- Introduction
After I had finished playing Titanfall 2 one night, I was laying in bed and watching TV. I saw this crazy commercial for a game that looked real. I was so blown away by it because in my opinion I had never seen a game that looked so real I was already hooked am I kept saying to myself what the hell is this game? Then the title game out and I was even more shocked. Resident Evil 7??? This can’t be! That franchise lost its way years ago when it became an action shooter. No way! This was a first person view with no zombies….Just this weird creepy family…it was more like a Texas Chainsaw Massacre story. It looked amazing, and I was so intrigued I had to get it.
As the game was coming close to its release date and I saw more about it, I wasn’t to sure if I wanted to play it or not. Not because it looked bad or I didn’t feel I’d like it. But for the fact it looked way to real and would be too scary for me to handle. I love horror movies, none really scare me and I find the slasher genre quite hilarious at times…but the fact I was controlling it and not just watching it makes me tense. I continued to look into it and eventually I downloaded the demo for it. The demo took me days to get through because of how the atmosphere of how the game felt. I was creeped out at all times just because of the sounds and silence and waiting for shit to pop out at me at any moment. It kept me on edge. This bled through the games release. Contemplating whether it was worth it or not, I used a GameStop gift card I had gotten for Christmas on it and bit the bullet and decided that I had to get through this game and that it looked way to amazing to pass up. I psyched myself up and the night I got it I had decided that once Raymond went to bed, I would start this crazy adventure.
- The Game Begins…
Since Raymond’s sleep habits have improved, I was able to get through chunks of this game everyday. As the game begins you are a guy named Ethan, whose wife disappeared 3 years ago. She was working on some kind of government project before she disappeared. One day you get a letter from her where to find her. Some plantation home owned by the Bakers family who had also went missing around the same time. with no delay you go there to find her. This is when the game begins. The atmosphere is set up, you start outside on the mansion. This already had me weirded out. everything outside was dying, so I assumed it was fall…. it was in a swampy area everything looked decayed and it was fenced in. So you have to follow the fence to find an opening to get into the property on you way you see an abandoned News van, windows smashed doors open, News magazine with Bloody writing all over it saying “Join us”….Yeah awesome shit. So as you get into the property the head of the household, Jack who is a big lumbering man walks in front of you right past you. He doesn’t see you and keeps walking till he vanishes. This part becomes very unsettling for me. I had no choice but to keep following the path into the woods when I run into what looks like an old run down guest house. So naturally you go in, the door slams behind you and there are no lights….The fun has begun.
She is in here. Somewhere…. This is only the intro to the game kind of give you an Idea what you are in for. The guest house is a Ranch home with a few rooms. It has a creepy Bathroom with a bike in the tub filled with blood. Not unusual at all…. it has a den, an attic, and a basement….Yeah the basement…That’s where the fun show up. You find your wife in the basement in a room that is sort of like a cell once you let her go, you follow her in an attempt to escape. While you are investigating she starts screaming and disappears. This is Cool and not weird at all. So As you continue around the house she you down the basement stairs because you heard all this weird knocking and heavy breathing and shit. I really didn’t want to go down there again, especially after hearing all those strange noises. This is where they teach you about blocking and protecting yourself in combat. She’s kind of possessed and you have to fight her off, She throws you into a room where you find a hatchet, She comes at you with a huge shard of wood and tries to stab you with it. Eventually you sink the hatchet into her neck and she goes down like a ton of bricks. You killed your own wife, the reason you came to this shit hole and you kill her….smooth move Ethan. Then the phone rings. Like a dumbass you pick it up and the voice of a young southern woman says,”You really shouldn’t have come here….” Then she tells you that you need to go into the attic there is a window to escape. as you are looking for the fuses to access the attic, Your wife comes back and….
SHOVES A SCREWDRIVER INTO YOUR HAND SO YOU CAN’T GET AWAY AND COMES AT YOU WITH A CHAINSAW CUTTING OFF YOUR HAND!!!! This isn’t a game over this is the intro to the game. You pick up your hand and put it into your inventory and continue to the attic. You find a gun here where you load it with your……stub she comes flying through the window you were trying to escape out of and you only have 12 bullets to fight her off……12….You better aim for her head and you better not miss. After you take her down Jack appears, punches you in the face and shout “Welcome to the Family Son!” In the middle of coming too you wake up and someone is stapling your hand back to your arm. That’s as far as I’m going I don’t want to spoil any more of the game’s story.
- The emotional ride…
While you are playing in the main mansion as I mentioned before there are no zombies……none…….very off to have a Resident Evil with no zombies however, don’t get me wrong here just because there isn’t any zombies doesn’t mean there isn’t any terror. The picture above is Jack. He’s big, He’s scary, he has an enormous health pool, He’s fast, and does not stop coming after you. He chases you all around the house, shouting his stereotypical hillbilly rhetoric. “I got you now mother fucker.” and “That gun ain’t gonna work like you think it’s gonna work boy!” Just taunting you. He does not stop. When you do take him down he just come back. You will quickly learn to conserve ammo here and don’t even waste a shot on him. Just run, shut doors behind you, and hide behind shit all over the house. when the coast is clear make your move, but always be on your guard. You never know when Jack will pop out and chase after you with his shovel….or grab you by the face and throw you. Luckily there are two parts where you fight Jack that he will leave you alone. The first is when you fight him garage. You can’t escape you have no choice but to fight…..There is a simple trick to beating him with only firing one bullet. but I’m not spoiling it.
The next time you want to fight Jack is when he sneaks up behind you and kicks you in this pit of torture. there you grab a chainsaw fight with him in an epic chainsaw duel. This scene was so graphic and fun. It really pushed the edge in horror. especially when….
You shove the chainsaw into his face. it’s so satisfying. This fight is incredibly easy though but it’s so Iconic. After this fight You don’t have to worry about Jack any more. You will end up fighting him again at some point but never again will he chase you around the house like a maniac but after you dispatch him you have to worry about…….
You might not be chased by Jack any more, but now you’ll have to deal with his wife……Marguerite. That’s a whole different story I think I that’s enough. I will say this though…..She’s the absolute worst. The chill factor is when I was dodging her ass. I was always on edge.
- Conclusion
This game wasn’t scary, it really wasn’t there was nothing I couldn’t handle when I went through it. There is a lot more I can go into detail about, like the house itself, or the rest of the family, but I didn’t want to give it all away. You should experience it for yourself. There is also a VR version of this demented game.
The thing about this game is how it made you feel as you went along. The atmosphere was creepy, there was no music in the game and that’s how it worked. The game always kept you on edge. You always assumed something was going to pop out at any moment and scare the shit out of you, but it never did. You would hear footsteps and floor boards creaking and it really just got you in the moment that at any moment you were going to die, or Jack was going to burst through a wall and smash you in the face with his shovel.
It was a great journey and I say play it through till the end The story was crazy and pretty weird. There was only one connection to the other games but I don’t want to spoil it for you. You have to find out for yourself.
Thanks as always
-Ray
Ray's Backlog Blog 