Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (VR)

I went into this game with high hopes. Let's see whether it delivered on them.

I played the PS4 version of this on my PS5. In VR.

Let's take things back a bit and begin with what I played first: the teaser The Beginning Hour. This is a relatively brief demo that is essentially a playable version of the reveal trailer. You play as an unnamed protagonist who wakes up alone in a decrepit house, with the sole objective being to escape. 

While I mentioned in my P.T. writeup that the initial trailer seemed inspired by P.T., the inspiration was even more apparent now that it was playable. To get the "Dirty Coin" (an item that transfers to the full game) you need to do a series of obtuse, unintuitive things, and you'll know you've succeeded at one of them when you hear a baby's laughter.

Here's proof that I finished the demo.

Shortly after I finished this demo, I decided to start the actual game. Unsurprisingly, it's excellent. I'd heard this game described as a "return to form" for the series and, while I've enjoyed basically every RE game I've played (with the exception of Umbrella Corps) I see why this one was so lauded. Though, I see it as less a "return" and more a new direction, a take on the series that aims for legitimate horror rather than the B-movie schlock of the earlier games. This game is spooky.

The first of many injuries Ethan's poor left hand sustains over the course of this game.

I mentioned this at the start, but I chose to play the PSVR version of this game and I feel that only added to the atmosphere and tension that I felt. There are a lot of sharp objects held in front of your face during this game and it always made me uncomfortable. The sequences when you need to squeeze through narrow gaps feel especially claustrophobic when you're locked into the view with VR. You'll need to use your face to aim your gun which, well, took some getting used to, but once you're accustomed to it this game feels incredible. I don't know if this game was designed with VR in mind or if this is just an excellent adaptation, but just about everything about the first-person perspective feels enhanced by the format.

Subtitles seem to exist in the world itself and that can lead to objects obstructing them. Neat!

The game itself though is kind of a classic Resident Evil. It took a while for that to sink in, and I suppose this is more why it's called a "return-to-form", but it has you wandering around a manor from safe room to safe room planning out your routes with a map. Some of the locations and puzzles feel ripped from the first game and so much of this game, despite the change in perspective, does truly feel like a return to the classic Resident Evil formula. There isn't really any attempt to do multiple playthroughs or multiple protagonists (outside of a few brief sections when you play as someone other than Ethan) but generally speaking this feels like a first-person take on early Resident Evil.

Rather than the zombies found in nearly all other RE games, the common enemy you'll fight in this is are mold monster... guys. They're delightfully gross and freaky in first-person, even if the horror of them wears off relatively quickly. More significantly, though, are the Bakers, the family who lives in the manor you're exploring. These take the form of "pursuer"/Nemesis-style enemies, in a way. They'll patrol a given area and while they can be fought off, they can't be permanently killed. It means sequences where you're navigating familiar areas can be tense because you're never quite sure whether you're safe or not.

I've included the stats screen that appeared after finishing the game.

Stats for the main campaign

After I finished it, I moved onto the DLCs, of which there were quite a few. I started with the "Banned Footage" content and these were relatively brief vignettes following Clancy Javis (the cameraman from some of the videotapes) and Zoe. You have a high-stakes Saw-esque game of blackjack, an "escape-the-room" type thing, a brief story-heavy segment as Zoe on the night Eveline arrived, and "Nightmare" mode that has Clancy surviving against waves of enemies to survive the night. While "Daughters" (the Zoe chapter) fleshed out the Bakers ever-so-slightly, "Nightmare" was the most compelling to me. It has you running around the basement picking up scrap to spend on ammo and upgrades, and with how solid the combat felt I easily got into the flow of things and had a good time.

I know there are also "Ethan Must Die" and "Jack's 55th Birthday", but neither of these support VR so I would need to play them on my TV and I'm not sure if I want to learn how aiming in this game feels with a joystick. I've gotten oddly attached to aiming with my face. Maybe I'll revisit these in the future (along with some of the others' Mercenaries modes and Resident Evil: Revelations 2's Raid Mode) but for now I'm skipping it.

Here's proof I completed Nightmare, by the way.

My Results screen for "Nightmare"

I then played "Not a Hero", a side-campaign following Chris Redfield as he ties up some loose ends from Ethan's campaign. It's a pretty straightforward thing but it's not bad. It also explains how Chris, the BSAA, and Umbrella (or what's left of Umbrella) tie into the events of this game. All in all it's fine but not particularly memorable outside of the fact that Chris's has a new face. Although, you can also finish off enemies by punching them and that was pretty fun.

I closed out my time with this game by playing "End of Zoe", and that was also fine. I like how it fleshes out the story and ties up the last major loose end, but I found the gameplay pretty annoying. Conceptually it's novel to play this game without guns and with just melee, but I found it frustrating to actually play. It's filled with stealth sequences and instant-death gators. Sure, the game gives you enough spears to deal with the gators, but I didn't know that going into it so I hoarded my ammo and tried to sneak past them (because the game, up until this point, has taught me to be conservative with my resources). You do go around punching Molded's and you do a suplex on the boss at one point, but overall I found the combat clunky (especially when you don't have a clear HUD element to tell you your current health, like in the base game). I went into this hearing that it was great but, I don't know, I just didn't really like it.

I've included my end screens for the two story DLCs below.

Not a Hero's end screen.

Stats for End of Zoe (I think my clear time was about 2 hours)

I feel like that was a bit more than I usually write, but this was a dense game with a lot to do; I absolutely adored it, somewhat disappointing DLC aside. I'm not entirely sure where I'd put it on a list if I had to rank them, but this is a definite contender for the best game in the series. It brings back old elements from the franchise while branching off in a new direction (there are no zombies!) and just about every new thing it adds works. Add to that the stellar VR mode and I'm still kind of left reeling by how much I liked this game.