GAMESCOM 2016: RESIDENT EVIL 7 IS KEEPING US IN THE DARK FOR A GOOD REASON

H.P. Lovecraft – a man who knew a thing or two about horror – famously believed that “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”. Right now so much of Resident Evil 7 lies in the shadows.

Resident Evil 7: Lantern Gameplay Trailer - Gamescom 2016
Resident Evil 7: Lantern Gameplay Trailer - Gamescom 2016
03:30
The Beginning Hour demo – released during E3 – gave us a taster of the franchise’s new tone and direction but importantly it wasn’t lifted from the final game. The Lantern demo, however, is in Resident Evil 7 but it’s another found footage tape, depicting the horrific final moments of a woman.

It’s a short, self-contained episode, which begins with you being pursued by Marguerite Baker, an elderly woman carrying a lantern. It’s unclear who you are - though you cast a woman’s silhouette - and why you’ve been brought to the Baker estate beyond Marguerite ranting. There’s only one direction in which to flee – across a bridge lined with defaced wooden babies (of course!) and in what is presumably the Baker plantation house, which is slowly being swallowed by the murky Louisiana swamp it sits upon.

01_GamesCom_1471415995
The Baker house is a far cry from the polished marble of the Spencer mansion; this place barely has a floor. With Marguerite approaching, I headed for the nearest open door, but as I approached it was slowly closed and locked by an unseen presence. What follows is a series of corridors – in which candles are mysteriously blown out – and claustrophobic set-pieces where you’re forced to hide from Marguerite as she staggers around the room. You weave behind her, squeeze into crawl spaces, and eventually are forced into the basement, where everything goes black before a final jump-scare – a close-up of Marguerite’s pale and shrivelled face. She’s got you.

02_GamesCom_1471416001

It’s a snuff movie which doubles up as a side mission. It’s hard to say without knowing the structure of the final game, but it feels like I’m meant to learn from these tapes something that might help me when exploring the mansion for myself. The person in the tape is doomed to die, but my fate still remains in the balance.

It’s short, probably lasting no more than 15 minutes, but there are little clues to how this is still a Resident Evil game. Towards the end of the demo, you enter a room and there’s a classic Resi puzzle. It involves a statue, a plinth, and rotation. It couldn’t be more Resident Evil in its style. Solving it opens up a secret passage way that leads you to another part of the mansion. Even though more overtly familiar elements – characters, companies, enemies – seem to be gone, this is where you sense the influence of the original.

06_GamesCom_1471416025

The Lantern demo also introduces us to Marguerite, the wife of Jack who welcomed us to his family us at the end of the Beginning Hour demo. Even though she’s a human, she’s a menacing presence. She walks slowly and with purpose, but if she spots you will break into a sprint. Her hair is wet, straggly, almost mildewed. When she grabs you at the end, and pulls you close, you see that her skin is veined with dirt. But what I find most interesting right now are the things she says while pursuing you. The voice acting is superb, which is just as well, as she’s constantly ranting.

“I don’t understand you at all – this is a gift.”

Are we being sacrificed? If so, what are we being sacrificed for or to? Is the Baker family a cult? Are they luring people to their place in the woods for a greater purpose?

“There are known unknowns here, and you’ve not paid f***ing attention.”

Is she just insane, vacantly screaming? Or were we brought here for a reason? What are they trying to achieve? Have others before us paid attention and joined the family?

07_GamesCom_1471416031

You can probably tell from the deluge of question marks above that I have no idea whatsoever. It’s all part of the strategy – limit information, maintain mystery. At the minute, it’s an approach I can get behind. Horror is one of the genres that suffers most acutely from revealing too much. Lovecraft was right. We have a new numbered entry in the Resident Evil series coming out in five months, and we have no idea of what the main game is like beyond two short demos (one of which isn’t even in the final game). Between now and January we’ll certainly learn more about combat, the lead character, and possibly even what’s going down in Dulvey, Louisiana.

But for now, I’m happy to be in the dark.

H.P. Lovecraft – a man who knew a thing or two about horror – famously believed that “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”. Right now so much of Resident Evil 7 lies in the shadows.

Resident Evil 7: Lantern Gameplay Trailer - Gamescom 2016
Resident Evil 7: Lantern Gameplay Trailer - Gamescom 2016
03:30
The Beginning Hour demo – released during E3 – gave us a taster of the franchise’s new tone and direction but importantly it wasn’t lifted from the final game. The Lantern demo, however, is in Resident Evil 7 but it’s another found footage tape, depicting the horrific final moments of a woman.

It’s a short, self-contained episode, which begins with you being pursued by Marguerite Baker, an elderly woman carrying a lantern. It’s unclear who you are - though you cast a woman’s silhouette - and why you’ve been brought to the Baker estate beyond Marguerite ranting. There’s only one direction in which to flee – across a bridge lined with defaced wooden babies (of course!) and in what is presumably the Baker plantation house, which is slowly being swallowed by the murky Louisiana swamp it sits upon.

01_GamesCom_1471415995
The Baker house is a far cry from the polished marble of the Spencer mansion; this place barely has a floor. With Marguerite approaching, I headed for the nearest open door, but as I approached it was slowly closed and locked by an unseen presence. What follows is a series of corridors – in which candles are mysteriously blown out – and claustrophobic set-pieces where you’re forced to hide from Marguerite as she staggers around the room. You weave behind her, squeeze into crawl spaces, and eventually are forced into the basement, where everything goes black before a final jump-scare – a close-up of Marguerite’s pale and shrivelled face. She’s got you.

02_GamesCom_1471416001

It’s a snuff movie which doubles up as a side mission. It’s hard to say without knowing the structure of the final game, but it feels like I’m meant to learn from these tapes something that might help me when exploring the mansion for myself. The person in the tape is doomed to die, but my fate still remains in the balance.

It’s short, probably lasting no more than 15 minutes, but there are little clues to how this is still a Resident Evil game. Towards the end of the demo, you enter a room and there’s a classic Resi puzzle. It involves a statue, a plinth, and rotation. It couldn’t be more Resident Evil in its style. Solving it opens up a secret passage way that leads you to another part of the mansion. Even though more overtly familiar elements – characters, companies, enemies – seem to be gone, this is where you sense the influence of the original.

06_GamesCom_1471416025

The Lantern demo also introduces us to Marguerite, the wife of Jack who welcomed us to his family us at the end of the Beginning Hour demo. Even though she’s a human, she’s a menacing presence. She walks slowly and with purpose, but if she spots you will break into a sprint. Her hair is wet, straggly, almost mildewed. When she grabs you at the end, and pulls you close, you see that her skin is veined with dirt. But what I find most interesting right now are the things she says while pursuing you. The voice acting is superb, which is just as well, as she’s constantly ranting.

“I don’t understand you at all – this is a gift.”

Are we being sacrificed? If so, what are we being sacrificed for or to? Is the Baker family a cult? Are they luring people to their place in the woods for a greater purpose?

“There are known unknowns here, and you’ve not paid f***ing attention.”

Is she just insane, vacantly screaming? Or were we brought here for a reason? What are they trying to achieve? Have others before us paid attention and joined the family?

07_GamesCom_1471416031

You can probably tell from the deluge of question marks above that I have no idea whatsoever. It’s all part of the strategy – limit information, maintain mystery. At the minute, it’s an approach I can get behind. Horror is one of the genres that suffers most acutely from revealing too much. Lovecraft was right. We have a new numbered entry in the Resident Evil series coming out in five months, and we have no idea of what the main game is like beyond two short demos (one of which isn’t even in the final game). Between now and January we’ll certainly learn more about combat, the lead character, and possibly even what’s going down in Dulvey, Louisiana.

But for now, I’m happy to be in the dark.