Grave Gamer News & Views — capcom

Resident Evil 7′s Most Enigmatic Puzzle Has Players Still Trying to Finger it Out

Earlier this week during E3, gaming’s biggest marketing blitz of the year, Capcom announced Resident Evil 7. They had to outright tell us the trailer we were seeing was related to their 25 year-old franchise, however, since the grimy, atmospheric and unnervingly creepy footage on display bore little resemblance to the hero power-fantasy firefights the franchise has morphed into since the Gamecube years.

For fans that still remember the feeling of unease when you opened a new door in the creaking Spencer Estate, this about-face was exciting as hell. Before we could catch our breath, though, Capcom dropped another surprise on our laps – PS4 owners would be able to experience the first-person horror firsthand with a playable demo available that very night (’course, it took some serious digging to find since PSN’s displays didn’t quite keep up with Capcom’s marketing plans).

The demo, titled Beginning Hour, isn’t necessarily a representation of the greater whole, just in the same way P.T. wasn’t exactly a chunk sliced off of whatever Silent Hills was going to be before Konami decided pachinko machines were a more lucrative market. Beginning Hour won’t even be a playable part of Resident Evil 7 when it releases next year. It’s an entity unto itself that serves as a taste of the new game’s tone and ideas.

You wake up in a desolate farmhouse. It’s dark, dank, and laden with creaking floors, near inaudible whispers, and distant footsteps. You can interact with a few items, like drawers, and explore the small length of the house, mostly running into debris, maggots, and locked doors. Oh, and creepy ass mannequins that, uh… well, let’s just say keep your eye on them.

You eventually come across a chained up cabinet with a VHS tape inside. It’s marked “Derelict House.” Upon booting the tape up, you don’t just passively watch. In a creepy little flair of design, you’re put in the role of Clancy, the cameraman, who’s filming Andre and Peter, the “Sewer Gators” Crew – an appreciable riff on haunted house hunters the likes of those Ghost Adventures fuckwads – as they investigate the abandoned Dulvey House. You’re given some light backstory but mostly spend this segment scrutinizing shadows. Don’t blink, though, and you’ll definitely see this old house isn’t quite empty…

From there, you’re on track to one of a few different endings the demo holds for players.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Capcom Reveals Resident Evil 7: A First-Person Survival Horror Game (in VR!)

Sony’s E3 conference was such a whirlwind, it’s hard to keep my thoughts straight. They essentially shoved a funnel down our throats and didn’t stop feeding us game after amazing game.

In the deluge of video game delights, Sony slyly announced Resident Evil 7, a brand new chapter in the storied horror series that reinvents itself from the ground up. Not only are we back to hard horror, our perspective has shifted to the first-person just to shove our noses in all the photo-realistic creepiness – brought to you by Capcom’s own RE Engine, tailor-made for the game.

You can even immerse yourself in the horror on a whole ‘nother level with full PlayStation VR integration. Sony fans will also be treated to first dibs on the game’s demo, Resident Evil 7: Beginning Hour, where you navigate a real fixer-upper of a cottage (to put it lightly) in events that lead into the main game. PS Plus members can access the demo now, apparently (as of this writing, on the East Coast, it hasn’t populated on the PlayStation Store… goddamnit).

Now this might just be the all out horror game we’ve been clamoring for since things took a boulder-punching turn in 2008. Either way, we don’t have too long of a wait to find out: Resident Evil 7 releases for PS4, Xbox One, and Windows PC January 24th, 2017.

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Welcome to the Umbrella Corps – an online third-person shooter set in the Resident Evil universe

We caught a slight wind of this last month but the hurricane known as the RE2 Remake blew it the hell away.

SCEJA, a Sony-centric press conference held in Tokyo today, featured Capcom’s first unveiling of Umbrella Corps – a competitive third-person shooter planted in the Resident Evil mythos. The game’s promised to play host to fast-paced, close-quartered skirmishes in battle zones that recreate historic RE environs.

If you’re having sudden and terrible flashbacks of Operation Raccoon City, you’re not wrong (also, have a sit and let the nausea settle). “Make an online third-person shooter outta Resident Evil” was verbatim Slant Six’s mission objective on ORC. Here, though, instead of forcing a threadbare, canon breaking story into the affair, Umbrella Corps takes place in modern day, over a decade after the pharmaceutical company’s demise.

Other diabolical corporations have taken hold of Umbrella’s research and are now pitting mercenary squads against each other in virus-soaked testing grounds. Bobbing and weaving through hordes of the undead (and other happy horrors), player teams will have to master an arsenal of guns, axes, and shields to best other mercs. Savvy players won’t just dodge zombies – they’ll use them against opponents, and gadgets like the Zombie Jammer, which repels the dead from a player, will help you do just that.

Okay, on paper, it’s a solid idea. But Operation Raccoon City was a solid idea on paper too. It’s all about execution. It sounds like Capcom is trying to create a leaner, tighter experience over UC’s spiritual predecessor… but as history shows, Resident Evil’s track record for spin-off’s is horrifically mixed. Oh, the horror.

Umbrella Corps ($29.99) releases digitally sometime next year for PS4 and PC.