Resident Evil 7 Review (PS4) – A Disappointing Return To Its Roots

Charles Oakley 72 Comments 569 views 0 likes Reviews

If you are in the UK you can buy Resident Evil 7 from Amazon, with release day arrival. 

For anyone in the US, you can buy the game here, again with release day arrival for PS4  or Xbox One

Resident Evil has always been a series that changes up the formula, whether it’s going from survival horror to action horror or action horror to just pure action.  Changing the once horror series to an action series proved to be a wise move at the time as sales were at all time highs, but Capcom stayed with the formula for too long and ended up creating Resident Evil 6 which many agree, is the worst game in the main series. Fans asked, well actually demanded that they go back to their roots, Capcom obliged and is giving us Resident Evil 7, but with a twist. The game is in first person only, which is another risky move the team has taken and can be compared to when Resident Evil 4 changed everything up.

Was Resident Evil 7’s change a worthwhile one however, could it be the next Resident Evil 4? That’s all I could think when the game was first announced and even when I was playing the game. After a few hours with the game, I started to think that this isn’t the next big step in the Resident Evil series, and while there’s a lot of positives that come from the new direction of Resident Evil, overall it’s not something I would like to see again from Resident Evil. I will explain why throughout this review, but first I want to discuss the positives of the game.

Capcom have said they are “going back to their roots” a lot with Resident Evil, and while a first person game isn’t technically their roots, they did bring back a lot of the features that made Resident Evil one of the best survival horror series ever. Resident Evil 7 is much slower than the action filled 4,5 and 6 with enemies not being a frequent challenge and in place of that is more puzzle solving and backtracking which is classic Resident Evil. The setting being a mansion is also a great callback to the first Resident Evil which also took place mostly in the Spencer mansion. For the first time in years, Resident Evil has no autosaving which means you have to find a tape recorder to actually save the game, which is another callback to the classic typewriter save system of old.

Capcom meant it when they said they were going back to their roots with Resident Evil 7 for once, they did bring in so many features that old fans of the series will really appreciate, and as one of those old fans I also appreciated it. I wasn’t a huge fan of the action style that the series started to push for more over the last 10+ years so Resident Evil 7 was a nice change from all those action Resident Evil games we have been getting for years.

This isn’t to say Capcom got rid of all the features that had been introduced over the years in Resident Evil games. Checkpoints are still a thing, and despite earlier reports saying that a harder difficulty removes these, that is untrue. You can also still purchase items using the in game currency of antique coins that you will find scattered all across the game, items include weapons, steroids which boosts your maximum health and stabilizers which increase your reload time speed. Purchasing items however is optional, you can find weapons still so it doesn’t take away from the experience. It is however a shame that checkpoints are forced into the game whether or not you want them.

While on the subject of what returns in Resident Evil 7, Jack Baker takes the role of a Nemesis type enemy that will encounter you throughout the game and like the Nemesis, he just keeps coming back to life even when it looks like you’ve finished him off once and for all. While the first few encounters were thrilling and sweat inducing, it felt like the encounters were being way overdone, and became predictable and boring. It also doesn’t help that if you “defeat” him, he comes back to life in around 3 minutes realtime. The Jack Baker encounters were relied on so much that I started to just think “oh he’s back again… yawn” rather than having an “oh crap! He’s back!” moment. If there was ever a time to say “less is more” then now would be the perfect time.

The issues didn’t just stop there with enemies, actually one of the biggest issues I had with the game was the enemy A.I, which I’d say was terrible at times. It’s very easy to accidentally exploit the issues that the A.I has. I can give one glaring example from early in the game that made me notice that the enemy A.I was poor. There’s a room that you enter called the boiler room, and in there is four molded enemies and to beat without breaking a sweat all you need to do is leave the room, and for some reason they try to walk through the wall next to the door. Even when you have free shots on these enemies, they just continue to keep trying to walk through this wall. Nothing takes away the horror experience more than terrible enemy A.I. Hopefully this will be patched.

The Final Verdict

Resident Evil 7 is a much better Resident Evil game compared to Resident Evil 6 but it’s not this generations Resident Evil 4, actually it’s quite far from it. It’s also far from being a bad game, actually it’s a pretty good game that’s worth purchasing but the issues keeps it from reaching its full potential. Should Capcom continue with the first person Resident Evil games? It really depends on if they are actually committed to this new approach, and are not just cashing in on the virtual reality craze currently.

+Bring back classic features.

+Great setting.

+/- The story starts strong with mystery and intrigue but sharply declines after a few hours.

– Enemy A.I.

– Overdoing the same encounters.

Final Score: 7.5/10

If you are in the UK you can buy Resident Evil 7 from Amazon, with release day arrival. 

For anyone in the US, you can buy the game here, again with release day arrival for PS4  or Xbox One

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72 Comments

  1. No mention of anything past the first section of the game. No mention of graphics. Voice acting. Characters. Weapons. I doubt you played the game honestly. This is the most review you could have wrote. Sounds like you watched the first 45 minutes on youtube and wrote your review.

    Plus your site is a cluster **** of terrible ads.

  2. ”Kawata explained the save system changes depending on the difficulty, but there will be auto-saves throughout the gameplay.”

  3. This game does not look appealing. I’ve been trying to get myself interested in it, but I just can’t.

    • Me either

    • OK, thanks for sharing

    • you just can’t what ? first person ?

      • I just can’t get myself interested in it. It doesn’t look like Resident Evil to me.

        • I agree.

        • i can’t blame you for that.. i hopefully RE Revelation 3 and RE 2 remake stay with 3rd person

    • agreed, the first hour starts “ok looks promising” and then BAM!! goes down, it gets boring, predictible and not even horrifying.

  4. Next game for RE in future should stay with 3rd person. i didn’t like first person very much but i played very few games were first person like Farcry and Dying Light.. 3rd person is best thing for me

    • So they should make it third person just for you then?

      • just for fans who don’t like first person. not only me.

        • Might just have to wait for the next Revelations game.

          • and RE 2 Remake

          • Well, Capcom isn’t making a 3rd person game anymore, specially since most people are loving this game.

          • half of people hate first person but they gonna miss out on this game is very sad

        • I would love to have a RE1 and RE2 remake in first person. Imagine seeing the RPD, the mansion, sewers in that perspective… Also, they’re not going back to 3rd person perspective with VR taking off.
          BUT, I get some people like it, I think they should take the GTA V route and make both perspectives.

          • lol no thank

          • No, I don’t mind a first person option. Please don’t force it down my throat. Theres plenty of 1st person games, leave RE alone.

      • Is that what I think it is? Oh my.

    • I agree with you OP!

  5. I feared about the enemy encounters.
    Where are the zombies, Lickers, and tenticlehead people.

    • Zombies don’t come with every RE game it’s about B.O.W’s, Revelations 1 had Ooze instead on Zombies and RE7 has the Molded instead of Zombies , The molded come in a variety of shapes and forms as well some based on Spiders and some bloated.

      • Then the Molded are the only enemies, just with different shapes?

  6. “Should Capcom continue with the first person Resident Evil games? ”

    I’d buy a RE1 HD remake 1st person mode DLC in a heartbeat.

    • That will never happen.

      • Says who exactly…..you? Tell me this wouldn’t be awesome. ESPECIALLY after the new change in RE7 first person mode, it would make sense for Capcom to cash in on somthing like this.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj3ih8siAew

      • Hopefully.

  7. Fairly good review without giving away too many spoilers.. I’m almost finished with the game.. And I’ll just say this.. For Ethan to be Combat ineffective.. He handles weapons pretty well, He also is a wisecrack, He doesn’t seem scared enough for a helpless person. Mia on the other hand… That chick is Alice lmao……

  8. Good lord, the writing for this review is atrocious.

  9. I have a feeling I will not be unwrapping this and taking it straight to Best Buy for my money back.

  10. This “review” really doesn’t cover much ground. Bad Ai, return of classic features, 7.5

    What a deep quality review.

  11. Well I disagree with the review , Got my copy today and 4 hours in and I am loving it , amazing sound effects and atmosphere , Graphics a good as well and the setting is great , it gives me RE1 Mansion and RE1 Garden/Dormitory Area where Plant 42 was vibes. I have enjoyed all RE games classic and new and I am very happy with this game in my collection.

  12. This is an English writer? Seems like it went through Google translate. Awful review, tells me nothing of the game expect the AI is worse. How is the First-person view, graphics, the controls, sound? Dude, do better.

  13. DOES NOBODY PROOF-READ THEIR ARTICLES ANYMORE?! SHOW US YOU HAVE SOME PRIDE, CHARLIE OAKLEY! Your chicken-scratch is on the internet forever, now.

    • You realize you are criticising someone’s writing with the opening gambit: “Does nobody”?

    • +1 Yeah, it could definitely do with some sub editing. It certainly doesn’t read like a professional article. There is some odd phrasing, almost like it was written in a different language and then run through Google Translate, and the punctuation is all over the place – especially the commas. It’s very difficult to parse in places.

  14. I love how you removed my previous comment. This is a terrible review and you are a TERRIBLE writer.

  15. Only 7,5 ? Bad Review on my opinion.

    • It does say ‘disappointing’ in the title.

    • It’s a bad review to you because it didn’t get the score you hoped it would get?

    • ^This is a bad comment on my opinion.

  16. ‘Resident Evil 7 is a much better Resident Evil game compared to Resident Evil 6 but it’s not this generations Resident Evil 4, actually it’s quite far from it. It’s also far from being a bad game, actually it’s a pretty good game that’s worth purchasing but the issues keeps it from reaching its full potential.’

    This whole review is written poorly, but that conclusion is dire.

  17. I’ve only played the demo so can’t comment on the whole game but I wouldn’t say it was disappointing to a return to the series roots. There was nothing about the demo that made me feel like I was playing a Resident Evil game – it felt more like a first person Silent Hill (so like the first person parts of Silent Hill 4) with elements of The Blair Witch Project and The Hills Have Eyes thrown in. Capcom could probably have gotten away with releasing it under a different title, it’s that different, but I can understand why they want to put it out there under an existing brand – and maybe the plan is to tie it in with previous games with a sequel, much the way Resident Evil 5 tried to marry the new style of Resident Evil 4 with the older games.
    So it doesn’t have much in common with previous Resident Evil games but what it does have is excellent – the atmosphere is incredibly creepy (it’s got possibly the best use of sound I’ve ever seen/heard in a video game – I was constantly having to turn around to check on noises I’d heard), it does a lot with subtle visual cues like things moving around when you’re not looking, you’re constantly on edge, worried that something is about to happen, and at the same time intrigued enough to want to get to the bottom of the mystery. I don’t know if the full game is going to be able to maintain that atmosphere throughout, but I’m looking forward to playing it and finding out.

    • The demo is basically just a 14 hour or so shorter version of the full game . You can get PLENTY from it, and it’s FREE l

      • 14 hours? I got 45 minutes out of it.

  18. Well, little review…
    Good to know it’s not shit… Bad to know it’s for some reason a First-Person horror game called Resident Evil.
    RE is much more then just gameplay elements… it’s the aesthetic, the sound, the perspective… Even RE4 was more of a RE then this… And I LOVE RE4, because there is also a stupid kid inside of me who enjoys simple stupidity. But there is also a sucker for something like REmake… And he sure longs for it still…

  19. this game should get a much lower score then 7.5 it should be a 6 but its on the ps4 so it get bumped up.whats sad is some of these other game sites are giving it a 9/10 or a 10/10 they can fool those idiots but most people are smart.

    • Once people start playing this game, I think there’s gonna be a lot of disappointment.

  20. LOL at some of the complaints around the web about the reviews of this game similar to this site’s score. Do you think this game is a masterpiece? Absolutely not. Its a good game and does what it sets out to do. But if you have a problem with a 7.5, then open your eyes. Whats the point of a 1-10 scale if every AAA game gets a 8-10. Go back to September of 2016. Every single AAA game has received at least a 8.0 out of 10. Its rigged. A 7.5 is an honest opinion about this game.

  21. I knew this game was gonna suck. I predict that once people start playing this, it’ll be getting 5s and 6s in large numbers.

  22. If you’re retarded and can’t see piece of shit when it’s shown to you, then hey, it’s your fault, wtf were you expecting? Btw setting is garbage.

  23. What kind of review is that that doesn’t even mention one of the newest and greatest features of the series by adapting it to PS VR? This doesn’t even qualify as a full review.

    • Nobody cares about VR. It’s just a fad.

      • You are an idiot. Go buy a PS VR…oh wait, you can’t because they are sold out everywhere and going for hundreds of dollars over retail on ebay right now. Of course this doesn’t address the bigger issue that this is a review website and they didn’t even FULLY review the game. Next up, maybe they will review the Nintendo Switch but only talk about it being docked since mobile tablet gaming is dead.

        • I saw one in Target yesterday, but didn’t buy it because VR is shit. Your fad is shit.

          • No you didn’t. Your comments are shit. If you saw one you could have bought it and pocketed a cool $300 on ebay. That just makes you an idiot if you aren’t a liar.

          • I did, and it wasn’t worth the hassle of spending the money and setting up an ebay account. I’ll leave it on the shelf for any misguided individual that actually wants one.

          • Ok, so your idiocity aside…there is NO defending that this is a half-baked review. Capcom designed a major part of this game around VR and to so much as to ignore it completely is a pitifully inadequate piece of journalism. It matters not whether you, the reviewer, or Hogan’s goat cares about VR…it is what THIS game is about and you review it as such. Period. You lose (again) Noob.

          • Only a tiny fraction of the PS4 audience uses VR, and I can hardly fault the site for not wanting to devote a second playthrough to determine how well the game functions as a VR title. This review is just fine for mainstream players, though it might not meet the needs of a tiny niche minority.

            If you want to know how it performs as a VR title then I’m sure there are reviews out there that will give you what you need. I hardly see the point of getting all bent out of shape because one review [out of hundreds of reviews] fails to address your specific niche concern.

            You are just being silly at this point. The reviewer probably doesn’t even own a VR helmet.

          • So basically you are agreeing this is a half-ass website for gaming reviews. Probably buncha kids hacking keyboards thinking doing this makes them a journalist. Not. Sony sells these things as fast as they can make them and there is also no arguing it is sold out right now on websites like BestBuy, Target, Walmart, Gamestop, and Amazon. Sony has already moved more than 1/2 million of these units and will easily surpass a couple million by next Christmas when supply starts catching up with demand. And I do have the game and a PS VR. Enjoying the heck out it, best VR experience yet. The REAL gaming websites have fully recognized what you and this website are too dense to understand. Go to bed son, you’ve just been JACK CHOPPED!!! Ha.

          • p.s. – you are also one ugly fat fuck, surely a total noob at gaming, and failure at argumentative thought. /mewinner #D.I.out!!!

          • No, I am saying that this site is just fine for game reviews. In fact I enjoyed this review all the more for the fact that it didn’t bore me with irrelevant VR details. If you require specialist information then you should try elsewhere, but this review is just fine for gamers.

            Also, here’s a crazy little thing: when you under-produce a piece of hardware then it is always going to sell out – that is in no way an indication of mass consumer demand for it. For instance you contend that Sony will have sold two million of these things by next Christmas, and you actually think this is a good sales figure for a piece of hardware that will have been available for over a year, and has had the benefit of two Christmas shopping periods and a Black Friday? Really? LOL. And that is a best case scenario.

            What do you think the software landscape will look like when after a year of availability PSVR has only managed to sell two million or less units? In the same three month period that the PSVR has been available the PS4 has sold over 6 million units of hardware, and so during PSVR’s launch window it has managed to sell just 1/12th as well as its host hardware in spite of the PS4’s massive 50 million unit installbase and the fact that it is Christmas. Even the Wii U had a stronger launch.But no, please continue to fool yourself about the longterm prospects of your fad.

          • Resident Evil.net reports 10% of users are playing via PSVR. That is across all PS4, Xbox, and PC sales of the game. Nothing to sneeze at! Oh, and be sure to read your favorite review website article about VR being here to stay. Pwned!!!

          • Just like motion controls were here to stay, and 3D TV was here to stay…

            Pwnt indeed!

  24. First person really killing this game. No one even know how Ethan looks and no one seems to care. And this is happening in RE series where main characters are incredibly memorable.

  25. Yep started out 3rd person, should continue on that way!!! Demo did nothing for me, much like the new outlast 2 demo. Same old Texas Chainsaw Massacre trash. imo

  26. Second Worst RE game right behind RE6… this is an Outlast ripoff and shouldnt even be called Resident Evil…waste of money

  27. You only face Jack like 3 times.

  28. Third person > First person

  29. TBH, if it isn’t part of either the original storyline or the movie adaptation, I don’t care… IDGAF about some redneck, asshole zombie in the woods… Sent this back aftr 10 minutes after realizing I didn’t care about these characters AT ALL, ten minutes in.

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