It feels really weird to be ready to declare GAME OF THE YEAR 2017.
After years of games which mutated worse than some of the fiendish foes you face in-game, the Resident Evil series went and cured itself like a Redfield.
Finding itself rebooted into a world of first person views, the return of intense resource management and those classic jump-scares; is Resident Evil 7: Biohazard what the series needed?
In Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, players assume the role of Ethan Winters, a man who receives a phone call from a woman claiming to be Ethan’s missing wife, Mia.
Disappearing some time in 2014, the call takes Ethan on a journey that leads him to Dulvey, Louisiana where he meets the Baker family and the monstrosities dwelling in their plantation.
From the get-go, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (abb. RE7) does not mess around.
A message of despair from the protagonist’s missing wife leads us to driving through the bayous of Louisiana; the sepia drenched locale screaming “DEAAAATTHHHH” as we begin to make our way to the apparent location of Mia.
Attempting to take in the environment, I couldn’t help but feel that old Resident Evil vibe that something is about to f**k with me.
And after exiting my vehicle then making my way toward the address, a random figure walks in front of me and suddenly disappears.
Oh sure, that’s fine.
But then I got to the first dark area of the game and “NOPED” the hell out of there.
Picking the game back up when I’d gathered my soul, RE7 felt like classic Resident Evil. Sure it’s in first person, but that helps root the series back in what made it great.
Built around being best played in the dark, RE7 is almost a love letter to the first game, while pulling in the best elements of other titles in the series.
Compact corridors filled with more tension than a fishing line, the first-person view lends itself so well to the series that I would not be mad at another Resident Evil remaster with that play-style.
Along with the classic restricted inventory space and wild puzzles which are somehow installed throughout the environment (a nice little in-game joke making light of this), RE7 is indeed the anti-virus the series needed.
With a campaign that can be finished in under 10 hours on your first run, it offers a huge amount of replayability. Unlocking new items or weapons that can help shorten players completion times even further, it’s almost like this game was built for speed-running (where players compete to complete the game in the fastest time possible).
The Playstation VR is also supported by the game, and while I didn’t play it on the peripheral, I could see how much better it could be. A lot of the in-game mechanics rely on being in your face, and the VR definitely lends itself to such a function.
Utterly delightful (and terrifying) in so many ways, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is just the beginning of Survival Horror, again.
Summary
I've been telling everyone to play RESIDENT EVIL 7: BIOHAZARD because I can't endorse it any better than YOU SHOULD BE PLAYING THIS GAME, OH MY GOD...
