SlasherJPC
Banned
Will be trying to record and edit a review to go live tonight unpublished and as spoiler free as possible. Jumping in hardcore for the rest of the day.
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RESIDENT EVIL 7 Review Thread
- Thread starter Dusk Golem
- Start date
atomic moth
Member
II understand what you're talking about, but I don't agree. You can let people make their own decisions, especially in a thread that is supposed to catalog theoretically objective numbers.
Should he also note which sites categorically have a higher or lower rating system than others? Or sites that originate from areas that have consoles with a certain market dominance?
Again, I'm fine with leaving that little famitsu bias in, but you also have to make notes on other sites since we aren't letting people think and normalize the scores in their own heads.
Karspankey
Banned
Thank you so much! Looking forward to your review!
Damn that's awesome. CheersI just went to Saturn, asked for the steelbook and one employee handed me a paper (had to create it extra in his PC) the game and the steelbook. In the end I paid 39 Euros and was confused because there were no prices at the shelf, just tons of Resident Evil-copies without the steelbook. A pleasant suprise because I thought they want their usual 64,99 or 69,99 Euros for pre-release software. Currently they are really delivering more than I could hope for regarding their game and console prices^^ First Switch, now this: hopefully they have a nice price for Yakuza too
VeteranGamer
Banned
does this game only take place inside the house from the demo?
brandonh83
Banned
Nope! People are saying it's like the original, the plantation house is the featured locale like the mansion, but like the mansion it branches out into other areas surrounding it
Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer. I have posted on NeoGAF since 2011, and have decided to resign. I have enjoyed posting about horror games here for years, but I no longer wish to support the site and will be leaving for good. I will still be around the internet, I go by AestheticGamer on YouTube, I make games on Steam as Yai Gameworks, and I plan to go by Dusk Golem on other forums. I'll be joining an off-set of the GAF community leaving to try other ventures like ResetEra (Official Twitter for that here: https://twitter.com/reseteraforum ). I hope some of you who read this may consider it, and I plan to try to expose more people to horror games in the years to come. Just not here.
I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1
I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1
cryptosporidium
Member
Does anyone find the shockwave talisman useful?
Neff
Member
Finished it.
Short version: It was great. But.
Long version: Capcom says RE7 goes back to its roots, and they're both right and wrong.
The Baker estate is a wonderful, sprawling, mysterious, gorgeous, terrifying maze full of mystery, surprises and suspenseful corners potentially hiding lucidly-realised horrors. It's as good a cocktail of enticingly-locked doors, backtracking, shortcuts, puzzles and traps as anything you care to mention from RE1/2/3/CV/0. The level designers can take a bow here. The atmosphere is exceptionally well done, recalling the first game's remote, sticky summer night of doom and rustic decay with assured skill. The RE engine is already pulling its weight and then some, RE7 is absolutely beautiful throughout, one of the best-looking games I've ever seen. Most of the rooms are superbly detailed and tell their own story- the kind of 'what happened here?' attention to detail RE was so well known for back in the day. There are some genuinely gruesome reveals, RE7 is perhaps the most morbid game in the series to date. The chills are frequent and genuine. I just want to dive straight back in and go on a screen capping spree. Later sections sadly aren't as good, in fact after
the game takes a huge dip in quality imo. I really didn't like
, and the
, although being fine enough, feels like an unused chunk of Revelations 1 which director Nakanishi couldn't help but throw in. In fact, Revelations 1 déjà vu happens a few times.
The combat is... for the most part it was good, which surprised me. On normal, enemies do go down with a reasonable amount of ammo, unlike in the demo as I feared. The ratio of ammo/weapons to enemies present is 100% dead-on classic RE. Not too little, not too much. As such, due to my unfamiliarity with the game, I had tons of moments which, yep, took me right back to that feeling of playing the old games. I made mistakes and wasted ammo, putting myself in lots of situations where the tension was real. I was carefully weighing up how I wanted to mix items, I was planning routes around dangerous areas to survive long enough to get that tantalising locked-up weapon. For most of the game, I genuinely felt like I was playing a new (old) RE title, even more so than Lost in Nightmares, it was an incredible feeling. The enemy quotient really is poor, though. Apart from the Bakers, there's basically
. There's not much variety in encounters, and you rarely have to think about what type of weapon is best for a certain situation or enemy weakness. I'll say that
do (for the most part) make good bosses, though.
There are several other issues I have with the game, both as an admittedly obsessive RE fan, even taking into account the fact that the game is obviously a drastic change in direction for the series, and when judging it with my own video game expectations.
The first person view is the biggest and most obvious change, and to my surprise it's a mostly effective and bold one. The appeal of looking straight down hallways and exploring dank corners from a first person view in a vividly-realised haunted house sells itself. Every horror film frames moments from the protagonist's perspective at least once, because it's timeless. And the immersion here is as good as it gets. I'm sorry I can't impart any experience with VR for this summary, but due to the fact that I'm totally blind in one eye, and the fact that I mostly just want to lie down and be comfy while I play games, I skipped playing in VR. That said, this game is going to be VR reference material forever. I can literally only imagine how third dimensions will add to this experience, but it's obvious even to me how many moments were created to maximise its potential. Where things don't work out so well in first person is in combat. I'm mostly happy with it, because nine times out of ten it's possible for encounters to go the way you want them to and understand why. But occasionally the screen will be smeared with jam and you'll inexplicably take a hit due to the fact that you're now viewing the world through a letterbox, and that you're suddenly nowhere near as nimble as you have been in past RE games. Capcom have smartly accounted for this by giving the player a block attack and including audio cues for enemy blows, but it's just not as satisfying as reliably being able to 100% avoid attacks with dexterity and skill, something which was always possible in the franchise until now. I think it's worth mentioning music here, too. There's hardly any. True, many RE games have been notably and effectively silent when it comes to music, but here's it's an overarching concept. They've obviously prioritised the first person view and the realism/immersion it brings, and abundant music might take away from that. I think they did the right thing, but it doesn't mean that I don't miss it. From combat to immersion to atmosphere to music- first person gives and takes away in equal measure.
The story... I didn't buy it. I don't know how the Japanese script goes down, but I'm gonna go right ahead and say that the localised script feels like a DMC-ification of RE. I swear Ethan
. It's hard to differentiate the line between characterisation and writing regarding the translation, but I do think there's a problem with characterisation across the board. I simply didn't give a damn about any of them. I mentioned Revelations 1 déjà vu before and I got it with these guys, albeit without
that game had. Ethan is the closest thing to an actual RE character in the game (save for
). He's defiant, plucky, resourceful, and equipped with a handful of one-liners, even if they aren't all that great. But
story, and that's about it. And my emotional investment in it was unfortunately almost zero.
It's true, the game isn't that long. I finished at about 11:30, with lots of meandering, walking and time wasting (although some optional stuff was missed which I want to go back and do), which is probably the quickest I've ever finished a RE game for the first time.
I applaud them for trying new things, even if it's not always successful. Overall, the game actually wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be, despite my skepticism. I thought they were gonna blow me away with a dramatic new direction for the series and shower me with carefully-guarded secrets and an abundance of content. And honestly that didn't really happen. It starts very strongly, but apart from the Baker estate, it's ultimately just not very memorable. It feels like it could have done with a total rewrite, a few more hours of gameplay, a better finale, a much-needed (and expected)
. Maybe they didn't have the time or money to go as far as they wanted. Maybe the DLC, which I'm definitely curious about, will fill in RE7's gaps. I hope so. But like I said, this game has taken my love of classic RE and, shortcomings or otherwise, delivered it more or less successfully with a new twist for a new generation. It was worth the price for that feeling alone. As such, the game gets a mostly enthusiastic thumbs up from me. I'm fine with RE7 as a RE title and as a Survival Horror game in its own right, and I recommend it to anyone seeking either.
Short version: It was great. But.
Long version: Capcom says RE7 goes back to its roots, and they're both right and wrong.
The Baker estate is a wonderful, sprawling, mysterious, gorgeous, terrifying maze full of mystery, surprises and suspenseful corners potentially hiding lucidly-realised horrors. It's as good a cocktail of enticingly-locked doors, backtracking, shortcuts, puzzles and traps as anything you care to mention from RE1/2/3/CV/0. The level designers can take a bow here. The atmosphere is exceptionally well done, recalling the first game's remote, sticky summer night of doom and rustic decay with assured skill. The RE engine is already pulling its weight and then some, RE7 is absolutely beautiful throughout, one of the best-looking games I've ever seen. Most of the rooms are superbly detailed and tell their own story- the kind of 'what happened here?' attention to detail RE was so well known for back in the day. There are some genuinely gruesome reveals, RE7 is perhaps the most morbid game in the series to date. The chills are frequent and genuine. I just want to dive straight back in and go on a screen capping spree. Later sections sadly aren't as good, in fact after
Marguerite is disposed with
Lucas' Saw section
boat section
The combat is... for the most part it was good, which surprised me. On normal, enemies do go down with a reasonable amount of ammo, unlike in the demo as I feared. The ratio of ammo/weapons to enemies present is 100% dead-on classic RE. Not too little, not too much. As such, due to my unfamiliarity with the game, I had tons of moments which, yep, took me right back to that feeling of playing the old games. I made mistakes and wasted ammo, putting myself in lots of situations where the tension was real. I was carefully weighing up how I wanted to mix items, I was planning routes around dangerous areas to survive long enough to get that tantalising locked-up weapon. For most of the game, I genuinely felt like I was playing a new (old) RE title, even more so than Lost in Nightmares, it was an incredible feeling. The enemy quotient really is poor, though. Apart from the Bakers, there's basically
one enemy type and slight variations to it
the Bakers
There are several other issues I have with the game, both as an admittedly obsessive RE fan, even taking into account the fact that the game is obviously a drastic change in direction for the series, and when judging it with my own video game expectations.
The first person view is the biggest and most obvious change, and to my surprise it's a mostly effective and bold one. The appeal of looking straight down hallways and exploring dank corners from a first person view in a vividly-realised haunted house sells itself. Every horror film frames moments from the protagonist's perspective at least once, because it's timeless. And the immersion here is as good as it gets. I'm sorry I can't impart any experience with VR for this summary, but due to the fact that I'm totally blind in one eye, and the fact that I mostly just want to lie down and be comfy while I play games, I skipped playing in VR. That said, this game is going to be VR reference material forever. I can literally only imagine how third dimensions will add to this experience, but it's obvious even to me how many moments were created to maximise its potential. Where things don't work out so well in first person is in combat. I'm mostly happy with it, because nine times out of ten it's possible for encounters to go the way you want them to and understand why. But occasionally the screen will be smeared with jam and you'll inexplicably take a hit due to the fact that you're now viewing the world through a letterbox, and that you're suddenly nowhere near as nimble as you have been in past RE games. Capcom have smartly accounted for this by giving the player a block attack and including audio cues for enemy blows, but it's just not as satisfying as reliably being able to 100% avoid attacks with dexterity and skill, something which was always possible in the franchise until now. I think it's worth mentioning music here, too. There's hardly any. True, many RE games have been notably and effectively silent when it comes to music, but here's it's an overarching concept. They've obviously prioritised the first person view and the realism/immersion it brings, and abundant music might take away from that. I think they did the right thing, but it doesn't mean that I don't miss it. From combat to immersion to atmosphere to music- first person gives and takes away in equal measure.
The story... I didn't buy it. I don't know how the Japanese script goes down, but I'm gonna go right ahead and say that the localised script feels like a DMC-ification of RE. I swear Ethan
FUCK YOU's at least two bosses
the added bonus of classic characters
one ill-fitting cameo
we never see him! He almost literally doesn't exist! He adds almost nothing to the RE lore, and... neither does this game, which is probably its biggest problem. Apart from a rather bizarre ending implying a newly-reformed 'good' Umbrella, almost nothing has changed in this universe. It's very much a small, isolated chapter in the RE timeline. It's Ethan/Mia's
It's true, the game isn't that long. I finished at about 11:30, with lots of meandering, walking and time wasting (although some optional stuff was missed which I want to go back and do), which is probably the quickest I've ever finished a RE game for the first time.
I applaud them for trying new things, even if it's not always successful. Overall, the game actually wasn't as good as I was expecting it to be, despite my skepticism. I thought they were gonna blow me away with a dramatic new direction for the series and shower me with carefully-guarded secrets and an abundance of content. And honestly that didn't really happen. It starts very strongly, but apart from the Baker estate, it's ultimately just not very memorable. It feels like it could have done with a total rewrite, a few more hours of gameplay, a better finale, a much-needed (and expected)
actual lab area.
Fancy Clown
Member
Nice review, Neff. Glad the level design of the baker estate holds up with the rest of the classic games. I'm assuming it won't top the spencer mansion layout of Remake, but if it can hang with the big kids I'll take it.
TRUE ORDER
Member
So,less than 24 hours for more reviews. Hopefully it gets a good reception and sales.
Great review, Neff. Shame about the story being meh, but I will say that (MAJOR SPOILERS)
. Also, have you tried Madhouse mode yet? Supposedly it's sorta like the Advanced/Arrange mode from RE: Director's Cut. Having assumed it was just a basic hard mode up until now, I'm actually curious to hear impressions on it. Sounds really cool (and perhaps a bit frustrating, haha).
I've seen the ending, and I really don't think that the implication there is supposed to be that Umbrella came back as the "good guys". I highly doubt that the guy that rescues Ethan is actually Chris. I'm of the opinion that it's likely HUNK, and that Ethan and Mia have been captured by a new, and very much insidious corporation that has taken up Umbrella's mantle (so that RE8 can be a thing, I suppose)
brandonh83
Banned
There a trophy locked behind Madhouse mode? Do we even have a trophy list yet?
Xaero Gravity
NEXT LEVEL lame™
DQVIII this past Friday, and Yakuza 0 and RE7 on the same day, what a busy week.
MHWilliams
Member
I'm reviewing it for USgamer, so I can confirm the 8am time.
brandonh83
Banned
Thanks!
SargerusBR
I love Pokken!
Good stuff, great to hear you enjoyed the game specially since you were one of the ones who constantly expressed worries about the game.
J_ToSaveTheDay
Member
Thanks, Neff, fantastic write-up -- glad to hear far more positive than negative. I mean, last month's impressions were adding up quite positive late last month (or early this month?), but I must admit that despite being interested after playing the demo, I still had a good range of doubts. The game is still overshadowed by Yakuza 0 and Gravity Rush 2 right now for me, but back during the PS1 era, Resident Evil was one of my favorite series and RE4 did end up being one of my favorite games ever. Despite this game not really resembling RE4, it does feel like it ultimately pays good gameplay respects to classic entries of the franchise, and that's something I can get behind.
Looking forward to eventually getting around to it.The issue where Famitsu gave Peace Walker a 40/40 has a two page advertisement with the CEO of the company that owns Famitsu talking about how great it is.
I feel like that sort of thing is worth pointing out. I can't think of any other notable review source that has done anything that egregious as far as conflict of interest. It's hard to categorize Famitsu scores as "theoretically objective" when they have a history of doing shit like this.
Kwansu Dudes
Member
Thanks, Neff. Significantly lowered my hype/wait so I can have a better experience Tuesday.
Edit: based on your RE Ranking, I am now doubtful haha
Edit: based on your RE Ranking, I am now doubtful haha
Neff
Member
It's not up there with the Spencer Mansion or the RPD, but it's really, really good.
I haven't, but I can imagine the game being much more fun and tense with limited saves and removed checkpoints. Does it actually mix items/enemies around like the RE
C though? That'd be really cool if it does.I had high expectations, simply due to it being a mainline big budget RE, and they weren't met. It's slightly too short, has some decidedly weak sections, and the story/characters simply aren't interesting (to me) at all. The game overall is solid though, and it retains (just about) enough of the RE vibe to satisfy my requirements.
F0rneus
Tears in the rain
Great review Neff. I'm especially hyped since your negative points don't really matter to me. (story and location spoilers)
I adore Revelations, so a section in a new ship is a HUGE bonus for me. Plus I really didn't need yet another game about Chris or Leon, or whatever once again. I'm fine with a smaller, scaled down story. As for the characters, I'm sure I'll love them. The idea of playing a section of a new RE game as an amnesiac Umbrella employee (Mia) is far more interesting to me, than anything that Capcom could have done with the same ol'characters. And I think you might have misunderstood the ending a little haha. Umbrella isn't "good". They probably created Eveline. And since Umbrella is supposed to be gone, that's a HUGE event in the RE series.
Neff, you know better by now to not judge a Resident Evil game by its story. And your point on
I agree that the
is the major flaw with this game. And I don't understand that even
how it doesn't add anything to the series, can be said to many other RE games
I agree that the
ship section
when we played as Mia, they refused to show Ethan's face.
That's not a difficult achievement haha
brandonh83
Banned
I really enjoyed 5 and 6 so that's encouraging! They're good games, just not what I want for RE so I suspect I will like 7 more.
F0rneus
Tears in the rain
Classy way of saying that you didn't find it good lol.
I love RE5. Screw off! All of you! T_T
It's not up there with the Spencer Mansion or the RPD, but it's really, really good.
I haven't, but I can imagine the game being much more fun and tense with limited saves and removed checkpoints. Does it actually mix items/enemies around like the RE
I had high expectations, simply due to it being a mainline big budget RE, and they weren't met. It's slightly too short, has some decidedly weak sections, and the story/characters simply aren't interesting (to me) at all. The game overall is solid though, and it retains (just about) enough of the RE vibe to satisfy my requirements.
Yeah, apparently Madhouse mode has completely different item and enemy locations compared to normal, and you can get twice as many coins to buy upgrades with. It also apparently changes enemy behavior in various ways.
MiamiWesker
Member
Great review Neff, has me at a good place on what to expect.
You can see by the reviews here so far that it got the classic Resident Evil vibes on lock. So if you're the classic RE type like me, this will be GOTY for you.
As a horror fan, horror games died with the seventh generation. And I lost hope that we will ever get an AAA survival horror game again.
But Capcom did it. And I don't know why when the series' best selling titles were the action ones. But they did it and I can't thank them enough. They made a long time fan happy
Lucent
Member
Lol I do, too.
Neff
Member
That's certainly possible, I hear that the game has multiple endings (no idea if it does or not), which might fill in more blanks, but I took Capcom's insistence that classic characters were featuring to assume that character was who I thought it was. And I know that character isn't ever going to align with the bad guys.
True, but most of them have some sort of significant turning point or knock-on effect for the RE universe. RE7's story is extremely self-contained, even compared to something like RE4. We could never hear from any of the characters in RE7 ever again and nothing would change (or imo be lost).
1 > REmake > 4 > 2 > CV > 6 > 5 > 0 > Revelations 2 > 7 (tentative ranking) > 3 > Revelations
That's absolutely awesome. Looking forward to trying it.
Napalm_Frank
Member
Leave RE5 alone
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
You can see by the reviews here so far that it got the classic Resident Evil vibes on lock. So if you're the classic RE type like me, this will be GOTY for you.
As a horror fan, horror games died with the seventh generation. And I lost hope that we will ever get an AAA survival horror game again.
But Capcom did it. And I don't know why when the series' best selling titles were the action ones. But they did it and I can't thank them enough. They made a long time fan happy
True survival horror is a niche genre.
SargerusBR
I love Pokken!
RE7's ending has a heavy impact on the series
True dat, every detail was so much more vivid viewed up close in VR scale and I'd be fine with the general atmosphere and puzzle solving, but seriously spent the entire demo (even after a couple of playthroughs in non vr) expecting some random jump scares from the game at various points, even more so than the ones we got in general gameplay.
As far as the full game is concerned, I may have to wait for them to patch in some kind of VR mode intensity meter option, so you get some forewarning that things are ramping up and about to get your heart rate skyhigh. Sure audio queues etc may already do that in general but I think VR needs special consideration when horror is concerned as its on a whole other level to regular gaming or passively watching a horror film on a tv.
Perhaps I just need to man up! I earned my VR legs, this is just the next stage... No VR fear!
F0rneus
Tears in the rain
Wait you think that 1 is better than REmake? And that 6 is better than 5? You lost me with that ranking haha. I really don't think our opinions on RE7 will match like at all.
Thinkng about it this way I think I agree.
I'll pray for your taste.
Really? 0 and RV2 are better?
Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
Hey everyone, this is Dusk Golem aka AestheticGamer. I have posted on NeoGAF since 2011, and have decided to resign. I have enjoyed posting about horror games here for years, but I no longer wish to support the site and will be leaving for good. I will still be around the internet, I go by AestheticGamer on YouTube, I make games on Steam as Yai Gameworks, and I plan to go by Dusk Golem on other forums. I'll be joining an off-set of the GAF community leaving to try other ventures like ResetEra (Official Twitter for that here: https://twitter.com/reseteraforum ). I hope some of you who read this may consider it, and I plan to try to expose more people to horror games in the years to come. Just not here.
I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1
I hope you all are having a good day, and know I always loved the community, and in the end it's the community I'm going to stick with, not the site itself. If you want to follow me, my official Twitter is here: https://twitter.com/AestheticGamer1
These are two of the best so my expectations are sky high now.
Napalm_Frank
Member
I'm more intriqued by the low ranking of 3.
But I love anyone who holds the original RE1 in high regard.
F0rneus
Tears in the rain
Yeah. 3 is a phenomenal game.
illmatic22
Banned
Not really setting the bar high there lol
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