I also gave my reasoning for that. So unless there are proper zombies in RE7 and the psycho family in the woods thing isn't actually the game then I stand by what I said...

Add to that, the Tryrants that were manufactured weapons, that either ran amok or were designed to kill specific people. The removal of cerberus and other undead creatures, just makes the game feel less like undead horror and more on pure goop/parasite style horror. 

Resi 7 still looks to me like Hillbilly meets Outlast, with a pinch of Blair Witch Project. I'd argue that Remake 1 is as close as you can get to the original roots, and it's what I'm hoping REmake 2 will do as well.

Yes, there are things that are RE-ish (little throwbacks and references), but it doesn't feel like any previous installment. Combat is nothing like before. The mood is nothing like before. No focus on zombies, etc, etc... It plays much more like Condemned: Criminal Origins mixed with Outlast and P.T. (and some reviewers agree, here) than any game in the RE Series. In fact, Dualshockers nails it for me:

"If it didn’t have “Resident Evil“ in the title, it would be easy at first to mistake RE7 for one of the many horror games that have come to reinvent the genre since Resident Evil first arrived: games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Outlast, Alien: Isolation, and others have clearly had an influence in shaping what RE7: Biohazard turned out to be. Though RE7 definitely shares a lot in common with those games, what’s more remarkable isn’t necessarily how RE7 has set itself apart from the previous titles in gameplay, tone, and setting, but how it manages to evoke the feel of the original Resident Evil titles while still implementing so many new and refreshing ideas for the series – ones that it has desperately needed for some time."

Now what has returned is the root of one thing - horror. It no longer feels like I'm a badass and ready to take on the world (as I did with REs 4-6). So, in a sense, I guess I can see where people are coming from when they say "return to form". But to me, it's still a different game than before. I welcome the new direction, either way.

RE7 is RE, yep, for the new age. It doesn't bring any major "return" to the series for me, though. That's pretty much the jest of what plenty of reviewers (not just Dualshockers) have said and I fully stand behind that. Most things that made the originals stand out are not in this new game, but it has returned to a real feeling of horror. 

The references and throwbacks are nice little touches, but as many have said, outside of those, you could remove Resident Evil from the title and it could be another game entirely. 

They really do, I actually really like 5 and 6, enough to buy both of them multiple times and complete them god knows how many times over, lol... Resident Evil 7 to me, as a person that's only played the demo anyway, doesn't seem like a Resident Evil game, even after watching some gameplay later on it still seems like an Outlast clone with weapons or something... as if they've just slapped the Resident Evil name on it for sales. And if they're gonna' be going forward with this FPS style, then I'll be calling it a day with the series.

Also, to anyone that's finished it... without spoilers (Just a yes or no will do), does this game have ANYTHING to do with any of the other games in the series in terms of storyline? Because from what I've seen so far it seems completely standalone.