Resident Evil 7 saved the series

2017 GOTY awards

Alongside our team-selected 2017 Game of the Year awards, each member of the PC Gamer team gets to champion one favorite from the year. We'll continue to post new personal picks until the end of 2017.

I'd lost faith in Resident Evil. Everything after Resident Evil 4, Shinji Mikami's bold reinvention, was a disappointment. I was sure that game would herald a new golden age for the series, but then I played Resident Evil 6. So I was delighted to discover that the seventh main entry is a return to form, inspired by the first trilogy of games. It focuses on slow, creeping horror, a thick atmosphere, arcane puzzles, and self-preservation over melodrama and dumb slow-motion action. And that's why it's the best Resident Evil in years, even if it's not quite the dramatic change in direction the shift to first-person suggested it might be.

The first hour, however, is very different, more in line with contemporary horror games like Amnesia and Alien: Isolation. It's a perfectly paced, terrifying introduction to the dilapidated Baker household, whittling away at your nerves, never pushing things too far. But when you start finding weapons and green herbs, and puzzles start getting in your way, it's like playing one of the PlayStation-era games again: albeit with vastly better visuals and a new, more intimate perspective.

The Baker house is a disgusting, eerie, and oppressive space, reminiscent of the original game's Spencer mansion, if not quite as opulent. There are no marble statues or lavish rugs here: just creaky, dust-covered floorboards and fridges stuffed with rotting meat. It's one of the grimiest games on PC, and you can almost smell the stench as you creep through its dimly-lit corridors and damp underground passages. And when Baker family patriarch Jack shows up, things get really scary—more so than the regular enemies, which are an admittedly uninspiring collection of slimy blobs.

But what I really love about Resident Evil 7 is how lean it is. It takes a series that had become hopelessly bogged down in absurd mythology and outdated ideas and confidently hits the refresh button. There's still the odd tedious boss battle, but for the most part it feels like a new, almost standalone game. It's a reboot done right, retaining the spirit of the source material but making it feel fresh by ruthlessly excising the bits that don't work. And the subtle connections to the other games in the series are more special as a result of Capcom distancing itself from its own legacy.

There are a few things wrong with Resident Evil 7. It loses its way in the final act, for instance, giving you too much ammo and throwing too many identical slime monsters at you. But overall, I love it, and I'm glad Capcom took a chance on something so different. The days of Leon S. Kennedy back-flipping over zombies and Wesker dodging bullets like a character in The Matrix are, hopefully, over. I'm eager to see where Resident Evil goes next, and whether it'll continue to shake up the formula. And I love the idea, based on clues in the ending, that this is set in another timeline. There's a lot of backstory I think it's best Capcom just writes off.

Andy Kelly

If it’s set in space, Andy will probably write about it. He loves sci-fi, adventure games, taking screenshots, Twin Peaks, weird sims, Alien: Isolation, and anything with a good story.

Latest in Resident Evil
Resident Evil Re:Verse
Resident Evil Re:Verse is reversing right off Steam, as Capcom claims it has served its 'original, celebratory purpose' despite mostly negative reviews
Resident Evil Village - Lady Dimitrescu
Terrifyingly good Humble Bundle deal nets you 11 Resident Evil games for less than the price of Resi 4 remake
Chris Redfield fights a zombie in 1996's Resident Evil.
I spent the last week roaming the Spencer Mansion and I'm here to tell you not to sleep on the new GOG release of 1996's Resident Evil
Resident Evil 7
Capcom announces the next mainline Resident Evil is in development, and the great news is it's being helmed by Resident Evil 7's director
Resident Evil 1 zombie
GOG is bringing the original Resident Evil trilogy back from the dead, and to digital PC storefronts for the first time
Box art for the original Resident Evil, showing a man with a weird face holding a shotgun.
A PEGI rating for the OG 1996 Resident Evil has me once again preparing to enter the world of survival horror
Latest in Features
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
Monster Hunter Wilds' new gyro controls are a fantastic option for disabled and able-bodied players alike
A busy marketplace in The Bazaar.
The Bazaar could be the future of autobattlers, if it stops strangling itself to death with its own microtransactions
Marvel Rivals characters - Hulk with his hands out as if he's grabbing the camera.
Marvel Rivals' growing roster of heroes scares me, but the game's director seems sure that all is under control: 'Everything is progressing smoothly'
Rainbow Six Siege year 9 season 2 key art - two Rainbow Six Siege operators facing each other
'Siege 2 was never on the table': Rainbow Six Siege X director explains why the 10-year-old FPS doesn't need a sequel
Gallica and the protagonist from Metaphor: ReFantazio.
The best deals in the 2025 Steam Spring Sale
Hands pushing poker chips on a table
Winning $2.6 billion in this poker videogame has completely ruined fake poker for me