Resident Evil 7 biohazard review
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Version: 1.0.1
App Reviewed on: iPad Pro
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Capcom has now ported three fully-fledgedResident Evil games to iOS, and--although none of them are especially high watermarks in the series--RESIDENT EVIL 7 biohazard is probably the best of the bunch. Despite having a lot of goofy "we did this bit to show off VR" moments and a back half that plays like a different, less appealing action game, there's still plenty to like about Resident Evil 7 overall.
Mobile marauder
Resident Evil 7's been out for almost eight years, so you probably have a sense of what the game is (or can find out pretty easily). With that in mind, I'll start with how it plays on mobile: fine. Or, at least about as fine as the other Resident Evil games on iOS have played. It is about the same level as impressive and has the same amount of somewhat screwy technical issues that crop up on rare occasions.
In my experience with this game, I had two noteworthy bugs I ran across. The first is an audio bug that is very similar to the one I recorded for my impressions video of Resident Evil Village. The other was a late-game lock-up that would happen when trying to reload a save, which seemed to coincide with an iCloud backup timeout problem. Both of these bugs were annoying, but relatively easy to work around, which is to say that if you have the hardware that can run this game, you should be fine.
Comparing corpses
I say at the top of my review that Resident Evil 7 is the best title between it, Village and RE4 Remake because it actually feels like a survival game, its controls mesh the best with the kinds of actions you're asked to do, and it does the most actual scaring of the three. On the flipside, if you are just looking to shoot a lot of gross enemies and barrel through bombastic setpieces, then it's pretty easy to make the case that Resident Evil 7 is actually the worst game of the lot. It just depends on what you are looking for (and, for the record, I think Village is the most preposterously over the top, action-wise).
To call Resident Evil 7 a subdued survival-horror game, though, would be an overstatement. Although this one starts with a very focused and refined approach to the genre, it flies off the rails just like every other Resident Evil game does. That's just what these games do. In its defense, I'll say that Resident Evil 7 does seem somewhat at odds with doing this, as it shows at least some restraint around its bigger encounters by not making them pure gunfights.
Two names, two games
As is now clearly the standard model for Capcom with these releases, you can download and try out part of Resident Evil 7 for free and opt to pay $19.99 for the full game. For titles that push hardware and are basically only playable with a controller, I think that pricing games this way is a boon for players who need to figure out whether they actually want to (or even can) play games in this format.
What I don't love about this model for Resident Evil 7 in particular is that the first half and the second half of this game feel like two fairly different experiences. The game's opening that has Ethan investigating a rundown property in Louisiana is where this game really shines. Everything beyond that (and there's quite a bit of it!) feels forced and a lot more generic. It ends up giving the impression that Capcom knew--rightly--that they couldn't make a 10 hour game out of the Baker property, so they decided--wrongly--to just bolt a bunch of other stuff onto the end of it instead of just making a shorter game.
The bottom line
My feelings about RESIDENT EVIL 7 biohazard are almost perfectly summed up by the opening moments of booting the game. Before you reach the game menu, there's this opening cinematic that plays set to a cover of "Go Tell Aunt Rhody." Choosing a centuries old folk song that has decidedly creepy vibes is a really inspired and evocative song choice, but this performance of it is so melodramatic and over-the-top that it loses all of its impact. Looking back on my time with RESIDENT EVIL 7 biohazard, it's fairly easy to see this pattern of excellent decision-making getting kneecapped all over the place. It makes for an uneven, and sometimes frustrating--experience, but one that is nonetheless easier to enjoy than its less-inspired counterparts on the App Store.