In part, that has nothing to do with the way that the connection plays out – and I won't spoil that at all – and has more to do with how traditional Resi 7 feels once you scratch beneath the surface.
#Resident evil 7 series#
To my surprise, Resi 7 slots into the series neatly though, and without damaging the tone of this new entry.
![resident evil 7 resident evil 7](https://static1.thegamerimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Resident-Evil-7-Molded-Jack-Baker.jpg)
Not “PUNCH THE WESKER” or “EXPLODE THE LAB”. “GET OUT OF THE HOUSE”, as the prime objective says. You're stranded in a place inhabited by monstrous people, they want to kill you (or worse) and nothing else really matters.
![resident evil 7 resident evil 7](https://image.api.playstation.com/vulcan/ap/rnd/202101/1905/W61Q3wl6hdJHcGuOQBXksMOf.png)
Given how distant from the increasingly daft main series plotlines the demo seemed – even hinting it might be about hauntings rather than viruses and sort-of-zombies – I was concerned that the gloomy mood might fall to pieces as soon as the shadow of Umbrella Corporation fell over proceedings.įor the most part this is a game that looks at horrible acts of violence happening far from the reach of special forces heroes and corporate science villains, and where it is frightening (and it often is), the sense of isolation is a vital component of the terror. It seems to take cues from all over the place, from the films mentioned at the beginning of this review to Monolith's melee-focused horror-brawled Condemned: Criminal Origins, but when you peel away the layers and look at what really makes it tick, it's Resident Evil through and through right down to the safe rooms and their item boxes. Where Mikami's latest is like a remix tape of various horror subgenres, Resident Evil 7 is a dirtier, nastier take on the original. Something similar is happening here, though with less of the surreal scene changes of Evil Within. That under-rated (by me, at release) gem was directed by Mikami, who also took lead on Resis 1 and 4, and it played with its creator's own past, most obviously when revisiting a version of the Spencer Mansion. Although its main point of reference is the first game, its energetic changes of pace show some common ground with series creator Shinji Mikami's The Evil Within as well. I laughed a few times, when once-threatening figures tipped over into absurdity, but I was soon wincing at some new twist in the tale, sent cowering back into the shadows. It's a game that sometimes seems like its losing its grip, not quite sure what kind of horror story it wants to tell, but in the end, the way it reels from one fright to the next felt like exactly the right approach. It's a feast made up of so many courses that I continually found myself excited to see what came next, while also having occasional doubts about how it all fit together. There are quiet moments throughout the game but when things escalate, they escalate quickly and ferociously, and the first act lays the table perfectly for the feast that follows. Rather than using all of those elements to build toward monstrous jump scares, Resi 7 finds a shrieking pitch that stirs up memories of The Evil Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist and a hundred video nasties. Isolated house, dark corridors, darker basement, creaking floorboards, a horrid VHS tape. That second option sometimes becomes a predictable sequence of quiet quiet quiet quiet BANG quiet quiet quiet quiet SCREAM quiet quiet quiet quiet CORPSE, and I didn't expect anything more from Resident Evil's opening. There's the slow creep toward a crescendo of dread and violence favoured by the likes of The Shining or A Tale of Two Sisters, and the slow tightening of anxiety followed by startling catharsis, that can be either comic or cruel. The muck and the grime and the gore are layered on thick, and even though there's less detail than in the demo, it's all beautifully grotesque, and the pacing is perfect. It's familiar territory, a slow-burn of dread that has you traipsing through a house mankier than even the worst student digs. If you've played Beginning Hour, the demo that introduced the first-person perspective and one of the game's smaller locations, you'll have a very good idea what to expect from the actual beginning hour. It succeeds by delivering on both fronts, true to its origins but also eager to explore new ground. It's both a return to the series' horror house roots and a bold departure from the third-person puzzling and head-popping of the main entries in that series. Ethan is your eyes, but it's the Bakers who are the stars of the show, and what a wonderful show it is. He is the mouse and the various cats come in the form of local residents, The Baker Family.
![resident evil 7 resident evil 7](https://updatecrazy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Resident-Evil-7-Biohazard-1.08-patch-notes.jpg)
Heading deep into the bayou to search for his missing wife, having received an email from her three years after her disappearance, he finds himself trapped in a horror house, taking part in a bizarre and brutal game of cat and mouse. An hour in to Resident Evil 7, lead character Ethan is having the worst day imaginable.