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[CrimsonCrescendo]

So I finally got around to playing through the latest Resident Evil! Now, I'm a fan of all types of Resident Evil, but the perspective change had me questioning if I'd like it. Well, let's get to it!


The Gameplay and Overall Design:

As much as I love Action Resident Evil, it was refreshing after 6 to have a game that played to it's strengths rather than having a ton of depth but no design decisions to enforce it. Ethan and Mia move like they have a dump in their drawers and the best they can manage is a power walk, but this adds to the tension of the game. You always feel that an enemy you are running from will catch you at any moment. The shooting also feels sluggish to back up the tense feeling the enemies give you.

There is also a nice escalation in the weapons you get. You start with a basic hand gun and pocket knife, move up to the ever trusty shotgun, get to use a chainsaw briefly, then get a flamethrower, and finally get the Grenade Launcher. Whereas you feel limited at the beginning in your options in combat, by the end you feel readily able to take on the fiends of the mansion.

I also really liked the puzzles that they put in. A lot of them reminded me of classic RE (which is what this game basically is in first person), especially since the shotgun one was lifted directly from REmake. None of them were particularly difficult, but they served as a nice change of pace inbetween the spooks and combat.

Item management was a bit of a double edged sword. When I had all my items taken from me and I had to rebuild an arsenal from scraps before I got my stuff back, it felt good. At other times, when the game was throwing tons of items at me, it got tedious running back and forth to the item chest to store everything.


The Atmosphere:

This is probably the best part of the game right here. I'll let some screenshots and gifs do the talkings:

Criticisms



Tone:

For being a return to horror, I found the game to be pretty goofy overall. Believe me, I was ready to be spooked. I was ready to be the guy/gal in the face cam on Youtube screaming their head off at whatever jump scare came next. Fly in the ointment came when you meet Mia.

I mean, I get it. Possessed/Infected Wife now attacking you is a scary thought. The problem is in the execution. The voice actress seemed to be giving her best exorcist performance and the entire thing ends with her going after with a chainsaw. It's supposed to be scary but the entire thing seemed... off. Kinda goofy to be honest. But hey, It's the very beginning of the game!

And then Jack Baker Kool Aid Man's through a wall

And I just couldn't take anything I saw after that as the least bit horrifying. And it's not like it ends there! You end up chainsaw fighting the mother fucker in a slaughter room with him saying stuff like "Groovy"

Don't get me wrong, I loved it! Pure Resident Evil cheese! But horror? Nah. And it continues like this for the rest of the game. You're enemies are a smack talking old man, an old lady who summons fly cockroaches that you fight off with a flamethrower, a dick headed son, an evil little girl who turns out to be an old woman, and a single type of humanoid monster.

The game also had the annoying habit of falling back on "Oh, what just walked by the door!" at times that just made me roll my eyes.


Story

Nothing of note happens in the game. There's little characterization outside of Jack and Mia, there's no plot twists, no grand revelations, no character development, and it answers few questions it itself raises. Who was Mia working for? Why is Chris with Umbrella? Who was the 3rd party that Lucas was talking to? What happened to Zoe? And so on. Of course, a lot of this will be answered in upcoming DLC, but that doesn't make me any happier when the story was already so lackluster.

And the Mia ending: did they seriously pull a "Let's start over" ending? Mia is a goddamn bioterrorist who's actions directly resulted in the death of at least 40 people that we see and depending on how long her career was, probably killed at least over a hundred if she was involved in an outbreak. And she lies to her husband the entire time. This isn't a "sorry I cheated" or "sorry I've been an asshole" situation. And it's not like it's a "I didn't know" situation either. It's made clear she knows damn well what she's doing and does it any way. And the story hasn't been rebooted at all: It directly mentions Raccoon City. So Mia knows damn well what she's doing and the results of what she's doing and does it anyway. And yet the game ends on "She's a victim, she wants to leave it all behind" and she has to take zero responsibility for any of her actions. It's the Helena Harper ending if Helena had zero remorse and accepted no responsibility.

Zoe, on the other hand, is a complete victim and if you choose to save her she ends up dying horribly anyway and you get a rueful ending where Ethan wishes he'd saved Mia.


Feels light on content:

I finished at around the 9 hour mark and that was with taking my time. It's the shortest game since RE 3, has no extra modes outside of an optional difficulty (No Mercs or Raid mode), has no enemy variety, and just feels undercooked from a story perspective.




Overall/TL;DR:

I had quite a bit of fun with this game. It's not what I expected based off of marketing or what other people have been saying, but I enjoyed myself.


+Gameplay
+Puzzles
+Tension
+Design
+Atmsophere
+- Item Management
-Tone
-Story
-Feels Light on Content

 

[Perfo]

My favorite Re since Remake!

 

[valeu]

My favorite Re since Remake!

ditto
followed by 4

 

[PensivePen]

I actually thought Jack smashing through the wall was one of the scariest moments in the game.

 

[BTails]

I agree with a lot of your plot points, though I will say I found the game a bit scarier than you did, but I think that might have been because I played through the whole thing in VR.

Regarding Mia vs. Zoe endings: I'm really looking forward to the "End of Zoe" DLC, which should hopefully clear up a few things. Same with the "Not a Hero" DLC for Chris... It's a shame that we need DLC to wrap up plot points, but it's not like that's a new development for this generation of games, or even horror games in general (See: The Evil Within).

 

[Dusk Golem]

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

 

[BadWolf]

Hopefully RE8 goes back to 3rd person perspective.

 

[liquidtmd]

The last 1/3 did fall off a little bit and didn't match what preceded it, little disappointed with the DLC but overall I absolutely loved so much what Capcom did with so many aspects of a mainline title.

Glad it sold ok, sad it didn't do gangbusters and I hope it continues to find an audience.

1. REMake
2. Resident Evil 2
3. Resident Evil 7
4. Resident Evil 4
5. Resident Evil 3

It's very close though between them all

 

[black070]

Play the game in VR if you want to see how scary the game truly is.

 

[¡HarlequinPanic!]

Amazing game. The goofy bits let you know that it's still an RE title through and through. I don't think they really missed a single beat, everything felt like deliberate design.

 

[CrimsonCrescendo]

I liked it a lot, and hope they take another swing at the style since a sequel with a few improvements could be amazing.

I can understand where you're coming from on tone, but I'd srgue that's part of the fun of the franchise. The whole series has kind of balanced B-Horror charm, and even in what many cobsider the scariest entry in the series (REmake), there's a lot of goofy shit in it. I find it entertaining and fun though, it's one element I really like about the series is it all at once never and always takes itself too seriously but still nails its other factors.

Also, fun fact, you can play the whole game without Jack ever smashing through the wall. There's a surprising number of scenes that can or won't happen based on certain things lining up. The game has an interesting thing where it uses 'scripted scenes' in a way that's actually not 100% scripted.

Before release so many people were hung up with it being first-person they didn't notice how much in the pre-release material was shaping up nicely and resembling the series. A lot of gamers get way too hung up over certain things and fail to see the bigger picture, IE, "It's in first person, AMNESIA/OUTLAST CLONE.", without really understanding what that even means or not realizing the irony that even Amnesia and Outlast are drastically different to each other.

Happy it's found fans, though. Excited for Not a Hero and especially End of Zoe.

Oh, don't get me wrong: I LOVED the goofiness of it all. I don't know, I guess the I was just sold on a strict horror experience with what I'd heard about it.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

Well stated.

I felt 1st person made the game scary in an atmospheric way. For example, going though the attic and getting a critical item from this mummy-like thing and then having to double back. My heart nearly thumped out of my chest due to the tension.

The entire boat was silly, but I enjoyed the reveal at the end.

Gotta wait for the DLC for Chris.

 

[AAK]

I loved RE6, was a ton of fun co-op. I enjoyed RE7 more. I hope Capcom continues to try and create fresh gameplay styles for every numbered entry.

 

[PushingButtons]

I absolutely loved playing RE7 and I was usually fairly tense or scared during the majority of my time spent with it. Although that last couple sections of the game were pretty terrible and NOT fun, it didn't detract much from the previous portion of the game.

 

[Jazzem]

I can understand where you're coming from on tone, but I'd srgue that's part of the fun of the franchise. The whole series has kind of balanced B-Horror charm, and even in what many cobsider the scariest entry in the series (REmake), there's a lot of goofy shit in it. I find it entertaining and fun though, it's one element I really like about the series is it all at once never and always takes itself too seriously but still nails its other factors.

Yeah I feel the same, I was impressed how much RE7 managed to upgrade the quality of its writing from previous games while still retaining the franchise's schlocky elements. I think it balanced the two extremes remarkably well, but I can understand where it may not have pulled that mix for others.

I suppose my only criticism on that would be the main character never reacting to events convincingly, but then that's always been the case with the franchise.

 

[Jawmuncher]

A lot of your gripes echo mine. I didn't mind the goofy cheese either but it really does take away from any actual horror in the game. The atmosphere is there but there's only one instance where I felt scares were intact

Spoiler

Walking through the childs room to get the arm

. That was the only part of the game where I felt "oh this is scary".

The story and character's by far are the weakest aspect of RE7 in my eyes though much like you said. I don't care that there isn't off the walls action or no suplexes. I actually appreciated the turn to something more akin to the roots. But the first person perspective coupled with the weak character's and story really hurt things for me. Not saying RE stories are high art. But they're more fun and interesting than this. Ethan and Mia might as well have been planks of wood with their characterization through out the game. So many people latch onto the bakers because they're more interesting than the actual main characters. Which it's great to have good villains but when they overshadow your main character's this badly it's a problem.

Though that is void of Eveline. I pray we never see another creepy little girl in a RE game. Even with the reasoning by the end of the game for her I didn't care. It hardly added anything to the lore that was worth a damn.

Spoiler

Yeah the idea of a BOW being a child is interesting. You're a weapon without your choosing. But it's handled terribly. Am i supposed to be sympathetic because she utters one line about "Why does no one like me?" despite being a little shit the entire game. I was for the idea in concept. But it needed to play up the victim angle on Eveline more than it did. More focus should've been on her not being able to control what she is doing in a sense and ethan killing her being the only way to save everyone else.

. Long spoilers but that aspect alone irks me so much. Along with the

Spoiler

Hive mind of jack being "oh i'm a good guy but got corrupted"

.
There was A LOT of potential just left on the table for RE7 in terms of story and a lot of my complaints come from that. It's a case of where I see SO much wasted potential. Rather than any sort of "this ain't my RE" or whatever. Also I think complaints on the story are why a lot of people are still talking about Not a Hero over the ZoE DLC. People want to know the bigger picture more than anything and with a RE Hero in the lead that should be more than possible. I have a big hope that DLC paints my perception of RE7 better with it's revelations on the story as a whole (Even if it can't fix all of my complaints)

Much like you OP. If capcom insists on keeping the First Person for RE8 I hope they can work on where my complaints are. I want RE8 to be the RE2 of the series. Just taking everything there and making it better across the board. I don't care if action isn't there. I just want all the pieces to fit together nicely.

TL;DR
What needs to be improved from RE7

• Better Characterization for the main characters
• Better story with emotional moments if you want me to care
• More world/lore building than being a standstill with just implications but no real answers

 

[Pilgrimzero]

My only downside was the lack of enemy variety. It’s another Mold Man....

 

[MetalSlug]

Felt like Evil dead during my playthrough of it. Good game overall though (Non VR)

 

[Jawmuncher]

Play the game in VR if you want to see how scary the game truly is.

I don't think this is a factor as much as people think. I played part of the game in VR before it came out and later again in VR after beating it.
Yeah beating it kinda takes things away. But doing both Kitchen and the Lantern demo (Before the game released) really don't accentuate things. At least not in the sense some are thinking.
if the game not in VR doesn't scare you I don't think the game will magically be 10x scarier in VR. That's not to say that's the case for all but I think it's probably a general rule for it.

Like i've noticed from numerous threads that those labeling the game as really scary seem to be easily scared just playing in regular mode. This is coming from someone who legit thinks even now PT is scary.

I think a large part comes from a lot of standard tropes and expectations are put into the scares. The majority are easily put together if you're any sort of horror aficionado. Like I said above the only part of the game where it managed to "scare" me was

Spoiler

The child's room

. Since that played to your expectations and defied them perfectly.

 

[CrimsonCrescendo]

A lot of your gripes echo mine. I didn't mind the goofy cheese either but it really does take away from any actual horror in the game. The atmosphere is there but there's only one instance where I felt scares were intact

Spoiler

Walking through the childs room to get the arm

. That was the only part of the game where I felt "oh this is scary".

The story and character's by far are the weakest aspect of RE7 in my eyes though much like you said. I don't care that there isn't off the walls action or no suplexes. I actually appreciated the turn to something more akin to the roots. But the first person perspective coupled with the weak character's and story really hurt things for me. Not saying RE stories are high art. But they're more fun and interesting than this. Ethan and Mia might as well have been planks of wood with their characterization through out the game. So many people latch onto the bakers because they're more interesting than the actual main characters. Which it's great to have good villains but when they overshadow your main character's this badly it's a problem.

Though that is void of Eveline. I pray we never see another creepy little girl in a RE game. Even with the reasoning by the end of the game for her I didn't care. It hardly added anything to the lore that was worth a damn.

Spoiler

Yeah the idea of a BOW being a child is interesting. You're a weapon without your choosing. But it's handled terribly. Am i supposed to be sympathetic because she utters one line about "Why does no one like me?" despite being a little shit the entire game. I was for the idea in concept. But it needed to play up the victim angle on Eveline more than it did. More focus should've been on her not being able to control what she is doing in a sense and ethan killing her being the only way to save everyone else.

. Long spoilers but that aspect alone irks me so much. Along with the

Spoiler

Hive mind of jack being "oh i'm a good guy but got corrupted"

.
There was A LOT of potential just left on the table for RE7 in terms of story and a lot of my complaints come from that. It's a case of where I see SO much wasted potential. Rather than any sort of "this ain't my RE" or whatever. Also I think complaints on the story are why a lot of people are still talking about Not a Hero over the ZoE DLC. People want to know the bigger picture more than anything and with a RE Hero in the lead that should be more than possible. I have a big hope that DLC paints my perception of RE7 better with it's revelations on the story as a whole (Even if it can't fix all of my complaints)

Much like you OP. If capcom insists on keeping the First Person for RE8 I hope they can work on where my complaints are. I want RE8 to be the RE2 of the series. Just taking everything there and making it better across the board. I don't care if action isn't there. I just want all the pieces to fit together nicely.

TL;DR
What needs to be improved from RE7

• Better Characterization for the main characters
• Better story with emotional moments if you want me to care
• More world/lore building than being a standstill with just implications but no real answers

Christ, I forgot to talk about Eveline. She's such a weak villain. She's mentioned a couple times before about 70% of the way through the game and then she's a run of the mill "evil little girl". They don't play the victim angle AT ALL for Eveline and put that on Mia despite Mia being a horrible person.

 

[Bloodporne]

I thoroughly enjoyed the schlocky B-grade feel and it's one of the few things that actually made it feel like a proper Resi title for me.

The last section sucked, no doubt, but I enjoyed the rest of the game enough to want Resi 8 to be built on what did work in this one. There's just so much room for improvement and cool shit with this overall template. I'd love to see them expand on its unique aspects and really deliver a bigger, better and truly unique game in this vein with Resi 8.

My gripes would be that it felt much too "small" with its combination of lack of enemy and location variety. Every time I think of Resi 7, I have this nagging feeling that it felt rushed in terms of content and size in general. That and I disliked the last

Spoiler

boat

segment so much, it hardly ever factors into my memories of what I enjoyed here in the first place.

 

[PooBone]

My favorite Re since Remake!

Same. Easily.

 

[How About No]

Despite the last half being considerably weaker, this game was a beautiful return to form.

Play Madhouse if you haven't, the changes they make to the game flow are bananas

 

[kromeo]

RE7 is absolutely the template I'd like to see for the next game, with the obvious improvements that have been discussed a million times. (Apart from returning fan favourite characters, I don't care about that)

 

[Dusk Golem]

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

 

[ethomaz]

Return to roots means goofy B-side horror...

REVII is probably one of best RE ever created.

 

[CrimsonCrescendo]

I mean, I don't think of Mia being any more evil than say, Ada Wong. Difference between Ada and Mia is Ada is a spy who works at a lot of organizations, Mia I think only worked at one. Ada has done good, but undoubtedly has lead to a ton of people dying because of her work, even if indirectly. But there is good in her, and she sometimes chooses to do the right thing. Mia was just working under her employers orders. What happened was an outbreak, their plan was not to kill people or explode the ship, it just spiralled down like that. And Mia I think after that whole invident just wanted out, it was evident she just wanted to get away and did care about Ethan. I think the case is more Mia's employer was evil and Mia in extension was an employee of this corporation.

I think the difference is that we're never really asked to feel bad for Ada. She's basically a terrorist for hire and does good when it aligns with her goals. That's why a happy ending and settling down with Leon probably isn't happening despite what a lot of fans would want.

Mia's labelled a victim. She knows what she's doing and does it any way. It's not like this is some new thing either. Umbrella employees might have been able to get away with that in 1996, but this is a world where Bioterror attacks have happened so often over the next 21 years that NGOs run advertisements for recruitment on basically Prime Time and entire cities have been nuked (Raccoon City, Tall Oaks, Terragrigia, Lanshiang). The BSAA is a household name. While Raccoon City is still a bit shrouded in mystery, that has more to do with the deeper connection like the US involvement and such rather than "We didn't know there was a damn zombie attack". So it really rings hollow for me. She was actively taking part in transporting and conditioning in not just unethical experimentation, but child experimentation. Hard for me to have sympathy

 

[Newboi]

Question, when has story and characterization ever been a strong point for RE lol? Like most RE games, the majority of the actual lore, major overarching plot points, universe tie-ins, and character explanations are left to missable documents. The only RE game I can think of that puts more of the import plot points in cutscenes and in-game dialog vs documents is RE5 (CV kinda fits here too I guess).

I whole-heartedly think RE8 should have improvements in all the areas previously talked about; I just think speaking about RE7 as if the other titles somehow managed characterization and plot development better is somewhat disingenuous.

Anyway, I'm all for the camp of having RE8 stick to first person. I would definitely like to see how they would handle an RE2 style scenario, but with everything they learned from making RE7.

 

[kromeo]

Question, when has story and characterization ever been a strong point for RE lol? Like most RE games, the majority of the actual lore, major overarching plot points, universe tie-ins, and character explanations are left to missable documents. The only RE game I can think of that puts more of the import plot points in cutscenes and in-game dialog vs documents is RE5 (CV kinda fits here too I guess).

5 had the worst story of the lot, I really hated the way Spencer was finally introduced

It's never been a masterpiece story or anything but I quite liked the way you gradually pieced things together through exploration in 0 and 1 particularly

 

[RedSwirl]

Probably not gonna get to this till next year. Still always thought a return to adventure game RE but with modern 3D controls was the most ideal way to go.

Question, when has story and characterization ever been a strong point for RE lol? Like most RE games, the majority of the actual lore, major overarching plot points, universe tie-ins, and character explanations are left to missable documents. The only RE game I can think of that puts more of the import plot points in cutscenes and in-game dialog vs documents is RE5 (CV kinda fits here too I guess).

I whole-heartedly think RE8 should have improvements in all the areas previously talked about; I just think speaking about RE7 as if the other titles somehow managed characterization and plot development better is somewhat disingenuous.

Anyway, I'm all for the camp of having RE8 stick to first person. I would definitely like to see how they would handle an RE2 style scenario, but with everything they learned from making RE7.

It felt cool and interesting back in the late 90's. The concept of RE -- a horror game about something scientific released by a corporation, was very unusual in console games in 1996 and 1998.

 

[Jawmuncher]

Mia being put up for war crimes would be fucking amazing.

But the thing is only she knows she’s a bad guy. So she essentially gets a clean card to start over unless Lucas spills the beans or chris finds some info on her.

 

[loganclaws]

Hated this one.

- game is very short
- no replay value
- uninspired and few enemies
- terrible plot and weird disconnect between scenarios and character reactions
- simplified level design and puzzles
- hide and seek sections

 

[Jawmuncher]

Question, when has story and characterization ever been a strong point for RE lol? Like most RE games, the majority of the actual lore, major overarching plot points, universe tie-ins, and character explanations are left to missable documents. The only RE game I can think of that puts more of the import plot points in cutscenes and in-game dialog vs documents is RE5 (CV kinda fits here too I guess).

I whole-heartedly think RE8 should have improvements in all the areas previously talked about; I just think speaking about RE7 as if the other titles somehow managed characterization and plot development better is somewhat disingenuous.

Anyway, I'm all for the camp of having RE8 stick to first person. I would definitely like to see how they would handle an RE2 style scenario, but with everything they learned from making RE7.

I mean you're not wrong. The older games aren't pioneers or great examples of that.
But the thing is those games don't ask as much from the player in terms of expected emotion.

While RE7 on the other hand hits you over the head with that constantly. "Oh your wife is being pulled away, don't you wanna save her?" "Oh no your wife cut you but it's not really her, don't you feel bad?"

Spoiler

"Oh this poor little girl is a BOW don't you feel sorry for her?"

. That's the problem I have with RE7. There's WAY too much of trying to make me feel something when there isn't enough effort put in.

Why the hell should I care about saving mia when Ethan doesn't care. Why should I even have a dilemma when picking between Zoe and Mia when there's no development for either. Why should I feel bad later with flashbacks that just reinforce the point on how nothing these character's are.

Fucking Steve from Code Veronica mustered more of an emotional response than anything in RE7 did in terms of making me feel sorry or bad. It's just kind of the issue with their shift to more realistic than stylized. Since now that's a factor that needs to be worked on more especially if they insist on stories hitting those kind of notes.

My biggest worry is they take the positive criticism the wrong way. At a recent interview the director was talking about how hard a choice for the player picking Zoe or Mia would be and I just lost my mind. Especially when you know what happens on both choices.

 

[Crossing Eden]

Jack Baker is incredibly unnerving in his goofiness. He's like fun to watch and listen to but you definitely don't want him near you which is where the fear comes from.

 

[Neff]

I haven't played it much lately but after beating it a dozen or so times this year my opinion remains the same- an excellent game, slightly too short, not enough enemy variety, mostly terrible characters/story. It would be nice if the DLC goes some way towards fixing this.

A solid RE title and a promising foundation upon which to build RE8.

Spoiler

Still my GOTY.

 

[MaximusPayne]

Playing with limited ammo is the scariest. I thought it was a pretty good return to horror, honestly.

 

[sjay1994]

This is the campiest RE game I've played since 4.

Really enjoyed it, but I think the game needed more enemy variety and actual scares.

The only time I jumped from my seat was because I mistook something as an enemy when it was just a wall :/

 

[Jawmuncher]

Playing with limited ammo is the scariest. I thought it was a pretty good return to horror, honestly.

I feel like this is the main issue.
Everyone is so focused on the "return to roots" and such that they kinda glance over the rest. Since they're just glad it's not another action game.
Not saying the game is bad. But there's a lot of stuff that should be better all things considered.

 

[CrimsonCrescendo]

I mean you're not wrong. The older games aren't pioneers or great examples of that.
But the thing is those games don't ask as much from the player in terms of expected emotion.

While RE7 on the other hand hits you over the head with that constantly. "Oh your wife is being pulled away, don't you wanna save her?" "Oh no your wife cut you but it's not really her, don't you feel bad?"

Spoiler

"Oh this poor little girl is a BOW don't you feel sorry for her?"

. That's the problem I have with RE7. There's WAY too much of trying to make me feel something when there isn't enough effort put in.

Why the hell should I care about saving mia when Ethan doesn't care. Why should I even have a dilemma when picking between Zoe and Mia when there's no development for either. Why should I feel bad later with flashbacks that just reinforce the point on how nothing these character's are.

Fucking Steve from Code Veronica mustered more of an emotional response than anything in RE7 did in terms of making me feel sorry or bad. It's just kind of the issue with their shift to more realistic than stylized. Since now that's a factor that needs to be worked on more especially if they insist on stories hitting those kind of notes.

My biggest worry is they take the positive criticism the wrong way. At a recent interview the director was talking about how hard a choice for the player picking Zoe or Mia would be and I just lost my mind. Especially when you know what happens on both choices.

To add to this, a lot of the story simply doesn't add up. Zoe acts like the shit going on in the swamp has been going on her entire life (which is backed up by the in game files alluding to Lucas murdering his friend as a child) which is why she wants to get away so badly. She doesn't even want to go back and save her family. However, if we go by the later "it was all Eveline" cutscene, this has only been going on for about two years or so, and the change would have been profound.

There are also parts where it seems like there wasn't thought put into it. Like in the last Jack fight: Zoe yells to Ethan to use the serum on her father, but then a minute later acts like she's super surprised he did so when he tells her.

 

[cucuchu]

I don't think this is a factor as much as people think. I played part of the game in VR before it came out and later again in VR after beating it.
Yeah beating it kinda takes things away. But doing both Kitchen and the Lantern demo (Before the game released) really don't accentuate things. At least not in the sense some are thinking.
if the game not in VR doesn't scare you I don't think the game will magically be 10x scarier in VR. That's not to say that's the case for all but I think it's probably a general rule for it.

Like i've noticed from numerous threads that those labeling the game as really scary seem to be easily scared just playing in regular mode. This is coming from someone who legit thinks even now PT is scary.

I think a large part comes from a lot of standard tropes and expectations are put into the scares. The majority are easily put together if you're any sort of horror aficionado. Like I said above the only part of the game where it managed to "scare" me was

Spoiler

The child's room

. Since that played to your expectations and defied them perfectly.

Playing the game in VR if its your first play through does make it significantly more scary IMO although maybe not 10x as scary its still significant. I played the game my first time entirely in PSVR and there were portions of the game that I had to take the headset off and return to it later because it became too tense. This was not because it was scary in a mind-bending way but more so because the creepy atmosphere of the game is cranked up so much more with the full immersion of VR and the 3D sound if you are wearing headphones.

An example of this was when the old lady falls in that hole in the floor and you see her twisted, large body down there and you have to jump down yourself. I had no idea what to expect and since objects that are large in the game are true to life large in VR, I noped out of that for the night. There were a few more instances of this too but mostly its just not knowing what to expect and combining that with horror in a VR experience is just truly terrifying and I fucking love it.

P.T. or a horror game with some creative ideas in VR that not only throws you in a tense situation but also messes with your mind...That would be perfect. There are so many ways you could mess with someone's head in VR, I look forward to when THAT V.R. game is made that takes proper advantage of the medium.

 

[void666]

My only downside was the lack of enemy variety. It’s another Mold Man....

This. Also the later areas are bland.

 

[cheez124]

My only downside was the lack of enemy variety. It’s another Mold Man....

Yeah, this was my biggest issue too, especially considering the swamp/bayou setting of the game. We could've had some mold-infected snakes or crocodiles or something, but instead we get the same 3 molded over and over, and some relatively small bugs in one area.

 

[Bloodporne]

I feel like this is the main issue.
Everyone is so focused on the "return to roots" and such that they kinda glance over the rest. Since they're just glad it's not another action game.
Not saying the game is bad. But there's a lot of stuff that should be better all things considered.

It should've struck a much more even balance in my opinion. I really enjoyed it on my first go due to its freshness I suppose, but ended up not even finishing my second run. It feels really, really light on content and engaging gameplay for me after the initial excitement.

As I've said, I still really enjoyed my first time with it (up until the shitty last segment that is), but they simply need to strike a better Pure Atmosphere vs. Action balance next time.

My favorite part was probably the Marguerite

Spoiler

boss fight

.

 

[luka]

i love this game and am incredibly happy it turned out as well as it did, despite some major issues i have with it's overall balancing and design. it's an amazing template for a future game to iterate on.

i think my biggest criticism was there there isn't more of it. specifically, there isn't more jack. jack has some amazing set pieces that are easily the hightlights of the entire game, but he's gone all too soon. you have essentially two instances where you're forced to deal with him outside of his 2 'boss fights.' also, in madhouse you can get the scorpion key right away, reducing the minimum encounter rate even more. they established this amazing persuit mechanic with him, and abandoned it far too soon. where alien isolation didn't know when to let up, bio7 doesn't go far enough.

part of the problem is that the main house just isn't big enough (nowhere for jack to go in the east wing) and there isn't enough required backtracking to force you into his path. i think they were worried that prolonging your time with him would be too difficult and stressful for most people, so it ends up feeling like they chickened out after pushing him so hard in marketing. basically, the game needed way more jack and way less molded.

on the subject of extra modes: that's basically what the banned footage dlc is. there's some really fun modes like nightmare and ethan must die that feel like twists on the old battle modes from previous games.

 

[Transistor]

My only downside was the lack of enemy variety. It’s another Mold Man....

Literally my only downside, too. Would have been fine with some mold-style stuff on regular zombies, but I want zombies back, god damnit

 

[Hippopuncher12]

My only downside was the lack of enemy variety. It’s another Mold Man....

Agreed. Overall I loved the game, but seeing the same enemies over and over was pretty annoying.

 

[Sesha]

Glad you liked it. Personally it's my favorite since 4, although that's not to say I don't agree with a lot of the criticisms. The scariness I think is very individual. I personally found a couple of sections terrifying, like going back down into the basement, and the seemingly haunted children's area.

Hopefully RE8 goes back to 3rd person perspective.

pls no. I don't want everything to be 3rd person again.

 

[BanjoLayleeYookaKazooie]

I've never seen a game mess up incredible early potential quite as good as this game before. Most of the game before the

Spoiler

'''''''choice''''''

is outstanding, but then that embarrassing moment led to a downward spiral that really soured the experience. I just don't know what happened, they nailed the gameplay, atmosphere, attention to detail, graphics and setting up till that point then they do the most gamey thing ever

Spoiler

A completely pointless but oh-so emotional choice for the sake of it

and then it becomes tired, cliché nonsense with a stupid ending.

I want to wholeheartedly recommend the game based off of the brilliant first 6 hours but the awful last couple of hours really does spoil it all, especially for a short game that was full price.

 

[kc44135]

Kind of weird to complain about the tone of this game,OP. Being wierd/goofy has always been RE's MO, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I was honestly pretty bummed at how dark/edgy/serious the game seemed to be going off of the trailers/demos. I was very pleasantly surprised with the main game, which felt like RE through and through. 😊

Literally my only downside, too. Would have been fine with some mold-style stuff on regular zombies, but I want zombies back, god damnit

Yeah, this was my biggest complaint as well, although I don't know if we absolutely need to zombies to come back specifically (although I absolutely think they should be there in RE2, obviously). I just think the lack of variety in regular enemies is lame, and it's especially odd coming off of RE6. Say what you will about the game, but it had one of the largest and most diverse bestiaries in the entire series. RE7, on the other hand, has the bakers and four very similar looking variations of what are essentially just blob monsters. Meh.

Honestly, I think the Molded are fine as the zombie equivalent of the game, but there should have been more than that. Where are my outlandish mutant monstrosities (Hunters, Chimeras, Lickers, Regenerators, etc.)? I guess the crawlers and fatties are meant to fill these roles, but they just aren't distinctive enough from the regular Molded. I also miss me some mutated animals/insects (I guess there's the bees, right? lol) and an RE game set in the Bayou would've been the perfect chance for some zombie gators.

 

[Creamium]

Your first playthrough of RE7 has to be in VR, it's unforgettable. It's been a long time since a horror game actually scared me but the early hours of RE7 were something else. It also gets amplified because it was my first meaty VR experience, but still. Nothing sold me on VR like RE7 did. Doing another run without it didn't feel the same, like someone else was playing. So for those holding out and are considering a VR-set in the future... wait til then to play RE7.