Resident Evil 7: Biohazard - Making Zombies Creepy Again

[Yewone]

Purchased the season pass and tried the first set of Banned Footage DLC last night.

 

Firstly a word of warning, don't do what I did and kickoff the DLC download/update whilst you have the game open. It corrupts the application resulting in zero save files etc loading.

Thankfulky it's rectified by deleting and reinstalling the game and DLC separately.

 

As for the DLC itself. It's basically split into two options. The first of which "nightmare" is a mini survival mode where you have to survive a night by running around collecting scrap to built ammo, health pack and upgrades whilst fighting off waves of enemies.

 

The second part "Bedroom" is more of a tradition gameplay section. It's very brief and similar in style to the "Happy Birthday" tape. Definitely feels like it has been purposely cut from the main game, and would have benefitted more if you had actually got to experience it during a complete playthrough.

[Majora]

I watched the Bedroom DLC footage on Youtube and it's pretty obvious where in the main game the tape should have gone. 

 

 

 

 

You tend to get tapes that tell you something relevant about one of the rooms you're due to go into, so in this case the tape tells you that there's a hidden passageway under the bed that is revealed by the clock. So presumably you would get the tape before or around the time you get the snake key which gives you access to that bedroom

 

[Captain Kelsten]

Hmm. That's disappointing, then. I like DLC when it enhances the game, not when it's been blatantly stripped out to make a quick buck.

[Triple A]

Cleared this yesterday on normal. 15 hours or so on the clock in the end; I was taking it nice and slow, repeating a few sections that I had messed up on in order to get 'perfect' runs. Pity I couldn't take all the ammo etc. with me into the second run as I had loads of stuff!

Wonderful game although the

 

salt mines area looking as repetitive as it did, and the lack in enemy variety vs. other series titles

took the sheen off just a touch. Were those things sorted then it would have been my favourite in the whole series. Still a 10 though and still a defining game experience especially in VR.

[dumpster]

I have to say, despite loving this game I'm a little surprised to have seen online that I'm about to enter the last section of the game. I've enjoyed every minute so far, but it seems a lot shorter than other games in the series. I feel I have missed a lot of pickups including a second backpack that would have been useful  ( I've been reading a walkthrough after doing each section to see what I've missed) but even so, I appear to be at the start of the last part with 6 hours on the clock. 

[Captain Kelsten]

Most Resi games are fairly short, and unless you take forever in the last section, or it isn't the last section, a finish time of 7-8 hours does sound quite quick (most folks seem to do it in about 10-15 - VR being slower due to how bloody tense it is!), but I would much rather 7-8 hours of something I've loved every minute of than 40+ hours of filler like so many games seem to have these days. 

 

 

[LaveDisco]

Bizarrely, by playing only in VR, it seems a far longer game to me. 

[Yewone]

31 minutes ago, LaveDisco said:

Bizarrely, by playing only in VR, it seems a far longer game to me. 

 

Yeah it definitely seems to prolong the experience. Think I finished it in just over 12 hours.

Atleast an hour of which was spent staring at dark doorways/staircases/corridors whilst thinking "no fucking way I'm going in/up/down there!"

[Benji]

Finished it last night and got a brilliant £37 on trade in for it today as i'll get all the DLC in one hit later down the line 

 

It's fantastic, really one of my favourite games for a long time.  I felt tense playing it from start to finish and found myself pausing it in places to have a mini break as it was so creepy.

 

For what its worth, my only slight negative is that the first 1/2 of the game compared to the end isn't even comparable, think others have said the same.  I hope with all of the positive stuff from this one that the next one is even better. 

[robotattack]

I wonder if Capcom would consider doing a Dino Crisis in VR.

 

[Captain Kelsten]

I am desperate for a good dinosaur based VR game! Robinson looks ok, but short. Ark Park is a definite 'wait and see'. But Dino Crisis...oh man. Such a good series. Well, 1 & 2, anyway  

[Calashnikov]

There are dinosaurs in Area 5 of Rez. Get it sorted.

[George Clooney]

Got this earlier in the week.  Looked good regardless, but was excited to play it in VR.  Had tried the demos and while they were scary, they werent too bad.  I could handle this, I thought.

 

Sweet jesus monkeyballing christ on a stick was I motherfucking wrong.  I spent 30 minutes or so playing it, and those 30 minutes didnt just scare the shit out of me, they left me with profound questions about my own bravery.  From the moment the door closed behind me, aside from the feeling of my buttocks clenching so tight the pressure could have crushed a submarine hull, I dont think anything, ever, that isnt real has created such a feeling of terror, isolation and dread.  I spent the next 20 minutes alternating between standing in one spot deciding which exact spot I was going to travel to next, and the rest going "fuckfuckfuckpleasenothinghappen" as I hauled my cowardly ass to that exact spot.  Then comes the moment that really fucked me up - the first time you get attacked.  Without going into too much depth so I have to put this behind spoiler tags, I (stupidly) decided that I'd play standing up for it to be more immersive.  Turns out, I'm fucking stupid.  Then on one of the first attacks, I got lunged at and instinctively moved backwards as if to avoid the attack, but where I'm playing my bed is directly behind me.  At just the right height for it to trip me the fuck up.  Of course, I end up falling backwards onto my bed, which doesnt hurt, but in game I've got a crazy person who'se jumped on me with me now actually lying on my back in game as they go nuts, and it all feel just a little too real, to the point I probably would have shit myself if my buttocks werent still sealed tighter than one of Sean Spicers suits.  I freak out and shout some obscenities which cause the other people in the house to shout up and ask if I'm ok.  It ends.  I manage to get back to my feet, my heart feeling like it's seconds away from a full on cardiac arrest.  I think I'm sweating.  I turn the game off and watch videos of puppies for half an hour.

 

It's pretty cool I guess.

[RubberJohnny]

It's really not that scary. It's like people are trying to equate high quality to how scary something is, it doesn't work that way.

 

It's a really great Resident Evil, a proper quality survival horror - but they're never really a particularly scary series - I mean you have crazy over the top horror-comedy action beats in the first hour, like something out of Evil Dead. It's great fun!

[Bonzai1888]

Given me a few good scares in VR, haven't touched it in normal vision & I don't think I even could, just too good in VR.

[Captain Kelsten]

55 minutes ago, RubberJohnny said:

It's really not that scary. It's like people are trying to equate high quality to how scary something is, it doesn't work that way.

 

It's a really great Resident Evil, a proper quality survival horror - but they're never really a particularly scary series - I mean you have crazy over the top horror-comedy action beats in the first hour, like something out of Evil Dead. It's great fun!

 

People aren't equating scares to quality. They just add to the overall effect. Have you played it in VR? I agree it's not scary, but in VR there is definitely an added level of extreme tension. 

[Stanley]

I've only played the demo and it's really tense and quite unnerving, there's also of couple of jump scares which I found effective. But then I found the originals scary too. Perhaps people just have different interpretations of what scary means.

[Broker]

On 03/02/2017 at 21:20, Doctor Shark said:

This is so, so good but not remotely scary. Tense, yeah, but not scary. Just fought my first few

  Hide contents

molded

, even killing one with a knife (got an achievement for it!). I love how the graphics are like hyper realistic, and yet you've still got mad shit like crests opening doors, traps everywhere and so on. "Babe, have you seen where I left my car keys? I'm late for work!" "Yes dear, they're in the hidden room by the piano. You'll need to find the crest from the garden to open it, then replace that with the tiger's eye gem - the blue one dear, not the red, you remember what happened last time you mixed those up, then you'll need the V-Jolt to kill the plant and your keys are in the pot" "Fuck's sake, I'll just get the bus". 

 

I always wondered how anyone actually worked in Racoon City PD.

[womblingfree]

The haute tension in this definitely equates to terror for me. 

 

One thing that bugs me, how is it that in twenty+ years no Resi game has ever been able to animate the use of a knife properly? Here it's particularly daft.

[Yewone]

17 hours ago, RubberJohnny said:

It's really not that scary. It's like people are trying to equate high quality to how scary something is, it doesn't work that way.

 

It's a really great Resident Evil, a proper quality survival horror - but they're never really a particularly scary series - I mean you have crazy over the top horror-comedy action beats in the first hour, like something out of Evil Dead. It's great fun!

 

Checkout the big man here

 

Seriously though I defy anyone to try it in VR and not get shit up by it at some point!  It's all about the atmosphere and tension more than actual jump scares. 

I found it much more stressful when faced with a dark foreboding corridor/room than when actually in combat.

The stuff that actually freaked me out probably wouldn't have bothered me much in standard mode either.

[Steven]

Spoke to a friend this morning who bought PSVR after I emailed him a week ago to rave about this. He just kept repeating "fuuucking hell, man". It's just a different game in VR; like fairy dust has been sprinkled on the disc and in your eyes.

[Yewone]

Looks like a PS4 patch has been released, anyone any idea what it's for?

[Varsity]

Of course everyones interpretation of scary is different, VR aside, there's a huge difference between playing this in day or with the lights on compared to playing it at night, with the lights out with full headset surround sound. I personally try and make it as scary for myself as possible, even if that means I crawl through it at a snails pace. Took me nearly 30 hours to beat Alien: Isolation that way and the same applies here. 

[Uncle Nasty]

2 hours ago, U-1 said:

Looks like a PS4 patch has been released, anyone any idea what it's for?

 

Makes it scarier.

[Mogster]

Telling someone what is and isn't scary is like telling them that their favourite colour is wrong. 

 

I've just finished it anyway, and while it was very good I thought it took quite a dive in quality for the last third or so. It was the most Resi-like Resi in years mind, and for me it was definitely the scariest. Well, for the first two thirds at least.

[womblingfree]

I was quite enjoying this, but hearing everyone rave about the VR's making me think playing it not in VR's a waste of time.

[Hideous Kojima]

7 minutes ago, womblingfree said:

I was quite enjoying this, but hearing everyone rave about the VR's making me think playing it not in VR's a waste of time.

 

Nah, you're not missing anything (except cardiac arrest) by not playing in VR. It's still ace either way.

 

[robotattack]

4 hours ago, U-1 said:

Looks like a PS4 patch has been released, anyone any idea what it's for?

 

They've added a brown note to the soundtrack so those that claim the game isn't scary still shit themselves.

[Mogster]

9 hours ago, womblingfree said:

I was quite enjoying this, but hearing everyone rave about the VR's making me think playing it not in VR's a waste of time.

 

Well I enjoyed it and I've never played it in VR. It's not like you're going to know what you're missing.

 

I'll be trying this in VR once the exclusivity deal runs out. I've not really got on with joypad walking in VR in the past though so it'll be interesting to see how this fares. 

[Garibaldi]

Finished this and enjoyed it. Ended up with about ten hours on the clock, and I wasn't rushing, so no idea how folk are managing to stretch it out to fifteen. 

 

Definitely suffers in the last part of the game, where it becomes a bland plod laced with backstory. It's like the devs had an idea for one half of a brilliant game and tried to pad out the rest. Doesn't come close to ruining what came before, but it does rob RE7 of 'classic' status. 

 

Most importantly, though, the game felt fresh. Fresh in the same way that RE4 did, albeit for different reasons. I'm very glad that Capcom finally realised that when you keep escalating, soon all you're left with is meaningless bombast that feels as tediously unwelcome as a prostate exam. Like some others, I didn't find RE7 scary (though I have completed System Shock 1&2, Amnesia, and Alien Isolation. To give you an idea of how big my steel balls are), but it was definitely unnerving, and that's almost as good. I await the 'Not a hero' DLC with interest.