Saturday 21 January 2017

Resident Evil VII is not a bold move for the franchise.


By Sam Coles:

Resident Evil VII is out in just under a week and a lot of people are excited for it myself included, but is it really a fresh take on the series? No, it’s just riding on the coat tails of what is popular when in the past Resident Evil use to set the trend where other games would follow suit. I just want to go over why Resident Evil VII is not an original nor fresh idea, now before you get on your high horse and start calling me every word under the sun I’m not saying it’s a going to be a bad game, but it’s just formulaic.

Resident Evil VII was revealed at E3 of 2016 during Sony’s press conference and people were siting it returning to its survival routes and yes it is going the survival horror route rather than the bombastic Call of Duty action present in the last 3 games. However I don’t see this as a bold move for the series I see as a predictable move and following the trends of what is popular. Resident Evil VII is a first person survival horror which is a genre that has been plaguing Steam early access for the past 5-6 years with youtubers overreacting to the jump scares. Resident Evil VII seems to be more subtle compared to other games within the genre however it is still predictable when something is about to pop up and it’s not scary.

Resident Evil whether it is the original trilogy or 4 they tend to set the trend for gaming in that era they’re within not follow a trend. Resident Evil 1-3 set the standard of how a fixed camera survival horror should be done following the footsteps of Alone in the Dark, then Resident Evil 4 set the standard of how third person action games should be made. Resident Evil VII just seems to be by the numbers and when they said they were going back to the routes of the series before they even announced the game back in 2015 I was expecting something different and not something that I’ve seen for the past 6 years.

Resident Evil was a great survival horror franchise with the fixed camera angles yeah the tank controls were a bit awkward but that is completely intentional making you feel completely hopeless as you don’t know what is coming around the next corner. What would have been a bold movement for Capcom if they had released a fixed camera survival horror and people say that there is no interest in that style of game and I would highly disagree. Back in early 2016 Capcom released the Resident Evil Origins collection on Xbox One and PS4 with Resident Evil Remake HD and Resident Evil 0, to Capcom’s surprise it sold really well and for good reason as they’re great games. This should have shown what people want from Resident Evil a good old fashioned fixed camera game with current generation visuals.

They seem to be going down the supernatural route when Resident Evil was presented in a believable manner, not realistic believable there is a difference. The reason why Resident Evil is believable is because everything was man made and scientific there were no ghosts or magic etc. like Silent Hill, but instead everything was created with science whether be a virus etc. That’s the reason why it was frightening because something like that could be plausible in real life with a  virus going wrong, sure it wouldn’t turn people into flesh eating zombies, but a virus spreading like that is scary.


Overall I am glad that they’re returning to survival horror, but I wished they had returned to the series routes which would have introduced it to the younger generation; I am looking forward to the game. Let’s see how that Resident Evil 2 Remake turns out which I’m looking forward to more.

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