Resident Evil 7

Returning to form seems to be flavor of the year. For years now, publishers been pushing their developers to change their games according to trends, hoping to be another COD, or at least open to a wider audience. That's why most games series became schizophrenic. The Resident Evil series took a step further with its schizophrenia in RE6; the game had three directors, each made his own campaign and each campaign was directed to a different audience. The game was a cluster-fuck to say the least. Resident Evil 7 is basically the opposite of its predecessor. The narrative is contained, the gameplay is rounded and balanced.

The story in RE7 is the usual B movie, but what set it apart is the characters and aesthetic. You play as a dude who's girlfriend disappeared. He sets out looking for her. In no time you will meet her family, in a setting akin to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There is a lot to be said about the family, ,but I think to get the best experience is to go in fresh without even the slightest of spoilers.

The sound design in the game is one of the best aspects, as it should be, especially in horror games. All areas have the usual creepy dark look to them, but what the sound dose is breath life into them and amplify that feel amazingly; every step, door, enemy and even voice acting is done well. My only issue is the sound track is the music. Yes it serves its purpose, but you wont find any track the really sticks with you like Code Veronica.

The gameplay is mostly divided into two parts: exploration and combat. Exploration has a lot of back tracking, and puzzle solving to reach new areas. The game pays homage to the first RE by making you hunt down keys with insignia's, like the Scorpion key or the Snake key, etc. The exploration is complemented by the excellent level design, aesthetics and pacing.

The combat mixes both styles from the early games and RE4 style. The shooting is slower than RE4, as well as most of the enemies. Your overall speed is also much slower, and of course you play from a first-person view. You can shoot while moving, but movement is slowed while raising your weapon. You'll get the usual arsenal of weapons; pistol, shotgun, flamethrower, etc.

By far, the best most creative part of the game play is the boss-fights. I wasn't sold on the game till I got to fight the first boss. Most of them are done in contained areas, and can be approached in different ways. Whether it's through your own arsenal of weapons, or through the environment.

The whole game is really short and can be run through for the first time in 8 hours, but the way it's designed makes it worth while to be played multiple times. The experience will differ from a player to another, especially with how you approach boss-fights.

Boss-fights

Level design

Horror atmosphere

Sound design

Ending was a miss

Pistol lacked a punch

Enemies lack variety

I really didn't want to spoil much in my review, but know that RE7 looks back to the old games and takes the best of what they had to offer, and mixes them with the new games, but it also contains those ideas in one solid package.