Resident Evil 7: Biohazard - Analysis

Analysis of a computer game

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Today I'm going to be critically analysing and reviewing the latest game of its franchise, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.

Contrary to what fans believed before release, the game did not stray away too much from its roots - just the right amount. It kept many known gameplay features and stayed true to the Resident Evil experience whilst simultaneously feeling like something totally new, not only for the industry and genre, but especially the franchise.

If it wasn't for how the story turned out to develop (which, was pretty good but could have been a lot different as it was portrayed at parts of the game) and a few other minor issues which will be discussed later, the game could have been a master-piece.

Analysis of the game

In terms of graphics, this is one of the most realistic and best looking games to date. The level design is excellent and really helps to portray the horror experience. The characters look very realistic, although some of them have clunky looking hair (Mia). Aside from that, they really nailed the topology of their faces as well as character animation.

The sound in the game is pretty good, but I do have to point out that the voice-acting isn't the best. Considering what's going on in the game, you would expect the main character (Ethan) to be frightened for his life 90% of the time - although, this isn't portrayed at all. Most of the dialogues sound like normal conversations or as if what's happening isn't that scary or messed up. Even when Ethan is injured, his vocal expressions just don't sound intense. However, the ambience sounds are on point and make an excellent pair with the level design, other sound effects and quality of sound in general is great.

In terms of construction of content, codes and conventions and gameplay in general, as I mentioned, the game stuck to its roots, and although being something new it still felt like Resident Evil due to certain mechanics, such as the Inventory system - you still have to smartly manage and organise your inventory like in past games - and also the Crafting system - you can collect materials which are spread out across the area in order to craft useful items such as health packs and stronger ammo.
The shooting is also similar to previous games but isn't a huge asset in the gameplay - 90% of the time you will be mindlessly shooting the molded creatures whose only purpose is to waste time and bullets, since they are super easy to kill. Almost like they are there just to be there, just to brainlessly add more to the game. It just feels like there isn't much strategy involved, apart from saving as much ammo as you can, whereas in previous games you would have to plan out which weapons to use on certain enemies and what moves to make.
Last but not least the boss fights are quite exciting and unique and definitely contributed to the nostalgia feeling of Resident Evil. The puzzles are creative and fun to interact with.

Narrative Structure

Now a bit more about the story,

Ethan (the main character, and who you will play as for almost the entire game) receives a rather strange message from his wife (Mia), who was thought to be dead for 3 years, apologising to Ethan for lying. He drives all the way to Louisiana to rescue her, after being told by her to "stay away". After minutes of wondering into the Baker's residence and finding odd clues, he finds Mia sleeping in a dirty bed, looking frightened and unsafe. She acts very strangely and keeps mentioning the words "family" and "daddy". She isn't clear about what's going on, only that they have to find a way out. After not finding a secret exit in the room, Ethan tries to find another way out but she disappears after a scream, only to be found again minutes later, but this time with a twist:
she attacks Ethan with a knife, hurting him multiple times as he defends himself, confused by her sudden hostility. Eventually she stops stabbing him and turns back to normal, saying she can "feel her clawing her way back inside me", as she knocks herself out by banging her head on the wall multiple times.

At this point, it is very clear that there is something very wrong with Mia and the current situation.
Mia eventually wakes up, throwing Ethan through a wall with unbelievable power, and starts fighting him to death with a sharp piece of wood. Ethan and his axe eventually finish her off with what would appear to be a killing blow. The phone rings and Ethan picks up, as he receives an instruction that there is a way out through the attic from Zoe (a member of the Baker's family).
Although Mia isn't done, as she comes back, clearly being unstable, and saws off his arm with a chainsaw, oddly walking away as the mumbles strange things. Only to come back again and this time getting shot, appearing to be dead this time (again).
As Ethan leaves, he is surprised by an unknown old man (Jack Baker) with a punch that leaves him unconscious, only to wake up sitting at a dinner table with the rest of the family for a disgusting supper, eventually being able to escape. This is where the start of the game ends, and gameplay progresses.

Ethan is guided by Zoe, an outside helper, as he progresses through the story. She vaguely and briefly informs him of what's going on through phone calls. She tells you that the objective is to get serum, in order to cure themselves and get out. You slowly find out about what's going on as you play through the game. At this point, you realise the people in this house are infected with something that changes their behaviour radically, and also that you are pretty much on your own, fighting for life.
Throughout the game you will also finds old tapes which contain footage from Mia and others, and you are able to go back in-time and play through the footage to understand a bit more of what happened.
You also get a few small hints about a little girl called Eveline and how everyone praises her, even though you won't meet her until the end of the game. Eveline is a young girl, and the responsible for all of what happened. She has the power to infect people and control the mind of the infected as well as other ridiculous things.

You face each member of the family as boss fights, eventually defeating everyone. Throughout these boss fights, it's easy to tell that what affected these people has made them physically inhuman.
Also, one of the members of the family is grandma, she is quiet and appears in random spots of the house, normally right before something is about to happen.

After getting a hold of the serum, finding both Zoe and Mia and killing Jack, you have two options:
Since you only have enough serum to save yourself (since you too are infected ever since your arm got chopped off) and someone else, you have to choose between saving Mia or Zoe.
Saving Mia will result in both of you leaving in a small, towards, and as Eveline realises you are trying to leave, she sinks the boat and takes Ethan hostage. At this point you control Mia, and have a flashback in order to understand what actually happened.
Turns out Eveline is a very powerful weapon used by a group of people in order to threaten and therefore control the worlds biggest organisations, the government, economy, etc. Although, she has to blend in so that no suspicions are raised, and this is where Mia comes in: she was paid to "babysit" Eveline and act like her mother and a close person to her. They were on a ship when things started to go wrong and Eveline threw a tantrum huge enough for everyone to get either infected or killed.

Long story short, Mia has to save Ethan as she sacrifices herself. She is able to resist Eveline because she took the serum. Ethan has to defeat Eveline. Now, one of the side affects of Eveline's condition is fast ageing (you find this in one of the documents, she ages up to 25x faster than the normal human if her injections are skipped). It turns out that all along, Eveline is actually grandma, the final boss. As Ethan is losing the battle against Eveline, who is a huge inhuman monster, a chopper with a group of soldiers comes in. Eveline is defeated and one of the soldiers introduces himself as Redfield. Both Ethan and Mia get on the chopper and escape, safe and sound, with the soldiers.

Saving Zoe, results on her being petrified minutes after you leave Mia, who dies when she sacrifices herself when saving Ethan, since you didn't give her the serum.

The end.


Now, I think the story is really good but there's a few things that I don't like about it. First of all, the first 15 minutes of the game or so, for me at least, felt like they were trying to send the story in a completely different way. I am not sure how to explain myself at best, but I could have never imagined that it would turn out the way it did. Even after hours of gameplay, they didn't do a good job of portraying what was going to happened, they kept everything mysterious until the end.

Last but not least, what happened in the end was the most confusing thing ever, I even had problems myself trying to understand the twist and even more problems explaining it. I had to read the explanation off the internet. This speaks millions. The people I've spoken to about the game and the people I watched completing it were also dazed.
What I'm trying to say is that the delivery, especially and the start and end was not the best.

Representation of Characters

The main character, Ethan, I still question myself who were they trying to make him seem as. Since the voice acting wasn't the best, and his emotions were almost non-existent, I can't tell if he was a bad-ass that feared nothing or just a regular guy.

Mia was one of the best represented characters I believe, she wasn't the typical fragile woman, she was strong yet careful and just the right amount of frightened.

Jack Baker was also represented excellently, especially in boss fights. He gave the impression that he was the alpha-dog in the family, scared of absolutely nothing and confident enough to show Ethan that he can't die by shooting himself. He was also kinda portrayed as a stereotypical redneck family owner, very protective of his family and rude towards outsiders.

Zoe was kind of the in-the-middle character, not much interaction but enough to understand what she was like, especially when you meet her.

Lucas, Jack's son, was this mentally ill, game-lover psycho. They got the message across quite well with him, as you could easily tell was he was like, by the way he talked, moved and his actions in general - and obviously his sick games.

Marguerite was also represented as a mentally ill character, probably the worse out of all of them. The fact that she was constantly yelling and laughing easily showed how messed up she was. She also falls into the category of redneck house-wife stereotype.

Eveline was the definition of impure child. She knew exactly what she was doing and she loved it. She had a terrible mind which was greatly represented.

All the other characters are not relevant enough/didn't get enough exposure.

Target Demographic

This game is rated M for Mature, so it is aimed at 17 or older people. Since it's a horror game, with tons of graphic violence and gore, as well as faulty language it isn't appropriate that people who are younger than that age play this game. 

The audience is addressed naturally since the game belongs to an old, popular horror game franchise. Obviously the trailers, title, case and images from the game suggest that it is a mature game.

The Horror Genre

The Horror genre has been progressing at a tremendous pace this decade, due to how technology is evolving and how much it affects the potential of the genre.

The most obvious thing to point out is that the less pixels on your screen, the less scarier the game will be. What I mean by this is that the less quality in the game, the less realistic it will feel, the less you'll be immersed, the less the spooks. Obviously gaming has been evolving throughout time, and nowadays we can easily expect photo-realism. My point is that, games will only get more and more deeply into actual horror since there is always more potential tomorrow.

Take in consideration level design, ambience and characters - how often and quickly game engines are being updated and upgraded, allowing developers to create more realistic and therefore scarier games;

Take in consideration indie development - how many free engines are available to the public with the necessary tools as well as things like Kickstarter, allowing the developers a chance to make a name for themselves and build up experience and recognition.

I'd say the majority of indie games are horror games without even looking at statistics, since nowadays you just see so many.

Overall, the genre has a lot of freedom for creativity, and we are only see it flourish recently, with titles such as Outlast and obviously the new Resident Evil. The Horror genre still has a lot to offer, as it never really gets old.