Summary [9.5 out of 10]:

An excellent return to horror for a series that has become more of an action franchise, Resident Evil 7 is a major reinvention that embraces elements of the previous games while becoming something uniquely its own.

Taking place several years after the last numbered entry, Resident Evil 7 finds new protagonist Ethan Winters looking for his wife, Mia, who has been missing for three years and who has sent him an email asking him to come and get her. Ethan tracks her to an old plantation house in Louisiana and quickly finds himself embroiled in a world of horror as he comes up against the house’s inhabitants the Bakers. Ethan has to try to survive and find his way out in a truly scary experience that successfully realigns the franchise into something really special.

One of the most obvious changes to the game is the first person perspective that helps amp up the horror as the limiting of your view keeps you from getting too comfortable. Further the game shifts to a more cat and mouse affair as you are not always able to fight back and running and hiding is often your best and only option. The changes to the gameplay worked very well and helped amp up the tension and fear. Returning conventions like health restoring herbs and elaborate and bizarre puzzles feel perfectly at home and organic in this game even while the story and enemies move away from classic Resident Evil mainstays. Overall, this is a solid survival horror title that gets the series back on track and manages to be legitimately scary.

What It’s Like:

Alien Isolation: From the first person perspective to the constant building tension, RE7 owes a lot to Alien Isolation. A lot of people would point to PT as well but the early sense of helplessness and having to run and hide felt very much more like Isolation. RE7 isn’t quite at the same intensity level as you do eventually gain the ability to meaningfully fight back but the feeling is very similar.

Silent Hill 2: The story of RE7 is reminiscent of Silent Hill 2’s general plot. What the games do with that premise is very different but obviously getting a message from a dead wife (or presumed dead in RE7’s case) is a crib from Silent Hill 2. The tone is not dissimilar as well.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis: The constant haranguing of Ethan by Jack and Margarite feel an awful lot like Nemesis bursting through walls throughout Resident Evil 3. Just like in that game it is pretty difficult to ever relax because it feels like at any moment a motherfucker is going to come bursting out to jack you.

Resident Evil 4: This might be controversial as RE7 hearkens back to the first game since it takes place largely in one location and you are exploring a house but the game feels more like RE4 than the original in terms of how it looks and to some degree how it plays. This is a very different experience at the end of the day but tonally it feels in line with RE4 and the enemies feel similar as well.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: While not a game, the influence of Texas Chainsaw Massacre on the aesthetic and overall feel of the game is absolutely undeniable. The Baker is very clearly patterned after the TCM family and had Leatherface popped out at any point I would not have been surprised. Walking around in that house makes you want to take a shower and the gross out factor is right in line with TCM.

The Great:

Tension: Right off the bat this game lives and dies on its sense of tension for the horror. More recent Resident Evil games have doubled down on action elements and over the top stories but this game goes back to the horror roots that first made the series special. From the first moments of the game the tension is thick and almost oppressive. As the game progresses this lightens up slightly as you get more used to what the game throws at you but there is never a point in the game where you feel comfortable and that you aren’t in danger. This lets the horror really come to the forefront. That you have to really think about your inventory and resource management further builds the tension and keeps you second guessing your choices as you may find yourself in a really tough spot because the best tool for the job is back in an item box.  Add to this effective pay off moments and scares and you have a really terrifying game that will keep you on your toes the whole way through.

Gameplay: Resident Evil 7 finds a pretty perfect gameplay balance between giving you options to fight back and making you run and hide. The ratio of scare to action to puzzle solving is pretty much spot on. Any time the player starts to feel comfortable with what they are up to, the game switches gears a bit to something new. The way you go about doing this is intuitive and feels just right. You are playing a character that is not some kind of special forces badass and as such your character plays like a regular guy trying to figure out how to survive. This is a pretty important part of what makes the game intense and scary so if they had fucked this up it would have fallen flat. As it stands, the things you do and how you do them feels just right.

Story: While a portion of this is going to show up in the Bad section below, the story as a whole is simple and compelling. The series has gotten really bogged down on lore and nonsense so it was refreshing to get a stripped down story here. There are some implications and tie ins with the series at large here but they are not at all intrusive and do not detract from the main story here. While I feel like there should have been some more fleshing out done, the story we have is compelling and keeps you invested enough to keep moving forward.

Pacing: As mentioned in the gameplay section, the pacing for RE7 keeps the tension on you so that whenever you start to get too comfortable or things start to drag, the game changes things up and puts you onto something else. It is fairplay that there are only so many things that the game does but the rhythm of the game is the perfect mix to keep the player engaged and freaked out from start to finish.

Voice Acting: This game isn’t as dialogue heavy as other Resident Evil games but what we get is pretty great. Jack Brand’s Jack Baker, in particular, is creepy and unsettling. Especially after cutting off your leg and telling you to crawl to it. His taunts and barbs go a long way toward selling the tension and fear. Everyone does a great job in this game but Brand, for me, was the major stand out.

The Good:

Graphics: Resident Evil 7 looks really good and there is a ton of details in the environments but the overall fidelity gets a bit iffy if you look to closely and there are moments that it looks a bit muddled. Overall, the graphics are exactly what they should be to maintain the tone and feel of the game but there is some room for improvement on some character models and the backgrounds can get a bit muddy. Still looks pretty great anyway.

Controls: The controls match the gameplay and are intuitive enough although there is a bit of a learning curve here and the controls can feel a little clunky at times particularly when you are having to do something on the fly. There were some moments when I took damage or got jacked because I was fumbling with the controls but that is more the exception than the rule. The game controls fit the gameplay pretty well.

Puzzles: Puzzles are a hallmark of the Resident Evil series and they are not always the most organic and intuitive. The puzzles here generally make sense and if you read files around the house you will see purchase orders for some of the puzzle locks and you have a character in Lucas who likes to make puzzles and traps and such. These are effective in breaking up the gameplay and feel like a more organic part of the game than previous efforts.

Video Tapes: The video tapes are kind of weird but they are also cool ways to flesh out the story and to give yourself a leg up on upcoming challenges. These allow you to play through past events and add some extra narrative tidbits and serve to give you a bit of a break. There are stakes in these tapes but since they are not you it doesn’t really affect you. These are generally skippable but it is a good idea to play through them anyway.

The Bad:

Resolution: As much as I dug the story as it is, there is a lot that is left unexplained and it feels a bit unsatisfying. It is pretty likely that some of this will be explained in the DLCs but there are some things left unexplored that could have been really great like the emotional implications of Mia disappearing for three years and then emailing Ethan out of the blue. The ending sections of the game in particular brings up a number of issues that should have been addressed but were sort of hand waved away. As mentioned some of this will probably be addressed in the future but I feel like there should have been more to the ending and the resolution should have been more complete and satisfying.

The HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!:

I am not going to spoil anything here but this game is full of holy shit moments that genuinely freaked me out. There are a lot of unexpected things that go down and some of those are super disturbing. Some make you scratch your head out of confusion but there are plenty of genuinely shocking things that happen that could conceivably make you shit your pants.

Conclusion [9.5 out of 10]

I love the Resident Evil series. It is hands down one of my favorite game series of all time and I was so happy to be delivered a game that brings it back to its horror roots and gives us a unique experience while still feeling essentially like Resident Evil. I hope that future installments expand on this new format and the story can be expanded upon. I enjoyed every moment I spent with Resident Evil 7 and I started playing again immediately after finishing the game. It is scary and fun and is well worth your time if you are a fan of the series in particular and horror in general. This is one of the best survival horror games I have ever played. Play this as soon as possible.