Psychological Terrors in Resident Evil 7
If anything, people thought that Resident Evil had begun to focus too much on the pew-pew and not enough on the terrifying, blood-curdling, hair-standing fear. However, Resident Evil 7 intends to bring back the that psychological kind of fear. The fear that completely robs you of your breath when you’re trying to not die. The fact that you’re no longer obeying the law of unlimited bullets, you can’t just riddle the person with bullets like you wish you could. Worse part is, there are going to be some creatures that are immortal. Yes, your attacks will be completely useless.
So, what are these psychological terrors you’re going to be facing in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard?
Personal Fable: Law of Unlimited Bullets
Most shooting games obey one law: the law of unlimited bullets. It’s easy to just reload and fire again. It’s as if you’re running on unlimited bullets. But that don’t happen anymore in Resident Evil 7. Now, you’re forced to obey the laws of reality. Your gun’s gonna be useless (unless you’re okay with pistol-whipping your enemy to death) if you don’t find bullets. It’s the game of survival. This is where the theory of Personal Fable comes to play. Except, it works in reverse. Personal Fable involves one thinking that they’re so unique and special that they’ll survive and have special powers. Unfortunately for you, it doesn’t work here. Your Personal Fable is completely shattered by the fact that you’ll have to scramble for bullets to survive the night.
They can’t die, but you can.
Remember the Bakers? Well, here’s the next problem: you can’t kill ’em. No matter what you hit ’em with, they ain’t gonna die. They’re gonna keep coming after you and clawing at your flesh while enjoying your terrified screams of agony. You’d probably think – ‘hey, I can just riddle them with bullets and they’re gonna go down!’
Yeah, what a nice train of thought. If it worked that is.
The Bakers are people who will constantly chase you down. The psychological idea here? Pure trauma. The trauma won’t only be getting smacked around by a shovel or getting stabbed. You’d think that there’s some mystical or awesome cut-scene that prevents you from kicking the bucket?
Nope, that ain’t happening.
Worst part is, what the hell is a check point? It’s called manual save points.
So imagine, 4 hours of desperately running only to get killed and lose all that progress. It’s called Conditioning. Time to condition yourself to save before you do some crazy, death-defying act.
Environment Terror: Enter the world of the Sociopath
Take a look at the place; the mansion pretty much screams “creepy” and “disturbed”. A mansion sits in the middle of nowhere. The skies around it are dead that there are no animals willing to near it. Heck, the plants around it are dead. Some can dismiss it as simple human neglect but the irony is that there are people inside the mansion.
The demo itself demonstrated the kind of sick, twisted, misanthropy lying in the house. Check out the kitchen; you ‘d think you’re just going to find some rotten cheese or some plastic bags here and there. Oh well, let’s find something for dinner. Would a deep fried human be fine? Oh, the stove isn’t working. We’ll just have to eat this decaying, blood-soaked mass of scarred tissue raw.
Need to take a dump? Sure, the toilet’s working. If you want to use blood as the water to drain your dump, that is.
A sociopath is a person who has a complete “disregard of moral consequence in society”. They also show “no adherence to the rule”. The Bakers clearly fall under that; their murders and even the characters of the Bakers. The father clearly some heightened levels of aggression. The son, a juvenile, and the mother clearly a hysteric. All this falls under the definition of a psychologically dysfunctional family. And let’s not forget, you’re eating raw human entrails. Only the creators of this game probably know how old those entrails are.
However, the problem with this is that the old-time players of RE may suffer a sense of desensitization. Desensitization meaning you’re not gonna enjoy as much.Why? Because, this can tantamount to a “yeah, been there, done that, and got the 100% game + postgame file to prove it.”
So, any others?
Since the demo, Resident Evil 7 has done their job in going back to their roots. They intend to resurrect the old kind of terror. It’s the kind of terror that shatters even the deepest portions of your mind. They seek to implant nightmares that will fill you with more anxiety than what reality already gives you. But who knows? Maybe when the whole game comes out, there will be more psychological theories and easter eggs for us to pick on.
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