Why should people be criticised for not liking or having reservations about the demo, or the direction that RE7 is taking?
I'm in the camp of people that have some reservations about RE7. I've seen a lot of cases where the people who are dissatisfied with what we've seen so far of RE7 have been talked down to, by people saying that RE fans are 'never satisfied' and that we wanted a return to horror and now we've got it, we're still not happy. It irks me when I see that. Yet I've seen very little of the people who are dissatisfied saying anything against the people who are happy.
I know people are arguing that we don't know much about the game, but we do know that there are going to be three significant changes:
- A return to the horror roots
- A switch to first person perspective
- The absence of the main Resident Evil characters
For me personally, the return to horror roots is a good thing, but Capcom have also taken away a lot of stuff that makes Resident Evil special to me. I've always loved the continuity in Resident Evil, and the characters were always a massive part of that. For 20 years it's been built upon a cast of characters that have been in the majority of the games, and now suddenly we're being told that the main campaign will have new characters. Also, I'm not overly fond of first person games, because I like to know what my character looks like. I don't buy into this 'putting yourself into the horror' thing, because I don't want it to be me experiencing the horror. I want to play it as somebody else and be told a story. It's funny how before the release of RE7, a lot of people talked about wanting Jill in there and yet hardly anybody has expressed disappointment about it. Even I expressed the same opinion, and I'm not a fan of Jill's. I know people were sick of Chris and Leon, but that doesn't necessarily have to mean no remaining characters, and the older characters can still be put into scary situations where ammo and weapons are scarce.
I can't comment on whether the demo plays like P.T. or Outlast or whatever other comparisons are being made, having not played either of them myself. But since Capcom researched a hell of a lot of first person horror games, is it possible that some of this has rubbed off in the demo? Again, I can't comment as to that but maybe it's a possibility.
I can't help but think that it was a bit of a bad move on Capcom's part to make the demo a 'tone setter'. I get that they want to play their cards close to their chest, but I'm confused as to why they thought putting the ghost girl and randomly appearing mannequins in there was a good idea, if the main game isn't going to have supernatural elements. And it's just silly how the family guy walks past the door, but in two seconds he's nowhere to be seen. I also didn't think the demo was very scary, and I only played it so much to try and figure out what to do with the dummy finger. I didn't get the feel of Resident Evil from the demo really, but if other people did, then that's fair enough.
At the end of the day, people are allowed to have their reservations, because there are some very significant changes being made that are a big part of the series. Change can be good, and it can be bad. I will withhold judgement until I've experienced the game itself and I will keep an open mind when I play it, but since we don't have much to go on right now, there's bound to be a few doubts, and we've got Capcom saying 'trust us' (which in itself suggests that they're aware that a lot of people won't get the RE feel from the demo), but I can't trust blindly. If people enjoyed the demo and are excited, then that's great. I can't fully agree with you, but I respect that. But the reasons for the concerns aren't baseless, and the people who have doubts should be respected too.
