Resident Evil 7: Biohazard Review

Capcom answered a decade of Resident Evil bloat by shrinking the camera down to first person and locking the entire first act inside one filthy Louisiana house, and the reset works. The Baker family is the reason. Jack's pursuit through the guest house has the unkillable-stalker pressure the series had abandoned, and the dinner scene establishes tone in three minutes of genuine discomfort. The RE Engine is the technical star, rendering skin, grime and darkness well enough that the VR mode borders on unplayable for the squeamish, which counts here as a compliment.

Inventory management, item boxes and green herbs all survive intact, so it reads as a real Resident Evil rather than a horror pastiche wearing the name. The problem is the back half, where the ship and the salt mine hand you a shotgun and a plot dump and the game slumps into an ordinary corridor shooter with spongy enemies. Ethan is a blank, and the finale forgets what made the house frightening in the first place.