Zadzooks: Resident Evil 7: Biohazard review

The next chapter from one of the patriarchs of survival horror games arrives to chatter the teeth of a gamer in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (Capcom, Rated Mature, reviewed on PlayStation 4, $59.99).

The latest addition to Shinji Mikami’s and Tokuro Fujiwara’s beloved franchise offers much less of a blockbuster approach to the action and instead crafts a simmering and tension-riddled experience more like the original from 1996.

A roughly 12-hour-long adventure provides a devilishly impressive and atmospheric dive into virtual madness by delivering a stomach-churning feeling of helplessness, a sufficient quotient of jump scares and plenty of sweaty controller moments as the player interacts in ominous and grimy environments.

The story finds civilian Ethan Winters in a desperate search for his wife Mia, who has been missing for three years. An unusual message from her leads the unassuming man to a dilapidated, farmhouse-style mansion on a seemingly abandoned plantation in Dulvery, Louisiana.

The house holds many secrets and more importantly the Baker family, a group of blood-thirsty lunatics that experimented on unfortunate victims who accidentally wandered onto their lands.

What ensues is a deadly game of hide and seek as Ethan must find a way to escape the mansion and its surroundings, avoid a collection of grotesque creatures and uncover the truth about his wife and her lineage.

The tale manages to extract a variety of visuals and plot points from popular horror films such as “Evil Dead,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “The Devil’s Rejects,” “The Blair Witch Project” and even “Saw” and still manages to squeeze in a narrative tying in the “Resident Evil” canon.

As standard with the franchise, players have a modest selection of weapons to use, such as a pistol, knife, shotgun and makeshift flamethrower; some minor resource management options, including combining items for health regeneration and ammunition; and a collection of environmental puzzles to solve (even involving videotaped sequences) while being chased by maniacs.

What really changes for the far better is the perspective of the action that now all takes place in the first person. A player becomes Ethan and must survive some hideous humans and events.

For fright fans, it becomes a test of endurance with death potentially available around every corner, sustained by the purposely slow ability to turn one’s body. Success often becomes more dependent on hiding and running rather than confrontation.

Those with access to a large ultra high-definition television and booming sound system in a very dark room will most appreciate the immersion into this house of horrors.

The macabre visual pallet includes sweaty, concrete walls; undulating, decaying flesh; rust-stained piping; pots of bubbling innards; flickering lamps; shadows; rotted floorboards; bloody masses; and monsters hidden in stalks caked in black goo.

All are complemented with an often subtle aural sound assault sure to make the skin crawl — not limited to creaking floorboards, panicked breathing, moaning wind, thunderclaps, footsteps, random knocking, ticking clocks and screams.

Without a doubt, the most frightening entity in the game is any door with a rusted knob. Deciding whether to open it and face what stands behind it will cause minor heart palpitations and profuse perspiring.

As far as plot realism, I’m calling a time-out here. Think about this happening within five minutes of playing. There is zero chance I would ever enter a ghastly mansion through a hole in a bloodstained, barbed wire fence with a rotting horse partially hanging above it.

I’d be on the phone with the FBI, CIA, FDA and NSA and running the other way like a shaky Don Knotts from “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.” Sorry Mia.

I’ve watched the “Resident Evil” game franchise deteriorate over the years into an uninspired series of frenetic firefights against ridiculous creatures, following more of the movie series rather than the creator-celebrated traditions.

This seventh iteration injects a welcomed standard of dread back to the action and reminds me of the days of when walking around the old Spencer Mansion gave me nightmares.