In an attempt to revamp the franchise, Capcom has returned to the drawing board with Resident Evil 7. Is this the right move?
Is the new first-person perspective style horror just what the Resident Evil franchise needs to bring the series back?
Resident Evil
The Resident Evil series was introduced to us all on March 22, 1996 with the release of Resident Evil for Sony Playstation. This game quickly became a fan favorite with it’s great story line, difficult puzzles, good graphics, and fixed camera angles that added to the horror aspect Resident evil was striving for.
Resident Evil 4
Since then we have seen the franchise go through many different transformations with the release of more titles following the first. One major transformation for Resident Evil came in January of 2005 with the release of Resident Evil 4. Capcom decided to go in the direction of a 3rd person, over the shoulder style action shooter which made combat feel much more personal but took away from the unknown aspect of what was just outside the camera’s vision. Not to mention the story line taking a twist with the outbreak being more of a parasite than a biological infection.
Resident Evil 6
Over the next seven years Capcom continued this trend with the release of two more titles, Resident Evil 5 & 6. These titles continued in much the same way that Resident Evil 4 had gone except wit the graphics getting continuously better with the releases of newer gaming platforms.
Things were then pretty silent from the Resident Evil team until the announcement of a whole new style of Resident Evil in June of 2016 at E3 where the player controls a new character, Ethan, from a first-person perspective instead of a third-person perspective we had seen in all past titles. The change to a first-person perspective may be due to the recent release of many new virtual reality systems such as the Vive and Playstation VR. The character will have access to a variety of weapons we have seen in the past such as pistols, shotguns, chainsaws and explosives but it has been said from the developers, not to expect a “gun fest”.
The full version of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is scheduled to release for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on January 24, 2017. But in the mean time some demos are available and we have the latest trailer for you to check out below!
We personally love the old style Resident Evil games but are extremely excited to fully experience the new first-person horror the new title is sure to bring. We have already played many first person horror games that were incredible titles such as Layers of Fear and Outlast and we are confident Resident Evil 7 will be just what the franchise needs to keep all new and pre-existing fans of the horror genre intrigued!
Head over to the Steam Store for more information and to preorder or download a demo of Resident Evil 7!
About the Author: Zeb Barrett
