TL;DR: A great return to form for survival horror lovers. If you enjoyed RE1 & 2 definitely pick this one up. Skip the DLC, though.

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I had high hopes for this game going in, as it has been roundly praised by fans of this series. Fortunately Resident Evil 7 delivers on its premise of getting back to the series' survival horror roots, eschewing the action movie vibe of later titles. While I did enjoy RE4, it's globetrotting, president's-daughter-rescuing, jetski-into-the-sunset exploits are pretty far from the claustrophobic and creepy atmosphere of the first two games. Here, we're back to basics (for the most part): our new protagonist Ethan gets a message from his long-missing wife and sets out to a house in the Louisiana bayou to find her. Without spoiling anything, things don't go well for him, and the story plays out in a way that will feel familiar to returning players. Thankfully it avoids the worst of the overwritten nonsense that started to creep into the series over time without completely jettisoning established lore.

This was the first outing for Capcom's new RE Engine, and even seven years later it still looks fantastic. The environments are beautifully detailed, with everything covered in just enough grime to make it look natural to its setting. Character models and animations are near movie-quality (though Mia does give me slight uncanny valley feels). I played the game in HDR mode, and was completely in love with the art direction and color palette they employed. My one gripe visually is the implementation of the flashlight; Ethan will only turn it on automatically in specific dark areas, but there are plenty of areas that are too dark to actually see into that Ethan will not illuminate. From a design perspective, I understand that this was done to maintain tension and immersion in this spooky setting, but from a seeing-what-the-hell-is-going-on perspective I was mildly annoyed fairly frequently.

A big change-up in this entry was the switch to first-person camera. I was a initially a little hesitant about this, mostly due to how much I suck at FPS games; I certainly don't miss the older games' tank controls. Happily, the first-person view not only feels completely natural, but it gives things an eerie found-footage vibe (which the story leans into in a few places). The combat and exploration both felt great (I used a controller), and the only minor complaint I had control-wise would be that some big fights would really benefit from a slightly faster strafing movement. On Normal difficulty the main story was slightly challenging with a few difficulty spikes, and careful resource management gave that welcome feeling of getting more powerful as things progressed.

Having gotten this game late and on sale, I went ahead and picked up the package that contained all the DLC as well. Having played through it all, I would recommend giving it a miss. Story-wise, they range from including a little extra info on an inconsequential character to showing you implied plot elements that anyone with an imagination could have pictured. At worst, they start introducing the stupid nonsense that I didn't enjoy about a lot of other Capcom games from the 2000s, in several cases undercutting the world-building of the main title to do so. They do change up the gameplay a little, but rarely for the better. One section is essentially an escape room. Another has you playing a deadly card game. One switches up the focus to be much more action-heavy, while yet another introduces stealth kills and fist-fighting. They're fine, but nothing to write home about. There were a few that changed things to feel more like minigames or survival challenges. Definitely not my cup of tea, but I guess they're there if you want them.

Finally, a quick discussion about achievements. I liked this game a lot, but not quite enough to try to 100% it. Admittedly I went out of my way for some of the achievements that seemed fun, but there are far too many that look like they'd be too grueling to enjoy working toward. While I feel confident that I could do the speedrun and limited healing challenges on Easy mode, would I really feel like I'd accomplished anything getting there? I'll save the hard-mode run for if I ever feel like playing the story again, and I didn't have near enough fun with the DLC to slog through the punishment of chasing those.

Overall, I highly enjoyed the main game on offer here. It felt like a great modern take on the classic survival horror experience, presented with beautiful attention to environmental detail and storytelling restraint that I didn't think Capcom could do anymore. I can see myself replaying this someday, and I hope that RE Village lives up to the high bar that this game has set.

TL;DR: A great return to form for survival horror lovers. If you enjoyed RE1 & 2 definitely pick this one up. Skip the DLC, though. [hr][/hr]I had high hopes for this game going in, as it has been roundly praised by fans of this series. Fortunately Resident Evil 7 delivers on its premise of getting back to the series' survival horror roots, eschewing the action movie vibe of later titles. While I did enjoy RE4, it's globetrotting, president's-daughter-rescuing, jetski-into-the-sunset exploits are pretty far from the claustrophobic and creepy atmosphere of the first two games. Here, we're back to basics (for the most part): our new protagonist Ethan gets a message from his long-missing wife and sets out to a house in the Louisiana bayou to find her. Without spoiling anything, things don't go well for him, and the story plays out in a way that will feel familiar to returning players. Thankfully it avoids the worst of the overwritten nonsense that started to creep into the series over time without completely jettisoning established lore. This was the first outing for Capcom's new RE Engine, and even seven years later it still looks fantastic. The environments are beautifully detailed, with everything covered in just enough grime to make it look natural to its setting. Character models and animations are near movie-quality (though Mia does give me slight uncanny valley feels). I played the game in HDR mode, and was completely in love with the art direction and color palette they employed. My one gripe visually is the implementation of the flashlight; Ethan will only turn it on automatically in specific dark areas, but there are [b]plenty[/b] of areas that are too dark to actually see into that Ethan will not illuminate. From a design perspective, I understand that this was done to maintain tension and immersion in this spooky setting, but from a seeing-what-the-hell-is-going-on perspective I was mildly annoyed fairly frequently. A big change-up in this entry was the switch to first-person camera. I was a initially a little hesitant about this, mostly due to how much I suck at FPS games; I certainly don't miss the older games' tank controls. Happily, the first-person view not only feels completely natural, but it gives things an eerie found-footage vibe (which the story leans into in a few places). The combat and exploration both felt great (I used a controller), and the only minor complaint I had control-wise would be that some big fights would really benefit from a slightly faster strafing movement. On Normal difficulty the main story was slightly challenging with a few difficulty spikes, and careful resource management gave that welcome feeling of getting more powerful as things progressed. Having gotten this game late and on sale, I went ahead and picked up the package that contained all the DLC as well. Having played through it all, I would recommend giving it a miss. Story-wise, they range from including a little extra info on an inconsequential character to showing you implied plot elements that anyone with an imagination could have pictured. At worst, they start introducing the stupid nonsense that I didn't enjoy about a lot of other Capcom games from the 2000s, in several cases undercutting the world-building of the main title to do so. They do change up the gameplay a little, but rarely for the better. One section is essentially an escape room. Another has you playing a deadly card game. One switches up the focus to be much more action-heavy, while yet another introduces stealth kills and fist-fighting. They're fine, but nothing to write home about. There were a few that changed things to feel more like minigames or survival challenges. Definitely not my cup of tea, but I guess they're there if you want them. Finally, a quick discussion about achievements. I liked this game a lot, but not quite enough to try to 100% it. Admittedly I went out of my way for some of the achievements that seemed fun, but there are far too many that look like they'd be too grueling to enjoy working toward. While I feel confident that I could do the speedrun and limited healing challenges on Easy mode, would I really feel like I'd accomplished anything getting there? I'll save the hard-mode run for if I ever feel like playing the story again, and I didn't have near enough fun with the DLC to slog through the punishment of chasing those. Overall, I highly enjoyed the main game on offer here. It felt like a great modern take on the classic survival horror experience, presented with beautiful attention to environmental detail and storytelling restraint that I didn't think Capcom could do anymore. I can see myself replaying this someday, and I hope that RE Village lives up to the high bar that this game has set.