With the evolution of horror video games as of late, It's no surprise to see the struggling Resident Evil franchise reboot and become something else entirely. The heavy influence of games like Outlast is very obvious from the beginning. The first person point of view and visual style is all very similar and also very fitting. It provides a new start for a tired franchise.
A key thing for me in this reboot is that the suspense and the fear are back. It's been so long since a Resident Evil game has genuinely been terrifying and this game nails it from the jump. There was plenty of moments during the first few hours of gameplay where I was on edge, where I didn't expect anything at all to happen and then something does. The developers of this game did a great job with this aspect of the game.
Visually, The game disappointments. Everything is through this video camera filter and it just doesn't appeal to me. I wasn't a big fan of how the characters looked because of this and the unique environments suffered as well. For me, It was just the lack of definition. I mean I get the style they were trying to go for but it just doesn't work for me. I would have liked to see some actual graphics applied.
The gameplay, as I said before, still uses the Resident Evil gameplay of old in terms of how the inventory is managed and how saves are done. I find it a lot easier to move items about and equip them. I also think the combat is at it's best here. You aren't stuck standing there while shooting, You can run around and block attacks easily. Enemies do have to take quite a bit of damage in order to put them down but that's all part of the challenge. It's a mixture of knowing which enemies you should kill, which ones you should pass on and how to manage your items.
The plot was ok. It keeps your interest but at a certain point, you already know how it plays out so it kind of ruins the fun. The boss fights are certainly a challenge but the final boss of the game was a huge disappointment for me. Not unique in the slightest, Not even a challenging fight. It was over and done with rather quickly. So in that aspect, The ending does fall flat.
Overall: 7/10
RE7 does a good job at bringing a fresh take to the franchise. There are some flaws in the game such as the lack of a good story and a disappointing end boss but there's a lot of positives too. They brought the horror back into this game and it was a ton of fun exploring the unique environments. I just hope they don't ruin it with RE8, They need to expand on this style.