Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Welcome to the family, son.

As a fan of horror movies, this was a very innovative and entertaining experience.

The game is very dynamic and has the perfect length to keep you interested in the story, definitely a great game for horror and Resident Evil fans.

Game falls off about midway but still a great experience.

After that abomination,a.k.a. Resident Evil 6,I had 0 expectations for RE as franchise.That is until I started this one.I always had a mixed feelings towards RE as franchise,but one thing I mised since playing RE1 Remake was fear factor.Finaly I'm glad Capcom brought back survival horror into RE.This game was a big shut up to my personal favorite RE game.Loved how they keep changing their games,this one is a first person and more effective in terms of fear.Game is terrifying right at the start and it slowly drops in my eyes.The game story is about Ethan Winters looking to find his missing wife Mia,and he gets stuck in the abandoned house full of crazy people.There are 5 sections in the game.First 2 were the best IMO.Jack was the scariest stalker enemy for me.Straight forward,chases you with shovel,chainsaw,in tight area of the house.Margarite was great too,her sections are about insects,and that brought more fear dealing with spiders,bees,and her chasing you around bayou.Lucas is crazy lunatic that plays games with minds of his victims.Until Lucas I like the game a lot.Love how watching videotapes you as player play as that victim in which you know you are gonna die.You can even play as Mia stealth section,and later on ship.Now the ship level shouldn't even been in the game,to me it ruined the pace of the game.And then Eveline being grandma and final boss was good plot twist,but fight was ok.I love how in this one we didn't get boom explosion and self destruct sequences,because I was getting sick of those endings.A lot of disturbing imagery.Perfect.Weapon variety is not too much,but them looking dusty and dirty was a nice detail,ammo is hard to find and you got to use your ammo smart,not waste too much or you're fucked.Zoe is character that helps you throughout the game,and there is a replay value bacuse you have to choose which one to save Mia or Zoe.I choosed Mia,so now I wonder what happens when you choose Zoe.Atmosphere was awesome and ost was scary,gonna play not a hero dlc,and if I feel like it I will check out the rest of the dlcs.I do wish Ethan had more personality,because after everything he had been through,I wish he snapped at some point and started killing everyone.Puzzles were not that hard,no complaints at all.Jumpscares were so good in first hour of the game,but fear slowly declines later as you play.f you are a fan of survival horror,this one is a must have,looking forward too RE8.

(It has its moments)
(Its scary but its fun)

Resident Evil 7 is an excellent return to the series survival horror roots that delivers everything the series is known for.

Starting with this entry Capcom has switched to an in house "RE" engine that uses photogrammetry for the enviroment, object and character model creation, basically they scan real life objects and people, this allows to make everything look much more detailed and realistic than what the series had before and it fits a grounded entry such as this quite well. It holds up well, but hair physics and some face animations look odd at times, has that uncanny valley effect which funny enough fits well for a horror game. Game runs at solid 60fps even on PS4, with current gen patch allowing a 120fps option on PS5, as well as improving visual fidelity.

RE7 is a perfect introduction to the series with how standalone it is, it does have plenty of lore references for the series veterans, but it's mostly a new beginning with a new cast of characters to meet. This is a fresh start for the series and fittingly so a new protagonist is introduced. Ethan Winters is mostly a shell you can project yourself to, but he luckly has some personality, though cast of villains is easily the highlight of RE7. Every Baker family member is given enough time to be explored, with Jack and Marguerite being the highlight. RE7 gives off the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre feel with plenty of references to said series. Story pacing is mostly good, but it staggers painfully during the second half, the ship section is a chore to play through during the first and especially on repeat playthroughs. The game also gives one important story decision near the ending, which personally I can't figure out how one can choose the second option, but I guess it makes the game more replayable just for the sake of seeing the second ending. Otherwise it's a good story with a pleasant surprise at the end (if you can recognise the surprise that is).

Gameplay is a delightful return to form with item management, chests, save rooms and interwoven map design. The biggest change is of course switch to first-person perspective, personally I prefer third-person RE games, but it does feel natural here and enhances the horror and gives claustrophobic fell to the enviroment. Puzzles are abundant, but none you will stuck for long with, pretty one note and makes me wish there was a higher puzzle difficulty option. Boss fights are great, Marguerite one is going to make your stomach turn so be careful. What is not great is regular enemy variety, it's all just the molded with some tweaks to them, one is bloated, other is fast and etc. I also enjoyed how thanks to first-person perspective items now well hidden in the enviroment, it's fun to find coins which help to unlock some upgrades. Weapons feel good to use and variery of them is just standard affair of pistol, shotguns a magnum, but I did find a flame launcher to be quite inventime, as well as different ammunition type for a few weapons - I do enjoy when games have those. Hard Mode shakes up some aspect of the game that makes it more interesting and worthwhile to replay.

To sum up, RE7 is an excellent survivor horror experience that pretty much single handedly revived the series from it's action focused grave, but it does have some pacing and story issues, as well as poor enemy variety brings it down from being perfect, but it definitely earns a top 5 spot in my ranking.