Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room, where there is an evil all around us, and yes, it's a permanent resident. Yeah, I thought that was real clever too. Except not really.
Anyway, today I'll be discussing Resident Evil 7, which I've just finished my fourth playthrough of and am ready to discuss further. As you are probably aware of by now, Resident Evil is one of my favorite video game franchises of all time. However, since Resident Evil 4 some 12 years ago, my feelings regarding the series have been mixed. Generally, I think things have been in a bit of a downhill slide since 4. Though I did enjoy 4 and even 5 (albeit in a different kind of way), 6 was the first game in the main series that I really thought was a dud. I've been eagerly waiting for the franchise to return to its horror roots, and I think that 7 certainly represents a huge step in that direction.
"Survival horror" may not have been invented by Resident Evil, but it was the first game to really take the concept to the mainstream. After all, the original Resident Evil was largely inspired by a Japanese Famicom game called "Sweet Home," which was considered the first true survival horror game (in fact, Resident Evil was originally conceptualized as a remake of Sweet Home). The horror genre was the basis for the franchise, with its tale of an old abandoned house filled with zombies, giant spiders, and other monsters. Which is why it was a shame, I think, to see the game get dumbed down with its action-centric gameplay and inane story arcs that rival The Fast & The Furious movies for patent absurdity.
The return to the series' roots in horror is definitely refreshing, not only in gameplay but in story as well. The game follows a man named Ethan, who has recently received a mysterious message from his former girlfriend Mia, who has been missing for the past 3 years. She beckons him to find her in the bayou country of Louisana, a.k.a. the middle of nowhere. Ethan eagerly sets out to find her, and his journey brings him deep into the center of a nightmare when he finds himself trapped on a crumbling estate run by a psychopathic family called the Bakers. The family is headed by the homicidal Jack Baker, who runs things alongside his deranged wife Margeurite and sadistic son Lucas. There's also a little girl named Eveline running around who seems to have something to do with everything, but her role isn't quite clear initially. The story takes a break from the Resident Evil regulars and presents something new, but you do uncover connections to the franchises' past along the way- more on that later.
The Bakers, your antagonists through a majority of the game.
Anyway, the game begins with you, as Ethan, desperately trying to escape the house and save Mia while staying alive and avoiding the Bakers and other monstrous creatures that have sprung up in the house. You'll have to find weapons and ammo to defend yourself, solve puzzles, and unravel a mystery along the way- very reminiscent of the good old days of survival horror. In fact, that's what I liked the most about this game in comparison to recent Resident Evil games; it really felt like a desperate struggle to survive, much like the original games did. This is clearly in opposition to the newer games, which were mainly presented as noisy action movies with little substance to fill them out.
Anyway, the first person perspective also serves to add a new feature to the Resident Evil repertoire: Virtual Reality, in the form of support for the Playstation VR. Unfortunately, I don't have a VR headset at the moment, so I couldn't experience this mode of play. But, oh man, I could imagine that playing this game with the VR would be a thrilling/terrifying way to play the game. Maybe one day I will, but either way I think this is an excellent addition and future games should all have this option as well.
As far as the feel of the game, it reminded me of a lot of other games at times. It felt like there was a bit of old-school Silent Hill influence at times, mostly when waking through dark corridors with only a tiny bit of light illuminating what's in front of you. Other times it reminded me of games that emphasize stealth, especially in areas where Jack is hunting you down and you have to do whatever you can to stay out of his line of sight. But mostly, to reiterate, it felt a lot like the original Resident Evil games in that I was constantly on the lookout for any items, weapons, and health that could help me survive a little longer. Aside from other horror games, it also clearly had a ton of inspiration from horror movies as well. The whole "homicidal backwoods family" thing is definitely a nod to movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. At other times, there also seemed to be plenty of references to movies like The Exorcist, The Ring, The Grudge, Evil Dead, and Saw. As a horror movie junkie, this is all fine by me.
Anyway, now to the actual game. The entire first act of the game is dedicated to finding your way through the Baker's massive property, tracking down Mia, and staying alive while dealing with monsters made of what looks like a mixture of tar and caviar (the game calls these creatures "Molded"). The black stuff is all over the place, and though it does feed into the plot, it mainly serves to indicate the presence of the Molded. For example, at one point in the game you must travel into the basement of the estate, where you'll find the black gunk all over the place. It's a truly tense moment because you just know it will be crawling with the creatures, and you never know what lurks beyond the next corner.
I really do think they look more like caviar than mold.
Along the way, you'll also have to deal with the seemingly unstoppable Jack Baker as he stalks you through the house. On normal mode, it's fairly easy to dodge him and stay out of sight; however, on hard mode, he's pretty relentless and escaping his wrath is no easy task. You can hide from him if you manage to get out of his line of sight, which is where the stealth aspect comes in. However, it's not really necessary and there aren't too many areas in which you need to dodge him. It would've been interesting if this idea was explored a little bit more, but it doesn't really detract from the game either. Jack can be slowed down with bullets, but with a limited supply of munitions, it's best to just run and hide as much as you can and then sneak off when he isn't looking.
Speaking of munitions, you'll have to search high and low for them. Ammo is definitely scarcer than in recent RE games, and you'll need to do plenty of searching of the environment in order to find it. You'll also find a fairly sizeable supply of weaponry to fend off monsters, from various handguns to a grenade launcher with two types of grenade rounds. Some weapons will require a bit of ingenuity to acquire, though. For example, you'll find a powerful .44 magnum that's locked in a birdcage and can only be opened by inserting 9 so-called "antique coins" into a slot, and the tiny coins are often hidden out of sight and scattered all around the estate. If you're low on ammo, you also have the option to produce more by doing a bit of crafting. An item called "Chem Fluid" can frequently be found on the grounds, which you'll need to combine with other items like gunpowder or herbs to make ammo and health, respectively. There's also a less common "Strong Chem Fluid," which can make more powerful ammo or health. And lastly there's the "Separating Agent," which can be used to extract chem fluid from certain items in order to be used to make something else.
The .44 magnum requires a bit of work to obtain.
Inventory space is limited, but can be increased as the game goes on. Sometimes you'll need to juggle items around in order to be able to fit everything in your inventory, but this rarely gets in the way of the gameplay. The Resident Evil tradition of storage crates returns, and you'll find one in just about every major hub area of the game, which helps out with managing inventory space. One kind of annoying thing about the inventory though is that you can only use four weapons at a time, and if you have a fifth weapon, you can't even equip it just to reload it with ammo and manage some space. It's kind of dumb, considering every other game in the series let you carry as much firepower as you wanted. However, by the time this really becomes an issue, the game is almost over anyway.
About halfway through the game, they throw a curveball at you by having you take control of Mia when Ethan is temporarily incapacitated. From here, you'll need to navigate a derelict tanker ship and get to the bottom of what Mia's role is in all this madness. Mia plays exactly the same as Ethan, but you'll need to start from scratch with your inventory. This makes for some tense moments as you're stalked by enemies you've become familiar with but now lack enough supplies to deal with, even if it does feel slightly manufactured. Mia does get her some new weapons of her own, like a machine gun and some remote bombs to play with, so this section also manages to fit in some new things. Anyway, once you finish Mia's section and take control of Ethan again you'll be in the final stretch, and this is where I have my biggest complaint about the game.
After regaining control of Ethan, you escape the tanker and head into an abandoned underground salt mine, which is ominously labeled the "Lab" on a map that Ethan finds. My thought going into it was that this is where things were going to really get good, as the laboratory sections of previous RE games were always my favorite parts. And things definitely did get good, for a little bit: Ethan uncovers the last bit of the mystery, which explains where the Molded came from, the Baker's involvement, and Eveline's presence in the area. However...it all happens very fast. The lab section is very short and it's pretty much just a straight shot into the final fight of the game. There's no puzzles to solve, not much area to explore, and it doesn't even have a boss fight...well, it kind of does. At the end of the section, you'll square off against two "Fat Molded" enemies side by side, which are pretty much the toughest non-boss enemies you'll see in the game.
I got pretty excited upon seeing this map, but my excitement was short-lived.
After that, you'll re-emerge back at the Baker's house from the very beginning of the game, where you then square off against Eveline, who mutates into a gigantic black-mold blob with a face and tentacles. It's cool, sure, but it's also...very anticlimactic. The fight plays out on more of a script than an actual fight, and you don't even really need much ammo or health for this part. Ethan will grab a big, powerful gun that he finds on the ground, you fire off the last bit of ammo at the monstrous Eveline, and that's all.
I would've liked to have seen a lot of different things in the final act. First, as I mentioned, I would've liked if the Lab/Mines section was more extensive with more to do in it. I guess the idea was supposed to be that it explicitly isn't supposed to be a big fancy lab, but rather something thrown together by a backwoods mad scientist, like a meth lab or something. Still, I would've liked more out of the final section of the game. Also, the final boss fight left a lot to be desired. If it was less scripted and more reliant on actual player input, I think I would've had a much bigger sense of accomplishment upon beating the game, especially on hard mode.
Oh, yes, the game as a hard mode- called "Madhouse" mode, unlocked once the game is beaten once on easy or normal mode. This mode is far less forgiving than normal mode, but I think it's really the definitive way to play the game. For starters, enemies are a lot tougher- they deal out a lot more damage and can take much more abuse. Items are also completely rearranged. For example, a key that is used to unlock certain doors in the Baker's house can just be found out in the open in normal or easy mode; however, on hard mode, the key is locked in one of the bird cages and the player must find antique coins to unlock it, forgoing other helpful items that are locked up in other cages just to be able to progress.
By far though, the most drastic change in hard mode is the handicapping of the autosave feature. On easy and normal modes, you have two means of saving the game: manually saving at save spots (called "tape recorders") which are scattered about in hub areas, or waiting for the game to autosave. The autosaves are frequent enough that you get one for just about every major item you receive and most events that happen in the game. As such, dying will not set you back very far and you can often pick up and try again right where you left off. However, this changes big time in hard mode. In hard mode, there is only about 4 or 5 moments in the entire game where you get an autosave. In addition, manual saves come with a price; in order to save at a tape recorder, you'll need to find cassettes to use at the recorders (which, once again, harken back to the old days of typewriters and ink ribbons, which was another nice touch). You get about 3 cassettes per save spot, but I ended up using them quite quickly just to ensure I wouldn't get set back too much if I died (which, by the way, I did a LOT on hard mode). It's a much greater challenge than the other modes, but by the end, I found that I enjoyed hard mode the most. I think it's the best way to experience the game and get the most challenge out of it.
The lack of auto-saving on Madhouse mode is the biggest challenge you'll face.
There's plenty of fun things to unlock as well, which keeps the experience from getting old. Firstly, there's two different endings based on one choice you have to make, so that alone gives you a reason to play through more than once. Secondly, you'll unlock a more powerful handgun and an item which increases your defensive abilities after beating it once, which both really help to get through hard mode. Beating the game on hard mode unlocks infinite ammo for all weapons, which in turn helps make the game easier to beat in under four hours, which THEN will give you an item called the "X-Ray Glasses," which allow you to see exactly where any item is and helps to find many hidden items you may have missed before. Once you reach this point, you've pretty much mastered the game and any further playthroughs are just to have fun with all the unlocked content and to gain trophies (or achievements, in the Xbox One version).
So, after the fourth playthrough, I think I can say I definitely did have a lot of fun with this game, even if the ending was somewhat of a letdown. Besides that, I didn't have a whole lot to complain about. One minor thing though, there isn't a whole lot of variation in the enemies. Besides the boss fights (two with Jack, one with Margeruite, and half of one with Eveline), there's pretty much only 4 enemies in the whole game- regular molded, molded with large hooked claws, four-legged molded, and fat molded. There's also a section where you'll have to fight off some large bugs, but these things are more of an inconvenience than a real enemy. Of course, this is probably just me with the nostalgia glasses permanently glued to my face, but I can't help but think back to the days of Resident Evil 2, which had so many varied types of enemies that you needed to adapt different strategies to deal with. Obviously, they're two very different games, but I think experiencing so much variety is one of the main things that made me love the original games to begin with.
And one last thing, back to my point about connections to previous games- there's plenty of them, but you have to look a little hard and have a great memory (or, in my case, extreme nerdiness) to spot them all. For example, most RE fans would probably get this reference to the first game:
But, how many would see this one, from one of the files you find in the game:
Yes, that author is the very same Alyssa Ashcroft from Resident Evil: Outbreak, who apparently is still doing investigative journalism 18 years later. Now that's reaching into obscurity.
There was also this one:
And this one:
You get the idea. I just like how they managed to do their own distinctive thing, yet keep the spirit of the previous games alive, even if it was only in subtle little ways. That, in my opinion, is what any good sequel should do. I also think it's telling that even the title of the game represents the franchise coming full circle (for those who are unaware, Resident Evil is called 'Biohazard' in Japan, so calling the game Resident Evil: Biohazard was meant to be the bridge between the Eastern and Western versions of the game. And yes, it was called Biohazard: Resident Evil in Japan). It's as if they specifically meant to tie the whole thing together neatly, and I think this game did a good job with that.
And even though the final fight was a bit of a letdown, I did like the ending and the cliffhanger it left for future games. So the game ends with a squadron of helicopters swooping in to pick up Ethan after he finishes Eveline off, and the helicopters are branded with the...*gasp* Umbrella Corporation logo!? And what's more, a masked soldier descends from the helicopter and approaches Ethan, then removes his helmet to reveal...our old friend Chris Redfield! They carry Ethan off in the helicopter, and in the good ending, Mia is alongside him. But there are still many unanswered questions. It's been revealed that the Bakers were being controlled by Eveline, but who created Eveline in the first place? Who's running Umbrella now, and what is their role in all this? What became of Lucas, and will he be back in future installments? And what ever happened to Ark Thompson, damn it??
(P.S., these questions may have all been answered in the various DLC packages for the game, but I haven't played any of them as of this writing, so they're still unanswered for me at least. Except for that last one, that was a joke. Sort of.)
Anyway, my final verdict for RE7? It's a great game. Much better than 6, also better than 5 in different ways. I admittedly haven't played a lot of other recent RE games like Revelations 1 & 2 or Operation: Raccoon City, so maybe comparing this game to older ones isn't necessarily fair. Nonetheless, I still think 7 is a welcome addition to the series and I hope newer games continue to build on the precedent it set. Despite the flaws, I think it's a huge step in the right direction for the franchise. I enjoyed the horror, the mystery, and the journey, which are the exact elements that I enjoyed from the old days as well. Now if only Capcom will officially announce a remake of Resident Evil 2, then we'll be talking. Thanks for reading.
