At the end of the month,Resident Evil 7: Biohazardwill be turning five years old. Even the most diehardResident Evilfans will agree that the franchise has seen some major ups and downs over the course of its life, butResident Evil 7was an entry that breathed new life into a franchise formula that was beginning to become a bit stale. Thanks to some clever moves made by Capcom, the game was able to bring the series back into mainstream gaming popularity, resulting inRE7’s followup,Resident Evil Village,being hugely popular and cited as one of 2021’s best games.
Influential games, however, are sometimes better remembered than they are to play. Luckily forResident Evil 7, this isn’t the case at all, as the game is still a joy to revisit five years after its initial launch.
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Resident Evil 7’s Persistent Legacy
Although there are certainly some merits to it,theResident Evilfranchisewas in a rough spot after the release ofResident Evil 6.The series had lost a lot of what made it special and fans weren’t happy with the direction that Capcom was taking things. As a result, the studio decided to takeResident Evilback to its horror roots and scale down the action so that each game had more space to breathe. This ultimately producedResident Evil 7, a game that ditches most of the preexisting lore of the series in favor of telling a smaller, more contained story.
From a narrative aspect,RE7is one of the best games in the franchise to revisit for this reason: it’s completely accessible to those not familiar with the deep lore of the franchise while still having enough connective tissue to make it a compelling next step for the overarching story.Resident Evil Villagethen expands even more on whatRE7set up, andthe twist reveal at the end ofRE8’s narrativerecontextualizes a lot of the events ofRE7- making it worthwhile to experience once more following the introduction of new, crucial information. In addition to the twist, it seems as if the next mainlineResident Evilentry will continue focusing on the Winters family, so it’s not a bad idea to revisit all of the character details provided about Ethan and Mia inRE7.
Sometimes, when going back to horror franchises, the scares of early entries lose their weight as players become exposed to them. While that’s certainly something that can happen with frequent replays ofRE7, the game’s unique approach to horror allows it to still be frightening all these years later. The pin holdingRE7’s horror together isthe Baker family, who remains effective to this day since AAA horror games rarely have the small scope that makes the Bakers into unique horror antagonists. Their constant pursuit of the player throughout the game is unnerving, especially given the fact that they look to be normal people on the surface - something that makes what lies in wait beneath their skin even scarier.
Now that the game has been out for so long, it’s able to be picked up for a relatively cheap price, usually alongside the story DLC that helps bridgethe gap betweenRE7andRE8. Given how popularVillagewas last year, fans are more likely to pick apart the narrative elements ofRE7and its DLC, seeing what stuck around for the sequel and what might be saved for the unannouncedResident Evil 9.
Resident Evil 7is available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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