By Liyo Kikon
Creepy environment and haunting atmospheric sound! these two elements make Resident Evil 7 one of the scariest game available today. Taking a hint from the original Resident Evil games where it was mostly about horror survival rather than action, the seventh game made the right moves in my opinion. This is indeed a proper horror game but unlike most horror titles, there are rarely any monsters or rather zombies jumping out from corners to get you, the main scare for the game comes from the brilliantly designed sound. Yes, the atmospheric sounds, the way the floor creeks, those little sounds you hear from the distance will bring chills to your bones.
This game is best played with a set of good headphones and like the old Resident Evil games, its all about uncovering the story line while being on suspense the entire way. Combat is quite easy when compared to other first person shooters since all enemies except the bosses move slowly and you can take your time to carefully aim and get a head-shot without much effort. But this game was not designed to be a action title so I have no complaints there. Except for some moments where you will surely panic when a zombie appears suddenly and you have to shoot quite a few rounds to take them down and since most of the action happens in small corridors and rooms, there are rarely any place to run.The main character in the game is a Ethan and he has to fight the Bakers family to save his girlfriend Mia. The Bakers family are the ‘bosses’ in the game and unlike other zombie enemies, they offer quite a challenge. I mean even if you blow up their heads, they still keep coming! The only down side to the boss battles is that they are spaced too far apart and it takes forever to meet a boss. While other Resident Evil titles offered different types of zombies, there is just one type of zombie in this game and they are called the Molded. These zombies are black and have a greasy look to them. At first, they seem to be rather intimidating since it takes a few shots to bring them down, but after playing the game for a while, they don’t seem all that scary anymore, except for certain moments when they suddenly burst through a wall or wake up from the dead again. The voice acting for the characters in the game are really well done and this adds to the intensity of the story line, even the zombie growls and sounds are quite realistic and it never feels like they are over the top. I know, all these talk about the sound might make you think that this game is more about the audio than the visual. But the visuals are not disappointing either as that is to be expected from a title like Resident Evil. The textures are well put together and the lighting adds a great ambiance to the whole feel of the game.
Like the old Resident Evil games, this one also has a few puzzles which you must solve in order to progress. But all the puzzles in this game are a tad too simple and there aren’t many puzzles to go around. The only thing which you will end up doing is to look for ammunition and weapons which are obviously scarce. However, there was never a moment where it felt like the game did not offer enough ammunition to get the job done, I mean it was well balanced in the sense that you will never find too much or too little. When it comes to collectables, there are VHS tapes spread across the game and you can find them hidden everywhere. These tapes contain short video clips which further shows us the back stores of different characters.
The biggest news when this game was originally announced was its support for Virtual Reality (VR). And I can imagine that playing this game on Playstation VR will be a lot scarier which is the whole point of this game. However, users have reported that you will feel fatigue and nauseated if you play this game on VR for hours.
Going back to the basic feel of Resident Evil was a great choice for Evil 7, and I gotta say that unlike other recent Resident Evil games, this feels more oriented to the roots of the series. If you are a looking for an action packed shooter game, this is not the game for you. And if you are looking for a suspense horror game, then you must try this game, just make sure that you have a good set of headphones in order to enjoy the game to its full potential.
Resident Evil 7 is available for PS4, Xbox One and PC.
