Hands-on: Resident Evil 7’s VR mode will scare the hell out of you

Resident Evil 7 is easily one of my most anticipated games of 2017. It’s taking the series back to its horror roots, innovates on the series in a new way by putting the player in the shoes of normal people who are incredibly defenseless, and the whole game is playable in VR so the scares will be on a whole other level! So when I found out last month that I was going to get the chance to play the game in VR, I couldn’t contain my excitement.

Earlier this week, I went to an event held at a local GameStop where I got the chance to sit down and play a level from Resident Evil 7 in PlayStation VR. I had not used PSVR before so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I was slightly worried it wouldn’t be anything super special and that it might be a gimmick, but when the nice employee put the PSVR headset over my eyes and slid a pair of headphones on my head, I entered another world.

The demo I got to play was not connected to the demo that you can play on PS4 right now, it was something entirely new.

The gameplay:

After a brief tutorial on how to use VR, I found myself in a forest being chased by a terrifying old woman. She kept screaming things at me telling me I was unwelcome and that she would catch me. I set my eyes on a house in the distance and bolted for it, completely forgetting about my actual surroundings. I was immersed in this dark and unsettling world.

I made my way inside the house and noticed it was just barely holding together. The house was slightly flooded, there were holes in the wall, boxes and furniture scattered all over the place, and the house was fairly large as well. I could tell this wasn’t going to be as easy as just walking out the back door to escape this house. I walked into a room and shut the door behind me only to hear the wretched voice of the old woman getting closer and closer. She walked through the other door in the room as I quickly hid behind a small piece of furniture. There was barely any room for me to move throughout the room safely so I sat there, gripping the controller tight. My heart raced as she started to move around the room in search of me, I tilted my real body and head to look around the piece of cover I was behind without completely exposing myself. Everything I did with my body felt natural and instinctual, I would move myself around and didn’t have to think about it, I even tried to reach my hands out at one point when I saw an item I could pick up. It all felt so real and completely immersed me into the game.

Once the lanky, pale woman turned away from me I quietly snuck out of the room and saw a door leading to the outdoors. I figured I would be able to make my escape by just walking out the door, little did I know this door would lead me to my most tense moment in the demo.

The woman followed me into the room and I quickly ran outside expecting to be able to run down some stairs and leave, but it was a dead end. I hid behind a wall outside and watched her through a crack in the window. The woman caught a glance of me at one moment and yelled at me and walked outside, I figured I was done for right here. I hid behind the door leading outside which was in poor condition. Through a small crack in the door, I was able to see her mere inches away from my face. I couldn’t help but hold my breath due to the pure tension rising, I froze up and was only able to hope she would just walk back inside. She stood out there for what felt like 20 minutes (but in reality, it was probably less than 30 seconds) and just called out for me. I could hear the frustration in her voice, I knew if she caught me it wasn’t going to be good.

Once she left, I solved a fairly simple puzzle that unlocked a secret passage and I navigated my way back towards the entrance of the house hoping to find another exit. After playing yet another game of cat and mouse with the evil woman, I jumped down into a small hole that let me crawl underneath a small tunnel under the house. Once I reached the end of the tunnel, I quickly realized this was a trap. There was nothing but a candle lit and a note that I was able to pick up that read something along the lines of 'Something awful is happening.' The candle’s flame was extinguished and the darkness quickly cornered me. I sat there for about 10 seconds, gripping my controller tight, and heard a noise. A golden color eliminated the darkness around me and a woman was literally sitting in front of my face. I jumped back in my seat as the woman put on an evil grin showing off her disgusting, unkempt teeth. She knocks me out and the screen goes black.

I wake up tied down to a dinner table, unable to move anything, but my head. A feast was prepared on the table in front of me, and not the delicious apple pie and turkey Thanksgiving kind of feast. This was a feast for sick, deranged people. I looked around at my surroundings and noted the dirty nature of the home I was now in. This was once a place people used to come and sit down and talk about their day and enjoy a good meal. Now it’s a place filled with hatred, darkness, and sadness.

Three family members joined me at the table, a young man, the woman, and a taller, older man. I looked to my left to notice the decaying corpse of an older woman and I quickly move my head back towards the family. Everywhere I looked was something disgusting. The family began to argue and the older man grips the younger man’s arm and plunges a knife deep into it. The young man shakes it off as if this happens often and the tall, bearded man (the one seen in the PS4 demo) approaches me and force feeds me the slimy, disgusting food.  My character spits it out and the family gets upset at me and the older man dismisses the woman who is screaming at me for disrespecting their gesture of “kindness”. The man then picks up a knife to teach me a lesson and slowly brings it towards my face, I tilt my head back in fear that the knife is actually going to hit me and then the demo ends.

Takeaway:

I haven’t felt this kind of fear and tension in a video game in a long time, and I can tell you won’t need PSVR to fully feel this. While it does help immerse you and it’ll probably give you a much better experience, the game is scary enough on its own. If given the chance, I highly recommend playing this game in PSVR as it’ll be the best way to play the game without a doubt.

Based off what I played, Resident Evil is changing in the best way possible. It shifts from the action-adventure tone in Resident Evil 5 & 6 to a pure horror tone in 7. I have never felt so much dread while playing a game, and that's something Resident Evil has always done well. Previously, the game would build tension by locking you in place as you fired your weapon and you would have to carefully manage your ammo but now the way the game delivers tension is entirely different. You don't have a weapon (though you will acquire some at other points in the game), you have nothing but your survival instinct! You must use your wits and best judgment to steer clear of danger. It has the same themes at its core but they are just presented in a very new and refreshing way.

I was a bit disappointed that the demo only allowed me to walk around and hide. From screenshots and trailers, we know there will be some action both with guns, close quarters combat, and more. I would’ve liked to see that and have gotten a feeling for it as that seems like a way to really show how intense PSVR could be, but we will probably have to wait to see that when the game releases on January 24th, 2017 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. If you do wish to play the game in VR, you will only be able to do so on PlayStation 4 (at least for the first 12 months).

Capcom hasn’t mentioned yet if the game will be playable on Oculus or Vive, but one can imagine it’ll make its way to other VR platforms after the 12 month exclusivity period expires on PS4. Capcom has also noted that the game will take about 30 hours to beat if you choose to play in VR (about half that length without VR), so be prepared to take some breaks!