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noiseredux

anyone else excited about Resident Evil 7?

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full disclosure: I'm a bigger fan of the RE franchise than is probably normal. Like, I like a lot of the "bad" ones. But so far reviews of RE7 seem overly positive. I've got it pre-loaded on Steam already. Anyone else gonna check this one out?

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I'm definitely interested in it. Was impressed by the demo and just how much of a departure it is from previous RE games. I'll probably pick it up at some point this year, just nowt right at launch.

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I just finished pre-loading. I've never pre-loaded before, so I keep clicking "play" to see when it will actually let me play the game.


I have a feeling I'm going to get 5 minutes in and completely regret my purchase. Not because it's going to be a bad game, but because I'm a baby who plays baby games.

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nah, I'm horrified to actually play it haha. It was the same with Alien Isolation. I love that game... but it's too stressful to play.

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I'm...sort of excited I guess? I'm certainly very curious to read all the reviews. Given that I loved Alien Isolation, I would guess it's exactly the kind of thing I'll really enjoy once I get around to it, but I'm in no hurry. 

 

It looks like a beautifully crafted game, but I look at screenshots and gameplay videos and demo footage released so far and there's not much about it that says to me 'come and explore this rich and interesting and varied world'. It's just very bleak, and not in a compelling way? But as I've not played it, I'm entirely willing to believe I'm wrong about this. 

 

It's all a bit 'last episode of True Detective season 1', if you catch my drift.

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I watched Steve Gaynor play it on stream for about an hour. Man this game is nuts! I really had no idea what to expect since I didn't see anything from the demo, and only saw snippets of trailers. The shadow/lighting in this game is excellent and is utilised well for both atmosphere and surprisingly some gameplay elements too. It's pretty neat.

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after the first hour of playing, I feel like being a baby who plays baby games is a totally valid life choice. This game is pretty creepy. 

 

When I first even got to the little shack house I stood outside for a while just thinking "there's no way I'd go inside this place in real life."

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I wonder have they fixed the demo already on PC for older machines? Or the full game? I had to uninstall the demo since it crashed always after the intro video.

 

Also I found it hilarious that Capcom made almost launch DLC for the game and announced it before the game was even out yet. Good old Capcom, never changing it's ways.

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The things I'm reading about it (pretty much all spoiler free) have me really interested, to the point of buying a launch game that isn't a Souls game for the first time in years. 

 

But I've also drifted away from horror games over the last few years, to the point that I haven't been able to even finish one in a long time.  I either get bored (the hide from the monster approach) or I find them stressful in ways that aren't interesting to me now.  But I do have a super soft spot for RE.

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Okay, I'm actually super excited about RE7 now.  Was chatting with the kiddo earlier today, and she really wants to play it but is worried that it's going to be too scary for her to play.  So we're going to start it together on Friday night at the same time and sit on a voicechat as we each play through the first couple of hours of it.  This will be neat!

 

As a kid, she loved watching me play the old resident evils, but this will be the first time she's played one in single player herself.  We did play through RE5 together.  We tried RE6 and it just didn't really grab either of us. 

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wow, that's awesome Bjorn. How old is she out of curiosity?

 

You mentioned RE5 co-op, and that one always seems to get shit on (mostly for being the numbered one after RE4). But I actually think it's a pretty great co-op experience. It's actually the only RE game I was ever able to convince my wife to play for any extended stretch of time. And actually, I still need to go back and play that expansion that took place in the old mansion.

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She's a grown ass adult now :)  22 and living out in Seattle, so we usually have to schedule time to get some gaming in together, and it really doesn't happen all that often, so this will hopefully be really cool!

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I have returned after completing the first hour of the game.

 

noiseredux, just like you, entering the shack was a bit too much for me. I ended up stopping there on my first night of playing, but was able to continue on in my next play session. It's a weird feeling, having a game where I'm both dreading and anticipating play sessions at the same time.

 

My horror game chops on PC include the likes of Alien: Isolation and, most recently, The Evil Within. With both games, I was able to play to completion by watching Let's Plays when I felt too much anxiety to play on my own. I would watch only until important story points, where I would jump back in armed with the knowledge of what would happen where. As the game goes on, I would rely less and less on this method. It's like entering a swimming pool on the shallow side with floaties and, once I'm accustomed to staying afloat, I'll swim out to the deep end with a life guard watching. I predict I'll have to do that with this game as well.

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I watched one of my favourite streamers play through most of this and found it thoroughly enjoyable from that perspective. I don't think I'd ever want to play it myself though, way too stressy.

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10 hours ago, Ostrich said:

My horror game chops on PC include the likes of Alien: Isolation and, most recently, The Evil Within. With both games, I was able to play to completion by watching Let's Plays when I felt too much anxiety to play on my own. I would watch only until important story points, where I would jump back in armed with the knowledge of what would happen where. As the game goes on, I would rely less and less on this method. It's like entering a swimming pool on the shallow side with floaties and, once I'm accustomed to staying afloat, I'll swim out to the deep end with a life guard watching. I predict I'll have to do that with this game as well.

 

great analogy. And I kind of do the same.

 

This game really is amazing because - as you described - it's scary, but you want to keep checking it out. It's struck a fantastic balance of fun and omg-please-no! And I feel myself getting braver with it... but still get startled haha.

 

Assuming you've wandered into the shack now, have you found the first VHS? This whole gameplay device is awesome. And I really want to praise the visuals of this game. I'm still rocking a 970 which isn't cutting edge anymore, but this game looks insanely good.

 

 

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I glanced through the Giant Bomb quicklook and saw that the front door can't be opened because there's somehow a contraption that locks the door if it's missing puzzle pieces? And talk on podcasts have mentioned that it's got more of that campy, puzzle-y stuff (which sounds like is typical of the series in general). I would worry that that would make the game feel less scary with what feels like arbitrary, 4th-wall-breaking video game puzzles blocking your way. Is that the case?

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I've heard a lot about RE7 and I'm really excited but, as a VR convert, I really want the VR version to come to PC. Rumor is it's a one-year exclusivity agreement, so I'll probably be playing it (and peeing my pants) this time next year I guess?

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yeah supposed one year VR exclusive... VR platform exclusivity - JUST what VR needs to catch on with the masses! Ugh.

 

My guess is we'll see some unofficial mod before a year from now. Maybe it already exists, I haven't looked into it. If VR worked right away then I'd have tried it. But honestly, it'll probably be too scary for me in VR anyway haha.

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The kiddo and I pushed back starting 7 until Sunday cause she had something come up last night, so I started playing Revelations because I was still in the mood for some RE.

 

I've played most of the RE games, and good lord their overarching story is such a mess.  There are so many characters and organizations and acronyms.  I've got so little idea what's actually going on in Revelations.  The gameplay is fun, it's alternating between traditional, old style RE exploration/survival and then sequences which are pure action where you don't have to worry about bullets and heals (because some parts are flashbacks).  It's got a terrible mechanic of having to scan the environment to find bullets and heals.  Which just means you have to move more slowly through areas, activating the scanner every few feet to see if the it detects anything near you, then look all around til you find it.  If you didn't take the time to do it, I don't think you'd have nearly enough bullets to deal with enemies. 

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I just completed my first playthrough last night. I'm not sure how this forums handles spoilers, so I'm going to try my best not to include any in this post. Just be warned!

 

After the first two hours, I found some courage and making progress became a whole lot easier.



 

The exploration and puzzle aspects of the game are definitely a big callback to the first game. If you took the prespective from first-person to third (fixed camera angles, of course), I would argue that the game fits in with the first three games perfectly.

 

The length was perfect. The game is so intimidating that certain portions felt much longer than they actually were. Though the second section flew by, probably because my desire to see what happens next outgrew my reluctance to move forward. The ending is perfect, and wraps the story in a big old standalone package. I would be fine if, for Resident Evil 8, they include all new characters with a brand new setting and just ignore what happens in this game.

 

noiseredux, I enjoyed the VHS gimmick, but was surprised to find there weren't as many tapes as the pre-release coverage let on. However, it was a cool way to introduce new sections before I encountered them as Ethan. Changing perspectives was also a nice break from the intense main game. I would have loved to see a few more tapes from other visitors of the Baker residence. It would have been a cool way to establish the Baker family a bit more (though the game already does a great job of that).

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for future reference [ spoiler ] text [ / spoiler ] (w/o any spaces within the brackets) allows you to collapse text down under a drop down carrot box so that people can opt into spoilers!

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I'm about 3.5 hours in and hitting the mid point I think, going by the stats on how many coins and files I have. I like the game, I don't think it's quite as good as a lot of other people do. First up what I do like, the graphics are fantastic in every way. Great design work on the house, incredibly atmospheric lighting and texture work, the subtle reflections and shines on surfaces, it's all just brilliant. Performance is appalling though, and I've seen others online having issues. I'm running an RX 480 and get constant stuttering when entering new areas and turning corners as it loads in data. I can get over it but no matter what settings I use it persists. :/ For the gameplay, the return to puzzles is great and I don't really get anyone saying the puzzles aren't tough enough, were they ever in Resident Evil? They were all mostly item hunts and remembering where something you pick up might be useful and I've found 7 to be no different, I really like just exploring an area and getting something new that sets off that spark of "Oh I can go open that door now and I know that opens up a while new area to me! Maybe I'll get Item X there!". Combat as well I think works well depending on the situation. It's slightly fiddly and the areas are claustrophobic enough that you don't really have enough room to take your time lining up a perfect short so it's often about lining up shots under stress and hoping you get to take them, or luring enemies to a good position to get a good shot at them. I think the fear for me wore off after about 2 hours, I think the game is not at all scary anymore and it actually feels a lot like a modern take on Resident Evil, I definitely wouldn't compare it to something like Outlast or even Alien Isolation.

 

Onto what's putting me off of it, and I'm going to spoiler it just in case. I'm in an area referred to as the old house, so if you're at that point you're safe to read.

I wish there was zombies so much. I don't like Uncle Jack, and I'm at a part now where Margaurite is walking around and I don't like it either since it's kinda the same. I'm talking purely from a gameplay point of view on this, I don't think it's done as well as I think it could have been. So the first reason is the telepoting, it's just so annoying to me. In Alien Isolation the Alien moved around the level, there was never really a shock that the Alien was there but it maintained the terror throughout for me. In this though, they fudge the AI of Jack too much. I was in Grandma's room getting the shotgun and I knew Jack was near so I was laying low until he left or I could get past him when suddenly he yells "Peekaboo!" or something and beelines for the room. There was no way he could find me, so I run away and go to the room with the shotgun which I can't because of a lack of room in my inventory(that's another complaint). I know he's about and decide to lay low and again he just suddenly knows where I am. Same thing happens when you get one of the dog heads, Frank is magically in the room to grab it before you. It just takes me out of the World. So now at this point, and I worked it out with Jack quite early on, just run to where you need to go. It works every time, the sneaking gamepaly isn't very engaging for me so I just run. I'd much rather be dealing with what ammo and weapons I have as I make my way through the house adjusting my route based on where the zombies are and if I have enough ammo to take them out. Maybe introduce noise as a distraction considering the rooms are contiguous and keep Uncle Jack as a recurring boss fight. The enemies don't have to be actually zombies, but along those lines. I'd much prefer that. The other small thing with Uncle Jack that annoys me, if he's knocking around the area you need to do something in it can be annoying having to lure him away and then run back. It feels like busy work to me. The boss fights so far have been a mixed bag. The one in the garage I quite enjoyed, it became clear quite fast that I had to get into the car and then that I had to run over Jack, I thought it worked well(how useless was that cop though? Hilarious. ). The one when you're getting the dog's head though, that one I didn't enjoy at all. For a start, I don't think it was very clear what I had to do. The way you just have to dodge attacks until the axe breaks isn't something that's you can pick up on before it happens and they could have telegraphed that better. I saw the chainsaw and thought I had to get Jack to attack that area to break something but that wasn't the case. Once I got the chainsaw... well the first time I didn't because my inventory was full and since the inventory management is in real time and you don't really have any time between Jack's attacks I just ended up dying. The second time it went better, but the mechanic where it randomly turns off was kind of annoying and made me have to go through another cycle as it happened just when I got him down. I think making an essential item in a fight hat you lose at the end of the fight anyway to having a free slot is a bad move, that was really annoying. The way a key takes as much room as a handgun is just super a annoying and yeah it's a Resident Evil staple but it's just a frustrating element to me since there's times when you're getting the dogs heads, you have a key, I found a photo in a room and I thought I was just going back and forth to the safe rooms very often.

 

None of it is totally putting me off the game, I'm enjoying it but some things are making me turn it off and I think with a few tweaks we'd have a real classic. Overall though, I'm enjoying it. About an hour in it totally feels like a Resident Evil game and as threadbare as the story is so far I'm looking forward to seeing how they tie it to the other games.

 

Something I'm hoping now is that Resident Evil 2 is remade in this style, I think that would work really well and make the game feel fresh.

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First up, this game managed to really freak me out because of an odd coincidence.  I have never, that I can remember, encountered my actual name in a game.  In RE7, in the span of like 10 minutes, I found a pair of notes with my name in them and then I found the lady's name on a tag floating around in the morgue.  That's just creepy (and I know it's just coincidental, but still creepy as hell). 

 

The kiddo and I did end up playing a ton of it together today, and it was fucking great!  Despite the fact that we were both in single player games, it felt so much like actually playing the game together, because we made sure we entered every room at the same time, pointed out items to one another, etc.  We're committed now to playing the whole thing together, originally we didn't know if we would, but it was just that rad.  We got to the Greenhouse and decided to call it quits after clearing that.

 

Overall I think it's a great game, and barring something unforeseen, I'd say it's easily one of the best 2 or 3 REs ever.  Throwing out all the experiments of the last few games and dialing back to what RE does well is exactly what the series needed.

 

6 hours ago, thepaulhoey said:

Performance is appalling though, and I've seen others online having issues. I'm running an RX 480 and get constant stuttering when entering new areas and turning corners as it loads in data. I can get over it but no matter what settings I use it persists. :/

 

My system is certainly getting a little aged, but RE7 has been the first game that I've had to turn everything either off to Low to get it to run at a consistent framerate.  I didn't want to spend too long fiddling with settings since I was playing through it simultaneous with my daughter, so I may start it up tomorrow and spend awhile just messing with settings to see if there is something specific that's causing it.  What's interesting is that it ran fine up until I got to the Main House, and then just went straight into the shitter.  I also had it crash once from a lack of memory, which I have 8GB, nothing crazy but not something that I usually have any issues running out of memory on a game with.  So I suspect that the amount that it loads into memory once you get into the Main House might be part of the issue.  Dropping everything down to Low settings easily cut out 2GB of memory that it was using. 

 

Per your spoiler, I didn't have any problems with teleporting AI.  Obviously cutscene stuff they just appear where needed, but in terms of sneaking around them, I never once had either of those teleport to me, or detect me when I was out of sight and make a beeline for me. 

 

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I think a parallel playthrough via voice chat is an amazing idea Bjorn, it sounds like a great way to recapture that together on the couch feeling. Only thing you can't do easily is swap controls.

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