Resident Evil 7 is the best horror game ever made.

[Johnw1104]

It's a fun game but definitely (in my opinion) not the best horror game for the following reasons:

-I could never take the game's horror very seriously as it is so over-the-top comical by design as an homage to famous slasher flicks. It certainly captured that Chainsaw feel, which was a lot of fun, but it was mostly silly and faaar too forgiving with damage imo

-Never once was I actually feeling disturbed by it. (Spoiler inbound) The bits with the girlfriend were initially a tad frightening, but the damage being dished without issue and such (it took like ten bullets to drop her and I'm pretty sure my arm should have looked like hamburger meat) just constantly reminded me that this was all positively absurd

-This one seems overlooked, but the gameplay itself was rather "meh".


That said, I'd still give this one somewhere in the 81 range as it was definitely fun and has the benefit of being one of the first AAA attempts at VR horror (even if it's a campy kind of horror). I really enjoyed it, but to say that it's the best horror game is, in my opinion, definitely wrong.

The truth is that, as far as scaring the player goes in this one, the only time it was remotely frightening and or scary was via jump scares, which is essentially the knock-knock joke of horror. Granted, with the headset on those jump scares are more effective, but that's still all they were.

For an example of a game that established an unnerving environment and constant tension throughout one need look no further than Alien: Isolation. I can easily say that, even without the benefit of a VR headset, I was more nervous and frightened when I could see a Xenomorph in another room through a window than I was by even the most unexpected of jump scares in Resident Evil 7. Heck, even just walking around the empty halls of that game had me more uncomfortable than I ever was in RE7.

Sneaking around Xenomorphs, watching Pyramid head walk by in some of the most psychological mindfucks of storylines... those to me were true horror games. Resident Evil 7, though, was a very fun demonstration of what VR is capable of with entertaining, jump-scaring, lighthearted horror. To use movies as an example, RE7 was a slasher flick (lots of fun but never actually disturbing), whereas proper "horror" is more akin to something like the original The Haunting or some of those David Lynch films that I can barely make it through.

I really don't mean to criticize it so much of course... I recommend it to everyone and, like I said, this game really is a ton of fun and I'd not dock it any points for its humor (I'd give it probably give it a ~81 score). It's just the claim that this is the "best horror game" ever that I take issue with, as it isn't really that rooted in "horror" and there's been far more disturbing games in the past. I think it's the addition of the VR headset that has maybe convinced people it's more disturbing than it is, and I don't really think it was even Capcom's intention to make it all that scary; they clearly went for a more humorous and campy approach akin to the Chainsaw films, and I really liked that choice.