The seventh installment of the “Resident Evil” game series is a little bit of an odd one. If you are familiar with the series, this one would throw you off-guard within the first hour. Eventually the game pulls you back in with a familiar feeling and you start to realize that you are, in fact, playing “Resident Evil.”

The game revolves around a harmless, loving family from New Orleans, Louisiana until something went wrong. This setting is one of the best locations the game could have been centered around. It draws influences from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “Evil Dead,” and many other aspects of horror movies. The guys at Capcom knew that this would cause the players to be afraid. This is one of the many reasons that makes “Resident Evil 7” (RE7) so great and unique. It may possibly be the best game of the series to date.

It felt like the series needed a hard reboot considering the previous games were heading on a path that fans didn’t enjoy anymore. The plot became increasingly complex with each installment resulting in more action and less spooks because they were trying to compete with blockbusters such as “Call of Duty” and “Battlefield.”

“RE7” was the reboot the series needed, but not in the sense fans expected. For the first time ever, the game takes on a first-person perspective (which also gives the game a virtual reality compatibility). The fixed camera angles, over the shoulder shooting and stationary combat styles are long gone. The beauty behind the fixed camera feature is that it follows the trend of modern horror games, but it felt like a comfortable change. In order for the perspective to work, the game scattered items all throughout the house like under a bed or behind a dresser.

“RE7” went back to its roots with the unfamiliarity, claustrophobia and pressure of being hunted. Everything about the game arises a sense of nostalgia within the player. Most horror games today take the combat away and leave you completely helpless against enemies, meanwhile other games have limited combat in it. “RE7” has a combination of both where you initially feel helpless and then you start to pick up new weapons and become familiar with the game. Each of the weapons are familiar tools in the horror genre: a handgun, shotgun and a survival knife, which are the most basic of weapons found in any survival-horror game. Acquiring each weapon makes you feel like Bruce Campbell, getting ready to slay more of the undead.

Is the game scary? Yes. You’re trapped in a dilapidated home by the bayou being hunted by a Southern family who are trying to turn you into one of those things. You can almost hear the dad yelling, “Oh, boy, you gon’ get it when I get ya!” You can also hear creaks in the house, footsteps around the corner, and many other things that go on in the house that keep you on edge and make you feel a sense of dread. Most of all, these nuances do a great job of scaring you.

Capcom did it! They made “Resident Evil” scary again. After many awful sequels, the last edition worth playing was “Resident Evil 4”. However, “RE7” makes the series playable again and leaves players wanting more. The new format is definitely headed in the direction the series needed to be. As one of the best “Resident Evil” games to date and one of the scariest games around, “RE7: Biohazard” is worth every penny.

Miguel Garcia was a former TSV Multimedia Editor.