• Posted January 23rd, 2014 at 07:06 EDT by Michael Harradence

RESIDENT EVIL 7

Capcom’s venerable survival horror franchise has had a tumultuous time of it as of late, and quite frankly, has lost its identity. RE6 was a jack-of-all-trades but sadly a master of none, offering an incoherent action-horror fest punctuated by acts of promise and brilliance, but ultimately didn’t deliver. With next-gen now underway, it’s the ideal time to reinvigorate this once-mighty brand, bringing it back to its core roots -- survival horror, zombies, puzzles and tense atmosphere. Looking back, the nearest to that quintessential RE experience came with RE: Revelations last May, so Capcom has a perfect building block from which to start. While we’re at it, it would be great to reunite some of the older cast who we haven’t seen for a while; perhaps Barry Burton or Claire Redfield could pop up again? More than anything though, it’s about time RE banished its reputation as an action-shooter with zombies and went back to what made the franchise so great in the first place.