Resident Evil 7 is the latest game in the long running Resident Evil franchise. It is a throwback to the survival horror that many of us fell in love with so long ago. During my 10-ish hour game I did not feel bored and the tense atmosphere lasted the majority of the game. However, the full price tag is expensive for the short, albeit thrilling, experience.

Visuals – Playstation 4, 50 inch full 1080p LG TV

Visually the game utilized the hardware well. I played the Playstation 4 version of the game and thought the graphics adequately detailed out the characters and environment. I will note that during the first fifteen or so minutes the game caused eye strain and even gave me a headache. This is probably attributed to the field of view, which in the opening scene you are in a bright, lush greenery setting, that spans the entire display and once the game is narrowed to the dark, center focused camera, the eye strain was no longer an issue.

The only noticeable graphical infidelities were with doors. Occasionally monsters would clip through a door when you slammed it shut behind you during a chase. This did not cause any game breaking issues, nor did it lead to a severe break in the immersion. The graphics felt optimized and my Playstation 4 did not falter. No pop-in, no frame rate dips, just good clean visuals.

Sound – 5.1 Channel Surround Sound

The audio is hard for me to pin down. The majority of the game is in an eerie silence and that works. The rest of the noises made were par for the course from footsteps to gunfire nothing was noticeably out of place. The only memorable piece of music was the sound when entering the safe rooms as it harkens back to the original series and gameplay.

Story

The story telling was well done and, again, pays homage to the traditional resident evil series. The graphics were immersive and consistent with the theme and so was the in-game audio. This was complimented by exceptional story writing and memorable characters. In traditional Resident Evil fashion, you are introduced to one plot that gets deeper in the ending sequences as we fully expose what is going on, and Resident Evil 7 was no exception.

A note of criticism here is that the story is heavily back loaded and relies on end game exposition. It feels like it slaps you in the face in the final hours. Although this is true to the series, I think future iterations should try pacing the story better and lead the viewer into it, rather than crush them over the head with it at the end. I also want to take a moment and note that the main character’s back story is weak and not as memorable as every other character. Maybe that was the intent, but I feel like it fell flat in comparison to some other main characters in the series.

Criticism aside, the story was well written and the theme was complimented by visuals and audio. The voice acting was strong. The story will be enjoyable if you’re a longtime fan, as well as someone new to the series. If you are new to the series, the plot is fresh enough that you will not feel that you are left out of the story.

Gameplay

The first-person view point may be new to the series, but it works so well I hope they keep it. The issue with third person view is that in a game in which you want people to pay attention to detail, you can’t have half the screen taken up by the back of the main character like it did in prior Resident Evils. The control scheme felt natural and on par with most games that are done in first person. R1 to heal and R2 to shoot were my only issues with the control scheme. Unfortunately, being a long time Playstation player, I got use to the older games in which R1 was shoot and this odd choice to use the button rather than the triggers often carried up to the current Playstation 4 games.

The game is also filled with resident evil styled puzzles and I could not get enough of the shadow puzzles. Longtime fans of the series are going to grin every time they find a puzzle in the game. It should be noted however, that the puzzles are relatively simple, and you probably won’t get stuck on any of them. They are satisfying enough to complete but they don’t feel as much like an obstacle as they are simply a break in the game play.

The boss fights are simple but effective and so are the monsters encountered in the game. There is not a huge variety of monsters, but the ones there are logically presented and that is good enough for me. The items are also far from unique, and the combination recipes are simple and materials plentiful (in normal mode).

Conclusions

Replay ability is one of my primary concerns with the game. I’m far from a completionist and after beating the game once on normal I was satisfied enough to not jump back into it. I had no desire to beat the game on the harder difficulty level as it feels like combat would not be based on the skill of the player as much as his/her ability to kite the monsters. I also believe that on a normal setting I managed to do most without missing large pieces of content, although smaller items were missed.

As far as trophies and achievements are concerned, I would not recommend this game for completion. I am not a completionist, but if a game offers a reasonable platinum trophy I’ll grab it. This game would require multiple play-throughs and probably extend the game to a point of irritability.

“Should I buy this game?” is the most important question a review can answer, but I would like to break it down further analyzing the game’s actual entertainment value. At a full $60 I would only recommend buying this game if you are a die hard Resident Evil fan or if you are incapable of resisting spoilers for a period of time. I need to note, that the game loses its value as you know more about it prior to playing it. A fresh look at the game will achieve a maximum entertainment value. If you are going to 100% complete the game you could probably justify a price tag in the $40 – $50 price range as you will get the time and money out of the game to platinum it. If, however, you are new to the series, or just a fan of survival horror, I think your sweet spot will be when the game is around $30 or less.

In summary, the game is exceptional and hopefully a clear indicator of the direction the series will continue in. Minor flaws are nit-picky at best and do not detract from the overall theme and experience. At half of the original MSRP the entertainment value will surely please the consumer, assuming they have been able to keep themselves spoiler free during the wait for a price drop.

Thanks for reading! – TGA