The game that singlehandedly saved the series.

Pre-Ordered it for the PS4 back in 2017, but double dipped because the Gold Edition was on sale recently.
RE7 is just what the series needed. Takes it back to its survival horror roots and manages to be scary while also silly.

You go from having your hand chainsawed off by your wife who had been missing for 3 years at the beginning of the game, to running over an old man with a car, to having a chainsaw fight with him a few hours later, to beating the ♥♥♥♥ out of the enemies with your bare fists in the DLC, to losing your fingers in a game of blackjack in another DLC.

On the other hand you have moments where the game genuinely tries to scare you, you can be walking up the stairs from the mold-filled basement to hear the sound of an old woman humming who wasn't there before, then she stops as she sees you. Then you turn your back so she starts again, but when you look again she vanishes. The old man from before can also chase you around the house and taunt you as you hide from him. The game even culminates in a busted-out tanker where you walk past the bodies of people who have been quite literally frozen in place by mold, the horrified expression on their faces still present years after the disaster.

This game has it all.

This game is easily my Game of the Year and is definitely in my Top 5 games of all time.

Everything about this game is perfect. The music, the variety, the levels, the humor, the homages to old cartoons, the controls.

The game tries a lot of things when it comes to it's variety, some you probably won't even be expecting, but it never overstays it's welcome and everything it tries works so well even when you think it shouldn't.

The challenge can get intense, but even then you just want to keep going, and when you overcome it you feel real accomplishment. Then when you go back and replay the parts you struggled with you realize how far you've come and get through them no problem, sometimes even doing a perfect run without trying to as you are always improving and always finding new ways to perfect your moves.

The story isn't complex, but it doesn't need to be and it definitely doesn't stop the climax of the game from being one of the coolest moments I've experienced in gaming.

Easily the best $20 I have ever spent.