Like any long-running series, Resident Evil has had impressive highs and a few embarrassing lows. Every game has its defenders—except maybe Operation Raccoon City—and I mostly enjoyed Resident Evil 5, but it was obvious that it paled in comparison to 4. And this decline in quality led, inevitably, to the indulgent mess that was 6. Years of bewilderingly complex mythology and an increased focus on action over survival horror left the series bloated and confused, and a new approach was desperately needed.
Salvation arrived in the form of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, the best game since Shinji Mikami and his team boldly reinvented the series in 2005 with Resident Evil 4. I went into it blind, having religiously avoided previews and trailers, and emerged from the darkness delighted that Resident Evil was good again.
