Afterthoughts: Resident Evil 7

Resident Evil 7 has been out for a little over a month and I believe that all survival horror enthusiasts have allowed everything to sink in. Personally, I’ve been playing Resident Evil games since I was 17 and it was the sole reason I purchased a PlayStation, a Dreamcast, and a GameCube. I have loved this series since its inception and was genuinely concerned when I first played the demo; to me Capcom had changed the entire series and lore. Thankfully I was somewhat wrong. Now before you continue reading, make sure that you have beaten the game, as the article from this point on will be heavy with spoilers, and I would hate to ruin any of the twists and turns that you will encounter. With that warning in place, let us begin.

Alyssa Ashcroft

Now, some Resident Evil fans never really got the chance to enjoy the Outbreak series that came out in 2003. This little side project focused heavily on teamwork with your buddies over the just-born PlayStation Network. I never had a chance to play with my buddies, but I enjoyed the game solo, and when I read a little newspaper article in the Baker house, Alyssa’s name triggered some fond memories of me surviving Raccoon City with four other survivors. It is nice to see that Capcom left this hint for us, seeing as we really don’t know what happened to some of these survivors.This survivor happened to land a writing gig for the local paper in Louisiana, good for her. I hope on other play-throughs I can find more and more hints of this world and where some of my favorite one-shot characters landed. While not a huge spoiler or giant plot point, I felt that this was a nice throwback to a series that could have been huge. Even now I hope that Capcom will bring this series back with the amazing online capabilities of today.

Molded

At first I though that the Molded resembled the Humanoid Leeches that were almost impossible to stop in Resident Evil 0., which made me wonder if the Baker family was somehow linked to Dr. James Marcus, the creator of the Progenitor virus. My mind wandered as I got further and further into the game, hoping that a big origin reveal was to come. This wasn’t the case, instead of the Molded being an infected individual, we find out that a majority of them are just vomited out of Eveline. Yes, the true villain of this game is a young girl who can control people with the liquid she vomits and can create pretty tough bosses with. This revelation made me happy that Capcom hasn’t strayed away from the bio-terror storyline. When I first met the Baker family, I thought that I was playing a version of  The Texas Chainsaw Massacre that had gone off the rails. Luckily Capcom pulled it all back and made little Eveline a Molded Queen.

Albert-01 Pistol

Much like the end of the original Resident Evil, when a helicopter drops you a rocket launcher, Resident Evil 7 ends in the same fashion. Instead of a rocket launcher Ethan is thrown what is later known as the Albert-01. Wesker has quite an ego and I can see him attaching his name to anything that is extremely powerful, even if he didn’t create it. Does this weapon, which may be outfitted to the entire strike force, mean that Wesker is back in charge? I hope it does, Wesker is one of my favorite villains in any game franchise. Wesker would also be smart enough to have his people carry a gun that knocks out a boss with three shots, just saying. I can’t wait to play with this bad boy on my second playthrough.

The Umbrella Corporation

The Umbrella Corporation was teased in the demo, but I figured that the photo was an older picture from the Baker family’s past. Never in a thousand years would I think that Umbrella was back in action with enough power to garner a nicely sized strike force. As you are working your way to Eveline, you get some subtle hints that help is actually inbound. What you don’t know is that it is the Umbrella Corporation coming to save you, and I’m sure some of Eveline’s samples. Is this incarnation of Umbrella evil though? Their logo has changed significantly: gone is the red and added are what look like virus samples. Hopefully they’re leaning in the vaccination business this time, but their appearance doesn’t bode well for Ethan Winter.

Chris Redfield

Now this reveal was surprising! The last we saw of Chris, he was sitting in a bar after the events of Resident Evil 6, and a low operative of the B.S.A.A. came in to let him know that headquarters had new orders for him. Now, did Chris turn the B.S.A.A. into Umbrella to utilize the power they once had? Or did something truly frightening happen and Umbrella rebuild itself? I’m hoping that he is still the Samaritan he once was, but I have my doubts. First off, this Redfield isn’t as jacked as we saw in the prior two games–maybe he isn’t on steroids anymore, or maybe Capcom is going the Mocap route, but he looks considerably different. Perhaps Wesker really didn’t die at the end of Resident Evil 5, or Chris killed his clone at the end and now eight years later Wesker has restarted Umbrella and cloned the members of S.T.A.R.S. If anyone is evil enough and smart enough to hatch a plan like that, it is Albert Wesker. I guess I’ll just have to wait to see how “Not a Hero” Chris Redfield is in the spring. I can’t wait and will speculate until I get to play his DLC.

What do you think, readers? Have I hit the nail on the head anywhere, or am I way off? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @SuperJerry13.