Capcom has now released all 10 “Vol.” teasers for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, and they reveal a lot about the upcoming game.
Vol. 1 “Mysterious Caller” showed telephones ringing in various locations, and the caller simply says, “You really shouldn’t have come here.” The mysterious voice is likely a recurring part of the game, and fans are already speculating who it could be– a popular guess is Ada Wong.
Vol. 2 “Shotgun In The Box” showed a return to classic inventory systems, with the player character (PC) opening a crate, finding items, and fitting what they want into a 3×4 grid inventory– knives, handguns, ammo, treasure, and shotguns all make a return, with all items except the shotgun taking up 1 inventory square (shotgun takes 2). This also revealed that gorgeous gun-handling and reloading has returned.
Vol. 3 “Recorder” shows the PC saving at a tape recorder, much in the way classic Resident Evil used a typewriter. The save file is “Main House 1F/Escape from the house”, which hints at a location. While a nod to classic resident evil, it does not appear you will need collectible, limited-supply items to save (as was the case with Ink Ribbons). As the PC tries to leave, the phone by the recorder rings.
Vol. 4 “Stock Up” starts with the PC slowly opening a pocket knife and walking up to a box whose description reads, “It looks fragile. Maybe you can break it with something.” The PC stabs the wooden box and it blows apart, just like the good old days; breaking boxes is back. You can now, however, open taped boxes with the knife– it’s implied in the video description that your knife will have many uses.
Vol. 5 “Survival” reveals the most so far. The PC, with a bloody visual overlay, finds a “herb” that they then combine with a “chem fluid” to create a more effectively healing “first aid med”. This also showed that items have the classic Use/Combine/Examine/Leave system, but you use the menu in real time, a more recent addition to the series. (Applying the medicine also gets a gorgeous, but time-consuming, animation.) Interestingly, we get another story hint: Your goal is to get a “dog head” from the dissection room. In fact, you must get 3 to open a door to the yard.
Vol. 6 “Immortal” is the first “gameplay” demonstration. The PC shoots a man attacking him with a farm weapon, and the man falls to the ground– without a pool of blood, Resident Evil’s telltale sign of a “true” death rather than a knockdown state. As the PC stumbles away, implying low health makes you slower, the man gets back up, terrifyingly calm. The video description says “Something’s not quite right with Jack”, which implies this immortality may be specific to his disheveled character… or that he’s one example of it.
Vol. 7 “A Closer Look” tells the least: You can pick up objects and rotate them (almost definitely for puzzles somewhere in the game) before interacting with them. The most interesting thing about this example: Something shifted in the lockbox based on how you turned it. Gravitational puzzles inbound?
Vol. 8 “Imagination” reveals a few things about puzzles; the PC stands in front of a light source and pulls out a straw doll from their inventory (alongside a microchip, and a balloon) before placing it in front of the light. They rotate it and the other objects so that the projection of the spider onto a painting of a butterfly …does something. The puzzle goes unsolved, but shows a return to classic object-oriented puzzle-solving. We also see, interestingly, that the PC wears a heart-rate monitor watch.
Vol. 9 “Shadow” finds a Resident Evil mainstay that many were worried would be absent from Resident Evil 7: Organic, body-horror enemies, based on science. The shortest teaser, “Shadow” just shows a horrific being appear and slowly walk towards the PC, not flinching even as it’s shot, before noisily killing the PC. At least we know what we’re dealing with here.
Vol. 10 “Aunt Rhody” has the PC approaching an old woman humming “Go Tell Aunt Rhody”, an American folk song. There are plenty of theories about why the lyrics changed for Resident Evil 7, or about the cover’s audio, although there isn’t any strong explanation as to who this old woman is, besides likely one of the plot-important, possibly immortal Baker family. Also notable: The trailer shows first person views of the PC approaching the woman from behind… but also from the front. By far, the most intriguing Vol. This also tells us we’ll get a fuller trailer, Tape 3 “Resident Evil”, in December.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard comes out January 24th for PlayStation 4, PlayStation VR, Xbox One, and PC.