Another Look At What Might Be Zombies In Resident Evil 7

Is it human, or…?

Despite Resident Evil VII: Biohazard only being about 2 months away now, we have yet to really see the game’s bestiary. With previous RE games, we’d know almost every single standard enemy and probably a good few of the bosses by this point, but RE7‘s sparse marketing is keeping the test-tube freaks held under pretty tight lock and key. The only “creatures” we have any actual confirmation of is Jack Baker (AKA The Family Man), who seems to posses Mr. X-like abilities (crashing through walls, and can shrug off even massive damage after a beat or two), and a Bloodshot-meets-Regenerator type creature we don’t have a name for yet (Although I’ve been simply calling it Shadow, after the teaser it debuted in). Outside of that, it’s just speculation (dog enemies, based on growling heard in Beginning Hour and dog cages in the Lantern trailer) and rumors (massive, room-sized boss monsters as reported by AvidExpert, who has been right on at least two of his “tips” thus far). The other bit of speculation comes from RE7’s photogrammetry technique, which they’ve been showing off in bits and pieces.

Like, literally, bits and pieces.

So yeah, yet again, it seems like we’re getting a look at zombies in Resident Evil 7. Coming in fresh from a Japan-based Resident Evil Ambassador meeting, images of some more of the game’s photogrammetry models have surfaced, (including a previously seen head that’s taken what I can only guess is a shotgun shell to the mouth), we get a look at a grisly face and an arm that quite clearly has a big bite out of it. These two things spell only one thing to me: living dead. Of course, this isn’t 100% confirmation, and these could possibly just be corpses we’ll be seeing while exploring the Baker Mansion, but that bite mark seems a bit more telling (especially the way it’s placed, it looks more like wound the player could endure in first-person than something on a corpse).

Reddit has also been quick to jump on the idea that these may also be from Resident Evil 2 REmake‘s production, and not RE7‘s. It’s a possibility, but Capcom is promoting these items as being used in RE7. It’s also worth remembering that RE2’s zombies haven’t been dead for terribly long – only a matter of day or hours for the most part. This zed looks positively foul, similar to the months-dead shamblers from the Mansion incident. Plus, who knows how far along REmake 2‘s development is – they may or may not have even got this far yet.

The “zombie” face itself reminds me of a combination of REmake‘s iconic “headturner” zombie and the worm-eyed one on the cover of the film Zombi 2 (yes, the film that ZombiU is based on). The idea of zombies becoming a real threat in an RE game again has my heart racing with joy – while RE6 brought them back, sure, I really don’t feel like the series has been able to replicate that classic dread that the original games did with these creatures. Blowing through dozens of them as they swarm around you doesn’t have the same feeling as just one of them lurching down a dark corridor at you. Fingers crossed, I guess.

We may or may not be getting some answers to this in the next week or so, as RE7 is promising at least a new trailer (and more than likely a third demo update) in early December, which is speculated to be dropped during Sony’s PSx on December 3-4. The new trailer is simply called “Tape 3: Resident Evil“, so if they’re gonna reveal a classic returning monster like the living dead, that’d be the time to do it (although they could be saving them still as a surprise for the game’s final release, who knows).

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