Pros & Cons
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- Fantastic gameplay that perfectly straddles the line between action and survival.
- Slower movement and a defensive focus keeps encounters tense.
- Great graphics.
- Satisfying story.
- VR enhances horror and shooting elements.
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- Small enemy variety.
- Randomized enemy spawning can be frustrating at times.
- Underutilized limb-destruction mechanic.
- Some under-powered weapons.
- Cutscenes in VR can make you sick.
- Interface and graphical quirks in VR spoil the immersion.
Resident Evil 7 Biohazard (for PlayStation 4) Specs
| Product Category | Sony PlayStation 4 (PS4) |
| Product Price Type | Direct |
We originally reviewed Resident Evil 7: Biohazard for PC and were impressed by its skillful return to the series' tense horror game roots. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard for PlayStation 4 ($499.00 at Amazon) ($59.99) is the same excellent game, but with one important distinction—virtual reality support. In fact, you can play the entire game in virtual reality using PlayStation VR. It's a very immersive experience, but there are too many frustrating (and occasionally sickening) quirks to recommend playing in this manner.
You can get a closer look at the game, and our encounters with the creepy Baker family, in our Resident Evil 7: Biohazard ($29.99 at Humble Bundle) for PC review. Here, we're focusing on the virtual reality experience. Since the VR mode is completely optional and the game is otherwise identical to the satisfying PC version, our problems with the VR experience don't affect the game's rating.
Playing in VR
Developer Capcom has several options in place to facilitate a comfortable VR experience. By default, you turn instantly in 30-degree arcs using the right analog stick. You can change that to 45 or 90 degrees, or set movement to smooth, unlocked turning. I unlocked the turning because the jarring camera shifts were both irritating and limited my ability to control the game. You can also adjust whether the camera speed is constant or if it accelerates as you move your head, and switch between field-of-view settings that change your perspective depending on your action. Unfortunately, you can't adjust the field of view itself as you can with the other viewing options.
Besides the camera and interface adjustments you can make, Resident Evil 7 is the same game in VR as it is played on a TV or monitor. None of the content is different, and the VR experience uses the same interface elements for looking through your inventory and at your map. When you bring up the inventory or map screen in VR, it floats in front of your face—a nice touch. Likewise, items and environments that you can interact with use similar floating icons. You interact with them using button presses, as you would in the non-VR version of the game.
That said, gun combat is the biggest control change. You can freely aim by moving your head, which makes lining up shots easier than using the right analog stick.
In terms of frights, PlayStation VR's ($269.99 at Best Buy) immersion enhances Resident Evil 7's tension. The experience is so much more stressful when your entire view is consumed by the game and you can't look away. While jump scares are fundamentally cheap, they're much more effective in VR and add to the dread as you explore the environments.
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The Silly and the Sickening
While VR improves some aspects of Resident Evil 7, such as its immersion and gun combat, the tech doesn't always gel with the game's design. Certain elements rip you out of the immersion, and they might make you sick in the process.
For starters, the game renders your character's arms to just above the elbow. This is fine when playing on a normal screen, because you don't see that the rest of your body isn't there. On the other hand, if you lean back in VR mode, it looks like you're controlling a pair of floating oven mitts instead of playing as a person. The arms float and move relative to your position, but that changes when you perform an action. When that occurs, the arms stay in place while you're free to move your head. It's all a bit odd.
Subtitles are another problem. If you enable subtitles, they appear as text floating a fixed distance away from you. That usually isn't a problem, but in scenes where characters are very close to the dialogue, the figures clip through the subtitles and block the words with their bodies. It's a weird, jarring effect.
Neither of these issues is as frustrating or uncomfortable as how Resident Evil 7 handles the camera during cutscenes. Every time the game takes control of the camera, and every time the camera changes to a new point of view, the game cuts to black for a moment. On a screen, this would just be a slightly awkward transition you might not notice, but it's sickening in a VR headset. Struggling with Mia near the beginning almost made me physically ill from the scene flashing off every few seconds. Resident Evil 7 brought me to the brink of hurling more than any other VR product I've tested.
Excellent, Regardless of VR
Resident Evil 7 has some interesting benefits on PlayStation VR, but they don't outweigh the problems. Aiming using your head and enjoying immersive horror are two great points. You just need to deal with horrible flickering during cutscenes and some really ridiculous engine quirks in the process.
The problems Resident Evil 7 has with VR don't affect the game itself, which you can always play normally on your TV or monitor. It's a fantastic game on its own, even if you should think twice before putting a headset on to play it. Despite our problems with its VR implementation, the PlayStation 4 version of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard shares the PC version's score and Editors' Choice distinction.
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Further Reading
Final Thoughts
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (for PlayStation 4) Review
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard for the PlayStation 4 is every bit as good as the PC version, with the added feature of PlayStation VR support. Playing the game in VR, however, can be awkward and unpleasant.