This week, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard comes out. It’s one of the scariest games in the series, with a story that feels like a mix of The Evil Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. With a brand-new first-person view, it might take a while to get used to, so we’ve put together these tips to ensure you don’t lose your mind when you first start playing. Literally.
Take notes
The house in Resident Evil 7 isn’t as big as the mansion in the first game, but it’s still full of puzzles. You often have to go back and forth to solve these puzzles. For example, you can’t open this until you get a certain object. But sometimes you won’t get the thing you need for a while, so when you do, you might forget where it goes.
If you come across something that needs an item you don’t have yet, write down what it is and where it is in a notebook or the Notes app on your phone to find it again. Taking actual notes might seem like a waste of time, but it will help when you pick up a dog’s head statue and think, Argh, I can’t remember where I have to take this.
Take your time
You should be able to sprint when you’re being chased, but you shouldn’t do it when you’re by yourself. Each room in the house is full of small things to pick up. They are useful, like herbs, bullets, and other things. You won’t see the icon to pick up these common items until you’re close to them, so if you just run through the room, you might miss a lot of good stuff. Take your time and look in every nook and cranny of each room.
You should be proud of your block.
When you hold down the L1 or LT button, your arms go above your head to block attacks from the enemy. Even though this seems like a huge waste of time, depending on the attack, it can be pretty useful. Blocking won’t help much if someone comes at you with a big weapon or a chainsaw. You’ll still take a lot of damage even if you try to block.
But if it’s a normal attack, even from something that looks bad like a Molded, you should be able to shrug it off with little (if any) damage. This means that, if you have the courage, you can go face-to-face with a basic Molded and kill it with just a knife by blocking its attack and then slashing its weak head over and over as it stumbles back.
When using guns, keep your distance.
Molded might be able to be killed with a knife, but for other enemies, like those with big weapons, it’s best to stay back and use a gun. When you use a gun, remember that this is a Resident Evil game, so it can be hard to shoot.
Since you’re fighting human-like enemies who sometimes try to avoid your shots, you don’t want to find yourself in a situation where you must reload or switch weapons while someone is right on top of you. Keep your distance; if you need more space, don’t be afraid to use the Rapid Turn move and run away.
Keep checking your goals.
This one is easy to figure out, but you’d be surprised at how long it took us. In Resi 7, there is a running list of goals in the background that tells you what to do next. It doesn’t show you the goals right away as other games do.
If you get stuck at any point, open the menu screen, and you’ll see a message in the corner telling you what to do next. If you keep these goals in mind, moving from one puzzle to the next will be much easier.
Depending on how you play, combine items.
Putting things together is a big part of Resident Evil, and it’s the same here. But you can use different kinds of possible combinations. Use items that make sense for how you play the game.
If you’re a person who gets hurt, you might want to mix a chemical fluid with a herb to make a stronger first-aid medicine. But if you don’t get hurt often in the game, you can use the chemical fluid to make more ammunition by mixing it with gunpowder.
You can avoid some fights by using stealth.
At different points in the game, family members will also be looking for you while you’re looking around the house. Sometimes they attack you on purpose, but most of the time, those who act like the alien in Alien Isolation. This implies that they can move around the house as they please.
If you can remain out of their way without them seeing you, you can keep exploring the house and solving puzzles without obtaining into too many battles and using up valuable ammo. If you look around each room and hallway slowly and make sure it’s safe to go in before you do, you might be able to finish large parts of the game without causing any problems.
Safe rooms are places to collect your thoughts.
There are a few secure rooms in the house. The Laundry Room is the first one you’ll find. You won’t be attacked in these rooms, and you can often get more health or ammo from them. Each also has the famous “teleporting chest” from Resident Evil, which lets you put things in one and get them from the other.
Strangely, the safe rooms almost work like forcefields when one of the bad family members is chasing you. Run away, get to a safe room, and they will stop chasing you, even if they were right behind you running down the hallway. It’s strange, but you should try to enjoy it.
