Resident Evil 7 review: Reinventing the Foreign House of 20 years ago

With the goal of "returning to the roots of horror", Resident Evil 7 compared to its predecessor, the familiar over-the-shoulder perspective into the first person, without the handsome body art can only block the squat, throwing the player from the Hollywood scene into the narrow dim old house. As a result of these changes, players can feel a very good horror atmosphere in the game, and the game has returned to the direction of survival horror.

Looking back at the history of the series, Resident Evil can be divided into "old Resident Evil" and "New Resident Evil" among the player community with Resident Evil 4 as the dividing line. The former is usually to explore and solve puzzles in a narrow and unknown room, the enemies are not many and resources are scarce, which requires calculation and planning, and the main survival horror game experience; The latter emphasizes the use of different weapons and methods to eliminate a large number of enemies, pursuing crisp combat and Hollywood-style spectacle routines, and gradually moving toward action shooting. These two design ideas led to a split in the fan base and a controversy that continues to this day. This game has changed the style of the previous game to return to the source, and the game has also made corresponding changes.

This game uses a new protagonist Ethan, who is more familiar than Chris, Leon and others in the series, and is a system engineer who seems to have nothing to do with the main line of the series. As a horror game, if you continue to choose Leon and others who have experienced too many Resident Evil times, it will inevitably destroy the horror atmosphere that the game strives to create. In the game, Ethan drives to an old estate in Dulway, Louisiana, in search of his missing wife. Here he met the hospitality of the Baker family and received the warm hospitality of the other side. The goal of getting out of this old manor house, which is full of secret doors, runs through most of the game.

Such a plot can not help but recall the original generation, the protagonists are not in the unknown situation to escape to the unknown museum, explore the museum at the same time uncover the hidden conspiracy behind it? The plot line of the so-called "Old Biochemical" is actually survival, is a horror survival game with puzzle solving elements, the characters in the process of being forced to escape, find the truth hidden behind the story, and then solve the problem, escape. The same is true of Resident Evil 7.

However, there is not much more to unfold in the plot, and it is basically an ambush and suspense for the sequel. Such a shallow plot is really difficult for the series players to enjoy. But the series' traditional newspaper and magazine files are back, and players who like to explore can read these supplementary stories and find some Easter eggs from the series.

In response to the changes in the protagonist and story, the game mechanics have also changed dramatically. The most significant change in the game is the shift in perspective, which was controversial at the beginning of the release, but after playing it, I have to say that the change from the over-the-shoulder view to the first person is a successful change. As a horror game, the first person is indeed the most suitable for creating a scary atmosphere than using other perspectives, making the game more immersive, and the feeling of pressure brought by the approach of tall bacterials is also stronger. Thanks to the first-person, the scary atmosphere of Resident Evil 7 is very much in place, and many places are carefully groomed at first. The narrow space under dim light and the first-person perspective are accompanied by voices from time to time behind the back, and the occasional Jump scare makes players nervous throughout the process.

What could be behind an open door from a person's point of view?

In fact, as early as the production stage of the origin of the series "Resident Evil", the production team wanted to make a first-person perspective, but was limited by the hardware performance of the game console at that time, and the lack of relevant production experience, and finally had to compromise the use of a fixed third-person perspective, this surveillance camera perspective has created a generation of classics. Bringing back the first person in Resident Evil 7 is also a return to the original starting point of the series.

The gameplay of the game is also back to the original series of exploration puzzles, players spend most of the game time in the dark old house to explore, in order to open the main room door, you need to search around in the series has always not talked about the architectural logic of the room, find three dog head props, but also with the bacteria hidden in the house and Jack battle. Being in a narrow and quiet foreign house, people know nothing about the unfamiliar surroundings. This unknown brings both fear and desire to explore. This contradictory psychology is exactly the charm of traditional "Resident Evil".

The dog's head at the main door of the main room

Solving puzzles both find the key to unlock, replace the corresponding props and other traditional organs, but also a new projection organ. The projection organ needs to find the item to be projected first, and project a certain shape according to the prompt in front of the light source. The game also includes a video tape, which allows the player to directly experience what happened to other people in the past. This not only explains some of the previous scenes, but also provides clues to Ethan's next puzzle during the course of the video.

Resident Evil 7 brings back the stress of the series' lack of supplies and limited backpacks, which further enhances the horror experience of the game. Rare bullets combined with a magazine of bullets to kill enemies, forcing the player to choose whether to kill or simply dodge through. This pressure is even more intense in "madhouse" mode, where enemies are greatly strengthened, supplies are further reduced, and archiving requires tape consumption. Players need to plan ahead, carefully choose each save, carefully search every corner of the scene, and use limited supplies to ensure survival and escape. Unfortunately, this sense of resource scarcity anxiety does not persist, and the pressure brought about by the shortage of resources for a long time will disappear after getting enough ammunition in the late game. In addition, the safe house's "different dimension" item box and the prop synthesis system also return.  

In terms of combat, Resident Evil 7 also does not have the previous body art and dodge in combat, and the combat dexterity is greatly reduced. Players can only raise guns, shoot, swing daggers, squat and block in combat, but it is also more suitable for his ordinary people (ordinary people who can block the big claws of bacteria beasts by lifting a hand......). .

The variety of enemies in the game is also greatly reduced after the simplified battle, there are only three similar looking fungus beasts and a larger version of the fly, it is easy to make the battle feel too repetitive and monotonous, after all, the series has a large variety of enemies. But Jack is a very successful enemy in the game. In the early part of the game, "Father-in-law" Jack will wander within a certain range, cannot be killed, and can only hide and seek with him in the main house in the early stage, just like the former tyrant and pursuer. Jack is elusive and will keep talking, like saying "I see you" to players hiding in the dark, which brings a huge sense of pressure to players.

Jack "One-punch Superman"

The game also has a wealth of additional modes, including "Nightmare" in which you survive rounds of attacks, "Bedroom" in which you solve pure puzzles, "Ethan's Death Crisis" in a difficult challenge mode, "21" in a card game where you bet your life, "Daughter" in the beginning of the Baker family tragedy, and "Nightmare" in the "Forbidden Video". There's also a mercenary version of "Jack's 55th birthday."

In addition, the two story DLC endings of "Zoe" and "Not a Hero", with "Iron Fist" Joey and the player's familiar Chris as the main characters, the game style has also changed significantly. Joey needs to take down the enemy with his bare hands, while Chris comes in with plenty of weapons. These two DLC are the follow-up to the end of this series, bringing the process of Resident Evil 7 to a close.

But the hand-washing and the staples taking over the legs are pretty dramatic, but considering how many supernatural events there are already in the game, that doesn't really matter.

Overall, the game has a very good horror game atmosphere, returning to the original intention of the series, and leaving enough groundwork for the sequel in the plot. At the same time, it strengthens the sense of survival terror, and restores the appearance of Resident Evil 20 years ago with new era technology and expression.