It was easy to lose heart after the garbage fire that was Res­i­dent Evil 6. Thank­fully, Cap­com stepped up and deliv­ered a brand new Res­i­dent Evil expe­ri­ence that is both brand new feel­ing and upholds the roots of what makes the series fun. Bring­ing the series into the first-person per­spec­tive was bold move, but it paid off with Res­i­dent Evil 7. Even though the point of view changed, every­thing about the game­play like man­ag­ing ammo, find­ing keys, care­fully nav­i­gat­ing cor­ri­dors and even open­ing doors still felt uniquely like it belonged in the series. Play­ing the game in vir­tual real­ity is one of the most intense expe­ri­ences I’ve done in gam­ing. Many parts of the game are very scary and being put into that world through a VR head­set only makes it that much more ter­ri­fy­ing. The story is self-contained enough that folks who are new to the series can eas­ily join in now, with some sly easter eggs for series vet­er­ans. The char­ac­ters, espe­cially the Baker fam­ily, are inter­est­ing to learn about and the story goes to some cool places by the end. Many peo­ple have crit­i­cized the lat­ter por­tion of the game for becom­ing more action heavy, but if you look at pre­vi­ous games in the series, it actu­ally fol­lows a sim­i­lar pat­tern in that regard. I played through this game four times in 2017 alone and will likely go back for another round in 2018. In any other year, this would have been an easy top spot, but I reluc­tantly call Res­i­dent Evil 7: Bio­haz­ard the 2nd best game of 2017.