Resident Evil is a game series that defined the genre of Survival Horror. While there were a few games before the first Resident Evil (PSX, 1996) that would now be called Survival Horror in retrospect, the release of Resident Evil kick-started a golden age that brought forth: Parasite Eve, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, Dino Crisis, Clock Tower, and inspired many others. Survival Horror is a genre characterized by: having a player character that is not able to blast away every single enemy they come across, limited resources like ammunition or healing items, exploration through dark almost mazelike environments to find key items to progress through the game, and of course monsters or enemies that actively pursue and or ambush the player character throughout their exploration. In Japan, Resident Evil is titled Biohazard.
(Author’s note: References will include gameplay element spoilers, some narrative spoilers.)
Resident Evil: Directors Cut (PSX, PC; 1997)
The Director’s Cut version of Resident Evil 1 added two game modes, training and arranged. Training was for beginners and the primary element that changed was the amount of ammunition the player found was doubled. Arranged was for people who mastered the original and wanted more of a challenge, the locations of key items were changed as were the types of enemies at certain locations. Director’s Cut was originally released because of the delay with Resident Evil 2.
(Author’s note: My playthrough was on training mode, I’m still scarred from the introduction to zombie dogs in a particular hallway at the age of 7.)
Story (RE:I)
After a series of bizarre murders and disappearances on the outskirts of Raccoon city, the police department dispatches their special task force, S.T.A.R.S or Special Tactics and Rescue Service, to investigate; specifically, bravo team. After losing contact with bravo team, alpha team is dispatched to investigate. The team is composed of: Albert Wesker (captain of STARS), Brad Vickers (helicopter pilot), Barry Burton (weapons expert, supporting character), and the two playable characters Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. After landing the helicopter, alpha team is attacked by Zombie Dogs and Brad flys off with the helicopter, the rest of alpha team is forced to retreat to a nearby mansion; the game begins from there.
Youtube link of the intro CGI in all its’ glory:
Resident Evil VII (PC, PS4, XBONE; 2017)
Resident Evil VII marks a return to the roots of survival horror. The series first branched off toward a more action based game with Resident Evil 4 and continued the design theme with 5 & 6 and few off-shoot games. There are two difficulty settings, Normal and Easy. Also featured for the first time in the series is the use of VR, though exclusive to Playstation VR until 2018.
(Author’s note: I played through on Normal this time.)
(The Baker family, primary antagonists of the game.)
Story (RE:VII)
The player character is Ethan Winters who is searching for his missing wife Mia Winters. After receiving a very brief email message from her telling him to come get her in Louisiana, he sets off to find her. Upon arrival, things start to go south really fast. The presentation of the story is much more interactive given that the scenes are all rendered in game.
(A throwback to the events of the first game.)
Game Engine
Resident Evil was played from a fixed camera third person perspective and utilized pre-rendered backgrounds with real-time 3D polygonal characters and environmental objects. Despite the technical limitations, the fixed camera angles were used very strategically to foster the ambiance of the game’s setting.
(REI: A bit ironic compared to contemporary software.)
Resident Evil VII is entirely a first-person perspective game, and uses a very advanced rendering engine. In VII, the lighting is so advanced you can see the light glistening off of reflective surfaces. The atmosphere of the Louisiana mansion is so well crafted and almost has a feel of the original mansion.
The Player Character/Nature of the Plot
In Resident Evil you can choose to play either as Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, either choice has minimal impact on the story but changes certain events within the game. The primary differences are that Chris is hardy, can take a bit more damage before death, but can only carry six items at once. Jill is a bit slower in terms of mobility and also has less health, but can carry eight items at once and also has a lock pick for locked desks where Chris has to use a precious inventory slot to hold small keys to open desks.
In Resident Evil 7, you don’t have a choice of who you play as throughout most of the game. Ethan is also just a regular guy, not trained with firearms and generally has a fumbled feeling with reloading and aiming. Despite having dialogue, you never get a good sense of what Ethan looks like, but this adds to the immersion and subsequently the anxiety the game is going for. In both games the theme of being thrust into an extraordinary situation of survival is a shared trait. However, the first game’s story evolves in such a way that there is a unified diabolical entity responsible for the zombies and mutated bioweapons that attack you and the other STARS members throughout the game. With Resident Evil VII the player character being a regular guy trying to survive an extreme situation is more or less maintained throughout.
Controls
Resident Evil one had what has been described as a tank based movement system. With the original PlayStation controller, having only a directional pad with four inputs, the primary design of the controls were based around that limitation. Character movement was controlled with forward movement, backward movement, and rotational movement both clockwise and counter-clockwise relative to the player characters’ orientation in game. Holding square (or x, if one is more familiar with the Xbox controller) would allow your character to run while moving forward, and only forward. Pressing x on the PS controller would interact with items/objects/puzzles (A, on Xbox controls.) Holding the R1 shoulder button would put the character into a combat stance and pressing x while holding R1 would attack with the equipped weapon and to aim you rotated about your fixed position.
(REI: bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, he hit the ground.)
With Resident Evil VII using a first-person perspective, the gameplay is much different but the developers were careful in the design to keep it from feeling like a proto-typical FPS; despite the controls feeling familiar to one. For one, Ethan has inertia and also can’t sprint like Usain Bolt. You can aim and even shoot without aiming but shooting without aiming has terrible accuracy and precision. Also, there are melee weapons in the form of knives, but much like in Resident Evil I, you cannot kill a monster with a knife without a high chance of death or going from 100% health to 1% health.
(RE7: Less bangs, although a more punishing enemy.)
Interface
The in-game Heads-up-display in Resident Evil did not display anything, though the HUD in Resident Evil VII is also bare but briefly shows your current clip, and reserve ammunition when you either shoot or aim. The inventory interfaces have remained pretty steady throughout the Resident Evil series. The biggest change from I to VII had to be that Resident Evil I would pause the game when you entered your inventory, but Resident Evil VII does not, in VII the inventory screen also shows a current objective. The presentation, however, is gleefully similar, in both you can see your character’s health in the form of a colored EKG monitor with Green being full or high health level, Yellow being caution which is range of mid-levels of health, and Red which is Danger where the next time you take damage is most likely going to result in a game-over. Also displayed is the inventory screen itself, and any items that are in your inventory. There are also safe rooms where there are no enemies and also a save station and a storage chest that allows you to store items and access them from any storage chest.
(REI: pictured is the inventory screen, health ekg, and also interaction with an item box)
(RE7: Danger zone! pictured is the inventory screen, health ekg on the smart watch, and the current objective)
Saving The Game
In Resident Evil your ability to save the game is finite and requires the usage of a particular item, an ink cartridge, on the typewriter. With Resident Evil VII you can save as many times as you want, there are also check points during certain scripted events, and also as a cool throwback, you save your game on a tape recorder. Interestingly enough, a similarity here is despite modern technology in the first game you saved with a typewriter and with the seventh game you have a smart watch, interact with laptops, but save your game on a tape recorder.
(REI: Saving the game meant using precious and finite ink ribbons.)
(RE7: Tape recorder in a safe room, can save as many times as you want.)
Items/Puzzles
Resident Evil VII is considered a return to the roots, and many classic items and puzzles from the first game were actually reworked and included as a throwback to the first game. The primary healing items in the first game were colored herbs and first aid sprays, and while first aid are no longer sprays in Resident Evil VII, the classic green herb made an appearance. Healing items are pretty scarce in both games as such has become one of the defining characteristics of the survival horror genre.
(REI: Zombie dog guarding some precious green herb healing items.)
(RE7: Green herb making a come back, although not potted this time around.)
There are also two puzzles that make distinct references to the first game, one of the first major doors that opens up the next large section of the game and requires multiple key pieces, and also the old Indiana Jones shotgun trap where removing the shotgun would set off a pressure trap to lock the door behind the player. In both games the key pieces were acquired through exploration because there were many doors locked with various keys like the armor key, the sword key, the helmet key and so on, the situation often meant back tracking and further exploration all while dodging or fighting zombies or other creatures. The shotgun puzzle wasn’t really a puzzle so much as it typically involved finding a broken shotgun and just replacing it where the good shotgun was allowing you to exit the room with a working shotgun.
Multi key door:
(REI: Four emblems required from various parts of the mansion.)
(RE7: Three heads of the cerberus door, each acquired from different parts of the mansion.)
Shotgun Trap:
(REI)
(RE7: I need it more than he does, considering the temperament of what I’m assuming are his descendants.)
Boss Events/Player Choices
Another interesting aspect of both games was how boss battles were handled. Similarly, both games had boss battles where you fought a unique enemy. In Resident Evil you were often directly fighting the boss with the exception of one encounter where you assume control of another character from bravo team who had survived.
(REI) Direct boss:
(REI) Event boss:
With Resident Evil 7 the bosses were all unique events, for example the first encounter with Jack Baker (one of the primary antagonists of the first ¾’s of the game) really can only be staggered with attacks, the way to win was vastly different in that it meant searching the area and trying to actively avoid him in a cat and mouse type scenario set in a claustrophobic garage.
(RE7: Being immolated doesn’t affect his movement speed.)
Both games also had key choices that determined the type of ending the player could achieve, in Resident Evil if you made certain choices and saved certain characters in time you could get a special ending scene. In Resident Evil VII the choice is much more narrowed to one A or B decision about three-quarters of the way through that determines the A or B ending scene. Resident Evil VII really took away the sense of impact in that regard, whereas Resident Evil I made the player feel rewarded for their choices and actions.
(REI: One of the few key choices of Resident Evil I)
Conclusion
Upon inspection both games are dramatically different experiences, but at the same time so similar. The soul of the original Resident Evil was preserved in its spiritual successor to the survival horror throne while simultaneously and quite successfully experimenting with new concepts like the feeling of being hunted and the anxiety that follows. The completion screens are also similar.
(REI: Completion screen, presumably Chris Redfield after getting back to Raccoon City.)
(RE7: They added more statistics displayed, which helps foster a sense of achievement.)
Resident Evil’s return to the roots of the series are a welcome throwback, and the new elements and mechanics are a refreshing reboot for the king of survival horror.
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