10 Brilliant Video Games That Surprised Everyone
4. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
The Resident Evil Franchise has a fascinating cycle of death and rebirth over its nearly 25-year history. Its original trilogy on the PS1 was clunky but effective and tense, codifying survival horror as we know it. Just as it was starting to feel tired and repetitive, Resident Evil 4 dramatically shook up the formula with its campy, action-oriented romp - and massively influenced the action and shooter genres as a whole. The next two games and their respective expansions marked a steep decline, resulting in messy, cluttered gameplay, atrocious writing and an absence of horror.
How then, could the series possibly recover? Once again, the formula was shaken up, taking influence from titles such as Amnesia and Outlast - a new wave of first-person survival horror titles low on combat and high on tense, high-stakes evasion of unbeatable enemies. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard took those titles' claustrophobic first-person insta-kill horror and mixed in just enough combat segments to create a unique blend that was both tense and terrifying, and exciting and cathartic.
The game's DLC has already stripped away a lot of the soft reboot's mystique and charm but with Capcom's excellent RE2 remake garnering critical acclaim and the upcoming RE3 remake (Resident Evil Threemake, anyone?) on the horizon, the series is definitely enjoying a renaissance of sorts.