I'll try to make this the third and final part of my little analysis here.
POST 2 OF THIS CAN BE FOUND HERE (
and post 1 from here).
Now, this leads to the overall question of what can we pull from what we know of RE7. This is not a complete outlook, just what can be pulled from everything so far.
This is the following I do think the game has from everything presented, and the sort of 'flow' we may expect from the game:
-We star as some 'regular joe' person who has to take up the task of living up to a nightmarish scenario he finds himself in. He has an inventory with limited item space (though based on the demo it does seem that inventory space can be upgraded and uses a grid-like system ala Resident Evil 4), and we know that he can fight back against his threats, which Capcom has reinforced multiple times. We also have seen a brief segment of him shooting off a handgun, you can get a fire axe in the demo that can attack, heavy attack, and block, and in the key art of the game you can make out a handgun, a shotgun, a grenade launcher, a knife, an axe, a sickle, and a pitchfork. We also know that puzzle items go into the inventory from the demo, and the game has healing items in herbs.
-It seems part of the game is the classic Resident Evil 'find an item and figure out what the hell it's for.' They have said that it is possible to beat the game without discovering what every item is for, certain items may be dangled like a carrot you cannot get at first (which implies back-tracking does exist), and have hinted that the game will present multiple mysteries to the player, but by, "playing it a certain way, you may not get the answers in your first run," which basically confirms the game has multiple endings, and due to how the demo presented hidden things and they teased this will also be in the final game, seems it might imply there's optional areas, items, and the like you can discover, and say they want people to talk about the game with friends and find out their friend or themselves did something the other person never even found, or experienced in their run in the game, and hope this encourages replayability.
-Outside of combat and hide'n'seek, they have said that they want threats to be tackable, and said in an early interview to pay attention to the environment and that other items can be used to take care of foes, but said they don't want to say too much.
-The enemies are supposed to be more 'personal', they have said this won't be a game about hordes of enemies, but stronger more intimidating foes, and for there to be multiple ways to tackle each scene, and that both fighting them is possible, but sometimes running may be for the best. The enemies we've seen so far seem to be the residents and possible abductees of the Baker Plantation, the main setting of the game. They don't seem to be mindless monsters as they seem to have the ability of speech, though also are shown not to be human. One thing of note is that one theme in a lot of the trailers is 'growth', and in the E3 reveal you can even see some weird plant growing over a room. My guess is that the plantation has some type of viral B.O.W. plant that is growing out of control, which ties into the plantation theme as well and explains all the weird fleshy roots that can be seen in most of the trailers (and in the initial reveal, there's someone who is in a room full of what looks like moving roots).
-Though the Baker Plantation is the game's focal point, it has been shown that a forest, a factory, and a city are other locations in the game, which does imply that while we start in the plantation, an outbreak to the nearby areas may occur during the course of the game (which also would explain why they made a fictional Louisiana town rather than just being somewhere in outback southern USA, since the town itself will play a role). There's some low-quality screens of the factory/city location, but some of these locations ( the plantation, forest, factory, and underground) are also shown in the key art for the game which Capcom hints has a 'lot of clues for the game'.
-VHS segments and other methods of 'playing the past' are in the game, seems these can effect the present in some way from the demo and hints by the developers, and play a big role in RE7. These segments are fully playable, and so far it seems for certain we know two and one is heavily hinted (the Sewer Gator TV crew in the Beginning Hour demo, Mia seems to play a role in the story as a 'mysterious girl' we follow the plight of through recordings she left behind, and it seems you may play as the cop character I mentioned in the previous post in some form, probably through a found footage section). They seem to allow us to play as other characters in different times, and doing some stuff in them effects the present as well. From the demo, you can replay these segments as many times as you like and can stop them in the middle to go back to the main game, so it seems playing these are not a requirement but have additional gameplay segments and clues, as well as can effect the present (in the demo, you never have to play the VHS tape to actually beat it, but playing it or not does lead to a different area, and you probably won't know about the secret passage without playing it).
-The levels seem to be more open-ended than linear from what we've seen so far. I don't doubt there will be linear segments, but it seems part of the gameplay design is to forge 'routes' and more open, explorable locations with items to find, back-tracking, etc. The demo has a bit of an open-ended house that's small, and this lantern trailer shows a location (another part of the plantation it seems) which has multiple paths and areas through it. When you start being chased by Marguerite Baker with the lantern, there is very clearly a forward, left, and right path you can take. The player in the trailer takes the forward route, but you can see where the left route leads inside as there's part of the floor that's collapsed on the ground and a door which would lead to where the left path would of taken you. In the part with the projector and the pedestal with the indentation, she goes outside and we also see a walkway on the swamp which has a couple different branching paths (one needs something to cross over though, like a pulley or a lift or something). The gameplay design seems to be more 'open explorable areas with various items, puzzles, supplies, and such', which you then tackle and make way through to the next area.
-There will be set-piece moments. Again, in the initial E3 trailer you can clearly see a segment of the player driving a car. Thought it'd be impressive if you can just pick up cars in town and if the whole town is more open-ended to explore, I am theorizing this is likely a more set-piece segment, and as every RE game (even the original!) had set-piece moments, I think RE7 will too that help diversify gameplay.
-Something that I should mention is the game is definitely split into chapters alas Resident Evil 4-6. The game is confirmed to have some post-release DLC that will release 'when it's available' after release. They come with the Deluxe Edition, and include 'four short story' gameplay segments in one (guessing something similar to the VHS tapes in the game), and 'one additional story chapter', which my guess will be like how they did Lost in Nightmares/Desperate Escape for RE5. This does mean there will be some post-launch DLC included with the Deluxe Edition, but also does show the game is probably split into chapters.
-With this, the game is confirmed to have unlockables. Of what sort is not fully known, though the series is known for bonus modes, costumes, etc. We do know there is an unlockable 'hardest difficulty', but in an honestly pretty stupid move, the hardest difficulty is unlocked from the beginning for those who preorder. I say stupid since the difficulty should be unlocked from the start if it's just the same game but harder, but it seems like it may be a 'remixed' harder version of the game, ala Inferno Mode in Revelations 1 or the unlockable hard difficulties in Capcom's Haunting Ground, which would be dumb to play that during your first playthrough if its meant to mess with your expectations from playing the original game. Alas, we do know unlockables are in though, and one of them is the game's hardest difficulty (which may remix and change stuff from the main game), which you have unlocked from the start when pre-ordering (which is still a dumb move). It also is doubtful the game wouldn't have a bonus mode, as literally every main RE game has had one since the Director's Cut of RE1, though I am expecting it to not be Mercenaries/Raid, but maybe a new take on the older 'battle' game they had for RE1-Code Veronica? Or maybe something else entirely different. Regardless, Capcom certainly knows the success of Mercenaries/Raid Mode, and I don't doubt there will be some bonus mode in RE7 as well.
-This is a note, but I think the game may have an upgrade system. This is more theory on my part, but for example, the inventory you have in the demo clearly has more room that can be expanded for additional pocket space, which reminds of the cache from RE4. But more so, Eurogamer asked Capcom if the game would have a 'Merchant', but their response was that the Merchant is in Spain, but that RE7 may have its own 'strangeness'. That and with the coin being in the recent Herb teaser for RE7, and that I do think Capcom know people liked upgrading their weapons in RE4/RE5, I am theorizing you can upgrade your inventory space and maybe your weapons. As a side note while I'm theorizing on things I've less observed but thought about, I wonder if there's item boxes in the game? You have limited inventory space, and in the demo there's a discard option you can't use (and a combine option), so I wonder if you place things on the ground ala Resident Evil Zero when you discard (or just get rid of them from your inventory for consumable items ala RE1-Code Veronica), and if you play inventory spaces to other spots.
-I think RE7 may have Save Rooms. If you pre-order the game on PS4, you get a PSN theme, turning on the theme it has a relaxing piece of music from RE7, which you can hear here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCPMKmlddk8
Taking my bets its the 'save room' theme (most RE PSN themes use the Save Room themes already, and RE7's PSN theme's music is of the relaxing sort), and that would hint the game has Save Rooms.
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Basically, I think the game will have hide'n'seek elements and will pull from hide'n'seek horror (they have confirmed they played every major first-person horror game while working on RE7, which would include Amnesia, Outlast, P.T., etc.), but they also said they don't want to be like those games, they want to give player the act to fight back, and say they want the game to be 'constantly surprising and full of gameplay twists', which I think they mainly want to keep a surprise. I kind of see what they're doing, with each thing they reveal they show a bit more of the game's elements (first one is just an exploration thing in the teaser demo, this new trailer they show hide'n'seek horror), i think what they're trying to do is show more and more of the gameplay elements slowly to show, "we got this, but look, we're more than that." But due to how slowly and this is all we have officially released, many think this is ALL there is, and only some people who take a deeper look and read/watch things closely may notice there's more going on.
So I think RE7 will be a big change for the series (obviously), and I think it will have moments that recall to other first-person horror games, but they have said that they are mainly pulling inspiration from RE1 and tried to understand the 'focal' points of the game, and I think we'll see more of that as time goes on, and does confirm there's puzzles, combat, limited inventory, etc. I think how they're seeing it is that they're doing a 'modern horror take' on Resident Evil, it uses doors for loading still, it has limited grid inventory from RE4, it has combat and methods to take out your enemies, but mixed with the more modern 'first-person hide'n'seek' angle, but since they've shown more of that in their early stuff, and they'll be showing more of the rest over time (there's a heavy hint another demo is releasing in September, probably around TGS, and they said they wanted other demo's to show other 'pillars' of the game, such as combat and puzzles), we'll see more as we see more.
I think it holds promise, and I am excited, but we won't know until we know. BUT, I do think it's more than just a hide'n'seek repetitive horror game, like some seem to think. But I admit I've gotten more excited for it as time has gone on, and as a person who plays a lot of horror games, new and old, I think this game may have more of an identity for itself than some may think, though it is definitely pulling some from recent first-person horrors and horror movies. Speaking of that, they said one horror work in particular inspired RE7 especially, but say they won't say what it is for now as it may spoil some key things about the story. I have my theories based on things, but to be seen. I don't think this will be like any RE before it, but also don't think it'll be like every indie horror game. This is just my observations, guesswork, and piecing together what we know, but I wanted to demonstrate my viewpoint and observations to show what I see as opposed to how many see first-person horror, character hiding, and jump to think that's all at play here.
