Pretty good if a bit unspectacular, there's no doubt that this is the overall scariest resident evil game that i've played so far but I went in expecting a bit more than what I got out during my 6 hour playthrough. Despite this, this game is still very solid and a respectable entry into the series that tries to keep things fresh with its new first person perspective, heightened suspense and diverse (if quite familiar) storytelling.

Skipping RE5 & 6 (for now, I might come back to them), I decided to dive right into this one expecting something really intense. In VR this would be a wholly different experience, but as it is, on console, I was surprised to find this game to not be so frightening after all. Might have had it oversold to me and games like P.T felt reminiscent and that scared the piss out of me - but yeah re7 didn't deliver in quite the same way, but it ultimately didn't matter too much since its so cool to experience the gameplay i've grown to really like with a new perspective. I've always been very critical of jump scares as a thing in general but they're executed fairly tastefully here, always serving the story in some way which is good to see, but I think the horror aspects of re7 are slightly held back by a relatively middling story, weak characters and a noticeable dip in quality once you leave the residence.

That said, re7 has some great highs, particularly the enemy encounters with Mia, Jack & Marguerite who all come with strong buildups and unexpected surprises. I also love the video tape segments as unique storytelling devices and as a way to provide extra information, and then there's the escape room segment which was my favourite part of the game despite being very different. Most of the resident evil games do feel like big escape room games anyway in how you make discoveries that naturally see you progress in a constant feedback loop until you can escape with your life. But re7's dedicated escape room section is short, tight, clever and satisfying despite its relative simplicity. General exploration / puzzle solving in the main buildings and the abandoned ship are as solid as ever - however, for me, the over-reliance on heavily scripted scenarios and several sequences that play out just like cutscenes sort of dulled their impact and it felt kinda reminiscent of the far cry series.

No single aspect of re7 is really heavily lacking but everything just sort of feels solid and acceptable and I do think it plays it rather safe overall like its kind of afraid to really go out there and get properly creative, maybe that's because of the mixed responses to re5 and 6? I don't know. What I do know is playing it through felt sort of like watching a forgettable modern horror film, it does what it says on the tin and you might get a good bit of entertainment out of it but its not really something you'll remember all too well a couple of years down the line. Even so i'm not trying to come off as unfair or petty, the best parts of this game absolutely made it worth playing, its visually phenomenal, really fun to play and its cool to see the series kind of reinvent itself, it just doesn't really excel at any one thing except maybe being spooky.

6 / 10