There are times whenever fate plays a strange game with us as human beings. For gamers who were looking forward to an awesome first-person POV game that looked like a trip and a half before the actual game was ever even released, this strange fate befell it. PT, the Playable Teaser, was a precursor to Silent Hills, a game that was cancelled outright because, as rumor had it, Konami were basically done with serious gaming. Kojima wasn't interested in making the game anymore, as evident with Death Stranding.
Fans attempted to pick up the slack, when the indie game, Allison Roads was announced and another awesome demo was released. This was a simple trailer demo, but it did the trick in getting hype going for a lot of gamers who were burned by SH's cancellation. This was also quite cancelled and we were left in the dumps once again.
Resident Evil 7 was the gust of heavenly winds that brought about the sunshine through the gloomy clouds! We were gifted a very competently made playable teaser once again and this one brought about the same hype, because Capcom already had the specs for a game nearing completion. Fans were doused in awesome gameplay, spooky atmospheres and some very strange storylines. Thanks to the first person perspective, it brought about very similar gameplay, though not the same surrealistic game we were promised with Silent Hills, it still gave us tentative controls of gunfire, which provoked panic.
Yes, you heard me correctly, I am praising a game for bad controls. While this was the original tank controls we shook our heads at, this time the bad controls make you feel like an amateur. You have to hold it steady and aim carefully, especially if you want to conserve ammo, which you do. This is rough when there is a monster, or worse, a very pissed off father, headed straight toward you. The feeling of panic and fear is real and thus the game feels more organic.
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| ©Rhiannon Kagoe |
As you will see throughout many reviews on Planet Virtua, weapons are quite revered. This game has a very nice flamethrower, one that is as redneck as it comes. The shotgun you fix and put together with the repairkit is also quite nice, despite only having two shells loaded at a time. It is superior to the normal shotgun, and it is worth your time to find in the game's many extra features.
This game has a lot of flavor and replayability. The DLC's are nothing to write home about, though they are quite a nice little distraction. The real replayability comes in getting the Albert pistol at the end of the game. This gun goes with you on the New Game + feature, which is always nice.
This is not the zombie game we were looking for, and no I'm not making a Star Wars reference. There are no zombies, there are weird black sludge monsters that come at you with fangs and claws. It is a strange game in its own right, because the story explains where these things come from and it was a little girl who could apparently create this black sludge and exist as a different thought to people, invading their minds and taking control of them.
Code name: Eveline escaped from a crashed vessel and killed the crew, taking control of a small rural family in the middle of nowhere. This is where your character finds himself. There is more to it and he's there to find his wife, but that's where the game starts to show its cracks in the mirror. The wife is a good character and all of your struggles with her in the game are somewhat warranted (we'll get to RE8 later) but the real problem stems from her involvement in the game's story itself.
The deaths that occur are confusing enough. The hallways on the crash ship are confusing enough and the sequence of events at the very end are also a little confusing but at least it recovers some once you get back to the house. In that space of time, though, you have a choice to either save your wife or save the random girl that helped you on occasion with a place to stay and some items. Pick the wife, don't be dumb. The game was dumb.
If you pick the other girl, whom I forgot her name and can't be asked to find out, you break the story completely as a result. Yes, your wife dies and then she dies as well, but then your wife comes back for some reason and she's on the ship anyway. The game goes as always and then your wife is gone instead of being there with you at the end cut scene. If any of that is confusing, yes, it is. They did not need to put in the choice and it was obvious that the cure choice was thrown in at the last minute. Either that, or they put it in the bare skeleton and couldn't take it out in time or something. It's not really worth getting into any further. Just save the wife.
Despite the story swishing back and forth in quality, the game remains pretty solid. The franchise had a rough time through 5 and 6, whatever your feelings on them. Biohazard: Resident Evil truly came through for fans and it was rewarded with many sales and fans voting it up many polls for Game of the Year. It even won Game of the Year in VR. This was a win all around for fans as well, and still remains on many shelves as a proud addition...
Though, then we get to 8 and things get... complicated...
Virtua Cliffhanger!
