Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Director(s)	Koshi Nakanishi
Producer(s)	Masachika Kawata
Writer(s)	Richard Pearsey
Series	Resident Evil
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4 Xbox One
Release date(s)	WW: January 24, 2017 JP: January 26, 2017
Genre(s)	Survival horror
Mode(s)	Single-player

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard^{[lower-alpha 1]} is an upcoming survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is slated for release on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with the PlayStation 4 version having support for the PlayStation VR headset. The game will be the eleventh entry into the main Resident Evil series, and the first main series installment to be played from a first-person perspective. It will be released worldwide in January 2017.

Resident Evil 7 was announced during Sony's presentation at E3 2016. Later that day, a gameplay teaser titled Resident Evil 7 Teaser: Beginning Hour was released to the PlayStation Store, which was meant to show the direction the development team had taken and is not a part of the final game.

Gameplay

The player controls the protagonist, Ethan, from a first-person perspective. As with previous Resident Evil games, the player will have access to a variety of weapons including pistols, shotguns, flamethrowers, explosives and chainsaws in the fight against enemies described as mutant creatures.^[1] However, according to developers, players should not expect a "gun fest".^[2] Other notable mechanics of previous Resident Evil games, including puzzle-solving, resource management, and healing herbs are also confirmed to appear in the game.^[2][3] Quick time events, on the other hand, will be entirely absent.^[4] The PlayStation 4 version of the game is also playable from start to finish in VR using the PlayStation VR headset, but the core gameplay mechanics will remain identical between both modes.^[5]

Story

The game is set approximately 4 years after the events of Resident Evil 6 in the fictional city of Dulvey, Louisiana in the Southern United States. It features a new protagonist named Ethan Winters^[6] who is a civilian that offers fewer combat skills than most previous Resident Evil main characters.^[2] Ethan is searching for his missing wife, Mia, which leads him to a derelict plantation mansion, home of the Baker family.^[6][7]

Although connections to previous games in the series will be made, the game will feature an entirely new cast of characters.^[5] The title of the game, which for the first time contains in it both the "Resident Evil" and "Biohazard" brand names of the series across all regions, is said to be a clue to what's behind the game's plot.^[2]

Development

Following the release of Resident Evil 6, producer Masachika Kawata noted, Capcom had a lot of internal discussion regarding the direction of the next installment.^[8] Capcom staffers recognized that the scale of the last game, which had bioterrorism attacks happening across the world, had grown out of hand and as a result what made the series special had been lost.^[9] To regain that, Kawata's boss, Jun Takeuchi, who is the executive producer of the game,^[10] requested that the series be "stripped down to its core": horror.^[8] The developers figured scaling back the game to one location and using a first-person perspective to immerse the players in the environments, would be the best way to achieve that.^[9]

Development began around February 2014.^[11] The game is built on a new engine, named RE Engine, which includes VR development tools.^[7] Kawata explained that the decision to make the game first-person was made well before they thought about VR.^[9] A year before the game's announcement, Capcom presented to attendants of E3 2015 a first-person horror themed VR demo called KITCHEN,^[12] which ran on the same engine.^[7] While Resident Evil 7 had been in development long before KITCHEN, with the latter the developers saw the opportunity to evaluate how the RE engine and its VR capabilities would be received by the public.^[5] As a hint to the demo's relation to, at the time unannounced, Resident Evil 7, the logo of KITCHEN had the letter "T" designed with a small gap to it so that it looked like a "7", but Kawata said that went largely unnoticed.^[11] Four months later, in the company's annual Integrated Report, citing positive reception of the KITCHEN demo, it was stated that the Resident Evil development division of Capcom (Development Division 1), would be focusing on creating experiences for the VR market. These included both a new VR engine and games for the eighth generation of consoles.^[13]

In interviews following the game's announcement at E3 2016, the game's director was revealed to be Koshi Nakanishi, who previously directed Resident Evil: Revelations, leading a development team exclusively from Capcom Japan and numbering about 120 staff.^[8][14] However, for the first time in the series, the narrative designer is a westerner, Richard Pearsey, writer of the two expansion packs of F.E.A.R. and one of the narrative designers of Spec Ops: The Line.^[15] Speaking of first-person games similar to Resident Evil 7, Nakanishi said they played "all the first person horrors out there like [...] Outlast" but decided in contrast to them to offer weapons to the player so that they can fight against the enemies.^[14] At the time of the game's reveal, development was 65% complete.^[11]

Some of the creature models in Resident Evil 7 were first created in physical form – a number of them from actual meat – by make-up artists, to then be scanned through the employment of photogrammetry. This technology developed over half of the general assets of the game, but posed a problem in researching the setting of Louisiana because its considerable demand for equipment made it unviable for transport, which required Capcom to model by hand.^[16]

Japanese rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel created the song "Don’t Be Afraid" for the game.^[17]

Release and marketing

The game is slated to be released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in North America and Europe on January 24, 2017 and in Japan on January 26.^[18] For 12 months of its release, the virtual reality format will be exclusive to PlayStation VR.^[19] In October 2016, Capcom launched a 10 part video series called The World of Resident Evil 7, teasing pieces of the game's contents such as characters and gameplay.^[18][20] A cross-save feature between Microsoft Windows and the Xbox One was confirmed in November 2016.^[21]

Capcom's sales projection for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was four million copies.^[22]

The internal marketing team at Capcom collaborated with creative agency iam8bit to produce an escape room called Resident Evil Escape Room Experience, in which groups of six are guided through a series of rooms by Umbrella Corporation employees. The experience was held at iam8bit's gallery space in Echo Park, Los Angeles.^[23]

Purchase of a GameStop-exclusive Collector's Edition will include an eight-inch model of the Baker mansion, which when opened functions as a music box playing the main theme rendition of "Go Tell Aunt Rhody", a mannequin finger shaped 4-GB USB flash drive comprised within a VHS tape box, a SteelBook Case containing the game, a lithograph of the Baker family and a note.^[24][25] The UK version adds the Survival Pack: Action Set DLC, a 20th anniversary artbook and a seven-inch replica of the mansion, but does not feature the music box.^[26]

Beginning Hour teaser

On June 14, 2016, shortly after the game's reveal, a playable teaser named Resident Evil 7 Teaser: Beginning Hour was released exclusively for Plus subscribers in the PlayStation Store.^[7]

The demo begins in a dilapidated house, which the unnamed male player character needs to escape. The player can explore and interact with objects in the environment, some of which can be put in the player's inventory. An easter egg referencing the Umbrella Corporation can be found.^[27]

The player finds a recorded tape, dated June 1, 2017, made by a cameraman named Clancy Javis who, along with the producer (Andre) and host (Pete) of a paranormal television show, enters the house. Player control then switches to Clancy. Andre explains that the house belonged to the Baker family, who disappeared three years ago, and also mentions the rumors about their son, Lucas.

When Andre disappears, Clancy looks for him, eventually finding his bloodied corpse hanging from a hook. As a person steps closer, the tape recording ends. The player-character then tries to escape, until knocked unconscious by the apparent father of the Baker family, saying "Welcome to the family, son!". The ending varies slightly, depending on the order the player explores the house and interacts with objects.^[28] The playable part of the demo is book-ended by scenes from the KITCHEN demo, in the form of a recording,^[29] which reveals Pete was fatally stabbed by a monstrous woman who approaches Clancy before the tape cuts off. In the full recording, Clancy dies.^[12]

Capcom later revealed that the teaser was a standalone experience and not a segment of the final game. The final game will have a different main character, more variety in its environments, and additional mechanics, such as combat.^[4][30] It will also take place after both KITCHEN and Beginning Hour.^[9] By July 2016, the demo had been downloaded over 2 million times.^[31] It is expected to be released to additional platforms.^[32] An update called the "Twilight Version" was released on 15 September 2016, and gave access to new rooms and items to find.^[33] Along with the new version, Capcom also released a trailer for the full game. Another update called the "Midnight Version" was released on December 3, and unlocks the molded door, along with several new items to find and a puzzle revolving around the riddle in the Twilight update.^[34]

On December 3, 2016, Capcom announced that the demo would be released on Xbox One on December 9, while ten days later for the PC^[35]

Lantern demo

A playable demo called Lantern was made available for attendees at Gamescom 2016, as part of revealing the first Resident Evil 7 story trailer. It makes use of found footage and first-person narrative as it tells the story of a young woman by the name of Mia hiding from an agitated old lady holding a lantern. The old lady is Marguerite Baker, who was first mentioned in Beginning Hour.^[36][37]

Reception

Pre-release

Due to its first-person presentation, the game has drawn comparisons to Konami's canceled Silent Hills title and its P.T. demo. Capcom responded to this by pointing out that Resident Evil 7 was in development before the reveal of P.T.,^[38] and dispelled any rumors about staff of P.T. having been hired to work on the game.^[39]

Shacknews noted that Beginning Hour has several similarities to Sweet Home (1989), the Capcom horror game that inspired the original Resident Evil (1996). These similarities to Sweet Home include the plot of a film crew going to an abandoned house, a paranormal female presence in the house, and a tragic tale involving a family that once lived there. According to Shacknews, Resident Evil 7 "may be returning to even deeper roots than originally imagined".^[40] Eurogamer found the element of survival horror in Lantern to be reminiscent of Alien: Isolation.^[36]

Resident Evil 7 has been well received for the game's dissimilarity to its critically maligned predecessor Resident Evil 6, in particular the change from action-oriented combat and effects to an approach in horror more grounded in atmosphere.^[41][42]

Notes

References

External links

• Official website