January is over & I thought to myself 'I deserve a new game', so I decided to pick up Resident Evil 7 Bio Hazard. I remember seeing some of the early gameplay & thinking 'damn that looks freaky'. It seemed more intense than a lot of the other games in the series. Generally speaking, I am not the biggest horror game fan but I was more than willing to give it a go due to how much I enjoyed some of the other games in the series. This is the first big new release title I played this year so was pretty excited to play it.
Who else here like's burgers? Juicy, tender, meat-filled burgers, so many toppings & condiments to choose from the possibilities are almost endless. Outside of your standard meaty goodness, you have some alternatives like spicy bean burgers. I find it hard to consider them burgers as they are so different to what I'm used to. That being said they have their place & can be a nice change from the heaviness of meat. Playing Resident Evil 7 Biohazard I found myself wondering am I eating another tasty meat-filled burger or some spicy veggie alternative?
The story starts with our protagonist Ethan receiving a message from his wife Mia. She has been missing for three years with no word until now, so naturally, he is pretty excited to find out she is still alive. Ethan's destination is a house located at an old plantation in Louisiana, so it's time to take a road trip. It's terrible but when I think of Louisiana I find it hard to picture anything else but swamps, swamp boats, old beaten up wooden houses & people sitting on porches giving everyone the stink eye. Basically, it's the perfect setting for a horror game.
The games start out dark & clouded in mystery. Why was Mia here? Where was has she been for three years? Who would live here? Very quickly you find Mia who is a little worse for wear & is scared because of Daddy. Who is Daddy & what does he do? He freaks you out & tries to kill you every chance he gets. The rest of the family is even worse, Mommy is a scary old lady who likes bugs & then there is their son Lucas who is just completely insane. Things don't get any better or any easier for Ethan but like any good protagonist he doesn't let anything keep him down.
Ethan's mission, should he choose to accept it is to explore a creaky old house, take on a crazy family & save his wife Mia who may have gone a little nuts after three years. This Resident Evil game is so very different to the others in the series that I found it hard to draw any comparisons between them.
There are sprinklings of the Resident Evil Universe scattered throughout the game but overall there is very little tie-in. That's not to say the story is bad, in fact, it is really good from start to finish I am just unsure as to why they found the need to use the Resident Evil name.
There are many composers that helped create the Resident Evil 7 Bio-Hazard soundtrack, they include:
Akiyuki Morimoto - who worked on; Monster Hunter 3, Lost Planet 2 & Resident Evil 6.
Miwako Chione - who worked on Monster Hunter 4G.
Satoshi Hori - who has a fantastic self-titled album that I highly recommend listening too.
Brian D'Oliveira - who worked on; Spirits of Spring, Tearaway, Little Big Planet 3.
Cris Velasco - worked on Mass Effect 3, Overwatch, The God of War Series.
Some of my favorite pieces in the game were; 'Atmosphere - Swamp Encounter', 'Main Hall', Into Madness', Welcome to the Family', 'Garage', 'Molded I', 'Safe Room', 'Tatari', 'Apprehension' & 'The Beast'. At times I felt like the music was almost crawling up my spine. Strings feature heavily in many of the pieces helping to create an almost claustrophobic feeling. Overall it a very eerie, well-crafted soundtrack & listening to it all again made me realise how integral it was to the game.
The game offers a few difficulty levels; Easy, Normal & Madhouse - the last one unlocks once you finish the game on normal. I would not describe the overall gameplay as hard even though some of the puzzles did have me scratching my head, often because I had missed something small.
There are so many details big & small that make this game feel amazing. It looks to freak you out as often as possible, have you ever seen a chain link fence with lots of baby dolls attached them or a ball bouncing past you but yet there is no one in the room - I have. The game never wants to make you feel safe & even in the save room I always felt on edge. I loved the way your character opened & closed doors, in many games you just run through a door without thinking about it. When Ethan comes up against a closed door he will cautiously open it which always leaves you in a state of suspense. Most of the time you have nothing to worry about but other times, well other times you get a horrible surprise. I died a number of times in the game & some of the deaths were pretty dark. I won't go into specifics too much but let's say getting cut down the middle is pretty damn gruesome. While most of the game you play as Ethan occasionally you will get the opportunity to play through someone else's eyes. These are available in the form of VHS movies, each one of them helps give the game even more depth. I would say my favorite one featured a birthday party, not the nice kind where you have fun, but that's not to say there isn't cake. These side stories not only give an insight into other characters but can also help you work out ways to get into a previously inaccessible area, solve puzzles or find new items.
Resident Evil games have always been a little scary but this one is truly terrifying & the Baker Family are a big part of that. They are creepy, crazy strong & are a pain in the backside when they attack you. Lucky enough you have a small arsenal of weapons, my weapons of choice were buckshot & blades. As a whole I had little to complain about with regards to gameplay, I was constantly on guard & never felt relaxed. This works really well in a horror game but I would not recommend playing it before bed.
So after 12+ hours of gameplay how did I feel? Freaked out. A brilliant game, with a great story, impressive visuals & an unnerving soundtrack. It is hard to pick fault with the game, the only stand out one is that it just not feel like a Resident Evil game. I wish they had released this as a stand-alone game rather trying to loosely tie it into the Resident Evil Universe. Overall I would have to give a big thumbs & recommend it to any horror game fans.
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