In this 2017 GDC talk, Capcom's Koshi Nakanishi and Peter Fabiano explain how Capcom took the Resident Evil franchise somewhere new and different, while keeping true to the series' original concepts.
RE6 is still the best game in the series overall, but RE7 is a really solid game. Hopefully the next two DLC flesh the game out in a meaningful way. It'd also be nice if the Zoe DLC were actually scary. The biggest problem with RE7 as a game is that it wants to be a survival horror game but it isn't actually scary. Sure, some argue that Resident Evil was never actually scary and its audience of literal children just thought it was scary. But the RE7 demo was scary. What RE7's DLC needs to be scary is a sense of the unexpected like that demo had. RE7 isn't scary because it's super predictable. Also because you just run around headshotting everything that moves.
RE7's greatest strength is that it feels cohesive and polished in a way that very few Resident Evil games since REMAKE had felt. Even RE4, the most polished of the recent RE titles was pretty janky in places. Going forward, Capcom really need to focus on making these games as polished as possible. When they inevitably make an action spinoff RE like Remake 2 or Revelations 3, they need to ensure it feels well put together.
Wonder if this means that they will keep First person for 8 and 9. I enjoyed my time with the game but it's the first mainline Resident Evil i've never had the urge to replay. I hope they can capture that feeling with a sequel.
Hoping for a city setting for the next game. Doing something where you are stuck in your apartment block during an outbreak would be cool.
This one is very interesting, but it created a plot problem.
When you play the Daughters DLC, the insects just come out of nowhere. There's no logical connection to the mold. And this is actually a bit of an underpinning problem with RE7, where they seemingly tossed in design ideas that seemed thematically appropriate for a horror game even though they didn't make any logical sense. (Which is a problem because most of the other RE games put a fair bit of work into trying to follow some kind of consistent, if consistently dumb, logic. For example, why the hell does Evie show up on a videotape when she's a hallucination? Why do characters carry around cameras during certain scenes even though this makes no sense? And yea, what's with the insects? The actual concept of the molded and Evie to some extent felt like a muddled retcon. Like they'd designed much of the game and then tried to think of a way to tie it together.
Really loved RE7, going back to the horror roots of the original game was a good move, as the action was taking over the series, leaving the horror aspects behind for stupid over the top action, so it was nice to finally get more of the horror back. It wasn't perfect but it was a good step in the right direction and a great game overall. Virtual Reality support also confirmed that horror was a good way to go and is one of the best and most terrifying gaming experiences out there.
Hopefully RE8 sticks with the horror and VR support and improves upon 7 with more enemy variety. I won't even mind if it has a little more action, if the story calls for it, as long as it doesn't lose the horror / atmosphere again.
It's extremely admirable. They sat down, examined every key aspect of Resident Evil over the years, and selected an assortment of ideas that would form a cohesive template. The last several RE titles have taken a scattergun approach. Tacking new ideas on an old framework. What if RE4+co-op? What if RE5+more suplexes? What if RE6+less suplexes?
With RE7, it's not strictly speaking "going back to roots". It's a reexamination of Resident Evil from the ground up. It doesn't slavishly mimic REMAKE like a lesser game might And they did a really good job. RE7 feels unique. Feeling unique is good. It's not necessarily mechanically unique or thematically unique. It just has this fingerprint of being well crafted and creatively designed.
I liked RE7 for what it was (the base game), personally, but I have my own issues with it: way too short, I felt the second half of the game was hugely disappointing and much like another user, I don't feel like picking it up again. I have yet to "100%" it and I also miss silly stuff like alternate outfits, extra modes… RE7 is a step in the right direction, but they need to do more for me.
I just want to have a RE which I can pick up again months, even years from now and still have the same amount of fun I had on the first run.
Watching the video, but their "new direction" was simply jumping on the first-person "horror" bandwagon that was all the rage on LetsPlay. RE7 wasn't terrible, but it certainly didn't feel like they looked all that far into the past, unless we're talking 2009 or so. Barely anything about it aside from "Oh boy, it's in a house! It has storage, herbs, a shotgun and a somewhat limited inventory!" resembled the pre RE4 games in any way. I absolutely hated the perspective for the combat, and the enemy variety was extremely lacking. It had its moments of genuinely good atmosphere, but those moments were fleeting thanks to the Rob Zombie bullshit in lieu of them.
With the caveat that it has possibly the worst tutorials and learning curve in the history of the genre. They screwed up so badly even the game's brightness adjustment tutorial is broken. It's absolutely mindboggling just how fundamentally wrongheaded RE6's approach to teaching the player how to play the game really is.
Case in point -- Jake has a rather fancy hand to hand combat system that is kind of essential for dodging enemy attacks and advancing under gunfire. Naturally the game never mentions this until the final boss. You essentially play for 5+ hours in the third campaign of a 20+ hour game and the game finally remembers to say, "Oh, BTW, this character can dodge bullets and stuff." I don't think the game at any point formally explains how to perform melee counters, either. It's touched upon in the manual that they neglected to include in American PS3/360 versions of the game. But don't worry, they included a printed URL to a digital manual. Is the URL completely incorrect? Yes, of course it is.
I personally think RE6 is the best game in the series for sheer fun value. The game is a joy to play, and there's really nothing quite like it. But they screwed up so badly when it came to easing players into the experience and actually teaching them useful skills. This is where RE7 nails it. You play RE7, and you are actually taught how to play the game. Which is kind of important. It reflects competent project management and a dedication to creating a cohesive experience.
This one is very interesting, but it created a plot problem.
When you play the Daughters DLC, the insects just come out of nowhere. There's no logical connection to the mold. And this is actually a bit of an underpinning problem with RE7, where they seemingly tossed in design ideas that seemed thematically appropriate for a horror game even though they didn't make any logical sense. (Which is a problem because most of the other RE games put a fair bit of work into trying to follow some kind of consistent, if consistently dumb, logic. For example, why the hell does Evie show up on a videotape when she's a hallucination? Why do characters carry around cameras during certain scenes even though this makes no sense? And yea, what's with the insects? The actual concept of the molded and Evie to some extent felt like a muddled retcon. Like they'd designed much of the game and then tried to think of a way to tie it together.
The real problem with RE7's lore and how it all connects together is that it's really under our noses, the main focus behind what we know as the mold infection shouldn't be exactly explicit to the players, and that's a direction choice which they made very clear through out the development of the game.
Resi 7 is not just mechanically shifted to first person, applying it to create a more personal and immersive experience just because it works well for horror (it's a big part of it, but not the only one). One of the smartest and interesting concepts behind the title is the idea of giving the player's control of a civilian inside the vast and rich world of Resident Evil. To feel like a "normal dude" inside that crazy and weird universe, seeing things only from his perspective and being scaled down to someone who just wants to survive, not study the logic behind a virus outbreak and destroy evil, megalomaniac corporations. We still have that since is not a reboot and all the story, plot points and characters we knew are aout there doing their own things, but it's not up to you to understand everything that is happening.
It's quite a departure from the traditional RE way of telling a story, even back in the day when we had mysteries like RE1 and RE2. It's less expositive and the developers don't want you to know everything, at least not yet. Some things have been left for interpretation and won't be completely shown to the general public, unlike past titles which usually gave us a nice cutscene explaining everything and characters saying facts out loud. It's just not that type of game. But, that doesn't means we can't connect the dots and speculate about everything that went down on the Baker state, that's when the fun begins to me.
Marguerite desire to cultivate and have her own family of "pets" comes from her personal feelings of being underappreciated even with everything she does to her family. Simple yet meaningful things like "please, say that you like the food which spend hours on the making", and her being angry and pissed all the time because nobody actually gives a damn. She found love with her pets and that weird type of reciprocity which nobody ever gave to her.
But besides her affection problems, Daughters at first confused me a lot as well. But while playing it again and getting the true ending i understood what it meant. About her showing up insects right from that moment, is more a complicated and complex thing to digest without thinking about Eveline's influence and powers over people. There is a type of connection and bond between her and the Baker family (host and infected subjects), which through infection makes the victim experience hallucinations in the first stage, and Evie's control is achieved by manipulating the infected's thoughts and feelings, like anger, frustration, grudge, desires and insecurities. That's when she began to break mental barriers by asking and demanding weirder and weirder things. Manipulating their feelings for her own goals.
Marguerite's first phase of infection suggests that she had some type of desire towards that "pets" or something alike, and what we saw as Zoe was simply a hallucination made by Evie's connection with all her infected individuals. There's connotations of most things which went down on Daughters were just part of the victims mind's being in tune with Eveline. Later in the main game we have a scene which made most of the people confused, thinking if it was a flashback, hallucination or anything like that. But it's more about the bond which Evie have with her victms, like i said earlier.
The next morning they woke up feeling normal and specially everyone outside Zoe not wanting to talk or even mention it, starting that whole set of events documented through the Baker state where the infection and bond with Evie starts grow, and they slowly become her pets with time.
There is much more to say but this post is already giant. Silly things and nitpicks like cameras being around everywhere really won't make any sense, but that's where you choose to accept it or not, using your own version of suspension of disbelief. But in general, the mold infection and most of the things which happened through out the main game have a meaning and were well thought behind the scenes. Most of it is easy to explain but it takes time, so we'll have other conversations in another time.
You're not wrong. The game is not forthcoming with its impressive array of tech in the least. Japan has a propensity for this kind of thing which I assume is rooted in arcade mystique (still to this day Namco et al put moves in their fighting games and never officially document them), but in RE6's case you actually need a lot of it to survive, especially on higher difficulties.
I got the RE6 demo as soon as it was available, initially hated it, but persevered and went to town on it. Of course, the control system eventually blossomed and I fell in love, so I was able to jump straight into the retail game, hit the ground running with zero friction, and have a blast. For those coming to the full game fresh, and perhaps sharing my initial poor impression, coupled with an unwise and lengthy cinematic series of QTEs, probably didn't see the game at its best and dropped it fast. There are many bad decisions in and around RE6 on Capcom's part, but overall it's an exceptional game. Long-term sales and a solid defence force back that up.
Lol can't we have one thread without throwing Action RE under the bus. I've purposefully been downplaying RE6 since we got here in a hope we'd start fresh on that. People don't gotta like RE6. But damn how about we talk about the entire GDC panel instead.
Especially since you know we'll be getting an other RE action title here soon enough .
Watching the video, but their "new direction" was simply jumping on the first-person "horror" bandwagon that was all the rage on LetsPlay. RE7 wasn't terrible, but it certainly didn't feel like they looked all that far into the past, unless we're talking 2009 or so. Barely anything about it aside from "Oh boy, it's in a house! It has storage, herbs, a shotgun and a somewhat limited inventory!" resembled the pre RE4 games in any way. I absolutely hated the perspective for the combat, and the enemy variety was extremely lacking. It had its moments of genuinely good atmosphere, but those moments were fleeting thanks to the Rob Zombie bullshit in lieu of them.
I mean, if you're discounting backtracking and a metroidvania type of layout (with shortcuts, best ways to navigate, blocked areas which you need something to open and some secrets in very peculiar spaces), item management with supplies that need each other to create more items, creating different paths while choosing what to use and even specific moments that could or not happen, even in different ways/locations, dude, it's basically a collection of everything we saw on ealier RE titles. Even with the Baker family, which people often compare to Outlast dudes trying to get you, but they basically feels like a pursuer like Nemesis or the Haunting Ground franchise. When you have to make a giant list with things that are alike the classic titles but you don't think that way, it basically proves the point alone.
"Okay, it has item management, limited supplies, save rooms with item boxes/a save station/haunting yet calming music, exploration and hunt for items, doors with specific keys to open, locks that can only be accessed with disposable lock picks, stronger enemies that will be killed more easily with headshots, a restricted and more methodic combat (with limitations that makes you tense and loose the control of the situation fairly easily), more scaled down and focused boss fights, and the list could go on, but it's not classic survival horror or RE, it's a copy of 2009 games because it's first person and has some jumpscares."
I don't mean to be hostile and say things like they're a fact, so i'll keep in mind that everyone at this point has it's own idea of what Resident Evil titles should be and their own interpretation from past experiences. I just think that maybe the perspective threw you off and the more "focused" and tight experience did this too. It's not because RE7 is not "RE enough", they basically went down to the whole past to create what they feel like it's the definitive Resident Evil experience.
I mean, if you're discounting backtracking and a metroidvania type of layout (with shortcuts, best ways to navigate, blocked areas which you need something to open and some secrets in very peculiar spaces), item management with supplies that need each other to create more items, creating different paths while choosing what to use and even specific moments that could or not happen, even in different ways/locations, dude, it's basically a collection of everything we saw on ealier RE titles
I mean, if you're discounting backtracking and a metroidvania type of layout (with shortcuts, best ways to navigate, blocked areas which you need something to open and some secrets in very peculiar spaces), item management with supplies that need each other to create more items, creating different paths while choosing what to use and even specific moments that could or not happen, even in different ways/locations, dude, it's basically a collection of everything we saw on ealier RE titles. Even with the Baker family, which people often compare to Outlast dudes trying to get you, but they basically feels like a pursuer like Nemesis or the Haunting Ground franchise. When you have to make a giant list with things that are alike the classic titles but you don't think that way, it basically proves the point alone.
"Okay, it has item management, limited supplies, save rooms with item boxes/a save station/haunting yet calming music, exploration and hunt for items, doors with specific keys to open, locks that can only be accessed with disposable lock picks, stronger enemies that will be killed more easily with headshots, a restricted and more methodic combat (with limitations that makes you tense and loose the control of the situation fairly easily), more scaled down and focused boss fights, and the list could go on, but it's not classic survival horror or RE, it's a copy of 2009 games because it's first person and has some jumpscares."
I don't mean to be hostile and say things like they're a fact, so i'll keep in mind that everyone at this point has it's own idea of what Resident Evil titles should be and their own interpretation from past experiences. I just think that maybe the perspective threw you off and the more "focused" and tight experience did this too. It's not because RE7 is not "RE enough", they basically went down to the whole past to create what they feel like it's the definitive Resident Evil experience.
You remind me of the RE6 GAF threads lol. I'd say at this point your larger posts aren't going to change the minds of those who don't like RE7. Just like mine didn't really change the mind of anyone who didn't like RE6. At most people will have an understanding of "well I see why others like this" but it won't go much more past that. That's just from personal experience.
It's like you said. RE at this point is a lot of different things to different people. Just like I don't blame anyone for disliking RE6. I afford to to anyone who doesn't like RE7 either. Both games depending on where you stand and how you look at them can be seen as not very Resident Evil. Since people who play the games are gonna hold different factors above others.
If you're a fan of 4-6 more than the others. 7 is as un "RE" as you can get with its gameplay structure/atmosphere compared to those styles. If you only care about the lore, you already had a more universe rich game with a civilian theme with the outbreak series.
I think the upcoming DLC will help clear the air for some people (NAH being action and bring heavier lore elements and EoZ perhaps answering more questions). But regardless of that we just switched one avenue for another. Much like when even during RE4-6. When you had revelation titles or Lost in Nigtmares. Those weren't enough to appease what some fans felt was RE instead of what they were gettting.
I don't mean to be hostile and say things like they're a fact, so i'll keep in mind that everyone at this point has it's own idea of what Resident Evil titles should be and their own interpretation from past experiences. I just think that maybe the perspective threw you off and the more "focused" and tight experience did this too. It's not because RE7 is not "RE enough", they basically went down to the whole past to create what they feel like it's the definitive Resident Evil experience.
Not sure what you mean by more focused and tight. If you're talking about gameplay structure, then I disagree completely, because I'd rather have a game that eschews sandboxy "freedom" (filler), or giant, multi-tiered set pieces in favor of a leaner, and ultimately better experience. If you're talking about a claustrophobic experience: well, have to completely disagree there too. That's what made the earlier games what they were in the first place.
Who knows, maybe I have faulty wiring, but as someone who's actually been playing every iteration since it was first released in the US, it didn't feel like an RE game to me at all, and more of a standard "modern horror" game, with all the the included tropes with only nods towards the series. The perspective just killed it for me. Or more specifically, the combat. I didn't have too many issues finishing the game, but I just never found the combat "fun" in the slightest, and annoying is an understatement.
Zombi is a curious, curious game that I wish was better known and more widely discussed. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it has a lot of cool ideas, and a really cool British tone. It was a very experimental game. Very atypical for Ubisoft since during that period they were busy injecting Assassin's Creed design elements into everything. An FPS horror game with permadeath elements? That was a bold move. A shame it failed to make a splash outside the Wii U, since the PS4/XBO/PC ports are actually mostly decent.
It'd be cool if RE8 adopted some of Zombi's more survival horror ideas such as being able to nail doors shut if you had materials.
Zombi is a curious, curious game that I wish was better known and more widely discussed. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it has a lot of cool ideas, and a really cool British tone. It was a very experimental game. Very atypical for Ubisoft since during that period they were busy injecting Assassin's Creed design elements into everything. An FPS horror game with permadeath elements? That was a bold move. A shame it failed to make a splash outside the Wii U, since the PS4/XBO/PC ports are actually mostly decent.
It'd be cool if RE8 adopted some of Zombi's more survival horror ideas such as being able to nail doors shut if you had materials.
ZombiU, is actually one of the only four games I own on the Wii U, and IMO the closest thing to Resident Evil since the first Dead Space. Absolutely loved that game aside from the overreliance on the very unfun cricket bat. You'd think because of my reasons for disliking RE7, I would have disliked that game as well, but it was simply a lot funner to play and overall just much better paced. Liked it so much that I ended up getting on the in game top five list for Survival speed runs in the first week.
I also can't imagine playing it without the tablet. Gimmicky as it was, it was done so well.
You remind me of the RE6 GAF threads lol. I'd say at this point your larger posts aren't going to change the minds of those who don't like RE7. Just like mine didn't really change the mind of anyone who didn't like RE6. At most people will have an understanding of "well I see why others like this" but it won't go much more past that. That's just from personal experience.
It's like you said. RE at this point is a lot of different things to different people. Just like I don't blame anyone for disliking RE6. I afford to to anyone who doesn't like RE7 either. Both games depending on where you stand and how you look at them can be seen as not very Resident Evil. Since people who play the games are gonna hold different factors above others.
If you're a fan of 4-6 more than the others. 7 is as un "RE" as you can get with its gameplay structure/atmosphere compared to those styles. If you only care about the lore, you already had a more universe rich game with a civilian theme with the outbreak series.
I think the upcoming DLC will help clear the air for some people (NAH being action and bring heavier lore elements and EoZ perhaps answering more questions). But regardless of that we just switched one avenue for another. Much like when even during RE4-6. When you had revelation titles or Lost in Nigtmares. Those weren't enough to appease what some fans felt was RE instead of what they were gettting.
I think it's more about the language and type of conversations if often see in gaming forums. It goes from absurd hyperbole to weird statements that don't have any explanation whatsoever, or simply won't make any sense. I experienced the same with RE6 as well, i don't like the game as much but it definitely didn't need all the hate and bash it got by launch.
Now it's the same thing with RE7 and almost every argument i see from people saying it's not RE, is not compelling or well put together. It's just a opinion thrown out there with no good base behind it. If you played, didn't liked and personally you have a different opion based on what's Resident Evil games to you, that's completely fine. I'm just getting tired of seeing the same thing over and over amongst Resi fans, it's all rage and extreme opinions. Resident Evil is such a huge franchise and it's especially good at making different titles, i think that containing that capacity of trying new things will only limit the potencial it truly has, even it's not a type of experience you like. We had 4 titles in the classic fixed camera angles (not including Outbreak), ten years of action horror RE titles and just one blend with this more personal, blend of survival horror and a more immersive, interactive first person perspective.
I think i already said this before, i know it's sad to see the types of games you love going away (in our case, not definitely), but we have so much already. Last year i played RE2 for the first time ever and it felt like a fresh and amazing experience even to this day. Now i'm trying Code Veronica and its surprising me a lot as well. Those experiences won't go away, they are here and we can still enjoy them.
But i agree with you, and extending that thought, i think at this point i'm just complicating things so it's better to just accept it. In any case, sorry for derailing the thread.
