Resident Evil 7 Thoughts, Opinions, and General Complainings
Feb 9, 2017 13:20:07 GMT 10
qperok, Beefy Busch, and 5 more like this
Post by A Jaded Lizard on Feb 9, 2017 13:20:07 GMT 10
Since this thread (http://residentevilmodding.boards.net/thread/6482/resident-evil-7) has kind of turned into a recursive shitpost without anything really constructive being discussed, I thought maybe we ought to start a new thread somewhere else for just such recursive shitposting (note, this is sarcasm; I do not practice or condone recursive shitposting).
Anyway, by now, a lot of people have played Re7. A lot of people (myself included) for various reasons very vocally hate the game. Apparently, judging by Steam's reviews, there are also people who like it, and while I've really got no real understanding of why that might be, I thought it might be interesting to hear what other people thought the pros and cons of the game were.
I may as well go first, since this is my thread and all.
I'll start with pros, because, well, I feel like starting with the pros.
Graphics: Say what you will, but Re7 is clearly the best looking game in the series, at least when it comes to the actual environment. By this, I specifically don't mean the actual objects (which are discussed later) so much as the game's world itself. While this is easily the smallest Resident Evil to date, this did give Capcom a chance to really play around with their worldspace, and what we got is really something.
Acting: This has been on a steady upward journey every since the series nadir at Resident Evil 0. I really don't feel like the acting is a vast improvement over Re6 or Revelations 2, but that's largely because there wasn't a lot of room for improvement in either game. Capcom has hit their stride with acting ever since Resident Evil 5, so as long as they can keep it up, I won't complain there.
Localization: Again, Capcom has more or less got this down. There were a few awkward files near the game's mid point, but nothing quite so jarring as some of the hilariously bad Engrish the series used to be notorious for. Again, the game is right where it should be there.
Soundtrack: This one's kind of hit and miss for me, but I'll leave this as a "pro" because for once we get a song that's not by a Japanese pop star for whom English is clearly not a first language. "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" was catchy in the trailers, but after finishing the game you can really appreciate it.
Cons:
Shooting: Capcom has managed to perfectly emulate how terrible combat was in the old, fixed camera games. Given that this is an FPS, perhaps the most straightforward action genre in gaming, this is quite the accomplishment. The shotgun is overpowered, while the handgun is useless and the magnum too finicky to be worth the risk in most cases. Considering how actually well balanced the combat in the classic series' high point, Resident Evil 2 was, I find this really jarring and frustrating. Kudos to Capcom for putting in an Auto Mag, though. Love me some obscure, classic guns.
Models: Everything here kind of feels like a fail, and it really starts the first time you see Mia and her distractingly horse-like face, and later, her really scary hair. Her hair physics are really terrible, and when you remember how organic the hair in Resident Evil 5 was, it's really disappointing. The same goes for the weapons: for a series which used to model firearms extremely accurately, Resident Evil 7 throws that right out the window: special mention goes to the M19, a 1911 pattern pistol whose hammer never moves, even when the slide is locked back (quite the feat for a weapon incapable of firing without first cocking the hammer), and the Samurai Edge, which somehow manages to cycle without the slide ever moving. Given how meticulous Capcom was in Re5, I can't figure out while they were so lax here.
Characters: We all have a favorite Resident Evil character, or at least a character with likeable traits. Barry's devotion to his family, Jill's resourcefulness, Chris's determination, Rebecca's compassion, Leon's deadpan wit, Claire's inner resolve, Ada's calm, or even Wesker's ruthless practicality, each character in the series has something which makes them unique and interesting...and then there's this game.
Ethan is motivationless. He's apparently in this for Mia, except you kill her at least twice throughout the game, and he's never really broken up about it. Mia refers to him as her loving husband, but he never really demonstrates this at any point, so it comes across as more of an informed trait. For someone who was willing to just pack up everything and leave the instant he heard from Mia, he's not especially excited to find her. His interactions with Zoe and the cop aren't much better: he's just kind of an abrasive prick the entire game, and it's really hard to care about him.
Mia at least has some personality, and for at least a portion of the game I felt she was the more likeable protagonist, even if it is just because she manages to hit a lot of cultural buttons. Then Capcom throws us the curve ball that nope, she's really responsible for everything that's going on, is absolutely at best a war criminal [BOWs are illegal], and never really expresses any regret or remorse for the trail of woe she's left behind her. Her one saving grace as a character is that she at least genuinely still loves Ethan, which gives her some sliver of humanity to cling to when the rest of her character involves working for a company, apparently without duress, who makes BOWs that look and act like little girls because they're more effective that way. With better writing this would've been a really painful twist, but it just sort of comes out of left field, which is a shame because otherwise she fills the classic traitor role the older games always had (Wesker, Ada, and Nicholai, for instance), which could've been all the more poignant if she'd expressed any disgust or revulsion at the revelation of what she was. But she doesn't, and the character suffers for it.
Zoe is kind of rudderless. At times she manages to almost be interesting, but we never really get to know who she was. She's willing to write her parents and brother off as lost but we never really get a look at the inside of her head to see how she came to that conclusion, and we never really learn why her parents were consumed by Evie but Zoe herself was spared. The way she rather blithely mocks you after Ethan is nearly killed by Marguerite for me slid her further into the camp of Resident Evil characters I don't like, but she never really reaches the same level of loathing I have for, say, Billy Coen or other useless wastes of good screen time.
Clancy is another character who feels wasted. In a lot of ways he comes across as Ethan without any of Ethan's motivations. He's a guy who just kind of does things, and that feels like a shame since the idea of a player character who's as big of a sheep as Clancy is (seriously, in the same position he was in, who would go further into the Guest House and not go back to get help?) would've been a nice subversion. But alas, it was not to be.
Lucas is probably one of the game's standout characters (the other being his dad), and for a lot of the same reasons: he's memorable, having everything that made the villains in later RE games so great. He's really, really easy to hate in ways a mindless BOW isn't. That said, he's kind of an indication of one of the game's biggest problems: in a series that once featured faceless corporations, secret government organizations, ruthless warlords, despicable black marketeers, and members of the British nobility, the biggest threat to you in Re7 is literally a sadistic hick of above average intelligence. Savor that, and then move on.
Overall, I find the narrative in Re7 is just weak, and the stakes here are so low as to be laughable. The core premise would've made a really interesting, and probably enjoyable spin-off game in the vein of Survivor but I absolutely don't feel it should've been a numbered installment in the main series.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. Now, what are yours?
Anyway, by now, a lot of people have played Re7. A lot of people (myself included) for various reasons very vocally hate the game. Apparently, judging by Steam's reviews, there are also people who like it, and while I've really got no real understanding of why that might be, I thought it might be interesting to hear what other people thought the pros and cons of the game were.
I may as well go first, since this is my thread and all.
I'll start with pros, because, well, I feel like starting with the pros.
Graphics: Say what you will, but Re7 is clearly the best looking game in the series, at least when it comes to the actual environment. By this, I specifically don't mean the actual objects (which are discussed later) so much as the game's world itself. While this is easily the smallest Resident Evil to date, this did give Capcom a chance to really play around with their worldspace, and what we got is really something.
Acting: This has been on a steady upward journey every since the series nadir at Resident Evil 0. I really don't feel like the acting is a vast improvement over Re6 or Revelations 2, but that's largely because there wasn't a lot of room for improvement in either game. Capcom has hit their stride with acting ever since Resident Evil 5, so as long as they can keep it up, I won't complain there.
Localization: Again, Capcom has more or less got this down. There were a few awkward files near the game's mid point, but nothing quite so jarring as some of the hilariously bad Engrish the series used to be notorious for. Again, the game is right where it should be there.
Soundtrack: This one's kind of hit and miss for me, but I'll leave this as a "pro" because for once we get a song that's not by a Japanese pop star for whom English is clearly not a first language. "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" was catchy in the trailers, but after finishing the game you can really appreciate it.
Cons:
Shooting: Capcom has managed to perfectly emulate how terrible combat was in the old, fixed camera games. Given that this is an FPS, perhaps the most straightforward action genre in gaming, this is quite the accomplishment. The shotgun is overpowered, while the handgun is useless and the magnum too finicky to be worth the risk in most cases. Considering how actually well balanced the combat in the classic series' high point, Resident Evil 2 was, I find this really jarring and frustrating. Kudos to Capcom for putting in an Auto Mag, though. Love me some obscure, classic guns.
Models: Everything here kind of feels like a fail, and it really starts the first time you see Mia and her distractingly horse-like face, and later, her really scary hair. Her hair physics are really terrible, and when you remember how organic the hair in Resident Evil 5 was, it's really disappointing. The same goes for the weapons: for a series which used to model firearms extremely accurately, Resident Evil 7 throws that right out the window: special mention goes to the M19, a 1911 pattern pistol whose hammer never moves, even when the slide is locked back (quite the feat for a weapon incapable of firing without first cocking the hammer), and the Samurai Edge, which somehow manages to cycle without the slide ever moving. Given how meticulous Capcom was in Re5, I can't figure out while they were so lax here.
Characters: We all have a favorite Resident Evil character, or at least a character with likeable traits. Barry's devotion to his family, Jill's resourcefulness, Chris's determination, Rebecca's compassion, Leon's deadpan wit, Claire's inner resolve, Ada's calm, or even Wesker's ruthless practicality, each character in the series has something which makes them unique and interesting...and then there's this game.
Ethan is motivationless. He's apparently in this for Mia, except you kill her at least twice throughout the game, and he's never really broken up about it. Mia refers to him as her loving husband, but he never really demonstrates this at any point, so it comes across as more of an informed trait. For someone who was willing to just pack up everything and leave the instant he heard from Mia, he's not especially excited to find her. His interactions with Zoe and the cop aren't much better: he's just kind of an abrasive prick the entire game, and it's really hard to care about him.
Mia at least has some personality, and for at least a portion of the game I felt she was the more likeable protagonist, even if it is just because she manages to hit a lot of cultural buttons. Then Capcom throws us the curve ball that nope, she's really responsible for everything that's going on, is absolutely at best a war criminal [BOWs are illegal], and never really expresses any regret or remorse for the trail of woe she's left behind her. Her one saving grace as a character is that she at least genuinely still loves Ethan, which gives her some sliver of humanity to cling to when the rest of her character involves working for a company, apparently without duress, who makes BOWs that look and act like little girls because they're more effective that way. With better writing this would've been a really painful twist, but it just sort of comes out of left field, which is a shame because otherwise she fills the classic traitor role the older games always had (Wesker, Ada, and Nicholai, for instance), which could've been all the more poignant if she'd expressed any disgust or revulsion at the revelation of what she was. But she doesn't, and the character suffers for it.
Zoe is kind of rudderless. At times she manages to almost be interesting, but we never really get to know who she was. She's willing to write her parents and brother off as lost but we never really get a look at the inside of her head to see how she came to that conclusion, and we never really learn why her parents were consumed by Evie but Zoe herself was spared. The way she rather blithely mocks you after Ethan is nearly killed by Marguerite for me slid her further into the camp of Resident Evil characters I don't like, but she never really reaches the same level of loathing I have for, say, Billy Coen or other useless wastes of good screen time.
Clancy is another character who feels wasted. In a lot of ways he comes across as Ethan without any of Ethan's motivations. He's a guy who just kind of does things, and that feels like a shame since the idea of a player character who's as big of a sheep as Clancy is (seriously, in the same position he was in, who would go further into the Guest House and not go back to get help?) would've been a nice subversion. But alas, it was not to be.
Lucas is probably one of the game's standout characters (the other being his dad), and for a lot of the same reasons: he's memorable, having everything that made the villains in later RE games so great. He's really, really easy to hate in ways a mindless BOW isn't. That said, he's kind of an indication of one of the game's biggest problems: in a series that once featured faceless corporations, secret government organizations, ruthless warlords, despicable black marketeers, and members of the British nobility, the biggest threat to you in Re7 is literally a sadistic hick of above average intelligence. Savor that, and then move on.
Overall, I find the narrative in Re7 is just weak, and the stakes here are so low as to be laughable. The core premise would've made a really interesting, and probably enjoyable spin-off game in the vein of Survivor but I absolutely don't feel it should've been a numbered installment in the main series.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. Now, what are yours?