Amateur Recommendation Hour: Resident Evil 7

Today’s recommendation is a game that can be played by itself in standalone form even if it is a part of a long running series spanning a head-spinning amount of main series games and spin-offs.

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, developed by Capcom (my favorite Japanese game developers) is a return to survival horror form for the series after it’s two predecessors produced middling action focused games trying to emulate the unicorn of gaming masterpieces (Resident Evil 4) in vain.

Ethan Winters is drawn to a plantation in the fictional town of Dulvey, Louisiana by his wife, Mia, who has been presumed dead for three years since going missing. It is a setup that is simple and never more than it needs to be. As is the case in most Resident Evil games, gameplay takes a priority and the narrative is something that is more of a background than something that one should take their time getting fully invested into.

It is the scariest, most up close and personal Resident Evil that I’ve played (due in part to it’s shift from third person to first person perspective). It starts with so much forward momentum, having one of the best opening sequences of any horror game as far as I can remember setting a tone that legitimately put me off playing it for about a month, that it loses too much steam in the final third of the game. Stumbling across the finish line rather than striding through. In a weird way it almost stays a little too true to its roots.

Intense, claustrophobic, drenched with tension, and atmosphere I think this will be most appreciated and enjoyed by those that enjoy their horror unsettlingly intimate and, at times, unrelenting.