sisslethecat
Thus far, we’ve gotten a look at Resident Evil VII: Biohazard‘s telephone mechanic, returning item box and shotgun, saving, the knife, health and inventory management, and combat against the Family Man. Today, we’ve got two more, focusing on yet another returning mechanic and how bizarre some of the items in this game might get. Unlike the previous videos, these don’t have descriptions on YouTube, so we’ll just work with what we can see in the videos themselves.
The first video, Vol. 7: A Closer Look, shows us classic Resident Evil 1 style item examination. While most of the games in this series feature some sort of item examination, actually twisting the item around to find hidden parts of them is a system unique only to Resident Evil 1 (as well as the REmake) and Resident Evil 0. RE2 and 3 had some minor elements of this, but they didn’t have 3D models of each item, simply images that, when we examine them, we’d be told details about the item in question. After that, examining our stuff became more of a novelty, having basically no real use in more recent games. Resident Evil VII, however, looks to be going back to the roots on this, and it looks like it might even be a bit more involved than before.
The object seen here is a small yellow latch box, and as Ethan twists and turns it, we can actually hear something inside sliding around as he turns it upside down. So sound may be a good indicator as to whether there’s more to something than meets the eye. Those who have been following RE7‘s marketing closely already know what’s inside, however. We’ve seen this box before, in a set of screens released the same day as the Beginning Hour demo’s Twilight update.
Looks like a lock-pick, just like the one from Beginning Hour. So that’s interesting. There is, of course, the possibility that this might be a placeholder, and it will be something completely different in the final game, but that’s what it is for the moment.
The second video, Vol. 8: Imagination, is actually pretty surprising. It’s the first time we’ve really gotten a look at a goofier tone in RE7. Set in the same location as the Lantern demo (and trailer), although now in the “present”, with Ethan, rather than Mia on a video tape. The environment looks way darker than it did on the tape, and we also get our first look at Ethan’s ECG watch displaying “Fine”. While Mia used a strange, Tim Burton-esque statue to solve the light and shadow puzzle we see here, Ethan looks like he has a lot more options, not all of them… practical.
First, there’s a voodoo doll, similar to the ones seen hanging below the staircase in Beginning Hour, although this one is a little different. First of all, it’s called “Straw Doll” in our inventory, has a stick… sticking out of it, and a little paper face. This doesn’t seem to do the trick for this puzzle, so Ethan brings up his folding knife, then… a circuit board? Presumably, that goes in some sort of computer, not a shadow puzzle… wait…
A balloon. We have a balloon item in the game. And there’s no way it’s gonna cast a spider’s shadow. Resident Evil has a long history of only taking itself as seriously as need be, and we’ve seen pretty much 100% straight-faced horror from RE7 until now. For anyone afraid that RE was going to be losing that tongue-in-cheek “your right hand comes off” bizzaro humor, you might be in luck. I can’t even begin to fathom what this balloon’s true purpose is, although I’m willing to bet we pop it. The video is called Imagination, however, so it’s probably an indicator that we’re going to have to be pretty creative when it comes to puzzle solving.
We still have two more videos inbound, and your guess is as good as mine when it comes to what they could be about, or when we’ll be getting them.
