Obviously, spoilers for the entire game.

I kept on hearing that the second half was worst than the first, so when I was almost finished with Lucas' area and was still loving the game, I figured that it was only a gradual step down. But man, as soon as Jack came out in his giant dragon form, I knew I was in for a bad time.

The boat wasn't the worst thing in the world - I was disappointed by all the stuff with Eveline from a story perspective, and they were a little too liberal with that machine gun ammo, but it wasn't a totally linear shooter, there was still a lot of exploration to be done. And while I hated the explanation for the Bakers, talking to a lucid Jack Baker painfully aware of what he, and his family, had become was surprisingly effective. The decision to make them tragic figures and victims of larger fuckery was a smart one, which only makes it sadder that the execution of it all was so dumb.

And man, those salt mines really had nothing going on for them. Just a boring time all around.

But it seemed like the final few minutes would pull out something strong. You return to the Baker Estate, the game's greatest asset. You see a wheelchair, hinting that you're going to get a payoff for one of the game's best teases. They wouldn't play with Grandma for so long unless they had a great idea they were building up to, right? The game's intro and initial trailer both end on a silhouette of her on the first floor of the main hall of the Baker house, where she's never seen in game. So you go in knowing she'll be the last boss at this point, how is that going to do be done? Is she going to roll around after you throughout the entire house with a rifle, testing your knowledge of the house's layout as you try to sneak up on her? Will she have transformed the house somehow, surprising the player with how different this place they had become so familiar with now was? You go into the attic, you give a syringe to Eveline, and she's revealed to be the old lady. Yes. It's happening.

She turns into a kaiju and you shooter her with 6 or 7 magic bullets and the game is over.

Fuck.

Far more egregious to me was the guy bursting out of the helicopter at the end like Kramer and going 'Whoaaaaa it's me Chris Redfield!!!'. It made it all kind of feel like a Resident Evil side story rather than a new game.

I dunno. I've just finished Pineview Drive.

I dunno, I kinda like how it came full circle to reveal how much of a resident evil game it actually is (resident evil has had that Kaiju shit in it from the beginning).

For the most part it's goal is to show how crazy ass resident evil shit would affect normal folks (with tragic results), but without forgetting what the entire series has been up to this point. They took a very measured approach to the "lore" of RE, and made it feel mysterious and interesting in the process.

No, I like it quite a bit. That said, I agree with HTC that it just felt like a side story, which I am not sure I like or dislike. It was basically taking a personal perspective on one of the many zombie-like events that take place in the RE universe. In the previous two RE's, they made it clear that BSAA (which is now Umbrella?) was made to fight bioterrorism, and when Chris came in, that was him doing his job, so it made the events of what had happened in seven feel somewhat less significant because I figure there's a bunch of shit like that going on elsewhere. I thought that it was really good however on being a self-contained thing. Jack Baker being the multi-eyed monster and further didn't bother me whatsoever because I thought it showed the blend of old RE and new RE. You have the eerie feeling experience early on, and then the farther you get into it, while still somewhat creepy it because more and more action focused and more like the recent Resident Evil games.

I thought it was cool. I also liked the (albeit repetitive) dialogue/voice work of the final form of Jack Baker. Lastly, they didn't really touch upon whether Ethan was infected or not. Late in the game, it talks about the stages of infection, and after that Ethan goes through the early stages of it. Also, I have the feeling there was more going on with the fact he could use his leg and arm after them being chopped off rather than because it's a game and they didn't take into account logic. I should mention that him being able to get his leg cut off came as a surprise on the second playthrough (which I am still playing through as I hadn't touched the game in a couple of days now). I never got caught in the moment for that to happen nor died in the first playthrough.

I disagree. I actually really like the way the game wrapped up and found the whole story very satisfying. It's definitely my favourite story is the series and I like the Chris reveal at the end. I also really liked the ship section, it felt very RE Revelations to me and I really enjoyed it.

It's my second favourite RE game behind 4. My only really complaint with the game is that Lucas just disappears and I just wish there was more of him. I did really like the big reveal with him being that he was actually immune to Evie's mind control and he was just a psychopath who enjoyed hurting people. Jack and Marguerite were just victims.

The last boss was a glorified cutscene, yeah, but I like how it all built up. Might be my own daftness working for me, but I didn't put two and two together with the document explaining that Eveline was aging abnormally fast, and so when I picked up that photo from the beginning with "E-001" on the back and it finally clicked, it was an awesome "Oh fuck" moment. That was cool enough to mitigate the disappointment of the final ten minutes, even if I should have seen it coming. I was so convinced that the old lady was a red herring, though.

I actually thought the ship and cave segments were pretty strong. It falls in line with older REs to have your character(s) become more of a well-armed badass as time goes on, and it felt good to mow down some Molded after they were such a huge threat early on. VR helped, admittedly, as the locations would have been pretty dull otherwise.

I wonder if the final boss was intended to be more involved at first. I mean, they load you up with a stupid amount of bombs and ammo, and then you don't need to actually use most of it.

Only parts I actively disliked were the bug house (combat just sucked there) and Lucas just getting away without fanfare or acknowledgment. I really hope he comes back in 8 as the big bad or something. Hell, they could do a whole side game involving his Jigsaw-like puzzle rooms. I'd play the hell out of that.

Edit: Something just occurred to me. RE7 proves that everybody in the RE-verse has convoluted and extremely fancy door locks. From the wealthiest mansions to the most backwood families.

Renting an apartment must be fun in that world.

"Alright, here's your keys. You'll find the rental agreement on the kitchen sink. Oh, before I forget, when you need to use the bathroom, look for the burnt doll head under the couch. Turn all the clocks to 7:15, and make sure the painting of the knight has his sword pointed downwards. That will release a fishing hook, which you can use with the doll head to pull a Rook Key from its mouth. That'll unlock the bathroom door. Also, I left some shotgun shells and a green herb by the toilet. Have a nice day!"

@pompouspizza: Yeah, what happened to Lucas? Is it because Eveline dies that he's no longer a problem? Wait... He was immune? I must have missed that. Or I already don't remember. Hmmmm. I'm trying to remember back. I could have missed that because honestly, I went through the entire game thinking that Mia was Ethan's girlfriend as opposed to wife, though I believe that's because my brother was talking to me as I tried to pay attention to the game and just didn't catch it. Was he immune, though? He grew his arm back after Jack cut it off, so he had some special abilities carried over from the virus.

Edit - Yeah, reading about it now, and he was definitely infected and under Eveline's mind control at first, but later got it fixed due to the 'unknown' organization. I don't remember where you read that from.

@ntm: Near the end of the game when you discover the lab when you come out of the mines (I have no idea how they have this lab, or why they have a lot of information on Evie?) you find Lucas' laptop and read an email (to Umberella maybe?) where he talks about being immunised from the infection after having it for a short while. How he gets the cure I have no idea but it's clear that he was in contact with Evie's creators.

There is also some nice foreshadowing of this when you discover that when he was a kid, Lucas kills another kid by locking him in the attic.

I'll keep the original post but I just realised you may have just been asking where he got to in the story so I apologise. My guess is maybe umbrella got to him? I think he will be the focus of the upcoming story DLC.

@pompouspizza: Yeah. Is it the same time where he mentions that Eveline is looking older (where it pretty much reveals that the older grandma lady is Eveline)? Oh, and yeah, I remember the attic thing, though I didn't really connect it to him, or again, don't remember that. I remember a mention of someone locking another kid he/she didn't like in an attic (and laughing about it I think?)

@ntm: While I really like the way the grandma/Evie twist was handled, I saw it coming. As soon as I found the picture of the grandma right near the beginning with the "E-001" on the back I immediately though "she was obviously the first infected" I do like how looking back you realise that the Bakers never make any mention of any grandmother, nor do you see her in any photos around the house with the other core family members (outside of the one with the number on it.)

Lucas is clearly very intelligent since you find all those trophies in his bedroom for engineering contests and stuff. Skills he clearly puts to use designing his awful murder puzzles. There is also a diary entry you find from when Lucas was a kid where he talks about getting a brain scan from a doctor. I suspect that maybe his parents knew Lucas wasn't quite right but maybe I'm just reaching.

Soo, why is Chris Redfield working for Umbrella now?

Edit: Also, why is his biceps no longer bigger than his head?

@donutfever: What explanation would you have liked for the Bakers? I thought it was a brilliant way of humanising them and I actually felt bad for them in the end. I was really worried that I would be disappointed with the explanation for what was really going on but it really worked for me.

@bojackhorseman: I was perplexed by this also. I'm guessing that the free story chapter starring Chris will explain this.

@pompouspizza: Yeah, I did too. I mean, not early on in the game when you first see her, but before that was even mentioned, I kind of already guessed that as they didn't use her in any way other than her just being around the house. It didn't come as a surprise there where it was first hinted at it. The only thing that came as a surprise was the twist with Mia and the whole ship part really. While not the best story for it, it's still one of those that it's fun to play through again to see the stuff and really understand how it all connects. Kind of like The Sixth Sense if you will, where since you know Bruce Willis' character is dead, the way you see the characters' reactions is different. As I went through the early parts of the game again, I kept thinking about how the Bakers are being controlled, when on the first playthrough that wasn't even a thing to think about, you're supposed to just think this is a crazy family.

Oh, I mentioned it elsewhere, but I will say I am somewhat disappointed that they didn't get Roger Craig Smith for Chris Redfield again.

I thought the game had enough of that running around the place and getting a shot in when the boss is finally exposing a weak point, that by the end I found it extremely rewarding to just let loose on this monster womans face. Also if you play on Madhouse difficulty, all the machine gun ammo you find is not enough, I know this because I played through with the x-ray glasses. You have to utilize your remote bombs and even then you won't be able to kill all the enemies, I had to sneak past a couple.

So I guess I'm in the minority. I understand that RE has had these big, crazy, giant monsters before, but what I loved about this game so much was how understated it was the whole time, and finding a way to have an elderly woman in a wheelchair be the ultimate terror of this experienced would have been the ultimate crescendo to that in my head. Tracing the entire infection back to a single creepy girl with long black hair that makes you hallucinate was also just not for me. But I'm glad most of you seemed to enjoy it! I still really love the game, and plan to play it again on Madhouse.

The ship section is alright, but it just feels like a weird left turn to suddenly have you start again with zero weapons or ammo, as if the devs realized the player probably had outpaced the power curve by the end of the second Jack fight but the game still needed to go for another hour or so. In contrast, the salt mines basically seem like they exist for you to dump all of your ammo and to tie up a couple of lose ends with the plot. I was disappointed by the last boss. I had all of those magnum shots just ready for that stupid face, and... it's basically a glorified cutscene.

I thought the implication at the end of the game is that the man rescuing you isn't actually Chris Redfield, it's whatever Umbrella remnant responsible for the E-series bioweapons pretending to be the BSAA to clean up their mess. Obviously, I think that free DLC will basically reveal what the deal is, but I think they'd have gotten Roger Craig Smith back to voice Chris if it was actually him, even for a cameo line. That dude is making Sonic the Hedgehog money, he's not too good for it.

I just beat the game so I'll need to go read all the comments here but boy. This game was absolutely fantastic. I did read OPs post and while I agree the mine shaft area was definitely the weakest part, I thought the ending was pretty good. Actually I thought they did a fantastic job at creating a very interesting and engaging plot that had some great twists. I loved getting to the lab and finally getting to read all the documents to give some brief insight on what was happening. And I do admire their attempt to create baddies are aren't just baddies cause they are bad, like all other resident evil games. The Bakers felt very distinct and while I do wish their was more on them, I thought the weird lucid dream with him explaining what happened to his family was at least somewhat touching.

About the twist with granny being Evie the whole time, I really feel like I should've seen it coming but they did a really good job of playing with your mind just enough to know the granny was important but maybe not enough to make the exact connection. Reenterig the Baker house and seeing that picture with E-001 was a great "oh shit" moment. I really enjoyed how they made you perceive Ethan as succumbing to Evies mind games and the whole final walk through the house was really well done.

The big monster thing I was as okay with, the series has been known to do that sort of thing and honestly, in a game where the boss fights tend to be the weaker part of the experience, I would rather have a more cinematic fight rather than then trying to be clever and creating something annoying or repetitive as a final challenge. Then one thing I don't like is Ethan's fate as far as the infection goes, is he good now that Evie is dead? Is he still infected and we may see the likes of him in the future? It just seems like they could've eluded something to it rather than leaving it completely ambiguous.

I've got a few story beat questions to ask you all though. So are we to believe that Umbrella is a rebranding of what they were initially to be? Clearly Chris Redfield working for them must mean at least on the surface they are now a cleanup crew rather than the organization causing all this. I'm not saying they are completely clean but the logo is entirely new and if Redfield is working for them they're must be at least some good intentions?

So as far as the lab below the Baker lot, was Evie actually their daughter that was taken from them? I know they said they were using the fungus in little girls to help them blend in but I don't recall seeing if Evie was actually their daughter or if she just made her way into their kinda before presenting herself.

Lastly, I gotta ask if anybody else got their fucking leg chopped off during the Jack fight. Ya know, the part where you pour herb juice on your fucking dismembered limb and it re attaches!!! When it happened it had the kinda vibe like it doesn't happen to everyone and I was just curious if it is scripted or not.

Oh and did I miss any backstory on the whole arm and head serum thing? Were those just d series experiments that failed?

If you can't tell I really loved how this game wrapped up and I kinda appreciated the restraint they had with the cameos. I certainly expected to see some umbrella stuff and maybe another character but I think they did it really well. Seeing Chris real quick just kinda solidified that yeah, Resident Evil 1-6 happened and BOWs are everywhere. Chris is just doing his job and trying to contain them. I think the old RE characters we love may have to stay in the background, if CAPCOM sticks with this formula, I just cannot see Leon or Chris in a situation like this, cowering away from their enemies and scrounging around for ammo again.

One last thing I would like to note, are their any leads on the redacted words from the Laboratory. I looked around for something to reveal them but I didn't see anything, in curious if people will put together what was redacted and what it means.

@ntm: fuck, you and me both. Roger Craig Smith did a fantastic job as him the last few games and I actually waited until the end credits to make sure this was Chris Redfield and not some long lost cousin or something. It doesn't help they he looks completely different and dropped about 150 pounds of muscle. Still, really really bummed by that. I think he is part of the voice actor strike and it may have had a hand in this decision sadly.

@arbitrarywater: Oh, that makes sense - when I finished it and saw this bizarre Chris Redfield I felt like they'd just thrown it in to make it more Resident Evily. But if that unfolds in the free DLC that way it'd be pretty cool actually.

Most games end badly and this feels rushed but I'm still very satisfied. The boat section was way worse than the ending.

He dosen't say Chris, he just says Redfield, and hes in an Umbrella helicopter. So chances are, its not Chris.

@sasnake: The credits list his character as Chris Redfield though.

@pompouspizza: @sasnake: Yeah I was mainly taking that from the credits. If they were trying to conceal his identity presumably the credits would just say 'Redfield' too? I like the idea it's not actually Chris though, that'd be way better than it just being an excuse to get a main character back in there.

Balls, never even realised that. Well thats ruined my hope at a cool storyline.

@arbitrarywater: @sasnake: as cool as this idea sound, I don't think it'll be the case. I mentioned before, the voice actor (who I really like as Chris) is part of the ongoing strike so it's possible that is why he didn't reprise his role?

And if I remember correctly, Umbrella is basically entirely tarnished by the end of 6 ( I think?) and the logo on the chopper is rebranded so maybe Redfield and the BSAA picked up the name and decided to repurpose it? I don't really know, that is certainly one of the dangling threads I wanna know more about. Hopefully the DLC will explain more. Hopefully it's free, I can't recall what it said at the end of the credits if they detailed it or not.

The Umbrella at the end of the game is apparently the group from Umbrella Corps. It's a company that employs mercenaries to clean up messes and retrieve BOWs. Don't really know that much about the story of that game to know more whether or not they're shady.

The Chris Redfield in RE7 has the same Japanese voice actor in other games so I'm pretty sure it's just supposed to be Chris.

@sackmanjones: The dlc that they tease at the end of the credits is free. The banned footage volumes 1&2, and a "additional story chapter" are paid dlc.

I liked how big the boss was, I liked Chris showing up. What I didn't like, why did he throw away his phone? He could've just deleted the e-mail. I said live when I was taking video, "he just threw away 800 dollars!" It drove me crazy when Patrick lost his phone, this is just as aggravating. I waited through the credits for the phone to vibrate, that was really dumb.

I also love the conspiracy theories people have, that Ethan is someone working for Umbrella, that you played an asshole all along. Asshole all along always makes me laugh when it shows up, it's a great cliche for games.

I don't like the super binary choice in the middle of the game that only just slightly changes the ending. I want choices to diamond out and spiral into bonkers endings that contradict each other. If we are going to have multiple endings, having the simple "good" or "bad" doesn't do it for me.

Maybe the DLC will address where Joshua went. I was not the only one confused when the father showed back up, which means that Mia isn't necessarily dead and neither is the mother. The game clearly indicated in the chainsaw fight and mother fight that those characters were extra super for really real turbo hd dead, but then the father shows up as a giant tentacle eyeball boss. I understand they regenerated before, however, the game indicated that they were done and Joshua seemingly just walks away in the middle and is unaddressed. Even a throwaway line at the end, "wonder what happened to the bill mosley weird guy..." would've satisfied me more with regards to that plot point.

I am more interested in seeing where Resident Evil goes than I was with six.

Hold the fucking phone....that was Chris? How do we know? Yes he said he's Redfield but he looked NOTHING like Chris. Not even same hair color. He also has facial hair here. I figured he was another Redfield we don't know about. Seriously I know he's a game character but he really does not look like Chris at all...

@frostyryan: because he's listed as chris redfield in the credits. Also anyone notice in the credits they had five Japanese voice actors for him?

@frostyryan: Credits say it's Chris. I'm pretty sure this is an alternate universe, with same character names and events, but different. Since Chris is working for umbrella too.

All in all, the best Resident Evil I've played since the Remake which is probably the best. I've never gotten the love for RE4, at all. I remember playing that back in the day and being impressed by it's action and shooting and gameplay length, but also dismayed that this seemed it was going to be Resident Evil going forward.

@tothenines: Yeah but umbrella itself seems...different. Clearly there are questions left unanswered.

Another game that devolves into walking around to watch ghostly cutscenes featuring the intrigues of an angry ghost girl (her being the result of a virus doesn't make it better). Is there honestly a bigger cliche in all of horror media? I was so into the first half, and can forgive many of its flaws, but I was mentally checked out by the time things became clear on the boat.

Has anyone got to the last boss with not enough ammo? I'm a hoarder of ammo in games like this... I'm sure most people are but I'm always concerned about bosses like the last one. You must have some decent fire power to kill it from what it appears.

I died the first time because I spammed my entire flamethrower at it and she killed me anyway. I guess that weapon is weak? I saved up all my grenade launcher ammo until the end but used it all in the salt mines when it spams those fat guys at you. Luckily I had a decent amount of shotgun ammo to kill her. Never got the magnum since I didn't get enough antique coins.

The game was half good, imo. The back half was more combat focused than I liked. The best stuff was at the beginning in the house when you are avoided the dad. Makes me want to go back and play Outlast because that's pretty much all that game was from what I recall. Makes me wonder why all the people proclaiming horror games are back! There's been some good stuff here and there like Outlast.

Yeah i'm with you about how badly the choices were handled, especially if you, like me picked Zoe. Suddenly you're on a boat playing as Mia, then you're talking to the Bakers? Travelling back and forth in time? That whole sequence was a clusterfuck and to add insult to injury, a chore to play.

I would also argue that Ethan and Mia were both shitty people. Mia lied, and secretly works for a company producing bioweapons. They both refer to Eveline as a bitch when shes just a creature that they created, to manipulate and kill. If you chose Mia, like the game wants you to, (and it makes the most sense) he says "Well who the fuck else was I going to choose".

They both play the victim even if Ethan claims to have sympathy towards the Bakers in his inner monologue at the end it was not shown during the game. Even after he learns the truth.

I legit don't think it was Chris. The name of the DLC is "Not a Hero." Chris, Leon, Jill, those peeps are the heroes of the RE universe. I think that's what the title means. That dude is not a hero (Chris), he's probably an Umbrella clone or something, maybe a clone of Chris, and a bad guy.

Also, I had nooooooooo clue that dragon thing was Jack. Did I just zone out? How do they show it is him and not the son?

There's also a CG movie called Resident Evil Vendetta coming out. Chris in RE Vendetta closely resembles Chris in RE7. Note: RE Vendetta will take place between RE6 and RE7.

I have to echo some of the thoughts here. Humanizing the Baker family and understanding that they were victims all along was fantastic. I absolutely loved the moment when you see the empty wheelchair and the sudden realization of who the old lady is. I thought the fight against hallucinations in the mansion was cool. Also KAIJU GRANDMA. Best.

The only thing I disliked about that part was the "I'm Redfield" thing at the end. This was my first resident evil game, but I've picked up that name through osmosis over the years, and it just came off as incredibly lame to me, even with zero context.

I have a different perspective on the "good/bad" ending choice. I didn't see it as binary as most people seem to. You literally just stabbed Jack with the other "cure" and it killed the SHIT out of him... So I picked Zoe. I figured both Mia and I were infected and that this "cure" was bullshit. Sure enough, Zoe died from the "cure".

Then the game randomly made me play as Mia, which was odd because she was no-where near us. That said, I enjoyed the entire sequence, but thought the moment with Eveline showing you a video tape of your past (what...?) was really, really bad. I enjoyed the fact that, because of my choice I got another mini boss fight with Mia. I LOVED how he tossed the phone (it reflected exactly what I would have done at that point) at the end and then you heard the buzzing after the credits. It sucks to know the difference was so small between the two choices, however.

Still, I enjoyed everything except for the garbage SAW-part in the middle. Mostly because I'm still salty about Lucas getting away. He's an ass and there was like zero pay off for that entire sequence.

I thought it was fine. Story wasn't amazing to begin with.