Resident Evil 7 has been one hell of a creepy mystery since it was announced back at E3 2016, but new details courtesy of an ESRB ratings summary has lifted the veil somewhat.
Obviously, if you want to go into the first person horror game completely fresh, then it’s perhaps best that you don’t read on.
Oh, and big thanks to Twitter user Wario64, who managed to grab a saucy screenshot before the information was pulled from the site.
Resident Evil 7 is ESRB rated pic.twitter.com/kle0BZY8Zd
— Wario64 (@Wario64) August 26, 2016
First up, Resident Evil 7 is rated M for mature, in a move that should surprise nobody.
What’s interesting (and reassuring for longtime fans) is that players will get to use a whole host of weapons like ‘pistols, shotguns, flamethrowers, explosives, and chainsaws’ against strange mutant beasts.
Compared to the nonexistent combat in the demo from a while back, it seems we’ll be getting our hands dirty – though I imagine flight is usually preferable to fight, in true classic Resident Evil style.
The summary also mentions a fair amount of violence – more visceral and gory sounding moments than we’ve ever seen in a Resident Evil game before.
For example, there are apparently bodies with their insides flapping around for all and sundry to see, scenes of dismemberment, and a moment where a character gets a shovel put through their face, if you can dig it (seewhatIdidthere?).
Oh, there’s also plenty of swearing too – but compared to a shovel through the face, who gives a shit about a few fucks here and there?
Not much was revealed in terms of story, other than that we’ll be playing as a chap called Ethan. He’s on the search for his wife, and a creepy old mansion is obviously part of that search.
Beyond that, we know there’s a cult-like family with a creepy past, and that it’s set after the events of Resident Evil 6.
Speaking of previous games in the series, Matt Mercer, the current voice actor for Resident Evil’s Leon Kennedy (of 2, 4, and 6 fame) recently spoke to GameSpot about classic characters popping up in Resident Evil 7.
Unfortunately, it would seem that the upcoming game is ‘scaling back’ these kind of cameos. Considering Resident Evil 6 was a veritable smorgasbord of familiar faces, the only way they can scale is back.
Still, Mercer reckons that’s the right call for the franchise going forward:
As far as 7 goes, I think they’re scaling back a little bit on throwing in all the classic cameos. I can say that I don’t have any involvement in 7 directly. But I think it’s also good of them, especially coming off of [Resident Evil 6] and its lukewarm reception, to go ahead and reestablish their roots and maybe start an original story. And if they decide that that does well, maybe they can then marry it in with the previous stories.
Resident Evil 7 comes to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in Janurary 24, 2017.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.