Over the last few years Resident Evil has hit somewhat of an identity crisis. Resident Evil 4 had Shinji Mikami and his team taking a grand new direction for the series that paid off at the time, but it led to Resident Evil 5 (which was great fun in co-op) and later to the all-out action fest that was Resident Evil 6. The Resident Evil series wasn’t about a spooky mansion anymore and many fans believed that it had lost its appeal. Select media in the UK have had the chance to play Resident Evil VII for roughly 5 hours and they’ve walked away with very positive impressions.
Below you’ll see two videos. One from Games Radar and another from Eurogamer, both with their unique feedback. What should be noted is that both players walked away being very excited about the game and the fact that survival horror has returned. Puzzles of old are back, items chests and classic save points. Instead of using a typewriter you’ll now use a tapedeck to save progress and when you discover the save room it’ll play ‘happy music’, as it once did with the older Resident Evil games.
They also had a chance to test it out using PlayStation VR and it apparently plays really well. The draw distance is not that great and it blacks the surroundings out, but according to them it adds to the paranoia with the Baker family hunting you down. You can’t help but feel as if the Baker family is in essence a bunch of ‘Nemesis’ lurking all over the place (Something Resident Evil 3 fans will surely enjoy). There are other enemies, though not much is known about them. They are however tied to the Baker family and one player suggest that it reminded her of the Regenerador in Resident Evil 4 – quite a scary prospect then. Scattered throughout the mansion, which seems quite big, you’ll also find video tapes and according to her it’ll tell you stories about new characters… ans some familiar ones. That has me very intrigued.
Resident Evil VII launches on PC, PS4 and Xbox One on 24 January 2017.