Resident Evil 7 is Entirely in First Person, “Most Advantageous Way” to Present Horror

Weren’t a fan of the teaser for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard at E3 and holding out hope that, like P.T. and Silent Hills, the final game would look different? As it turns out, that won’t be the case – producer Masachika Kawata revealed to GameSpot that full game will entirely first person.

When asked about the playable teaser being in first person and whether the game itself would be in the same perspective, Kawata said, “The final game is also entirely in first-person perspective. This is driven by the concept of Resident Evil 7, which is a return to horror. At this particular time in games, it was determined that first-person was the most advantageous way to present horror to the player. When confronting the enemy, there’s no barrier between you and the enemy.

“This also applies to exploration and gimmicks and traps and things like that. They felt that it really gets you up close and personal with everything, which adds to that horror element.”

Director Koushi Nakanishi also told IGN that the teaser is “kind of a tonal preview instead of a content preview. It’s also not showing off all the gameplay pillars we’re going to have. It’s focusing on up front to the key pillars, which are fear, horror, and exploration of an environment. The other key pillars of Resident Evil – puzzle solving, resource management, and combat – they’re coming down the line. They’re all in there, but we’re focusing on horror has come home as a kind of theme for the teaser demo. So if you thought the games were going away from horror in previous years, this is just a statement of intent, purpose, to say it’s back.”

Furthermore, it was noted that quick time events would not be returning while health restoring herbs would. Resident Evil 7 is out in January 2017 and we recently learned that it’s being penned by Richard Pearsey of Spec Ops: The Line fame.