Sony had a handful of VR surprises for us at their Pre-E3 event last night and one of them will be very welcome to survival horror fans. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is coming to PlayStation VR this year and will be fully playable inside the VR headset from beginning to end.
At this early stage, one of the criticisms levelled at virtual reality in general is that there isn’t enough fully fledged, long form gaming content available. Sony are looking to address this for their PlayStation VR platform, due to launch in the US on October 13th, and one of the titles they’re bringing to the immersive realm is one of the longest running surivival horror franchises, Resident Evil.
Resident Evil 7 is to support PlayStation VR and will let players experience the terror inside virtual reality from start to finish. Now celebrating it’s 20th year, Resident Evil practically invented the modern survival horror genre when it first appeared for the PlayStation in 1996. On stage in LA at Sony’s pre-E3 event last night, the first trailer (embedded at the top of this page) for the 7th instalment looked very promising and developer Capcom’s commitment to managing the experience for VR throughout is significant.
Capcom teased the horror franchise for PSVR at E3 last year, with a special VR experience presented to attendees simply known as Kitchen. Now, RE7 is set to land on both PlayStation VR and PSVR on January 24th, just a few months after the launch of Sony’s VR hardware.
Capcom describe how RE7 will help evolve the series “with an immersive first-person view and a photorealistic graphical style,” before going on to confidently state “Playing the game in the PlayStation VR Mode escalates the unsettling feeling of presence to a level that horror fans have never experienced. That’s right, the full gameplay experience is available in the included PlayStation VR Mode from beginning to end. No Resident Evil you’ve ever survived could prepare you for this.”
PlayStation 4 owners with PlayStation Plus memberships looking to get a taste of what’s to come next year can also grab the Resident Evil 7 Teaser: Beginning Hour demo, already available for the platform. Don’t be too concerned with ruining the full game though, Capcom has you covered “We don’t want to spoil your time playing Beginning Hour by offering too many details, so start your download now and prepare to face your fears.”
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard will be released for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR on January 24th 2017.