So, for many silly reasons - including (but not limited to) moving away to York (England) with my boyfriend - I have negleted to do anything with this blog I started a while back. You can also blame the high-octane dissertation experience, working night shifts and the actual graduating process for my prolonged absence.
Ooops, my bad.
Oh well, enough of that. I'm back! Yey! It's about time I stop making excuses and kick off 2017 with a good ol' fashioned, balls to the wall review. Why the hell not?
Now, I'm sure any avid and excited gaming fans out there will have heard of Resident Evil 7's release. Or it's imminant release, depending on where you are in the world.
I'm not going to lie, I was very, very skeptical. The Resident Evil franchise has experienced some pretty knarly setbacks as of late. While Resident Evil 6 sold plenty of units, it had become quite clear to followers of the series that things had become a little...well, stale. Don't believe me? Yikes. Not Good.
Capcom clearly had to re-invent the big RE.
The player will now find themselves playing Ethan, a rather hapless and average protagonist when compared with Chris Redfield or Leon Kennedy from the previous storylines. We then find ourselves helping Ethan in a search for his missing wife, Mia. What begins as a mere hunt for his lost wife soon devolves into a prolonged and intense encounter with the Baker family.
After a rather crazy opening scene, one might be forgiven in thinking that Resident Evil 7 is going down the now incredibly popular "jump scare/insane people" route, focusing much less upon the gameplay elements of the game and making the player jump up and down like a possessed pogo. After all, the opening scene is hypnotisingly frightful. Then shortly after the opening, we get properly acquianted with the Bakers. During this sequence, the player is gradually teased into the gamplay style.
Then, before you can say "bring me a Jill Sandwich," bam! We open a set a massive double doors, into a massive environment that is positively jam-packed with keys, puzzles and enemies to run away from, screaming like a lil' baby in the process. Bliss.
This is where Resident Evil comes back with a sinister vengence. No longer is it the set-piece, action-packed, muscle-bound experience that we have become somewhat used to because of the previous entries. Nuh uh. We are back in a desolate, isolated location, only now we are sneaking around a decrepit plantation site. One thing I did notice was how much the map had to be used in-game. The heck? We haven't got this lost or stuck since Jill found herself running away from that guy with the big teeth...
But this is great, since it actually posed a challenge for the player. I can say that this is the Resident Evil we hardcore fans will remember, brought into modern times.
There is a lot that bloody thrilled me with Resident Evil 7. The locations where diverse, with the plantation area, surrounding swamp and buildings all evoking a suitably creepy vibe. The enemies look gross and intimidating. The boss fights were pretty great too, albeit not too difficult. The style and scale of the arenas were smaller than what we have come to expect from Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6. But that made the fights more clautrophobic, more uncomfortable, more intense. I loved it!
However, this mostly only accounts for the first half of the game. In the final 1/3 of the game, I personally felt like there was a switch. Not a completely shoddy shift, but a shift non-the-less.
The action increases quite rapidly. While there is still a need to explore your surroundings and figure out where the hell you are going, it's a different tone than what came prior. That is not to say action itself is wholly bad. But the switch over to this more intense, action-driven gameplay was a bit too sharp for my liking. I wanted a tad bit more of a build-up. The final hour of the game is a non-stop, rather linear affair, leading up to a final boss that is absolutely incredible to look at on screen, but was basically little more than a quick time event. Hmm. A bit of a disappointment. Perhaps Capcom just had to honor their previous works in some way?
Also, I reeeeally do wish that the game was longer and had more collectables for the player to find. Something that previous Resident Evil games undeniably had was great replayability value.
It's a shame that I'll probably only need 15-18 hours to 100% the game. In all honesty, when you play through it, Resident Evil 7 loses a fair chunk of it's "creepy factor," since you'll forever know in replays what's going to happen and when. This is inevitably damaging, since the atmosphere and scares are by far the best part of Resident Evil 7. For example, Resident Evil 4 is super replayable because the fun, over-the-top combat and silly boss fights certainly makes up for the *ahem* crappy voice-acting, camp characters and shitty, non-scary storyline.
Anyway, what I found suprised me, mostly in a good way. Decent scares, clautrophobic environments, grotesque people/monsters, puzzles that are both challenging and rewarding. What more can a die-hard fan ask for?
Capcom is going in the right direction. They have instilled faith in me, in that they did take the major criticisms and gripes of the last few games onboard and the result is Resident Evil 7.
Rating:
Ooops, my bad.
Oh well, enough of that. I'm back! Yey! It's about time I stop making excuses and kick off 2017 with a good ol' fashioned, balls to the wall review. Why the hell not?
Now, I'm sure any avid and excited gaming fans out there will have heard of Resident Evil 7's release. Or it's imminant release, depending on where you are in the world.
I'm not going to lie, I was very, very skeptical. The Resident Evil franchise has experienced some pretty knarly setbacks as of late. While Resident Evil 6 sold plenty of units, it had become quite clear to followers of the series that things had become a little...well, stale. Don't believe me? Yikes. Not Good.
Capcom clearly had to re-invent the big RE.
The player will now find themselves playing Ethan, a rather hapless and average protagonist when compared with Chris Redfield or Leon Kennedy from the previous storylines. We then find ourselves helping Ethan in a search for his missing wife, Mia. What begins as a mere hunt for his lost wife soon devolves into a prolonged and intense encounter with the Baker family.
After a rather crazy opening scene, one might be forgiven in thinking that Resident Evil 7 is going down the now incredibly popular "jump scare/insane people" route, focusing much less upon the gameplay elements of the game and making the player jump up and down like a possessed pogo. After all, the opening scene is hypnotisingly frightful. Then shortly after the opening, we get properly acquianted with the Bakers. During this sequence, the player is gradually teased into the gamplay style.
Then, before you can say "bring me a Jill Sandwich," bam! We open a set a massive double doors, into a massive environment that is positively jam-packed with keys, puzzles and enemies to run away from, screaming like a lil' baby in the process. Bliss.
This is where Resident Evil comes back with a sinister vengence. No longer is it the set-piece, action-packed, muscle-bound experience that we have become somewhat used to because of the previous entries. Nuh uh. We are back in a desolate, isolated location, only now we are sneaking around a decrepit plantation site. One thing I did notice was how much the map had to be used in-game. The heck? We haven't got this lost or stuck since Jill found herself running away from that guy with the big teeth...
But this is great, since it actually posed a challenge for the player. I can say that this is the Resident Evil we hardcore fans will remember, brought into modern times.
There is a lot that bloody thrilled me with Resident Evil 7. The locations where diverse, with the plantation area, surrounding swamp and buildings all evoking a suitably creepy vibe. The enemies look gross and intimidating. The boss fights were pretty great too, albeit not too difficult. The style and scale of the arenas were smaller than what we have come to expect from Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6. But that made the fights more clautrophobic, more uncomfortable, more intense. I loved it!
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| Google Images: Kooky and Spooky. What's behind door number one..? |
However, this mostly only accounts for the first half of the game. In the final 1/3 of the game, I personally felt like there was a switch. Not a completely shoddy shift, but a shift non-the-less.
The action increases quite rapidly. While there is still a need to explore your surroundings and figure out where the hell you are going, it's a different tone than what came prior. That is not to say action itself is wholly bad. But the switch over to this more intense, action-driven gameplay was a bit too sharp for my liking. I wanted a tad bit more of a build-up. The final hour of the game is a non-stop, rather linear affair, leading up to a final boss that is absolutely incredible to look at on screen, but was basically little more than a quick time event. Hmm. A bit of a disappointment. Perhaps Capcom just had to honor their previous works in some way?
Also, I reeeeally do wish that the game was longer and had more collectables for the player to find. Something that previous Resident Evil games undeniably had was great replayability value.
It's a shame that I'll probably only need 15-18 hours to 100% the game. In all honesty, when you play through it, Resident Evil 7 loses a fair chunk of it's "creepy factor," since you'll forever know in replays what's going to happen and when. This is inevitably damaging, since the atmosphere and scares are by far the best part of Resident Evil 7. For example, Resident Evil 4 is super replayable because the fun, over-the-top combat and silly boss fights certainly makes up for the *ahem* crappy voice-acting, camp characters and shitty, non-scary storyline.
Anyway, what I found suprised me, mostly in a good way. Decent scares, clautrophobic environments, grotesque people/monsters, puzzles that are both challenging and rewarding. What more can a die-hard fan ask for?
Capcom is going in the right direction. They have instilled faith in me, in that they did take the major criticisms and gripes of the last few games onboard and the result is Resident Evil 7.
Rating:
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| Google Images |
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