my history with Resident Evil<\/a> before. And while I will share my opinion on the teaser, I want to focus on a nagging question: Is Resident Evil 7, from what we\u2019ve seen in Beginning Hour, shaping up to be a \u201cResident Evil Game\u201d? <\/p>\nSome players have claimed that the new game doesn\u2019t \u201cfeel like Resident Evil\u201d.While carrying the moniker is enough to make it a bonafide Resident Evil title, I\u2019d argue that this is because spiritually it isn\u2019t one. <\/p>\n
Oh Really?<\/h3>\n
My reference points for this are RE1 and RE4. Those seem to be two key points in the series as the first entry coined \u201cSurvival Horror\u201d as a genre and the fourth tweaked the formula to line up with changing trends in post millennia horror games.<\/p>\n
Resident Evil started out as a 3rd person adventure game steeped in horror cinema tropes. Exploration and puzzle solving were in the forefront as combat was under-emphasized. The fourth main title marked a departure from the original formula, putting more emphasis on combat and rewarding, but not heavily requiring, exploration. <\/p>\n
What\u2019s Similar<\/h3>\n
That being the case, a few aspects of the teaser do line up with previous Resident Evil lore and mechanics. <\/p>\n
Exploration<\/span> – Beginning Hour is all about exploration. There\u2019s more than enough dank, creepy abandoned house to explore and it\u2019ll take multiple playthroughs to see it all. The small bit of story present is told through video recordings that are either found or fed to the player automatically to set the mood. <\/p>\nCallbacks<\/span> – Or are they lingering plot threads? Either way, there\u2019s a passing mention to Umbrella, a mysterious phone call that may hint at the return of a fan favorite and a character that mentions the \u201cfamily\u201d may not be referencing a set of blood relatives. <\/p>\nWhat\u2019s Not<\/h3>\n
However, that\u2019s where the similarities end. The most glaring departures from form are… <\/p>\n
First Person Perspective<\/span> – This isn\u2019t anything new for the franchise, but this is a major departure as far as the main series goes. That\u2019s a pretty big change for some fans to stomach. <\/p>\nCombat<\/span> – Or rather the lack thereof. There isn\u2019t any indication that the final product will lack it as well, but combat was a crucial part of the formula. So its absence in the teaser really hinders our ability to pin down where it falls in comparison to the rest of the main series – it old school like the 1-code veronica, new school like 4-6 or something all its own?<\/p>\nCharacter archetypes<\/span> – This is closely related to combat, but it\u2019s worth noting that we\u2019re dealing with different character archetypes. Whereas the previous entries starred trained combatants armed to some degree, the characters we\u2019ve seen this time aren\u2019t. The power dynamics are different. We expect Chris and Co. to go toe to toe with monstrosities. We expect your average citizen to give their all just to survive. The former makes for great action games , but the latter is being employed here and gives the game a more traditional horror feel.<\/p>\nSome Like Being Teased…<\/h3>\n
So, to be frank, Beginning Hour doesn\u2019t \u201cfeel\u201d like Resident Evil because it very much isn\u2019t. There\u2019s just too much there that isn\u2019t in line with the rest of series and what is is too vague. That isn\u2019t meant as a negative critique. This is a great time for Capcom to reinvent the series and if anyone gets to say what is and isn\u2019t Resident Evil, it\u2019s them.<\/p>\n
Sadly the teaser is just that – a tease. Plot is scant and some important mechanics weren\u2019t even present. This didn\u2019t get me very excited for the new game because I don\u2019t feel like I saw enough of a game to be excited for. I will gladly praise it for what it does right (the atmosphere is great and that video tape mechanic was inspired) but as a whole, once the mysteriousness slowly decomposed into cryptic vagueness, my intrigue died and I was left underwhelmed and scratching my head.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Resident Evil 6 marked what some consider a low point in the franchise\u2019s 20 year run. Since then, fans have had their ears to the ground, eager to see where the series goes from there. Resident Evil 7 is (not) a Resident Evil game. I\u2019ve talked a little bit about my history with Resident Evil […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[7,17,9],"tags":[28,25,26],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7D5Jo-1G","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":510,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions\/510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}