Introduction
Resident Evil 7 is something special, a horror game that attempts to introduce something interesting and unique in its own aspect to break from the mold. The series up to this point has given us a character to play with an assortment of combat skills making it easy to adapt to whatever situation arises. However, this time we play as Ethan who only has a few select options of skills that he can use to protect himself with. At the same time, we still get things that are familiar and usually found horror movies/games, such as the creepy old house in the middle of nowhere. Even with these traditional choices, the game still succeeds in being an experience worth checking out.
Pros and Cons
Pros
-A great story that's maybe cliché, but still interesting
-Very limited running space, makes you feel that there is nowhere to hide from enemies
-Fun gunplay with useful weapons to unlock and use
-Fantastic graphics that look impressive and creepy
Cons
-Ethan is a bland protagonist
-The game’s horror dies down too early before reaching the end
Story
The story is set in the middle of 2017 somewhere in the Southern United States. Ethan Winters has been looking for his missing wife Mia for three years who is thought to be dead. One day he receives a sudden call from Mia begging him to come and find her. Ethan, not taking the time to question the validity of the call, travels to Louisiana eventually finding himself in the middle of a forest coming across a farmhouse in his search for Mia. Upon investigating, he runs into Jack Baker, the patriarch of The Baker Family, and finds out that they are more than just eccentric people and realizes that he has to find a way to escape.
Resident Evil 7 gives us the classic horror movie/game tropes that we all know and love. Examples can include, a creepy house in the middle of a forest, a crazy family that eats some really messed up stuff, a creepy little girl that is silent most of the time, a cop that does not listen to a single word of the main character, and guns and ammo being in random locations for no reason, it has it all.
This may look a little cliché with everything it throws at us, but it manages to do its job by making the story interesting and worthwhile. I found quite a lot of enjoyment out of how they gave us enough familiar content to to know that we are playing a horror game, but still throwing in a few new twists here and there to remind us that we are playing a new title in the series.
I really loved how the Baker Family was handled and loved their personalities. Each one of them has something unique and creepy about them fitting the theme of horror perfectly.
The only issue I had with the story was with Ethan himself. He is mainly a bland character that lacks an interesting personality and unfortunately shows no character development throughout the story.
Gameplay
What we have here is a fun game to play and I really enjoyed the survival horror elements that it has. This time, instead of getting a collection of weapons that you can carry around to defend yourself with, you have a limited amount of items that you can carry throughout the game forcing you to make tough choices on what to pick up, and what to leave behind.
There are a few puzzle solving elements, but not many, mostly you find yourself going from point A to point B. When the puzzles did show up, I really appreciated how they were done and they felt nice to complete, each having something unique about them.
There is also a crafting system built into the game. You will not find much to craft all in all, but what you can craft helps you out in combat situations such as getting healing bottles or better ammo for your guns that you can use.
Everything feels very claustrophobic with limited space for you to run. This is something that I loved as it felt as though I was actually trapped inside this house with nowhere to escape constantly feeling as though some sort of danger was approaching.
Gunplay is another area done right. The weapons I was given felt nice to use, however, despite this I did not feel overly powerful leaving me with a constant sense of vulnerability. Ammo is scarce so you will need to be cautious when using it as the alternative is to try to run or hide. You will mostly find ammo for the handgun throughout the house, but you can craft ammo for everything except for the shotgun and magnum.
The only issue I had with the horror is the fact that it sort of died down in the later parts of the story. In games like Outlast, I felt scared when something was chasing me. However, that was not the case in this game as nothing really new was there in terms of horror. I found that I could simply fight anything that showed up leaving me with a lack of fear of what could be around the corner.
Graphics and Performance
The graphics for Resident Evil 7 are beautiful. Every area in the game looks alive with this creepy vibe going for it. I really love this about the game giving me a feeling of dread and unknown while exploring through the house.
I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM. I experienced no issues while playing and it ran at 60 FPS. I should note, however, that you will need a decent computer to run this title.
Final Verdict
If you were disappointed with how Resident Evil 6 was handled then I recommend you go and play this new addition to the series. It may not be like your typical Resident Evil game like Resident Evil 2, but it should provide you with a good experience and I bet the fans would like the return of the survival horror aspect.
Also for those that are looking for a nice horror experience then I would say Resident Evil 7 is worth trying out, despite the horror dying down in the later parts of the game. This was my first Resident Evil game that I played fully and I am happy with what I received and I look forward to what the future games have to offer for the survival horror genre.
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