Resident Evil 7 - On this day

The horror series Resident Evil has had games since 2000 that were played as first-person shooters. It all started with Resident Evil Survivor, continued with Dead Aim, and then with Darkside / Umbrella Chronicles. However, these were spin-off games, while the main series was performed with a third-person camera… until today five years ago when Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was launched.

The week was in many ways a reboot of the series. Not only did she shift perspective to the first person, but she also switched to a new engine and confronted us with a hitherto unknown type of enemy who was neither zombies nor soldiers. After the players in the six traveled the world, the week was "grounded" and focused on one location, which allegedly came from the inspiration for the movie The Evil Dead.

Resident Evil 7 was different in that, for the first time in the series' history, the story was written by a writer outside of Japan, Richard Pearsey, who was the narrative designer for Spec Ops: The Line. The game introduced us to new characters, Ethan Winters and his wife Mia, and had minimal links to previous parts.

Protagonist Ethan Winters fell into the background thanks to characters from the Baker family, who represented some of the villains in the game. Father Jack, mom Marguerite, and son Lucas had such powerful performances that they became cult among Resident Evil fans. There were also tense boss battles to remember, many will say the most imaginative in the entire Resident Evil series.

Interestingly, we saw Resident Evil 7 in the middle of 2015, but it was not known at the time that it was the seventh part of the famous series. Capcom then demonstrated a VR demo called Ki7chen, which tested reactions to a potential performance of Resident Evil in virtual reality, and as reactions to the demo were excellent, the week ultimately had a VR mode and could end entirely in VR.

This VR mode was exclusive to the PlayStation 4 version of the game, PS PS, and Resident Evil 7 was one of the most popular games for PlayStation VR. The game was very well received among the fans. Although some fans did not like the change of theme, ie. transitioning from science fiction to the realm of fantasy, most players praised Resident Evil 7 as a refreshment for the long-running series.

The game subsequently received two-story extensions - a free Not a Hero and a paid End of Zoe. In 2021, we also got a direct sequel, the even better-accepted Resident Evil Village. The week achieved notable results for Capcom and is currently the best-selling individual Resident Evil with 7.9 million units sold. Resident Evil 4, 5, and 6 sold more than that, but if special and subsequent editions are included.