Overview

Resident Evil 7 is a first person, survival horror game that released on steam January 24,2017. The game was developed and published by Capcom.

Graphics

Resident Evil 7 was developed on an game engine made by Capcom themselves called the RE Engine. Resident Evil 7 was the first game to be made on the engine, an game engine that I still widely being used still today for other Resident Evil and other capcom games. The game offers a very wide array of graphical settings you can choose from based on what your pc can handle. These settings are, Texture Quality/Filtering, Mesh Quality, Shadow Quality, Dynamic Shadows, Ambient Occlusion, Volumetric Lighting Quality, Reflections, and Subsurface Scattering. While thats not the settings, does are the most important. Raytracing was added to the game much later after its release on June 2022.

The game can run on a decent pc. The minimum requirements are an Intel Core i5-4460/AMD FX-6300, Nvidia GeForce GTX 960/AMD Radeon RX 460, and 8GB RAM. The game requires DX12 after the raytracing update, but you still have an option to play the game in DX11 version of the game. If you're playing the DX11, non rt version the minimum requirements are lower.

Resident Evil 7 really hits the nail for how a horror should look. With the new RE Engine, graphically this game looks pretty amazing. The world looks bleak, colors washed out to amplify the horror. The setting for the game really helps, a seemingly abandoned house in the middle of a bayou. The environment is well detailed. Capcom relly delievered when this game came out, especially if you compare it to the previous mainline Resident Evil title.

Sound

Resident Evil 7 has a really good soundtrack. It is a horror game so the soundtrack will mainly consist of very eerie and jarring ambient sounds, given you the feeling that you're never safe regardless of where you're at. Theres always suspense in the air, you don't know what might jump out as soon as you walk into a room. The only “safe” area is the saferoom which plays a soundtrack thats meant to emulate eerie calmness. You just know once you leave your little safe area its back to fighting for your life.

Addictiveness

This game has was pretty fun to play and does have some replayability. This game is pretty linear and doesn't offer too much of a chose to branch the unbeaten path. More of the replayability stems from the difficulty settings, you always have the choice to replay this game on higher difficulties for a challenge, and/or achievements. Maybe you want to replay the game to get all collectibles, and 100% the game. Despite the fact this game isn't offering like 1000+ hours of gameplay, it is still well worth your time.

If you do want more of the game to play you do a few DLC that adds more to story from the prospective of the other characters in the game.

Story

Resident Evil 7's story is pretty well done. The setting is great for a resident evil games, a derelict plantation mansion in the middle of a bayou. The scenery is ominous, you dont know what or who to expect once you reach the bayou, and it only gets more serious when you reach the home.

Spoilers!

Resident Evil 7 takes place on mid 2017 just outside a town of Dulvey, Louisiana. The protagonist is Ethan Winters. Ethan is searching for his wife who was believed to be dead following an unknown incident years prior. Ethan's wife, Mia Winters, out of nowhere sends Ethan a request to find her in Louisiana. Upon arriving to the location where Mia requested him to visit, Ethan finds himself in a seemingly abandoned home in the middle of nowhere. As you take control of Ethan you find your way into the home. As you make your way to the basement you find mia locked in a cell and you free her, but Something doesn't seem right about her. She claims to be hearing voices, and inflicting self-harm. She then becomes hostile and attacks you where you have to defend yourself. You receive the a phone call from a woman named Zoe, she tells you that you can escape through the attic. As you get there you're attacked again by Mia, this time you finally take her down. As you try to make your way out you get knocked out. This might seem like the end, but the nightmare has just begun.

Depth

Resident Evil 7 offers a nice amount of content. This content usually comes in in the form of some collectibles, game modes, and DLC for extra content that expands on the story a bit.

You have some collectibles that you search and obtain throughout the game. These are using files and documents that are scattered in all sorts of area on the map. Easy to miss. They offer greater detail to some things present in the game and can reveal potential secrets,Most of time to its a clue to how to solves some of the puzzles in the game which can lead to collectibles, or resources. If you want some more contexts of certain events prior to the story, you can try to find VHS tapes. These plays videos that allows you to take control of character recording them, they offer details to events leading up to the events of the game.

The combat in the game is very limited. The only way to do any damage to enemies is with firearms. With this you really need to pay attention to how much ammo you have. Its encourage to avoid enemies as much as possible. You can kill them if you don't want to deal with them later on when backtrack.

The game does offer two game mode, Not A Hero, and End of Zoe. These are short story lines that give you context to what happens to certain characters right after the end of the main story. Not a Hero is free, while End of Zoe is a paid DLC.

Difficulty

Resident Evil 7 can be a very difficult game. It does offer a set of difficulty settings

These difficulty settings are...

Easy, being the less challenging for new players or just want to enjoy the story without much diffculty

Normal, more of a challenge by increasing enemy and damage output. For those you want a nice balance.

Madhouse, this is where the real challenge is. Everything is different here. All the enemies, and items are in a completely different layout. Nothing is the same. Enemies are much stronger, and tougher to defeat. One big change to the game from this setting is that you have to save using Cassette Tapes, these are required, and it limits autosaves. Be careful where you save.

As stated before, the combat adds another layer of difficulty outside the difficulty settings. Even on Easy, you're limit of combat resources, especially if you need ammo for stronger weapons. This requires to be selective on which enemy you want to get rid of and aim for headshots. Keep track of what items you have at your disposal.

Overall

Overall Resident Evil 7 is a solid game. It pretty much revived the series after a lackluster set of game releases years prior. Almost like a fresh restart for the franchise I enjoyed the new protagonist of the game. He's different from a lot earlier resident evil protagonist. Not having the combat or firearms like the others. A mostly ordinary person put in a horrendous situations.

I remember these games being popular and made by Capcom. I have never played any. But after reading your review it made it sound like a fun game. I find it interesting that it was made by Capcom the same company that makes my favorite games Mega Man. Nice review as always.

tornadocam : I would say the Resident Evil is likely their most successful and beloved. This game in particular was really popular because it returned to mostly the same gameplay and atmosphere as the original games. Prior mainline games like Resident Evil 5 and 6 were received poorly by fans. Espically 6, which might be the most hated of the franchise. You can almost say Resident Evil 7 pretty much rebooted the series.