About what I expected to be honest. Still can't top Resident Evil 1, 2, and 3. Code Veronica was the start of the decline of the series, when Wesker came back like magic and Matrix was way too popular. The Remake was and still is the high point of the series. Resident Evil 4 signalled the new generations entry into the series and their handholding, action set piece bullshit.
Revelations 1-2 are great TBH. But RE4 started the downfall and RE5-6 are horrible.. Unless you play with a friend! They they are tollerable.
But i actually liked most of RE7. The end is boring due to the silly ammount of ammo you get and the waves of enemies you are gunning down. And it obviously could have used a few more different kinds of enemies. But besides that? Not bad.
That game is solely responsible for the end of the Golden age of survival horror. Doesn't mean its not good for what its though. Though I think the beginning of the end was code Veronica. A solid enough title but was prone to action and magick wesker ressurections. Though... Come to think on it it may go as far back as RE3 with its "easy" mode that just flat-out gives you all weapons with a truckload of ammo for each of them at the start. :/
Okay, I loved Alien: Isolation even if it was WAY too fucking long and I actually had to stop playing for a bit because I'm a giant weenie. I really really hated getting Ripley's Daughter, hereby known as Ripley the Second, killed. So I'm stoked for Resident Evil 7 and hope it plays much the same way.
I'm also calling bullshit on the whole, "Resident Evil 4 killed survival horror" thing. I was a big fan of Resident Evil back then and while I *WAS* one of the guys who stopped playing before RE4, back when I was a playstation nerd, that wasn't because of the switch in genre.
RE had already milked its survival horror cow pretty thoroughly and built up the mythology hard before diluting it through spin-offs of questionable character. I loved Code: Veronica but the series had always been kind of silly and schlocky so the move to action wasn't so much a change in kind as well as degree. Remember, in these games you always ended up blowing things up with rocket launchers.
RE4's new direction made the game unexpected and interesting as well as shook up the formula a lot.
Have you played SOMA already, CT?
It's good. Very good. Non-jumps care horror, the ambient similar to A:I but still radically different. A voiced protagonist that isn't a polyfathetic retard for once. A mishmash of the Sci-Fi genre that doesn't go UUUHHH SYNTHS ARE PPL but makes me freeze in "fridge horror" moments way after I finished it.
It must be one of the games that ruined others for me, for excelling, like New Vegas, Dark Souls and, uh... Knights of Pen and Paper, I guess.
There's a fat chance that this is why I was pretty lukewarm about RE7
No, I haven't. I am, however, somewhat familiar with the game from science fiction circles since it basically serves as an excellent argument for my position on brain uploading.
Or, as Handsome Jack calls it, The Diet Coke of ImmortalityTM.
If and when I finish my massive collection of Resident Evil titles, i'm planning on picking it up along with The Evil Within.
Hm. Brain uploading has a lot more ins & outs, though. That's a big part of the story. I wouldn't spoil, but it's not as easy as MEMORY TRANSFERU.
Handsome Jack... He didn't need machine integration to go nuts.
I've played the first couple of hours of Resident Evil 7 and it's basically what I hoped the game would be. It's not Resident Evil classic and it's not Resident Evil 4 by any stretch of the imagination. It's basically Alien: Resident Evil: Isolation. Which isn't a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination.
The game is extraordinarily creepy when it's at its most subtle as I've been in the kind of plantations and buildings which the Bakers live in. Hell, my great aunt owned one of them. I've also been in houses which have hoarders who are only slightly less filthy than the Bakers. RE7 blows its wad a bit too early, though, with some ridiculously over-the-top gory moments that kind of undermine the more serious horror.
For example, you have a chainsaw chop of your character's hand in the opening twenty minutes and have it stapled back on. It's so crazy that you really can't really tell what is dangerous or not in the setting.
There's a good reason why having your hand sawed off isn't a big deal to your character since you're infected with the Mold that makes everyone able to shrug off bullets.
I also note there's a few TOO many nods to famous movies from Texas Chain Saw Massacre to the Grudge but I'm absolutely TERRIFIED wandering through the flooded basement and watching videos with this guy.
For me, the 1st person perspective is really-really good and I also like the Silent Hill 2 "journey to rescue your missing wife" business. Ethan under-reacts with some events but that's to be expected if you don't want a man screaming his ass off in the player's ear.
The best moments are both the chase sequences where you have to flee from one of the Baker family members or when there's just tension building up from nothing happening. The Molded sections are most like the old games and the most boring, IMHO.
Have you played SOMA already, CT?
It's good. Very good. Non-jumps care horror, the ambient similar to A:I but still radically different. A voiced protagonist that isn't a polyfathetic retard for once. A mishmash of the Sci-Fi genre that doesn't go UUUHHH SYNTHS ARE PPL but makes me freeze in "fridge horror" moments way after I finished it.
It must be one of the games that ruined others for me, for excelling, like New Vegas, Dark Souls and, uh... Knights of Pen and Paper, I guess.
There's a fat chance that this is why I was pretty lukewarm about RE7
TBH the gameplay is not that great but the story and atmosphere? Awesome as fuck! But as some people mention on the forums on steam. You could use the cheat to make the enemies not attack you and it would almost be the same thing.
FYI, if anyone is debating whether or not to get Resident Evil 7. This boss fight is pretty much pitch perfect for the crazy black comedy tone of the game.
It's fairly early in the game but some spoilers for those who want to view it.
Yahtzee did a decent job saying the guns aren't worthless but they're not game chambers either. You can stun the family with headshots, especially on Easy (which I am playing on because I'm an enormous wuss), which allow you to escape.
Also, amusingly, you can actually fail to get to the car in that scene and you have to run away from Jack Baker trying to run over YOU.
You say that but then offer no evidence to support your claim. Before RE4 survival horror games were not dissimilar to the original RE survival horror formula. They, for the most part, focused on HORROR, with underpowered protagonists. After RE4 every survival horror franchise wanted to be RE4. They got more action oriented, just see dead space, silent hill: homecoming, or F.E.A.R etc. That's a big reason why Alien: Isolation and The Evil Within were such huge breaths of fresh air for me.
One of the few things i disslike about the game is the small ammount of different enemies. The story is ok the main character?.. I didn't really thing about him tbh.
I didn't expect a lot when i first heard about it but the game was fun, Could it be better? Of course! But still worth it. Especially since i only paid 26 euro or something on release.
It breaks my suspension of disbelief a bit, when "Redneck man with shovel" tanks more damage to the head than something like a Crimson Head or Licker in prior games... ;\
I can't help but think Alien: Isolation should have either been longer or shorter because I didn't think there needed to be a game after the original alien was defeated or they should have made it clear they were making a sequel because it ends on a really weird note. I also felt the backtracking was irritating and even if they did keep the surprisingly good twist.
That there's a whole host of Aliens onboard, not just a single one
They should have done a bit more editing is all I'm saying. Still, I am complaining only in the most minor sense since I think it's the best thing the franchise has done since Aliens.
You say that but then offer no evidence to support your claim. Before RE4 survival horror games were not dissimilar to the original RE survival horror formula. They, for the most part, focused on HORROR, with underpowered protagonists. After RE4 every survival horror franchise wanted to be RE4. They got more action oriented, just see dead space, silent hill: homecoming, or F.E.A.R etc. That's a big reason why Alien: Isolation and The Evil Within were such huge breaths of fresh air for me.
Uhm, what? I went on to talk about how the games had already been getting very derivative and were action-orientated to begin with. I even used the example of the fact the games usually ended up with the blowing up of the main villains with large explosives. Yes, Resident Evil 4 moved the action to the forefront and fostered a lot of imitators but that's the curse of success. In the ten years from 2005 to 2015 there was: Dead Space, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Silent Hill: Homecoming, Silent Hill: Downpour, Slender, The Evil Within, Alien: Isolation and Deadly Premonition.
Yes, some of those games were SHIT (I'm looking at you Silent Hill) but that's not because they weren't making them.
Honestly, I think it's probably the best RE game since the original. I also think it's anything but boring. The tension in the game is sky high and wandering around the Baker mansion, not knowing when or if one of the family is going to show up at any time is terrifying. Some of the mystique is lost when you figure out some areas don't have any family members patrolling but not knowing which and where they are keeps me glued to the tube.
As for the boring monster design, I quite disagree as the Bakers actually go through a number of transformations through the game and having a limited number of near-invincible monsters to deal with versus a large zombie horde works much better. There's also some other monsters than the Bakers who I've only recently started to encounter.
Ethan isn't a complete blank slate either, which I'm pleased to note by his surprising chattiness on the phone and with the cop. There's some good moments with him like this one.
The real star of the game, though, is Baker Mansion as it's an amazing collection of puzzles, hiding places, and set design.
Don't get me wrong - it looks good. I just feel like it is a different game than what I want from the series. Should have been a spinoff. It's Fallout 3 all over again.
It breaks my suspension of disbelief a bit, when "Redneck man with shovel" tanks more damage to the head than something like a Crimson Head or Licker in prior games... ;\
Don't get me wrong - it looks good. I just feel like it is a different game than what I want from the series. Should have been a spinoff. It's Fallout 3 all over again.
The Baker family has been taken over by a B.O.W made by Wesker's old organization that he left Umbrella for (revealed to be a company called Testuo). The mold creature can absorb the memories and personalities of the people involved and keeps them as part of its hive mind.
Thus, it just keeps regenerating the dead from their damage and forcing them to act as its protectors. The takeover and regeneration has left them all twisted parodies of their former selves as well, BOWS aren't known for their grace in healing.
Ethan also turns out to be a former employee of the Umbrella Corporation who calls their Corps in to evacuate him at the end.
