He ain’t eatin’ the podcast, Jack! I made that for him!
Welcome back to NOCLIP! Today we’re going to be touching on a somewhat out of season horror game, but fear not (or fear yes, in fact), as there is a sequel coming in just a couple of months. Resident Evil VII, which released a few years ago, before the series began remaking its games like it was going out of style, marked what is a long awaited return to form for much of its fanbase. The series had progressed beyond its survival horror roots into something more action focused following the massive success of the fourth game, but after a 5 year hiatus following the most controversial entry, to put it generously, in the series, the shift back to the more limited and slow paced style of horror was a welcome one. RE7 is set entirely in first person, a move that both sheds light on the influence Capcom took from popular games in the genre and allows for a VR mode to be implemented without changing the base mechanics, and contains more resource management and slow methodical exploration. Because of this, and the “large domicile” locale, the game ends up being compared more often to Resident Evil than it does to Resident Evil 6, and that feels like a successfully implemented design to me. We’re going to be talking about inventory space limitations and what it brings to the table, the reinforcement and undermining of character and plot, and we have hidden a personality test in the episode that will tell you if you have a big brain or are an ignorant baby.
Thank you for joining us this week! This was a game we’ve wanted to play (both at all and in VR) since it came out, and the buzz surrounding the sequel seemed like a good enough excuse. Not to spoil our thoughts, but we were surprised in a lot of places at how well the game pulls off what it’s going for, and it’s definitely worth playing or revisiting if you’ve been through it before. It may not have a tall lady you want to do frankly confusing but undeniably sexy things to you, but it does have a door you have to put sigils in to unlock, so the sanctity of Resident Evil is safe and sound.