Resident Evil 7 Biohazard is a massive departure for Capcom’s flagship franchise, replacing third-person zombie killing with a more atmospheric first-person experience, and dumping classic characters like Leon Kennedy and Jill Valentine for a new “everyman” protagonist. Its demo, available right after Sony’s E3 press conference on Monday, clearly took a page out of the canceled Silent Hills‘ “Playable Teaser,” but if you expect to see this scene again come January, think again: It’s not in the game.
E3 2016: I like playing shooters, too. But can’t we do better?
Speaking to Polygon, director Koshi Nakanishi said that while the demo is “full representative” of the final game, the scene will not actually be in the game to avoid spoilers.
It sounds strikingly similar to P.T., which was likely to also be a one-off demo that wouldn’t be in the finished Silent Hills, but Nakanishi stressed that Resident Evil 7 will still feature plenty of weapons — it’s not going after the “just run” horror audience that has grown so much in recent years.
While the demo may not make it into the finished product, we were told by Capcom at E3 that it serves as a prologue for Resident Evil 7 and features a different protagonist than that of the rest of the game. And while the lack of familiar faces may make the game feel more like a reboot than a sequel, it will still be canon to the series.
Resident Evil 7 might just win the award for “best booth” at this year’s show, creating a terrifying house complete with dim lights, peeling paint, and for some reason, multiple front doors. If Capcom decided to build a Resident Evil theme park with multiple buildings to explore, we’d be all over it.
Resident Evil 7 arrives to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on January 24. The entire game will be playable in PlayStation VR.
