tendency to lurch at you in the final
few steps before an attempted bite.
Another great experiment facilitated
by RE7’s isolation from the rest of
the series is the narrative, which
thrives by not having the pantomime
presence of Wesker, Leon Kennedy, Jill
Valentine, Barry Burton and co in it.
Resident Evil always felt like a
series where the more intriguing
subplots were stifled by the
series’ daytime-soap cast,
which is revered more for
nostalgic reasons than
narrative merit. So much
of the RE2 remake’s
power derives from that
familiarity of returning
characters, who combine
basic human qualities with
that stilted quality that retains
the sense that the dialogue was
localised from a Japanese game.
In scrapping all that fan-baggage,
Resi 7 becomes a clever standalone
story. There is no axiomatic zombie
apocalypse where the objective is
simply to survive here. It’s as much
a mystery as it is a horror, laid out
in reverse-exposition as you’re
presented with a grotesque mess of
a situation, then slowly work out what
befell the Bakers, how your girlfriend
Mia is involved, how a mystery girl
called Eveline is involved, and how
you, Ethan, are involved.
How much you learn depends on
how nosey you are, as you rummage
around the puzzling, lived-in
residence to piece together
a sombre tale of a family
ripped apart by forces
beyond its control. At
points, it feels you could
be playing snoopy indie
hit Gone Home, except
with the added danger
that an axe could swing
down on your head as you’re
looking at a family photo.The devil you know
By not contextualising itself much
within the wider canon, RE7 may
not endear itself to diehard series
fans, but it does some wonderful
worldbuilding within the confines of
the Bakers’ Gothic swamp compound.
Lucas’ obsession with elaborate
Saw-like contraptions, for instance, is
supported by the panoply of college
engineering and robotics trophies in
his bedroom, and at one point you
discover invoices from the contractors
who built many of the mechanisms inthe house (the same firm, it transpires,
which built Resident Evil’s Spencer
Mansion). It domesticates and explains
many of the quirks that in other RE
games we tend to take as given. For
players who don’t care for the cliques
and in-jokes of the RE canon, Resident
Evil 7 is the perfect introduction to
the scares-and-puzzles structure of
the series, layered with a presentation
and storytelling style that embraces
modern ideas in game design; a bit of
first-person helpless horror here, a bit
of immersive world-building there.
It’s telling that in the wake of the
Resident Evil 2 remake there’s been
more talk of a Resident Evil 3 remake
than there ever was of a Resident
Evil 8. This is a series so saturated
in nostalgia that it remained a hit
even through its creatively wayward
years in the last console generation.
RE7 is a valuable lesson that the best
tributes to the past should put forth
new ideas too.
With the series now at an all-time
zenith, critically speaking, Capcom
would do well not to lose sight of the
game that set it back on track. Q“Resident Evil 7 is the perfect
introduction to the scares-and-
puzzles structure of the series”
PLAYED ANYTHING GOOD RECENTLY? COME SHARE IT AT WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/OXMUK
ABOVE With
president Trump
sworn in just
three days after
Resident Evil 7
came out, the
Baker family
celebrated
early.
FAR LEFT The
Molded don’t
look too
inspiring, but
their mechanics
braced us for
the zombies of
the RE2 remake.WHAT IS IT?
Sporting a immersive
first-person viewpoint
and embracing
survival horror design,
Resident Evil 7 marks
a return to form for
the series.More Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 099