Resident Evil 7: biohazard, Released 2017, Developed by Capcom, available on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.
Note: This post explores an experience where you regularly shift control from the protagonist to a suite of secondary characters. To make this easier to read, I’m generalizing somewhat, and using the following terms throughout:
HERO: This is the primary, anchoring character of the narrative.
EXTRA: These are temporary characters, often visiting the same location in the past.
Also, I will be dipping gently into spoiler territory for Sleeping Dogs, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and The Last of Us Part II.
I think it’s reasonable to expect the seventh game in a beloved horror game series to be scary. Resident Evil 7 leverages a few standards of the franchise, including a sprawling and labyrinthine property to explore, lumbering zombie-like enemies, and never quite enough ammo and health to feel comfortable. It injects some spice into the formula with disgustingly detailed graphics (the goo is a bit too gooey). For the first time ever, it uses a first person perspective to constantly drive the feeling that something awful exists just outside of your view. Finally, it introduces a video tape based gimmick I absolutely adore.
There are VHS tapes hidden throughout the big scary house. When the HERO pops the tape into a VCR, the tape spins up, and control shifts (for a limited period of time) to an EXTRA recorded on the tape.
In my last post, I discussed the tendency of games to leave behind recordings to convey story tidbits. I maligned them for being static, a drag on pacing, and often purely flavor instead of critical plot devices. Capcom took this nigh-exhausted premise and turned it into an interactive and meaningful sequence. Brilliant!
Regardless of genre, I think it’s downright frightening how many games could leverage a Playable Foreshadowing Device. I’m going to make my case for this outstanding idea with four points.
A matter of perspective: Games are so often experienced through a single perspective. Yes, you have class-based multiplayer games, but that’s more a matter of alternative weaponry than a robust shift in personality. Apologies to the Team Fortress 2 Heavy.
Call of Duty has always split the game between multiple heroes inhabiting different boots, like being a part of the Soviet human wave at Stalingrad, or an incredibly deadly special forces operator in Modern Warfare. They present a spectrum from boisterous charges and artillery bombardments to silent kills and sniper rifles. But, these shifts are more of a momentary pivot in the level of adrenaline being injected into your arms. It felt like a pacing lever being used more than a true change of perspective.
There are successful examples. The Last of Us Part II tells its story through the eyes of two fully realized protagonists. This is one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much. At the outset, I never thought I’d shift support so fully from Team Ellie to Team Abby, but here we are. This outcome only works due to perspective.
When playing as Resident Evil 7’s HERO, you know how you move, fight, and where to hide from scary things in the house. But, playing in the tape as an EXTRA, everything might change. The EXTRA may be forced to flee from the situation because they are unarmed. They are forced to take step after agonizing step forward in the dark, spooky house inhabited by the HERO in the narrative timeline, because as the EXTRA you do not know where you are and the only light you can see is directly ahead.
There are even moments where you play as the HERO’s wife, the person you’re trying to save at the outset. You learn more about her story and capabilities. The perspective, without burdensome exposition, transforms her from a demonic damsel in distress to someone with agency and purpose.
This additional perspective grants the developer a chance to remix and refresh their core experience, even for a short period of time. Perspective means you can change the rules to fight the repetition so common in games. Some of those shifts are rather dire, which leads us to…
Do whatever you want to the player somebody else: The original Modern Warfare killed you in a nuclear blast. It was rather shocking when it happened, because most games engineer a way for the protagonist to escape. Nobody appreciates the cheap demise of a character in whom you’ve invested time and emotion. Still, when games engineer a big dramatic scene and don’t carry it to its conclusion, well, that also feels like a missed opportunity.
To make my point, at the end of Sleeping Dogs, you’re outed as an undercover cop, strapped to a chair, and tortured rather gruesomely. Alas, the bad guy steps away for a break, the two guards stop paying attention, and you crawl to a sharp edge to cut the ropes binding your hands.
At one point, a dude was using a power tool on me! Moments later, I was performing kung fu against dozens of guys, as per usual. It went from thrilling to yawn quickly. It was like nothing had happened.
Even Resident Evil 7 makes this mistake! In the first 15 minutes of the game, the HERO’s hand is chopped off. You wake, moments later, to find it…sewn on. The hand works perfectly for the rest of the game and it isn’t discussed.
The point is, conclusive twists are rarely applied to the protagonist. But, that protection does not exist for EXTRAS, which means the foreshadowing device provides ample opportunity to explore big, bold outcomes.
One of the EXTRAS is a camera operator for a cable TV reality show that explores haunted houses. His demise is obvious. Expected even. Except, in a subsequent video, the EXTRA is still alive and you experience his actual demise in an escape room. You keep thinking the EXTRA just might make it out, but that is not their fate. The designers spared the EXTRA on the first tape, which led me to naively hold out hope.
I knew HERO was safe, always, which they made abundantly clear with their *cough* sleight of hand. On tape, as an EXTRA, I had no clue what would happen to me when I was playing them, and I loved that uncertainty. Which leads us to…
Make a meal out of the tension: The famous magicians illusionists Penn & Teller have a reputation for disclosing their tricks. The magic is not in the mechanism of the trick itself, but the wonder and majesty unveiled before the audience’s eyes.
The Resident Evil video tapes sometimes introduce a part of the house to an EXTRA. Other times, you might experience a part of the house as the HERO after seeing something big, nasty, and terrifying on film. They flip flop and never fall into a predictable pattern.
Back in the main narrative timeline as the HERO, as you step around the corner, one you’ve been around before as an EXTRA, your inner voice initiates a dialog:
The developers know I remember this monster jumping out from behind this corner in the video when I was an EXTRA. Surely, they won’t do it again?
Although, NOT expecting it there again is precisely what they would like. Fool me once, as they say…
But if I’m looking left, what will stop them from anticipating that and placing a new monster on the right?
It’s delightful. They’re toying with you because they intentionally manufactured this exact moment. They don’t need to implement new systems or introduce new monsters. They send you down the hallway as an EXTRA, then they bring you back to the hallway as a HERO, and calmly ask, “what’s the worst that can happen?” It’s magical.
Point things out (without pointing things out): Finally, foreshadowing serves a function to guide the player. Think about how most games give you an arrow to tell you which direction to go, put a special outline on the enemy you need to eliminate, and icons appear on the map to show you points of interest.
I recognize that games need to tell you what’s going on. They need to provide the information you need to make decisions. But, when games integrate the communication seamlessly, like the wind in Ghost of Tsushima that flows in the direction you need to travel, it inspires and delights me.
For Resident Evil 7, they greatly leverage the fundamental repetition of the video tape mechanism. You realize the EXTRAS and HERO are in the same house, which means there is value in being observant. In one tape, right as the EXTRA was being dragged away to be harmed, presumably, I noticed a rare and important item in the corner.
There was nothing on screen. Only that the camera angle was arranged just so. I knew they wanted me to see it. I appreciated the craftsmanship of letting the player enjoy discovery without the burden of a lecture.
I was conducting a drug bust in Sleeping Dogs where the player must observe a hand off through a camera feed, identify the dealer, and wait for the cops to arrest them. I missed the animation, but after 30 seconds an icon appeared. This really drained an immersive experience of its mojo, just leaving me, a dork in his living room, playing a video game.
This subtle method to guide the player isn’t easy and requires extensive iteration to ensure folks get it. But, the reward is a more immersive experience in which you give your players the gift of cleverness.
The One Cool Thing
Resident Evil 7 introduces a Playable Foreshadowing Device. It provides perspective, uncertainty, tension, and guides the player. But also, it takes a video game cliche, the audio recording, and makes it an interactive experience.
More games should introduce this twist, if for no other reason than to experiment with more finite rules and experiences that may not provide a full game’s worth of content, but can really shake things up temporarily.
Preview for Next Time
The next post will spend a little more time in the zombie quadrant of video games as we explore The Last of Us. The original game was remastered in 2014 and is $20 or less. You have until February 11th to play this exceptional, 15 hour game.
Currently Playing
Sniper Elite 4 is a boring name for a rich experience I would instead call Sabotage the Reich. It isn’t a sniping simulation, though it adds depth beyond your typical shooter. Instead, you’re dropped into large levels like an Axis naval base and tasked with sabotage. You will use stealth and dirty tricks to get the job done. This isn’t Call of Duty.
When you add a friend it really sings. In one situation, each of us targeted different explosive objects, conveniently surrounded by enemy soldiers. We waited for a plane to mask the sound of our shots. There were big explosions, enemy soldiers flying in all directions, and none of the surviving sentries could locate us.
In another, my friend was covering me from a rooftop while I was sprinting between parked tanks in a vehicle depot to plant explosives. The Germans were not happy about this. It felt like a heist with Nazis and consequences we absolutely deserved.
You can play this game on every platform.
Holiday Game Recommendation
January 28th is National Data Privacy Day! In honor of this widely celebrated holiday, I recommend Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition. This Hong Kong based undercover cop action romp is full of hacking. You’re bugging phones, cracking safes, tracing calls, and hacking cameras, all in the name of justice.
Silliness aside, this game rules, and stands out boldly in the often trite, tedious, and repetitive open-world genre. I was so impressed, even though it was released a decade ago. Find it on PC, PlayStation, or Xbox.
Thank you for reading! If you liked what you read, please subscribe and share, but also, let me know what you think. See you in two weeks.
Edited by Joshua Buergel