Resident Evil 7 Biohazard Gold Edition

Genre: First-Person Graphic Adventure / Horror Game

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in Resident Evil 7 Gold Edition & Village Gold Edition, along with Resident Evil Village Gold Edition. It is also included in Resident Evil Generation Pack, along with Resident Evil Village Gold Edition and Resident Evil Requiem.)

Resident Evil 7 is a First-Person Graphic Adventure and Horror game originally released in 2017 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, with a PlayStation 5 version (notable for PS VR support) and Xbox Series X|S versions in 2022, a “Cloud Version” on Nintendo Switch also released in 2022, a port to mobile devices and Mac OS in 2024, and a port to Nintendo Switch 2 in 2026, with this version being a “Gold Edition” that includes all previously-released DLC for the game. Unfortunately for Nintendo Switch players who previously purchased the Cloud Version of the game, there’s no way to upgrade to the Nintendo Switch 2 version.

After Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6 released to increasingly mixed fan reactions due to their greater focus on action (hey, I liked them), Resident Evil 7 represents a major shift in tone for the series, with this game’s First-Person perspective, slower pace, and more restrictive locale seemingly taking inspiration from other Horror games like the Silent Hill and Outlast franchises, but also bearing some similarity to the original Resident Evil due to the way it makes players thoroughly explore its restrictive location.

The plot here, at least from the start, seems entirely disconnected from other games in the franchise, with new protagonist Ethan heading to a run-down house on a plantation in Louisiana after receiving a cryptic message from his wife, who had been missing for three years.

The moment you see this place adorned by grotesque animal carcass sculptures, saw blades, and razor wire, any sane person could see this as a “Nope nope nope, time to get the police involved” sorta’ situation, but because you’re playing a Horror game protagonist, he naturally decides to explore this place. What follows is the gradual reveal of connections to the franchise, as well as the antagonist that will be stalking you throughout a large part of this game, The Baker Family, clearly inspired by the villains of the Horror classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

The presentation here is good, though not perfect. The game features extremely detailed (and often quite disgusting) environments with some outstanding lighting, but you can see some shadow pop-in in outdoor areas during the daytime (such as in the game’s opening), and the 3D character models have aged somewhat in the nine years since this game originally came out. That said, this game’s phenomenal sound design and great voice acting hasn’t aged at all, and it still excellent.

When it comes to the gameplay, this feels a lot like a mix of the original Resident Evil and the Outlast games, since you’ll be searching for objects to solve puzzles to access more areas, but at the same time mostly trying to evade or hide from the threats stalking those areas. You do have some limited ability to fight in this game, but you’re generally so ineffective against the enemies in this game that it’s usually better to evade or hide when you can.

This is actually one of the weaker parts of the game, since sometimes you’ll be forced to fight these enemies rather than fleeing or hiding, and when you do you’ll find the enemies to be tedious bullet sponges, often taking an absurd number of headshots to take down. Add to this your character’s slow movement speed, and you’ll find yourself repeatedly dying in these fights in a way that’s just frustrating.

Also, yeah, it looks like managing inventory is once again a mechanic you’ll have to deal with here. Oh joy.

I should note that there appear to be no attempts to make use of features unique to Nintendo Switch 2 here, though this game does support the use of gyroscopic motion controls for those who prefer. Otherwise, this version of the game seems more or less on par with other versions (or at least the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions).

To sum everything up here, I know I’m in the minority in liking the more actiony Resident Evil 5 and 6, but that’s not to say I can’t appreciate a slower, more Horror-focused game, and in many ways Resident Evil 7 delivers in this regard. Its locale, atmosphere, and antagonists are all excellent, and this style of gameplay is at once both familiar to Resident Evil fans while also providing something clearly new for the series, especially with this game’s first-person perspective.

However, I do feel that in the rush to backtrack towards the Resident Evil franchise’s Horror roots, this game over-corrects just a bit too much, bringing with it frustrating and tedious gameplay elements that don’t help with the scares, they just make the game less fun. Overall, I do still think Resident Evil 7 is an excellent Horror game, but where some players saw this as a series course-correction, I see it as a somewhat mixed bag.

tl;dr – Resident Evil 7 takes the Graphic Adventure Horror franchise away from the more action-focused gameplay of Resident Evil 5 and 6, instead making this a slower, more atmospheric First-Person Horror experience about a man searching for his missing wife on a run-down Louisiana plantation. This game has some excellent elements, including the new antagonist, The Baker Family. However, it also suffers from frustrating tedious combat and limiting inventory management that don’t add to the scares, they just detract from the fun. Overall, this is still a superb Horror game, but I don’t think it’s the major course-correction that many others saw this game as.

Grade: B+

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