Resident Evil returns with the Resident Evil: Beginning Hour demo and it does one thing that the series has done before –Be scary.
The Beginning Hour demo isn’t going to be part of the game, but it does set up some important things in the meantime. Aside from understanding how the larger game will play, it subtly hints at how this seemingly original title fits into the Resident Evil canon.
Touching on the demo itself for a moment; Everything feels ridiculously smooth on the Xbox One. What I particularly loved was the fine motor control that the demo allows for. There were times where I felt as if I was playing a movie trailer with how smooth movement was. You can run around like a crazy person, but you can also creepy ever so slowly. We’ve come a long way and it’s nice to see those tank controls nowhere near this beauty.
The story itself is set up pretty nicely. You wake up in an abandoned house and are tasked with escaping. As you explore you find our details about just what the hell is going on. A VHS tape (from the future date June 2017) sees a group of paranormal television spooks enter the very house that you are trapped in. It’s a cool moment as you get to take control of the camera man.
I don’t want to spoil the experience, but things get pretty spooky before you are booted back into the house where you find a note left near the TV you are watching the video on. From there a creepy Texas Chainsaw Massacre guy walk by and you are on your own with the fact that a creeper is stalking about the house.
Gameplay is where things in Beginning Hour really shine. Nothing going on here is really any different than what we have seen before in other jump-scare type games, but the quality is far above anything we’ve seen or played before thanks to being from a AAA studio.
Unlike most of those games Resident Evil 7 is going to give you the chance to fight back with a combat system that is simple yet effective. The demo doesn’t give us a lot of ideas of the full games mechanics, but combat does happen. Well, it happens if you find the chance to do it.
Even though this is a demo there are multiple endings much like the way Silent Hill plays. Depending on what you do and in what order you are going to see a lot of different things. The demo itself can be played fairly straightforward and be completed in around 30 minutes or less, but if you explore the house and search out the demos secrets things will take much longer. In fact, there are five murders that you have to solve for those looking for a fun challenge.
There are both good and bad endings, but chances are people are going to be seeing the bad one more often than not. The other endings are a little more tricky, but these open up additional lore that ties the game directly into the Resident Evil lore with the appearance of the Umbrella symbol, some classic series inspired monsters, and what many think is a familiar face, err, voice.
But what I find most impressive is that the demo isn’t scary, instead it’s nerveracking. Look, I’m not going to Markiplier and PewDiePie this game (the above stream footage is strictly gameplay), but the game only has a few very brief jump-scares, most of which can be considered more creepy than anything. That said, the demo is still a lot of fun to play which says something that other games can’t.
Usually when you strip away the scares you are often left with a pretty bland gaming experience with games of this nature. This new Resident Evil looks to be fun with or without the jump-scares. I like this because those scares are like the icing on the cake of what looks to be a pretty cool game.
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