Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

At last a proper RE game. Super creepy atmosphere and ambient sound. A genuine terrifying experience. First person view, gets you immersed into the sick world of terror. Good old Capcom is back!

Resident Evil 7 is one of the most enjoyable horror gaming experiences to date. The visual jump scares seldom feel cheap in part due to the masterful sound design. Making people jump isn't a difficult task. However, making people terrified to progress the plot is a daunting task to pull off. Resident Evil 7 absolutely succeeds in pulling off what developer/publisher Capcom set out to accomplish. After the failure of RE6, the need for the series to return to the survival horror genre became clear. Horror is all about maintaining an atmosphere. Walking down a corridor, Ethan Winter (the surrogate for the player) might hear some variety of crash off in the next room or in the room above. The mansion is lived in (a slightly inaccurate phrase) and a sense of foreboding never escapes the player except for around the ending. The sound design mixed in with phenomenal limited lighting merge in encouraging the player never be overconfident in a given environment. Unlike previous entries, the locations are realistically scaled down. The Baker homestead never features a room or ground that feels out of place. In other words, the property is very much one a person might find in reality. Conversely, the game's need to feature a puzzle at every turn suspends belief every once in awhile. In the end, the limited environmental scope aids in augmenting the horror. The developers painstakingly created the home to a disturbing degree. Every nook and cranny of the home serve a purpose in telling the Baker family's story. The player is rewarded at great cost for exploring the environment. In addition, the exploration feeds into a very enjoyable item management system. All of the items encountered are useful. In order to make backpack space, the player has to really decide what is the most useful item in a given situation. Looking through your inventory doesn't stop the game time. You could be looking at the very low ammo of a given gun and suddenly come under attack. In most fights, the best solution is often to run away until a more advantageous moment. The narrative lasts little more than ten hours. The duration of the experience ensures the plot never drags or overstays its welcome. The mysteries of the circumstances surrounding Ethan Walker are more than enough to ensure the player fights their fear. The player won't be able to stop themselves from enjoying their twisted adventure with the Baker family.

I loved this game. It's my favourite type of horror game, creepy house with evil residents. I loved the novelty of the series I love they made it that way and I had goosebumps constantly. I loved it whenever it was this beautiful horror game with old spooky house and these evil characters who hunt you down constantly. But whenever it became this known resident evil game with guns and shootings and all these monsters I lost all interest and wanted to go back to the creepy old woman with the wheelchair and the mystery of the house.

Graphics insane 8/10 Story very good but a bit scifi 7/10 Horror factor 9/10.

There are already many reviews available for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. So why should you read mine? What do I have to offer that separates me from other reviewers? For what it's worth, I'm writing this review as someone who has never thoroughly played a Resident Evil game before. (I vaguely recall watching a friend play one of the original games when I was younger.) Also, I promise not to spoil anything.

Overall: Biohazard is a top-notch survival horror game. The graphics are excellent, the gameplay is challenging, and the story is interesting. The game isn't perfect, as I discuss below, but it seems to me that the pros outweigh the cons.

Graphics: Superb. Did they combine live action footage with computer generated imagery in the beginning of the game? I'm not sure. Either way, I'm impressed. But this isn't true for all of the game. If you're a stickler for graphics, you might notice some objects which aren't rendered to your liking. Otherwise, I doubt you'll have complaints.

Gameplay: Challenging. I haven't died so much in a game in a while, yet I never felt frustrated when I died. I always recognized some flaw in my playing style which needed to be addressed. Resident Evil 7 is tough, but not arbitrarily so. Although, I am somewhat new to the survival horror genre of video games, so veterans might not have such a tough time.

Story: I often cringe at the sophomoric storytelling in video games; Biohazard is a pleasant surprise. I found myself engaged with the story, wanting to know more. However, depending on your knowledge of horror movies, you might find some aspects of the story too derivative.

Common Complaints: Lack of monster variety; easy puzzles. I agree that there is a lack of monster variety, but, for the most part, it feels natural given the game's small setting. Though, one does wonder why there aren't any zombie alligators or other creatures given the game's location in the woods in Louisiana in the middle of nowhere. Nevertheless, the "molded" are terrifying enough to carry the game. Imagine Baraka from Mortal Kombat and Tarman from Return of the Living Dead have a baby, which is adopted and raised by Satan. I agree that most of the puzzles for the main story of the game are fairly easy. But in the game developer's defense, there is a lot of hidden stuff which isn't as easy to find. Also, I found a puzzle towards the end of the game challenging, though perhaps this is due to insufficient cognitive capacities on my part.

Quibbles: Why in the world can't you manually turn your flashlight on or off? This would have been such a great feature in the game! It gets frustrating when you're walking in near complete darkness, but you know that the protagonist is carrying a flashlight. Moreover, this could have added a great survival aspect to the game (conserving battery life, hiding from enemies in the dark, etc.). Why can't you pick up certain items? For instance, there is a baseball bat in one room, yet you can't pick it up. This would have been handy when battling the molded.

Despite some minor complaints, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard comes highly recommended. 8.5/10

If you like horror games, this is essential playing. The super claustrophobic atmosphere will get your palms sweating as you plot your escape from the Baker house.

It mainly sticks to the RE mechanics of item management, sparse ammo and limited opportunities to save which all adds to the tension. It has some decent puzzles to solve and does the usual uncovering of items to unlock new rooms/areas.

The last section outside of the house kind of loses eith way a bit. But nonetheless a great addition to the series.