Resident Evil 7 Biohazard

About Resident Evil 7 Biohazard

Resident Evil 7 Biohazard is Capcom's 2017 return of its series to slow, close survival horror. It drops the more action-led style of Resident Evil 5 and 6 for the first first-person view in a main Resident Evil game and a single setting: the Baker family's estate in Dulvey, Louisiana, where Ethan Winters goes after an email from his wife Mia, missing for three years. Capcom named The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Evil Dead and Saw among its influences, and it shows.

Inside, Ethan is caught by the Bakers. Jack, Marguerite and their son Lucas sit down to dinner like a backwoods family, but something has changed them: they shrug off wounds, come back after every fight and stalk the house looking for him. Alongside them are the Molded, fungal creatures that roam the estate. Enemies that will not stay down make sneaking and running as important as shooting, and each family member ends up as a boss fight.

Underneath, the game keeps to classic Resident Evil rules. You find keys and solve puzzles to open new parts of the estate, hold up your arms to guard against attacks, crouch to move quietly and juggle eight inventory slots that backpacks expand. Herbs and chemical fluid combine into first aid medicine, gunpowder into ammunition, and psychostimulants show where items you have not picked up are hidden. Safe rooms hold item boxes and tape recorders for saving. VHS tapes found around the estate are played in VCRs, and each one lets you play a short scene as the person who filmed it.

There are three difficulties, Easy, Normal and Madhouse, the last unlocked after you finish the game. Critics praised the atmosphere, the puzzles and the virtual reality mode, and criticised the boss fights, the small range of enemies and a slower final stretch. On PlayStation 4 the whole game can be played in PlayStation VR.

It came out on January 24, 2017 for PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One, then reached PS5 and Xbox Series X|S in 2022, iPhone, iPad and Mac in 2024 and Nintendo Switch 2 in 2026; the original Switch has a cloud version that streams over the internet. The main story takes about 9 hours. It suits players who want a tense, mostly enclosed survival horror game that rewards caution, and its story continues in Resident Evil Village.

How to play Resident Evil 7 Biohazard

1. Explore the Baker estate in first person and pick up every item, key and file you find.
2. Crouch to sneak, and hide or run from Jack and the other Bakers when they stalk you; fight only when you have to.
3. Combine herbs with chemical fluid to make first aid medicine, and gunpowder to make ammunition.
4. Use the item box in safe rooms to free inventory space and save on the tape recorders.
5. Find keys and solve puzzles to open new parts of the estate, and play the VHS tapes you find in a VCR.

Tips

• Guard with your arms raised to cut the damage from close attacks.
• Enemies get back up, so slip past them when you can and keep your ammunition for when you are cornered.
• Pick up backpacks when you find them; each one adds inventory slots.
• Use a psychostimulant to show where items you have not found yet are hidden.
• Save at every tape recorder you pass before opening a door you have not been through.

Questions