Earlier this year Capcom teased fans with a playable demo for its upcoming new addition to the Resident Evil franchise. The demo seemed heavily inspired by the ill-fated teaser for Hideo Kojima’s Silent Hills, appropriately titled PT. PT may be dead, but Resident Evil 7 is alive and well. In fact, today the ESRB has help to demystify some of what Capcom has in store for us.
No, we don’t know what to do with that weird dummy’s finger, but we do know that Resident Evil 7 will be a first person survival-horror game that follows protagonist Ethan through a derelict mansion as he searches for his missing wife. It seems that Ethan will utilize “Pistols, shotguns, flamethrowers, explosives and chainsaws to kill mutant creatures.” So, basically it’s a Resident Evil game. More specifically, it’s a classic Resident Evil game, seemingly stepping away from the massive saga of corporate bio-weapons and the elite task force meant to stop them that has been more prevalent with recent releases.
The ESRB listing goes on to reference a few of the more graphic cutscenes, involving dismemberment via chainsaw and someone being impaled by a shovel to the face. In case you haven’t already guess, Resident Evil 7 is rated M, for “Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, [and] Strong Language.”
Combat has always been a big part of any Resident Evil game, so none of this is particularly surprising. It is, however, nice to see Capcom taking more than just the first person presentation from Silent Hill, but also its grimier feel comes through in a big way through both this listing and the demo. Also, this looks to be a far more personal story than Chris and Jill’s romp through the Arklay Mountains, though I doubt that Ethan will find his way into his own personal punishment land brought on by his own psyche, but I could be wrong.
Resident Evil 7 is set to release January 24th 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.