Yesterday’s post was an intro to a game that I, among millions of others, very much enjoy: Resident Evil 7. Now, I’m going to go into a bit of detail about what I think makes this game stand out on top.
Note: this should be obvious, but this is my opinion and you shouldn’t treat it as fact. Some people probably disagree with me, and that’s okay. Read the following with this in mind.
My opinions are based on observation and a petty little preference of mine. I really, really, really don’t care about modern shooters like Call of Duty, Battlefield, DOOM, or even Overwatch. There’s either too much going on onscreen, or just too much of the same thing. I don’t see the creativity in making the same kind of thing over and over again, even though people buy it and it makes game companies a lot of money. The profit incentive plays a big part in keeping these kinds of games circulating in the market. Yee haw, I guess. I mean I realize that people have different preferences, but I’m still aloud to complain about it.
And yeah, as expected, the FPS mentality hasn’t left the horror genre untouched. Horror games can have guns and shooting mechanics and still be good games, don’t get me wrong, but the problem lies in them focusing so much on the weapon mechanics and the firepower that it detracts from the horror experience (see the disappointing third installment of the survival horror space romp, Dead Space 3).
That’s one of the main reasons I appreciate RE7 as much as I do. The game is survival horror, which gives you weapons instead of throwing you to the dogs with only how fast you can run as a defense mechanism. Your character uses a small assortment of weapons, actually - a folding knife, a handgun, a shotgun, a flamethrower, even a chainsaw at one point. These, combined with medkits, make it so you can defend yourself against the crazy virus-infected family making their home in the bayous of fictional Dulvey, Louisiana. Your miniature arsenal doesn’t detract from the challenge, however, which is what I was worried about at first.
Margueritte Baker is up next in the lineup. “She’s less threatening than Jack,” I thought to myself. Then she starts screaming in rage and sicking her swarms of stinging flies, spiders, and centipedes on you and you start to regret walking up to her with your pocket knife all confident. Her final form is a revolting, long-armed, wall-climbing beast with a wasp nest as a pelvis. The screeching violin music introduces this monstrosity as she comes around the corner and instigates. Pro tip: here’s where the flamethrower really comes in handy. You only have to fight her once, unlike her big bad hubby, but you’ll be thankful that you never have to see her again after she convulses and yells in the throes of death. Creepy!
RE7 has three main bosses you fight face-to-face, and one you fight indirectly. Jack Baker, the family patriarch, is the most resilient obstacle your character (Ethan Winters) has to work around. Brute strength and extreme resilience make him formidable, and you’ll find yourself wondering why he won’t just die because you’ve killed him twice already. The game does the fake-out fight - as in, you think you’ve conquered Jack the first time after you run him over with his car and set him on fire. He shows up again later with a macgyver chainsaw hedge-trimmer monstrosity, and you literally saw him in half. He comes back one more time in his monstrous form looking like the Blob made of hot tar with a dozen eyeballs.
Lucas Baker is the indirect fight. To truly get to take him down, you need to obtain the DLC. I won’t usually endorse DLC, as it seems too much like a money grab for me to appreciate it, but this is an exception. The original RE7 game leaves a lot to the imagination as to who Lucas really is and where he escapes too after you make it though his traps and puzzles. Traps aren’t my thing, so there’s not much to say. He sure is annoying and creepy, though.
The grand finale is Eveline, or E-001, a bioweapon that washes up in the bayou, and pulls the innocent Baker family into a viral madness, forever changing them. Eveline makes them their “family,” and refuses to let them go. Ethan’s wife Mia, who’s more deeply involved in Eveline’s being than you first think, also falls victim to the bioweapon’s will. There’s so much lore surrounding Evelyn that I don’t think I could fit it all into one blog post without writing a novel, so I won’t go into detail - find out for yourself, play the game!
Want to read more of my thoughts on RE7? Tune in tomorrow! I’ll be discussing the gameplay and the way this game scares you in greater detail. See you then.