil for more than a few hours will come to understand the game as a series of discrete short and long-term trades - collecting smaller items and using them to complete a bloody and violent Art of the Swap in pursuit of some higher goal. For example, to open a door with a snake on the front: Dodge zombie -> Collect herb -> Collect 5 handgun bullets -> Combine handgun bullets with handgun -> Use 3 handgun bullets to take down the zombie who is standing in the way of a brain in a jar -> Collect brain in jar -> Collect shotgun -> Trade some hitpoints to use the shotgun on a bigger zombie who is standing the way of a statue -> Use brain on statue -> Reveal a key shaped like a snake -> Use one herb to replenish health spent fighting the bigger zombie -> Use snake key on snake door -> Use remaining bullets on snake boss hiding behind snake door. A real time Dungeons & Draggers campaign, a constant evaluation of inventory and comparison with the variables in the current equation of the puzzle box, where skilled play tasks the player with thinking further and further ahead in order to secure flawless success.
As the series has moved forward, the complexity of these sequences has expanded and contracted in all shapes and sizes. Games like Resident Evil 2 have tried to run multiple sequences in parallel, finding replayability for players in the ways it allows you to plan multiple interdependent logistical movements in the same manner one would plan a camping trip to the countryside; games like Resident Evil 4 have tried compressing the sequence into shorter spaces of time, tasking you with minor maths calculations while running from a chainsaw; games like Resident Evil 6 have tried to more or less throw the sequence concept out of a thirtieth-story window in pursuit of cinematic success (no one is counting this bullets in an action movie).
Resident Evil 7 is probably at its most interesting when these sequences simply do not exist. Perspective is key here - whereas most Resident Evils of yore used fixed-perspective views to create a voyeuristic distance between player and hero in a manner evoking the giallo and j-horror of its era, biohazard does quite the opposite, and places The Ring on you (literally you, an amnesiac with no face), directly within the Final Destination of a skull that is being Sawed right this second. A video tape early on has you assume the role of a cameraman in a Louisiana Ghostwatch-type scenario; it's almost 15 minutes of "gameplay" that constitutes nothing more than self-amusement (depending on how amusing you find fear) derived from roleplaying as a gonzo cameraman in the depths of a deserted hell. Not a herb, handgun or key in sight. Just undead dudes dying in the moment.
Imagine my joy when I was forcefully guided into a sequence later in the game where you watch a VHS tape that lets you watch someone watch an mp4 recording of a different VHS tape on a laptop. The game is clearly obsessed with its own movement to the first-person multiple, constantly taking advantage of perspective and changes in perspective through a Connection of videodromic mediums - the eyes, the CCTV, the TV, the eyes of others, the eyes of others watching the TV, the eyes of those filming the TV. Kudos to Capcom for not just blithely saying “Resident Evil is an FPS now” and rather choosing to explore the true implications of horror as experienced first-personally vs. the 3rd-person-protective of Resis past.
Resis past are ultimately the game’s (partial) downfall. In a truly linear sequence of events like this, I don’t think there’s that much value in having the player take on the burden of inventory and item counting/combining. We all hate that feeling of a game requiring you to be an actor - stand here, press this button, watch this cinematic, stand over here, pick up the gun, shoot it now, step backwards to dodge this scripted animation or you will be replaying this sequence again and again and so on, etc., and Resident Evil 7’s insertion of one-way this->that->those sequencing problems too obviously reduce the concept of a video game down to a series of predetermined outcomes. Jack and Maggie carefully matching the pace of pursuit with the player is a perfect exemplar of this - everyone’s on rails; the Baker House vis a vis It’s A Small World; you and the CPUs just playing terrified roles on Capcom’s stage. It’s a wonderfully horrifying performance, though.
what at a first glance may seem like a return to its franchise's roots, is quickly hamstrung by adopting many design sensibilities of other modern AAA games
the opening at the guest house is a deadly combination of forced walking segments and unskippable cutscenes that make you mash a button or something occasionally to keep up a guise of interactivity. these not only harm the game's replayability, but even on a first playthrough the way they play out is quite stilted and hard to take seriously. between the limp animation and the abundance of cartoonish jumpscares, the only knot in my stomach was one of second-hand embarrassment
after a texas chainsaw massacre pastiche introducing our cast of villains, the main segment of the game begins, and this is where the game momentarily hooked me; jack baker is immediately intimidating, and being thrown into an unfamiliar environment with the looming threat of him coming to get you made me move with a lot more trepidation than usual, but after playing the game a little more i realised that jack's words were merely empty threats
if jack discovers you he'll chase you down and if he catches you, he does a bit of damage after which you can easily keep running, this combined with plentiful healing items and automatic checkpoints makes just going about your business and tanking the damage an all too inviting prospect, evaporating any and all fear or tension the game initially created
this is a major problem because the game hangs its hat on this one gimmick to make things interested because it has very little to offer otherwise. classic resident evil games are set in maze like maps that need to be slowly pieced together through puzzle solving and remembering points of interest and what goes where, the game's limited inventory and resources and well placed enemies adding another layer of strategy to navigation, saving your progress also being a limited resource in itself was always often a source a source of tension and relief as a resourceful player could go long stretches without their progress being locked in
meanwhile the house in resident evil 7 is like three floors right on top of each other that are all tiny and can be fully explored almost immediately, aside from jack being a mild nuisance (as you'll sometimes need to run in circles to shake him off to progress) the navigation lacks any sort of friction; aside from the basement, there are no other enemies, puzzles that almost solve themselves, unlimited saves and once again a mountain of resources around every corner. there is exactly one locked door that's more than a couple of rooms away from the key to it, which even then isn't too taxing, it just takes a quick trip down to the main room in the basement and there's the scorpion key, practically staring you in the face
to make matters worse, once you defeat jack in the basement, not only does he (obviously) stop chasing you, but all the other enemies, regardless if they've been killed or not, just magically vanish. the basement can very easily be tackled immediately, leaving you with a completely empty house, with a load of boring rooms with stuff to press A on in them
the rest of the game unfortunately follows a similar structure, the old house segment has an interesting gimmick with lots of hives blocking you which swarm you with bugs when approached, and you have to find the parts to build a flamethrower which has quite limited ammunition, meaning you have to pick and choose which hives are the most important to get rid of and make yourself a safe path through the house
except this isn't what happens at all, this segment is so short and the map is so tiny this concept barely has a chance to get off the ground. in other words, why would i even consider burning this hive when circumventing it takes seconds, this house is like six or seven tiny rooms total, and once again if the bugs do attack you they do far too little damage to become something to worry about. the biggest challenge here is noticing that you're supposed to crawl into a tiny fireplace behind one of the two mandatory hives which i didn't even know existed because it's so fucking dark all the time
marguerite has even less prescence than her husband, beginning her chase mere minutes before her boss fight and she won't leave her house for some reason, go out near the waterhouse and she'll just stand in the doorway cackling like a dumbass, one time i shot her in the head a few times to make her leave and she glitched out and ran back and forth up against a window before teleporting on top of me to do her janky animation where she knocks you over or whatever, it's impossible to take seriously
take away these poorly executed central gimmicks and you're left with more of the same; banal, unskippable cutscenes, shitty jumpscares, and the bare minimum for what could qualify as puzzles
lucas baker is the cheeky one with his house full of tricks, except his tricks are just like a load of tripwires and boxes that explode and boring shit like that. cheating his escape room is an enjoyable and clever sequence though, and i like that because there's a tape you can watch earlier that has someone solving it normally and getting killed, there's also an in-universe reason as to how ethan would know how to cheat it
after that's over though jack returns this time as a big blob with a silly voice that you have to defeat by shooting his fucking eyeball weak points, at it was this point that i felt myself fully checking out
the way enemies in general are handled is just terrible, mostly due to the fact that this game has literally one enemy type in it, just one (except for those bugs from earlier i guess) and it's just a pale imitation of the regenerators from resident evil 4. there are variants sure, some of them are a little bigger, some of them walk on all fours, but it's all basically the same sludgy lizard monsters the entire game, and flaccidly shooting their heads quickly gets tiresome
enemy variety is important for most games, and for horror games it's also just another tool to be scary, running into a new enemy you haven't seen before is inherently unnerving, you're not sure what they're capable of. returning to the spencer mansion in resident evil 1 and finding that the regular zombies have been replaced with these big lizard guys that run at you and rip you to shreds is terrifying, it imbues this previously conquered area with a whole new sense of life, a feeling resident evil 7 is never able to conjure up because you'll get to the end of the game and see the same enemy you've been seeing the whole game and you'll be like 'oh yeah those guys, nothing to worry about'.
the boss fights are equally terrible, they're overly long, overly scripted, and directed so badly it hurts. if i told you that there was a boss fight where two people fight with chainsaws like they're swords you might think that sounds pretty cool, but no it's just the most awkward looking janky shit you've ever seen it's just a headache if anything. also fuck that second fight with marguerite where she just leaves and hangs out somewhere off screen for what feels like minutes at a time that shit is so boring
anyway after all that is the fucking boat part which even people i've talked to who like the game seem to hate, because my god is it long and paced poorly. this is mostly due to the fact that you have to play through a boring extended flashback sequence on the boat, and then have to do a load more stuff in the same place again but now in the present where's it's like all dingy and old. i'd like to be able to be able to praise this segment as it's more of a challenge to piece together on a macro level than usual, due to its larger size and longer puzzle sequences, but it's just so dull regardless and i'm so tired of the game at this point that i just want it to be over, i suppose resident evil has never been known for its climaxes.
this area is where the game's story comes to a head, which i also find very dull. i don't think it's worth really going into too much but basically going with the 'little ghost girl who's evil because she was a biological experiment' thing they went with is so played out and presented in such a flat and uninteresting way with such nothing characters that it was hard for me to muster a single bone in my body to care about any of it. this is nothing new for resident evil but this game in particular wants so badly to be taken seriously that it's just miserable, especially when compared to something like resident evil 4 which is at least likeably cheesy.
the one bright spot of course being jack baker, who's an absolute delight any time he's on the screen, his manic energy is scary but mercifully also very funny, a perfect character for this franchise. i also think the scene near the end where jack like, contacts ethan from the afterlife or whatever while he's unconscious or whatever is quite effective. we get to see jack how he used to be before he was possessed; he's gentle, and speaks in a loving, fatherly tone, and is filled with remorse for the all the trouble he's inadvertently caused you. when he asks you to please save his family it's hard not to feel for the bakers, who were unfortunately swept up in all this.
the game unfortunately limps to the finish line though, with one more awkward stumble through the guest house as visions of your girlfriend with a chainsaw phase in and out of existence with sad music playing and it's just kind of silly, and the boss fight afterwards is more or less a bunch of cutscenes, not really worth mentioning
like i said at the start, resident evil 7 does seem like a return to the franchise's roots, a spooky house, puzzles to solve, inventory to manage, all the stuff you remember. but it's all surface level stuff, the things that made resident evil such an important staple in the survival horror genre are now severely stripped down, and you're just left with this generic, paper-thin, bottom of the barrel mush that's an absolutely mind-numbing slog to play, desperate to wrestle control away from you at every turn all for an endless barrage of cutscenes that all feel the same as each other or to hit you with a cheap jumpscare that can usually be seen coming from a mile away
what once frightened me, now bores me.
what once brought me satisfaction, now leaves me hollow.
and what should've been a glorious return to form, is anything but.
the opening at the guest house is a deadly combination of forced walking segments and unskippable cutscenes that make you mash a button or something occasionally to keep up a guise of interactivity. these not only harm the game's replayability, but even on a first playthrough the way they play out is quite stilted and hard to take seriously. between the limp animation and the abundance of cartoonish jumpscares, the only knot in my stomach was one of second-hand embarrassment
after a texas chainsaw massacre pastiche introducing our cast of villains, the main segment of the game begins, and this is where the game momentarily hooked me; jack baker is immediately intimidating, and being thrown into an unfamiliar environment with the looming threat of him coming to get you made me move with a lot more trepidation than usual, but after playing the game a little more i realised that jack's words were merely empty threats
if jack discovers you he'll chase you down and if he catches you, he does a bit of damage after which you can easily keep running, this combined with plentiful healing items and automatic checkpoints makes just going about your business and tanking the damage an all too inviting prospect, evaporating any and all fear or tension the game initially created
this is a major problem because the game hangs its hat on this one gimmick to make things interested because it has very little to offer otherwise. classic resident evil games are set in maze like maps that need to be slowly pieced together through puzzle solving and remembering points of interest and what goes where, the game's limited inventory and resources and well placed enemies adding another layer of strategy to navigation, saving your progress also being a limited resource in itself was always often a source a source of tension and relief as a resourceful player could go long stretches without their progress being locked in
meanwhile the house in resident evil 7 is like three floors right on top of each other that are all tiny and can be fully explored almost immediately, aside from jack being a mild nuisance (as you'll sometimes need to run in circles to shake him off to progress) the navigation lacks any sort of friction; aside from the basement, there are no other enemies, puzzles that almost solve themselves, unlimited saves and once again a mountain of resources around every corner. there is exactly one locked door that's more than a couple of rooms away from the key to it, which even then isn't too taxing, it just takes a quick trip down to the main room in the basement and there's the scorpion key, practically staring you in the face
to make matters worse, once you defeat jack in the basement, not only does he (obviously) stop chasing you, but all the other enemies, regardless if they've been killed or not, just magically vanish. the basement can very easily be tackled immediately, leaving you with a completely empty house, with a load of boring rooms with stuff to press A on in them
the rest of the game unfortunately follows a similar structure, the old house segment has an interesting gimmick with lots of hives blocking you which swarm you with bugs when approached, and you have to find the parts to build a flamethrower which has quite limited ammunition, meaning you have to pick and choose which hives are the most important to get rid of and make yourself a safe path through the house
except this isn't what happens at all, this segment is so short and the map is so tiny this concept barely has a chance to get off the ground. in other words, why would i even consider burning this hive when circumventing it takes seconds, this house is like six or seven tiny rooms total, and once again if the bugs do attack you they do far too little damage to become something to worry about. the biggest challenge here is noticing that you're supposed to crawl into a tiny fireplace behind one of the two mandatory hives which i didn't even know existed because it's so fucking dark all the time
marguerite has even less prescence than her husband, beginning her chase mere minutes before her boss fight and she won't leave her house for some reason, go out near the waterhouse and she'll just stand in the doorway cackling like a dumbass, one time i shot her in the head a few times to make her leave and she glitched out and ran back and forth up against a window before teleporting on top of me to do her janky animation where she knocks you over or whatever, it's impossible to take seriously
take away these poorly executed central gimmicks and you're left with more of the same; banal, unskippable cutscenes, shitty jumpscares, and the bare minimum for what could qualify as puzzles
lucas baker is the cheeky one with his house full of tricks, except his tricks are just like a load of tripwires and boxes that explode and boring shit like that. cheating his escape room is an enjoyable and clever sequence though, and i like that because there's a tape you can watch earlier that has someone solving it normally and getting killed, there's also an in-universe reason as to how ethan would know how to cheat it
after that's over though jack returns this time as a big blob with a silly voice that you have to defeat by shooting his fucking eyeball weak points, at it was this point that i felt myself fully checking out
the way enemies in general are handled is just terrible, mostly due to the fact that this game has literally one enemy type in it, just one (except for those bugs from earlier i guess) and it's just a pale imitation of the regenerators from resident evil 4. there are variants sure, some of them are a little bigger, some of them walk on all fours, but it's all basically the same sludgy lizard monsters the entire game, and flaccidly shooting their heads quickly gets tiresome
enemy variety is important for most games, and for horror games it's also just another tool to be scary, running into a new enemy you haven't seen before is inherently unnerving, you're not sure what they're capable of. returning to the spencer mansion in resident evil 1 and finding that the regular zombies have been replaced with these big lizard guys that run at you and rip you to shreds is terrifying, it imbues this previously conquered area with a whole new sense of life, a feeling resident evil 7 is never able to conjure up because you'll get to the end of the game and see the same enemy you've been seeing the whole game and you'll be like 'oh yeah those guys, nothing to worry about'.
the boss fights are equally terrible, they're overly long, overly scripted, and directed so badly it hurts. if i told you that there was a boss fight where two people fight with chainsaws like they're swords you might think that sounds pretty cool, but no it's just the most awkward looking janky shit you've ever seen it's just a headache if anything. also fuck that second fight with marguerite where she just leaves and hangs out somewhere off screen for what feels like minutes at a time that shit is so boring
anyway after all that is the fucking boat part which even people i've talked to who like the game seem to hate, because my god is it long and paced poorly. this is mostly due to the fact that you have to play through a boring extended flashback sequence on the boat, and then have to do a load more stuff in the same place again but now in the present where's it's like all dingy and old. i'd like to be able to be able to praise this segment as it's more of a challenge to piece together on a macro level than usual, due to its larger size and longer puzzle sequences, but it's just so dull regardless and i'm so tired of the game at this point that i just want it to be over, i suppose resident evil has never been known for its climaxes.
this area is where the game's story comes to a head, which i also find very dull. i don't think it's worth really going into too much but basically going with the 'little ghost girl who's evil because she was a biological experiment' thing they went with is so played out and presented in such a flat and uninteresting way with such nothing characters that it was hard for me to muster a single bone in my body to care about any of it. this is nothing new for resident evil but this game in particular wants so badly to be taken seriously that it's just miserable, especially when compared to something like resident evil 4 which is at least likeably cheesy.
the one bright spot of course being jack baker, who's an absolute delight any time he's on the screen, his manic energy is scary but mercifully also very funny, a perfect character for this franchise. i also think the scene near the end where jack like, contacts ethan from the afterlife or whatever while he's unconscious or whatever is quite effective. we get to see jack how he used to be before he was possessed; he's gentle, and speaks in a loving, fatherly tone, and is filled with remorse for the all the trouble he's inadvertently caused you. when he asks you to please save his family it's hard not to feel for the bakers, who were unfortunately swept up in all this.
the game unfortunately limps to the finish line though, with one more awkward stumble through the guest house as visions of your girlfriend with a chainsaw phase in and out of existence with sad music playing and it's just kind of silly, and the boss fight afterwards is more or less a bunch of cutscenes, not really worth mentioning
like i said at the start, resident evil 7 does seem like a return to the franchise's roots, a spooky house, puzzles to solve, inventory to manage, all the stuff you remember. but it's all surface level stuff, the things that made resident evil such an important staple in the survival horror genre are now severely stripped down, and you're just left with this generic, paper-thin, bottom of the barrel mush that's an absolutely mind-numbing slog to play, desperate to wrestle control away from you at every turn all for an endless barrage of cutscenes that all feel the same as each other or to hit you with a cheap jumpscare that can usually be seen coming from a mile away
what once frightened me, now bores me.
what once brought me satisfaction, now leaves me hollow.
and what should've been a glorious return to form, is anything but.
The backwater swamps of Louisiana have darkness hiding deep in their midst. The Baker family estate oozes this darkness and invites you to look deeper. The siren call of the Baker estate is equal parts alluring and off-putting; it’s arguably the most well-designed and haunting setting within a horror game to date. Its derelict and rotted-out interiors are meticulously constructed in such a way as to leave you feeling unnerved and repulsed by the rot and mould that surrounds you. The gameplay also lends itself well to the game's setting and design, as it reigns in the camera to a first-person view and disempowers the player, which is in stark contrast to Resident Evil 4, 5, and 6, which upped the ante action-wise and emphasised faster gameplay. It’s a nice change of pace and helps strengthen the feeling of intimate slow-burn horror it sets out to achieve, which is nearly ever-present for most of the game. In almost all areas, Biohazard excels at everything it sets out to do and cements itself as a modern classic of survival horror.
capcom would be real rock stars at the forefront of a renaissance in my eyes if they once again harnessed the visual mutability and intimate choreography of the venerable survival horror titans: gorgeous fixed camera angles, a sense of foreboding lurking in every obfuscated space, prerendered environments littered with mesmerizing detail...anything would beat this newly formulated vein of survival horror, a 'new' taxonomy, the strengths of which are reflected better in other titles and the bountiful weaknesses of which are unique to itself - it should be the opposite! theres so much untapped potential in this concept: a return to the old style with modern tech...
anyways, id be lying if i didn't say that at times, the enjoyment i had with this eclipsed any other game i played this year - but only at times. capcom brings a strong sense of polish to the games proceedings and takes care to imbue it with an immersive quality, but it all feels hollow. the main plot outside of the bakers and the raimi/hooper aesthetic they bring to the table is completely charmless; the molded are awful enemies that don't make players plan ahead appropriately, nor do they compliment the games virtues; as everyone claims, the last third of the game is indeed action-laden busywork; the balancing of traditional survival horror tenets like resource management and the ability to skillfully avoid damage is askew; that medley of locked-away dlc campaigns and scenarios continues to taunt me, and this coming from a franchise that used to be the king of optional post-game content. there's something to be said for taking the traditional resident evil structure and transporting it to first-person, it makes for a game that feels like nothing else out there at the moment (claims that it is a safe product made to cynically cater to the disenfranchised PT audience be damned) but it's just a shame that this is so safe and palatable as a resident evil title, and that village looks similarly bankrupt of ideas...almost makes me miss when resident evil was this garish action gourmet completely lacking in self awareness
anyways, id be lying if i didn't say that at times, the enjoyment i had with this eclipsed any other game i played this year - but only at times. capcom brings a strong sense of polish to the games proceedings and takes care to imbue it with an immersive quality, but it all feels hollow. the main plot outside of the bakers and the raimi/hooper aesthetic they bring to the table is completely charmless; the molded are awful enemies that don't make players plan ahead appropriately, nor do they compliment the games virtues; as everyone claims, the last third of the game is indeed action-laden busywork; the balancing of traditional survival horror tenets like resource management and the ability to skillfully avoid damage is askew; that medley of locked-away dlc campaigns and scenarios continues to taunt me, and this coming from a franchise that used to be the king of optional post-game content. there's something to be said for taking the traditional resident evil structure and transporting it to first-person, it makes for a game that feels like nothing else out there at the moment (claims that it is a safe product made to cynically cater to the disenfranchised PT audience be damned) but it's just a shame that this is so safe and palatable as a resident evil title, and that village looks similarly bankrupt of ideas...almost makes me miss when resident evil was this garish action gourmet completely lacking in self awareness
This review contains spoilers
"Ethan, free my family---please"
great story and a tense horror romp through and through. my sole gripe is that this tension tends to be illusory as the bakers themselves are rarely as threatening as they're presented. marguerite is especially fearsome until you get "caught" by her and realize she just throws easily disposed bugs and eats headshots for breakfast
definitely starts feeling more like a horror laced shooter after a while due to abundant ammo supplies and finite enemies. i did however enjoy shooting the goopy boys very much despite their horrible hit registration and i see this as a great foundation for re8 to build on top of
fuck that magnum though. 9 coins for one bullet?? i was fucking scammed bro
edit: additional half star awarded for joe baker gaming. charge complete
definitely starts feeling more like a horror laced shooter after a while due to abundant ammo supplies and finite enemies. i did however enjoy shooting the goopy boys very much despite their horrible hit registration and i see this as a great foundation for re8 to build on top of
fuck that magnum though. 9 coins for one bullet?? i was fucking scammed bro
edit: additional half star awarded for joe baker gaming. charge complete
Enjoyment - 8/10
Difficulty - 5/10
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is a return to form.
Depending on who you ask, this is or isn't a Resident Evil game. While that debate and general mantra is exhausting, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard provides big spooks and a fun gameplay loop. If you have only started getting interested in the Resident Evil series, then this is a great springboard!
🏆
Difficulty - 5/10
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is a return to form.
Depending on who you ask, this is or isn't a Resident Evil game. While that debate and general mantra is exhausting, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard provides big spooks and a fun gameplay loop. If you have only started getting interested in the Resident Evil series, then this is a great springboard!
🏆
After installing Resident Evil 7, I sat quietly and listened to the somber yet calming piano play through the PS5 menu for a few minutes before finally embarking on my first foray into the Resident Evil franchise.
I had watched a friend play pieces of RE4, so I expected zombies, guns, and some kitsch. I wasn't worried. I wasn't daunted by the divergence of a happy, sweet video into one of fear, and I wasn't taking Mia's warning to "stay away" seriously. As I was treated to what looked like a beautiful fall afternoon in Louisiana, I should've known that my wandering in the weeds, through the beams of sunlight shining through the tree canopy, lackadaisically searching for clues about Mia, would be my last few moments of peace for a long while. Until I entered that damn house.
What followed was nine and a half hours of pure terror-driven tension. Biohazard does an amazing job of throwing you into the deep end from the get-go - pushing you off balance, and using your anxiety against you. The Baker family are a force to be reckoned with, to be sure, but, like any good horror film, so much of the tension comes from the fear of what might happen. The haunting and hostile atmosphere cultivated throughout the game is top-notch and really essential to the success of the experience. Stray noises, flickering lights, and shadows (even your own) work to keep you on edge as you explore, keeping the tension ramped up even when you begin to feel safe. I honestly can't imagine trying to play this game in VR. After all of the terror and anxiety of exploring, finally getting to confront my tormenters in boss fights were intense but cathartic events that were incredibly satisfying to pull off.
The first half of the game is masterful, and I found myself constantly thinking about the game, even after I had put down my controller. The characters were fascinating, the gameplay was exciting, and I couldn't wait to figure out what was happening and where to go next. I do feel like Biohazard reaches its heights around the midway point of the plot, as the latter half of the game eschews the horror pacing and replaces it with buckets of ammo and exposition overload through pamphlets and notes. I still enjoyed the second half - feeling a little more powerful was a nice way to turn the tables, but some of the choices regarding pace were strange. For a game that spends most of its time delivering story through gameplay, the decision to dump answers via text felt cheap, and while thematically the ending sequence makes sense, the execution was incredibly lackluster and somewhat unsatisfying in regards to actual gameplay. Resident Evil 7 would be as close to perfection as possible if the ending sequence lived up to the bar set by the previous segments of the game.
Overall, despite a somewhat frustrating finish, I still felt fulfilled by the game as a whole, and I will never forget my time in the Dulvey Mansion. The characters, mystery, and story-telling throughout the game triumph over the short-comings, and made RE7 one of the best gaming experiences I've had in recent memory.
I had watched a friend play pieces of RE4, so I expected zombies, guns, and some kitsch. I wasn't worried. I wasn't daunted by the divergence of a happy, sweet video into one of fear, and I wasn't taking Mia's warning to "stay away" seriously. As I was treated to what looked like a beautiful fall afternoon in Louisiana, I should've known that my wandering in the weeds, through the beams of sunlight shining through the tree canopy, lackadaisically searching for clues about Mia, would be my last few moments of peace for a long while. Until I entered that damn house.
What followed was nine and a half hours of pure terror-driven tension. Biohazard does an amazing job of throwing you into the deep end from the get-go - pushing you off balance, and using your anxiety against you. The Baker family are a force to be reckoned with, to be sure, but, like any good horror film, so much of the tension comes from the fear of what might happen. The haunting and hostile atmosphere cultivated throughout the game is top-notch and really essential to the success of the experience. Stray noises, flickering lights, and shadows (even your own) work to keep you on edge as you explore, keeping the tension ramped up even when you begin to feel safe. I honestly can't imagine trying to play this game in VR. After all of the terror and anxiety of exploring, finally getting to confront my tormenters in boss fights were intense but cathartic events that were incredibly satisfying to pull off.
The first half of the game is masterful, and I found myself constantly thinking about the game, even after I had put down my controller. The characters were fascinating, the gameplay was exciting, and I couldn't wait to figure out what was happening and where to go next. I do feel like Biohazard reaches its heights around the midway point of the plot, as the latter half of the game eschews the horror pacing and replaces it with buckets of ammo and exposition overload through pamphlets and notes. I still enjoyed the second half - feeling a little more powerful was a nice way to turn the tables, but some of the choices regarding pace were strange. For a game that spends most of its time delivering story through gameplay, the decision to dump answers via text felt cheap, and while thematically the ending sequence makes sense, the execution was incredibly lackluster and somewhat unsatisfying in regards to actual gameplay. Resident Evil 7 would be as close to perfection as possible if the ending sequence lived up to the bar set by the previous segments of the game.
Overall, despite a somewhat frustrating finish, I still felt fulfilled by the game as a whole, and I will never forget my time in the Dulvey Mansion. The characters, mystery, and story-telling throughout the game triumph over the short-comings, and made RE7 one of the best gaming experiences I've had in recent memory.
One of the best Resident Evil games ever made, made possible by abandoning the boring-as-fuck worthless protagonists (except Leon) that have infested this series for years, the dumbass espionage stories and shitty villains for what makes this series really click: Some Guy's Scary House.
There is a primal urge in all of us to root around someone else's stuff, and thank god Re7 has created such a detailed and lavish location for us to go through the stuff of. The Baker Estate is brought to life in such incredible detail, the filth encrusting everything, the way light peers in through cracks in the windows, bugs scurrying all over the trash, it's one of the best horror environments ever made since...well, Resident Evil 1!
But a horror location is only as good as the character we have to explore it, as going through this beautiful decay as karate kicking Leon Kennedy would be fucking silly, RE7 breaks out the big guns to give us Protagonist Perfection.
Even though I love the Resident Evil series, I do not understand the love for characters like Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield whose defining characteristics might be their void of charisma. Enter Ethan Winters. Fuck, I love Ethan Winters. He is a swearing pair of hands who is scared, confused, and as the game progresses, pissed off at how annoying this all is. When people talk about him as the worst Resident Evil protagonist I have to wonder what the hell games they've been playing in this series, as Leon is the only other character with this much dumb guy energy that gives him the ability to fight monsters.
And what monsters have we given this ding dong to fight, as the Baker family and the molded are just wonderful, getting up close and personal, distorting in horribly monstrous ways, and refusing to die, shrugging off firepower and showing no regards to any bodily harm. I also love the molded, I don't get the disregard for them, as the first time one just slunk around the corner and got in my face I sure as hell let it be known, the way they move in such a way that they look like they are being puppeted with marionette strings. The way they maneuver towards you, seeming to get faster and more pissed off the more bullets you pepper into them, is VERY effective at making me piss myself.
This is easily the scariest game in the entire franchise, because of how small and vulnerable Ethan feels just carefully creeping through the Baker house, barely feeling like you have any room at all to run and fight, it is the most effective dis empowerment the series has ever played with, as Ethan truly feels over matched at every turn. It actually took me until 2020 to even be able to get past the section after the dinner scene where you have to avoid Jack, as it was so intense that I would reflexively alt-f4 the fuck out of the game the second he looked at me.
The first-person perspective gives the game a much more personal horror than ever before, and the sound work on display is bar none the best they've ever put in Resident Evil. the way you can hear bullets bounce around inside the shotgun as you run, the echo of the main hall, the clicks of locks and the menu, this is one of the most aesthetically pleasing games to the ears ever, which sounds insane, but you gotta believe me and play with headphones.
My only big complaint that prevents this from joining the 5-star pantheon is the pivot to "scary little girl horror" the game takes near the end. Which...look the game stays fun all the way through, but the Bakers were so much more engaging that it's a total head scratcher why Capcom stopped digging for oil and broke out one of the most tired cliches of all time.
Also what the fuck is up with them an tanker levels? Is there a guy on staff who was doing a hunger strike until they put a tanker in every fucking game? It's absurd. It's not enough to make me hate the game, but definitely enough to disappoint me that this is the pivot it took.
I also hate how Capcom seems like it can't resist their bad habits and in the DLCs do everything they can to erase the mystery and tragedy of the story by explaining shit away with TOO much detail. The tragedy of the Baker family was one of the saddest details in the game, of how a quiet but pleasant family slowly transformed into unkillable murderers, the idea that the molded slowly transformed while people were aware of the transformation, whatever the FUCK is going on in End of Zoe. Do yourself a favor and only play the DLC with Clancy as those are actually pretty decent, avoid Daughters, End of Zoe, and Not A Hero if you respect this story and want to continue doing so.
There is a primal urge in all of us to root around someone else's stuff, and thank god Re7 has created such a detailed and lavish location for us to go through the stuff of. The Baker Estate is brought to life in such incredible detail, the filth encrusting everything, the way light peers in through cracks in the windows, bugs scurrying all over the trash, it's one of the best horror environments ever made since...well, Resident Evil 1!
But a horror location is only as good as the character we have to explore it, as going through this beautiful decay as karate kicking Leon Kennedy would be fucking silly, RE7 breaks out the big guns to give us Protagonist Perfection.
Even though I love the Resident Evil series, I do not understand the love for characters like Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield whose defining characteristics might be their void of charisma. Enter Ethan Winters. Fuck, I love Ethan Winters. He is a swearing pair of hands who is scared, confused, and as the game progresses, pissed off at how annoying this all is. When people talk about him as the worst Resident Evil protagonist I have to wonder what the hell games they've been playing in this series, as Leon is the only other character with this much dumb guy energy that gives him the ability to fight monsters.
And what monsters have we given this ding dong to fight, as the Baker family and the molded are just wonderful, getting up close and personal, distorting in horribly monstrous ways, and refusing to die, shrugging off firepower and showing no regards to any bodily harm. I also love the molded, I don't get the disregard for them, as the first time one just slunk around the corner and got in my face I sure as hell let it be known, the way they move in such a way that they look like they are being puppeted with marionette strings. The way they maneuver towards you, seeming to get faster and more pissed off the more bullets you pepper into them, is VERY effective at making me piss myself.
This is easily the scariest game in the entire franchise, because of how small and vulnerable Ethan feels just carefully creeping through the Baker house, barely feeling like you have any room at all to run and fight, it is the most effective dis empowerment the series has ever played with, as Ethan truly feels over matched at every turn. It actually took me until 2020 to even be able to get past the section after the dinner scene where you have to avoid Jack, as it was so intense that I would reflexively alt-f4 the fuck out of the game the second he looked at me.
The first-person perspective gives the game a much more personal horror than ever before, and the sound work on display is bar none the best they've ever put in Resident Evil. the way you can hear bullets bounce around inside the shotgun as you run, the echo of the main hall, the clicks of locks and the menu, this is one of the most aesthetically pleasing games to the ears ever, which sounds insane, but you gotta believe me and play with headphones.
My only big complaint that prevents this from joining the 5-star pantheon is the pivot to "scary little girl horror" the game takes near the end. Which...look the game stays fun all the way through, but the Bakers were so much more engaging that it's a total head scratcher why Capcom stopped digging for oil and broke out one of the most tired cliches of all time.
Also what the fuck is up with them an tanker levels? Is there a guy on staff who was doing a hunger strike until they put a tanker in every fucking game? It's absurd. It's not enough to make me hate the game, but definitely enough to disappoint me that this is the pivot it took.
I also hate how Capcom seems like it can't resist their bad habits and in the DLCs do everything they can to erase the mystery and tragedy of the story by explaining shit away with TOO much detail. The tragedy of the Baker family was one of the saddest details in the game, of how a quiet but pleasant family slowly transformed into unkillable murderers, the idea that the molded slowly transformed while people were aware of the transformation, whatever the FUCK is going on in End of Zoe. Do yourself a favor and only play the DLC with Clancy as those are actually pretty decent, avoid Daughters, End of Zoe, and Not A Hero if you respect this story and want to continue doing so.
nunca um jogo me deixou tão mente vazia oficina do diabo
é um jogo, tá ligado? definitivamente é um jogo.
nao tem o que falar
é um jogo, tá ligado? definitivamente é um jogo.
nao tem o que falar
nothing is more scary then being inside someone else's house(i'm very introverted)
Resident Evil 7 is one of the best games in the series, the idea that the game was a return to form for the franchise has been done to death, what’s more interesting is everything it did differently.
A new tone and art style, Resident Evil 7 is grounded in a way the games before it never even attempted, the art direction makes the horror scarier and the zanier parts more surreal, the perfect balance between true scares and pure camp that few games have ever managed.
A setting that will stick in my mind forever, Resident Evil 7 is the perfect blend of classic Resident Evil and 2010s pop horror games.
A new tone and art style, Resident Evil 7 is grounded in a way the games before it never even attempted, the art direction makes the horror scarier and the zanier parts more surreal, the perfect balance between true scares and pure camp that few games have ever managed.
A setting that will stick in my mind forever, Resident Evil 7 is the perfect blend of classic Resident Evil and 2010s pop horror games.
I love and hate this game.
I love it, because the atmosphere and claustrophobia is on on a very high level and I hate it, because Ethan is a nobody I can’t insert myself into. So he’s not only boring, he’s not even working as a self-insert.
I love it, because the atmosphere and claustrophobia is on on a very high level and I hate it, because Ethan is a nobody I can’t insert myself into. So he’s not only boring, he’s not even working as a self-insert.
Has a totally unbearable physicality, which is well suited to the format of the return trip 'home'. Resident Evil 7 draws on Tobe Hooper's monstrous families, tempering the blunt force trauma of Texas Chain Saw Massacre with the camp theatrics of its sequel (as well as Eaten Alive, Funhouse). Jack as patriarch welcomes us to the family as his 'son' and for as long as Jack's around, playing dad, we're returned to a kind of infantile paranoia. Things knock upstairs, others rattle against the windows or roof, and to open the door is to build the courage to peer down and look for the monster under the bed. Jack stomps and rages and throws tantrums so we can always see or hear him, but the very presence of Jack turns the Baker house into the site of one's haunted childhood. Then finally, stepping out from his shadow, we burst from the house, and turning around reality sets in. It was trees and creaky floorboards all along. From here it's an action game. A good action game, but these four stars are all for that first act.