Filtering through other people's junk is a liberating activity in modern videogaming. Poking through and peaking at stuff you don't own gives you a voyeur's perspective of what the characters' motivations are and grounds you into the world by the game's admission of letting you pilfer as you please. But nothing about what you collect can prepare you for the truly horrific and terrifying events that unfold in the first few hours of Resident Evil 7. A dimly lit family house spewed with electrical twilights and incandescently powered warmth bids you a haunting welcome, but the maggot infested kitchen and the Baker's cannibalistic dining habits turns a mild unwelcoming into a nightmarishly unpleasant and freakishly hostile place, but at least they know how to pull off a family dinner properly.
Your name is Ethan by the way, a basic and uninteresting character which is unfortunate because you'll be seeing in the living colour of his eyes as he tries to break out of the Baker household and seek saner pastures. Ethan's quest sees him attempting to find his wife Mia after she falls victim to a curse which turns her into an unhinged psychopathic malformation of her usual kind and sweet loving self. To liberate your sweetheart you must concoct a serum which has the ability to not only cure your lover, but the Baker family of their wretched filthy ways. What awaits you is an unforgettable and disturbing horror experience, almost jeopardised and squashed by events in the latter portion of the game, but ultimately the creepiness of the first few hours holds greater stain power, not even Vanish can remove the mark left by RE7's remarkable first impression.
Much akin to the first Resident Evil, you will swiftly become acquainted to the Baker household like you acclimated to the Spencer Mansion. Doors require uniquely designed keys to be unlocked, vestigial shadow puzzles need to be solved, and you need to keep your wits about you if you want to break out of the trio-headed dog door alive. The narrow interiors make you feel like an unwanted mouse trying to scurry away from a gang of starving cats, but your only cause for worry is Jack Baker, who constantly stalks you with his southern accent and playful threats, which makes his eerie pursuits of you cringingly unnerving. The result is a truly foreboding survival horror experience which hasn't been seen since the original.
The callbacks to Resident Evil 7's predecessors is something to jointly admire and scorn at. Noticing all the subtle nods to prior entries is great to discover, oddly making you feel comfortable in otherwise uncomfortable situations as you try to fend off aggressors but fondly recognising how the canvas, portraits and puzzles beckon reminders of other Resident Evils. But with lauded praise comes the weariness of contemplating how obsessed Resident Evil is of itself. Arguably there are too many memories of the past carved into the experience that attempts at freshness are smeared by them. The dread and the familiarity seem like an inseparable marriage and sometimes it gets in the way of the outstanding thrills generated early on.
Before you realise it, the atmospheric and daunting momentum of the first several hours slips away thanks to the turgid decision to switch from adrenaline gushing tension building to a flatly quivering corridor shooter with a machine gun at hand, blasting away at Molded monsters and finding story related objects to progress your way forward. The speedier pace does a serviceable job of offsetting the drama, but RE7 carries this pace towards the endgame and consequently suffers for it because nothing besides the bosses keep you on your toes and forces you to think sharply to avoid a gruesome demise.
Your name is Ethan by the way, a basic and uninteresting character which is unfortunate because you'll be seeing in the living colour of his eyes as he tries to break out of the Baker household and seek saner pastures. Ethan's quest sees him attempting to find his wife Mia after she falls victim to a curse which turns her into an unhinged psychopathic malformation of her usual kind and sweet loving self. To liberate your sweetheart you must concoct a serum which has the ability to not only cure your lover, but the Baker family of their wretched filthy ways. What awaits you is an unforgettable and disturbing horror experience, almost jeopardised and squashed by events in the latter portion of the game, but ultimately the creepiness of the first few hours holds greater stain power, not even Vanish can remove the mark left by RE7's remarkable first impression.
Much akin to the first Resident Evil, you will swiftly become acquainted to the Baker household like you acclimated to the Spencer Mansion. Doors require uniquely designed keys to be unlocked, vestigial shadow puzzles need to be solved, and you need to keep your wits about you if you want to break out of the trio-headed dog door alive. The narrow interiors make you feel like an unwanted mouse trying to scurry away from a gang of starving cats, but your only cause for worry is Jack Baker, who constantly stalks you with his southern accent and playful threats, which makes his eerie pursuits of you cringingly unnerving. The result is a truly foreboding survival horror experience which hasn't been seen since the original.
The callbacks to Resident Evil 7's predecessors is something to jointly admire and scorn at. Noticing all the subtle nods to prior entries is great to discover, oddly making you feel comfortable in otherwise uncomfortable situations as you try to fend off aggressors but fondly recognising how the canvas, portraits and puzzles beckon reminders of other Resident Evils. But with lauded praise comes the weariness of contemplating how obsessed Resident Evil is of itself. Arguably there are too many memories of the past carved into the experience that attempts at freshness are smeared by them. The dread and the familiarity seem like an inseparable marriage and sometimes it gets in the way of the outstanding thrills generated early on.
Before you realise it, the atmospheric and daunting momentum of the first several hours slips away thanks to the turgid decision to switch from adrenaline gushing tension building to a flatly quivering corridor shooter with a machine gun at hand, blasting away at Molded monsters and finding story related objects to progress your way forward. The speedier pace does a serviceable job of offsetting the drama, but RE7 carries this pace towards the endgame and consequently suffers for it because nothing besides the bosses keep you on your toes and forces you to think sharply to avoid a gruesome demise.
The purpose of the second part of the game is to chase after and inject a devilish girl named Eveline with a curative to halt the troublesome mutations she's causing. Eveline behaves like Alma from the F.E.A.R franchise, constantly disappearing, causing hallucinations and using her ritualistic voodoo to keep you at bay. Tracking her down isn't easy as she wanders off at her own leisure and catching up to her is made slower and groan-inducing because you are required to search about for items that'll power an elevator to work like it should-but wait it's a horror videogame, of course the lift has to be broken, so the trembling trepidation crawls up your spine again but without the payoff from dread.
If you can forgive the unwarranted deviation from the absurdity of RE7's horrific delights, you can find peace with the direction of the entire game. But when the paranoia departs from your psyche and the substitute is to run, aim down sights and lop off heads in gormless desperation, the Resident Evil you know and love shows that it's giving up on its foundational roots and settling for the same disjointed foray of rattling bullets into grimy fiends-it's like a child who decides that he's tired of his artistic talents and instead focuses his mind on a career in account management despite the fact he and his friends know and acknowledge that he hates maths.
RE7 doesn't do shooting badly what with the sickening squelch of bullet lead on mutated appendages coming across so gruesomely satisfying, but nobody serious about the franchise wants Resident Evil to be something it isn't, and RE7 does eventually fall down this hole, but the memorable boss fights salvage and make up for the disappointing moments.
Where to begin with the grotesque encounters in RE7? Yes so Jack Baker is an unhinged lunatic and an accursed and depraved specimen, but his dear wife is no different because when you can make allies with an agglomeration of pests and you yourself unload them on an unsuspecting victim you are downright in need of holy liberation. And we've yet to mention the gigantic malformations, exposing twisting mutated sinew and those deadly infected weak spot eyes. Historically, the boss fights have never been called into question and Resident Evil 7 is no different in this regard.
If you can forgive the unwarranted deviation from the absurdity of RE7's horrific delights, you can find peace with the direction of the entire game. But when the paranoia departs from your psyche and the substitute is to run, aim down sights and lop off heads in gormless desperation, the Resident Evil you know and love shows that it's giving up on its foundational roots and settling for the same disjointed foray of rattling bullets into grimy fiends-it's like a child who decides that he's tired of his artistic talents and instead focuses his mind on a career in account management despite the fact he and his friends know and acknowledge that he hates maths.
RE7 doesn't do shooting badly what with the sickening squelch of bullet lead on mutated appendages coming across so gruesomely satisfying, but nobody serious about the franchise wants Resident Evil to be something it isn't, and RE7 does eventually fall down this hole, but the memorable boss fights salvage and make up for the disappointing moments.
Where to begin with the grotesque encounters in RE7? Yes so Jack Baker is an unhinged lunatic and an accursed and depraved specimen, but his dear wife is no different because when you can make allies with an agglomeration of pests and you yourself unload them on an unsuspecting victim you are downright in need of holy liberation. And we've yet to mention the gigantic malformations, exposing twisting mutated sinew and those deadly infected weak spot eyes. Historically, the boss fights have never been called into question and Resident Evil 7 is no different in this regard.
Equipment is appropriately sparse throughout the story, forcing you to locate ammo boxes, healing items and crafting components. You are able to store your findings in a green storage box conveniently placed next to the desks where you can save your game. Using these boxes becomes a necessity as your carrying capacity is minimal when you start the game, but once you happen upon a backpack, the amount you can lug about increases.
Sorting through your items via the inventory menu is nicely improved over previous Resident Evil games. Whereas before you had to pause the game and shift your load around so everything fits snugly, here you can take what you need with you and leave the rest in the box, and you can use to directional buttons to quick-draw items, an immensely helpful function which clears away some of the monotony of item selection. There is one caveat to consider however, if you find a useful item but do not have space to store it, you must consider what in your inventory to remove (or consume as the case may be). Pondering such decisions as you fend off swarms of molded distracts you from playing and can become a hindrance from time to time, but besides this niggle the general series long flaw of inventory management has almost been eradicated.
All the trepidation surrounding Resident Evil 7's new ideas including the transition to first-person can be laid to rest. Resident Evil 7 triumphs where it matters most, offering up a captivating horror videogame story the likes of which haven't been witnessed since Resident Evil 4. Though RE7 does worryingly depart from the rip-roaring first few hours, the quality of the game's mechanics and the continuous suspense in every section manages to pull you in and refuses to relinquish you from its hold. Disturbing, daring and downright daunting Resident Evil 7 is a return to form and while the shortcomings do occasionally stymie the otherwise pleasing momentum, nothing halts RE7 from returning home to its lurid leaning roots.
Sorting through your items via the inventory menu is nicely improved over previous Resident Evil games. Whereas before you had to pause the game and shift your load around so everything fits snugly, here you can take what you need with you and leave the rest in the box, and you can use to directional buttons to quick-draw items, an immensely helpful function which clears away some of the monotony of item selection. There is one caveat to consider however, if you find a useful item but do not have space to store it, you must consider what in your inventory to remove (or consume as the case may be). Pondering such decisions as you fend off swarms of molded distracts you from playing and can become a hindrance from time to time, but besides this niggle the general series long flaw of inventory management has almost been eradicated.
All the trepidation surrounding Resident Evil 7's new ideas including the transition to first-person can be laid to rest. Resident Evil 7 triumphs where it matters most, offering up a captivating horror videogame story the likes of which haven't been witnessed since Resident Evil 4. Though RE7 does worryingly depart from the rip-roaring first few hours, the quality of the game's mechanics and the continuous suspense in every section manages to pull you in and refuses to relinquish you from its hold. Disturbing, daring and downright daunting Resident Evil 7 is a return to form and while the shortcomings do occasionally stymie the otherwise pleasing momentum, nothing halts RE7 from returning home to its lurid leaning roots.
STORY:8/10
GAMEPLAY: 8/10
PRESENTATION: 9/10
LIFESPAN: 7/10
SCORE: 8/10
Resident Evil reinvents itself again with a fantastic horror experience that only occasionally loses sight of its strengths. A Baker's 7.