This has been that kind of game that's been lurking at the back of my mind to play ever since it came out. Its such an interesting piece, a "soft reboot" in an extremely profitable series wherin the reboot wasn't done due to dwindling sales, but because of dwindling reception. With Resident Evil already having gone through a gradual transition from slow, atmospheric puzzle-like horror to gradually becoming more of a horror-themed action game, this game seemed like such a fascinating oddity. It was "going back to the series' roots", but also not really? In a lot of ways I'm really happy with how this game turned out: It carves out its own identity in the series with a setting and theme unique to it, when it could've so easily gone and done a Force Awakens-style retread of the past. But I'm also kind of...mixed, in other areas.
It was especially weird playing this after coming off of RE2 2019 and REmake, both of which are absolute masterclass in map design and creating genuine horror and dread from map and enemy design. Compared to their lofty standards, 7 can't help but feel a little...quaint? It was probably a good call to scale back the scope after RE6, and there's admittedly something very charming about seeing the RE1-style map design on such a miniature scale, divided up into clear segments rather than having so much of it be in one labyrinthine house. Like I said, it gives this game its own identity, and supports its atmosphere nicely. But it also feels like core parts of the reason for RE1 and RE2s map design were lost here. They weren't just scary because they were backtrack-heavy, but because they were both filled with enemies you shouldn't always kill, and filled with tempting diversions in the form of loot and weapons. Aside from lockpick drawers, RE7 has like....the grenade launcher in the storage room? And going after either of those isn't exactly much of a risk/reward choice, as the only thing you typically lose for going after them is...time.
That's in large part because of how enemies are handled in RE7. The Molded, design wise, lore wise, etc, are pretty scary. But aside from the specific gameplay segments where the challenge is about circumventing them, they're not a looming threat across the whole game the same way the Zombies are in RE1/2. A lot of the game feels..."safe", in terms of the feeling the player is put under, because The Molded simply aren't effective at being a threat the player is constantly worrying about, instead being a lot more disposable and coming in far lower quantities in far safer areas. And I do understand the reasons for it to be like this: The focus of each quarter of the game is mainly on fighting the Bakers themselves, who in a lot of parts of the game do stalk you in some genuinely pretty varied, yet always tense ways. That aspect of the game does work! But at the same time I think it turns RE7 a bit too hard into a different kind of horror, different from the kind of "Survival Horror" that RE pioneered and held true to for the first half of its life. To me, its leaning just a smidge too far toward a "helpless" kind of horror. When so little of the game is actually about judging whether or not its worth fighting the threat in front of you, and so much more of it is about hiding, sneaking, and arguably relying on surprise jumpscares, it gives me the feeling that I probably won't be replaying this game any time soon. That's my core issue with the game and why I feel its on the lower end of the ones I've played: It downplays the strengths of the core RE formula, and instead focuses more on being a kind of horror that is to me far less interesting to the player.
The emphasis the game places on gore and general visual horror just furthers this point: Most of the 'horror' in the game makes me think "man, I feel so bad for Ethan", rather than making me as the player feel scared and tense about the gameplay actions I have and will be taking. Almost as if to try and rectify this, the final quarter of the game almost completely changes gears to being a shooter, but it doesn't feel nearly as earned as transitions like this have done in prior titles because fighting back was given so little focus, and was so uninteresting, beforehand.
Pretty much all of these issues, mind you, are ones that I was thinking about in terms of comparing it to the other RE games I played, and how I just prefer their kind of horror. As a one-and-done romp, played for the story and the surprise moments, RE7 does what it sets out to do! It was just a very interesting experience for me to realize that its...by far the least scary Resident Evil I've played, despite theoretically having the most messed up content and the most claustrophobic camera perspective of the series.
I say all that I have with love and its clear from RE2 2019 and RE8 that the team themselves realized what core parts of RE were missing from 7, and I'm glad the series is "back on track". It just sort of leaves 7 at an awkward inbetween. Its a "flashy" kind of game, a lot of well directed first-person scenes, jumpscare moments that are spaced out well from each other, and its paced out super well in general. But substance wise it feels lacking: I've gained everything I can from the game in my first playthrough. Still, I would say that for people who aren't invested in any level in RE lore, and want to get into the series: This game, while not reflective at all of how others in the series feel, would be a great place to start, even for horror newbies! Its easy to understand and progress through, the combat is so simple that you don't even really need to do stuff like Guard, and as I've detailed its brand of horror is far more stress-free than many other games in the series. Its like a gateway game to RE's kind of spooks. Resident Evil 7 is great game and just what the series needed at the time, but just a few years later and I'm seeing why its so rarely talked about anymore. Its a great one-and-done, great story, but a lacking Resident Evil.
[Playtime: 3 days straight lol]
[Keyword: Short-term]
It was especially weird playing this after coming off of RE2 2019 and REmake, both of which are absolute masterclass in map design and creating genuine horror and dread from map and enemy design. Compared to their lofty standards, 7 can't help but feel a little...quaint? It was probably a good call to scale back the scope after RE6, and there's admittedly something very charming about seeing the RE1-style map design on such a miniature scale, divided up into clear segments rather than having so much of it be in one labyrinthine house. Like I said, it gives this game its own identity, and supports its atmosphere nicely. But it also feels like core parts of the reason for RE1 and RE2s map design were lost here. They weren't just scary because they were backtrack-heavy, but because they were both filled with enemies you shouldn't always kill, and filled with tempting diversions in the form of loot and weapons. Aside from lockpick drawers, RE7 has like....the grenade launcher in the storage room? And going after either of those isn't exactly much of a risk/reward choice, as the only thing you typically lose for going after them is...time.
That's in large part because of how enemies are handled in RE7. The Molded, design wise, lore wise, etc, are pretty scary. But aside from the specific gameplay segments where the challenge is about circumventing them, they're not a looming threat across the whole game the same way the Zombies are in RE1/2. A lot of the game feels..."safe", in terms of the feeling the player is put under, because The Molded simply aren't effective at being a threat the player is constantly worrying about, instead being a lot more disposable and coming in far lower quantities in far safer areas. And I do understand the reasons for it to be like this: The focus of each quarter of the game is mainly on fighting the Bakers themselves, who in a lot of parts of the game do stalk you in some genuinely pretty varied, yet always tense ways. That aspect of the game does work! But at the same time I think it turns RE7 a bit too hard into a different kind of horror, different from the kind of "Survival Horror" that RE pioneered and held true to for the first half of its life. To me, its leaning just a smidge too far toward a "helpless" kind of horror. When so little of the game is actually about judging whether or not its worth fighting the threat in front of you, and so much more of it is about hiding, sneaking, and arguably relying on surprise jumpscares, it gives me the feeling that I probably won't be replaying this game any time soon. That's my core issue with the game and why I feel its on the lower end of the ones I've played: It downplays the strengths of the core RE formula, and instead focuses more on being a kind of horror that is to me far less interesting to the player.
The emphasis the game places on gore and general visual horror just furthers this point: Most of the 'horror' in the game makes me think "man, I feel so bad for Ethan", rather than making me as the player feel scared and tense about the gameplay actions I have and will be taking. Almost as if to try and rectify this, the final quarter of the game almost completely changes gears to being a shooter, but it doesn't feel nearly as earned as transitions like this have done in prior titles because fighting back was given so little focus, and was so uninteresting, beforehand.
Pretty much all of these issues, mind you, are ones that I was thinking about in terms of comparing it to the other RE games I played, and how I just prefer their kind of horror. As a one-and-done romp, played for the story and the surprise moments, RE7 does what it sets out to do! It was just a very interesting experience for me to realize that its...by far the least scary Resident Evil I've played, despite theoretically having the most messed up content and the most claustrophobic camera perspective of the series.
I say all that I have with love and its clear from RE2 2019 and RE8 that the team themselves realized what core parts of RE were missing from 7, and I'm glad the series is "back on track". It just sort of leaves 7 at an awkward inbetween. Its a "flashy" kind of game, a lot of well directed first-person scenes, jumpscare moments that are spaced out well from each other, and its paced out super well in general. But substance wise it feels lacking: I've gained everything I can from the game in my first playthrough. Still, I would say that for people who aren't invested in any level in RE lore, and want to get into the series: This game, while not reflective at all of how others in the series feel, would be a great place to start, even for horror newbies! Its easy to understand and progress through, the combat is so simple that you don't even really need to do stuff like Guard, and as I've detailed its brand of horror is far more stress-free than many other games in the series. Its like a gateway game to RE's kind of spooks. Resident Evil 7 is great game and just what the series needed at the time, but just a few years later and I'm seeing why its so rarely talked about anymore. Its a great one-and-done, great story, but a lacking Resident Evil.
[Playtime: 3 days straight lol]
[Keyword: Short-term]