Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
The famed series returns to brutal and bloody survival horror.
About four years ago, the survival horror genre was pretty much dead, and no one expected it to come back. It was the era of big-budget war shooters — all catharsis and beefedup military bros. Perhaps the industry thought we no longer had the patience: even the last two Resident Evil games were basically third-person shooters.
Now, after the genre’s unlikely resurgence thanks to Alien: Isolation, Outlast, the Amnesia series and PT, Capcom feels comfortable enough to take Resident Evil 7 back to its roots — and with a first-person perspective as well. Call it cynical, but when the outcome is as good as this, I suppose it doesn’t matter. RE7 doesn’t stand out among the resurgence pack, but it marries tradition with modern design, meaning its heritage comes as a huge advantage.
The protagonist is some guy who’s received a video message from his girlfriend, which warns him to stay away from the creepy mansion in which she’s been imprisoned for three years. Naturally enough, he goes anyway. Any more details and we’re entering spoiler territory, but just know this one thing: Resident Evil 7 isn’t a subtle horror game. In fact, it’s probably among the most grotesque on the market. Proceed as you will based on that information, but I found it quite refreshing, that a horror game would avoid the in-vogue psychological tack and go full-innards-on-the-screen gross-out.
That said, despite a thick and ugly mood, it will undoubtedly come across predictable to anyone well-studied in the genre, though the encounters are harder to anticipate the longer you play. The move to first-person is wise because it creates a sense of claustrophobia, while making the shooting a little less cumbersome. Still, don’t come in expecting to mow down enemies à la DOOM: you play as a regular nobody, and ammunition is as scant as your shooting skills are bad.
The usual cycle of puzzlesolving and monstrosity-evading is in tact here. If you’re the type unwilling to die and respawn more than a couple of times, either stay away from horror games or, at least, play on easy mode. The environment, while quite small by modern video game standards, is labyrinthine and strange, and you’d be well advised to pay close attention to the paintings on the walls.
Resident Evil 7 is a huge return to form for the series, and while it doesn’t bend any conventions like Alien Isolation, a good survival horror game doesn’t really need to. Shaun Prescott