What is horror and how do you incorporate it into games? “Resident Evil 7” may hold the answer to this question. The latest installment in the “Resident Evil” series has managed to not only re-invent itself, but also creates interesting new techniques not before familiar to the horror game genre.
Wired has released a beautiful explanation of what makes “Resident Evil 7” such an amazing horror experience. First and foremost comes the fact that CAPCOM has taken a big risk with re-inventing the title. Adding ideas and mechanics not before familiar to the series, nor to the horror genre itself is a gamble which not many would take, but it also works as a surprise and whoever is familiar with good fiction knows that surprise is a key factor in both horror and comedy.
“Resident Evil 7” is a mix between chilling terror and a B-Horror movie tropes, which delivers a right mix of both fear and gruesome jokes to keep the player invested in the game, without it feeling tiring. Probably the greatest addition to the title is the use of video tapes. Finding them means that you are going to relive someone’s final moments, but not in a cinematic, but as the character himself. This allows for players to scan further areas, make strategies, discover puzzles and most importantly discover clues of the dangers that await them. The success in this methodology hides not in its information, but the break of flow, which offers a non-standard point of view, at least as far as horror games go.
GameRant shares another gamble which makes the first DLC of ”Resident Evil” a big success. One of the three additions to the game coming with the “Banned Footage Vol.1” is named “Bedroom”. In this mode, the player is locked in a room and has to find a way out of it through a series of puzzles, the twist comes in the form of Marguerite Baker who will deliver severe punishment to the player if she does not find him in bed at her visitations. If it seems somewhat familiar that is because the new mode was inspired by Stephen King’s famous novel “Misery”. In it, a writer suffers a car crash and is discovered by a deranged fan. The fan forces the writer to create “the perfect story” and every time there was a turn she did not like, she would severely harm the writer.
The question still remains, did the gamble pay off? GameSpot has shared the best-selling games in the UK at the week ending in February 3. “Resident Evil 7” holds the top seller spot, but even though it reaches such success, it still sales in lower quantities than the fifth and sixth part of the series. “Resident Evil 7” is available on PC, PS 4 and XBOX One.
