Posts Tagged ‘re7’
Perspective of a Retro Gamer: Resident Evil 7
This series is basically a review of a modern game but with the context of a retro gamer visiting the present. As such it does not contain a review score and often speaks to concepts and franchises from the past. This article is spoiler free outside of what is revealed in trailers and public demos, which is why the screen shots are so vague.
Resident Evil has had a rocky journey over the last five years, up to and including the “Beginning Hour” demo for this very title. The comparison to P.T., Hideo Kojima’s “playable trailer” for Silent Hills that has since been canceled by Konami, is unmistakable. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t want my Silent Hill getting mixed into my Resident Evil, the two should remain mutually exclusive. Couple that with the recent missteps of Resident Evil 6, my personal distaste for Revelations 2, and whatever goal Umbrella Corps. had, it wasn’t looking good. I for one was also a bit worried about the hodgepodge of features thrown at this title including support for 4K resolution, PS4 Pro support, Playstation VR support, and HDR support on all platforms. To my shock and awe, every bad indicator going into the release was without merit as Resident Evil 7: Biohazard demonstrates a return to form I have not felt since the remake of the original on GameCube in 2002.
Set in an old farm house in Louisiana, you play as main protagonist Ethan in search of your girlfriend Mia, who went missing years ago. Those that played through the “Beginning Hour” demo, especially if you caught the final “midnight edition” will find the opening scenes to be familiar but clearly re-engineered. I like this touch and I feel it was necessary for how many times Capcom made us play that thing in hopes to figuring out what was with the dummy finger and several other mysteries from the last six months. While it’s interesting to play through – not to mention the reward you receive for completing it with the good ending and the on-edge “kitchen” demo on Playstation VR – none of this is required if you’re just jumping into the main game. It reminds me why I’ve always appreciated the original work Capcom did on the Resident Evil series. Whether it was “arrange mode” in the original, the way the mansion was reworked in the remake, or even the drastic differences between the shack in the demo and the main game of Resident Evil 7, you won’t be able to guess what’s coming. After that opening sequence you will descend into a literal house of horrors and beyond that kept me on the edge of my seat and thoroughly creeped out for a majority of the game’s 8-12 hour campaign.
Resident Evil 7 Buyer’s Guide (Spoiler Free)
Resident Evil 7 is only a handful of days away (January 24th in North America and Europe, 26th in Japan) and it’s safe to say there’s justified anticipation for the title. Gameplay and plot aside, longtime fans of the series have already noticed little nods to the series as a whole down to the clever title of Resident Evil VII: Biohazard in the West and Biohazard 7: Resident Evil in the East. Unfortunately, we didn’t feel Capcom has done a great job about centralizing the things you need to know about buying the game. This is spoiler free as we are not receiving a review copy and have chosen not to view any coverage outside of public demos Capcom has released on various services. If you have pre-ordered, hopefully it was a tangible version so that you can change your mind now should a detail in this post sway you to a different format (digital/tangible) or platform. If you pre-ordered digitally, please take our strong advice to not pre-order digitally as there is no benefit, often no refund opportunities, no inventory and therefore no need, and pre-loading doesn’t need more than a day or so lead time with even some of the slowest speeds. With that, here’s what you should know when going out to purchase Resident Evil 7.
Gaming History 101 