Resident Evil 7 was the entry that brought the Resident Evil franchise back to its roots. Every Resident Evil game is almost built for speedrunning, making a lot of the cinematic storytelling frank and less impactful. However, a lot of the story and plot building for each Resident Evil is found in documents, journals, and newspapers that you find throughout the game, and Resident Evil 7 is no exception.
The number of documents that tell the tragic tale of the Bakers is sprinkled throughout the game, sometimes making it easy to miss even the littlest detail that adds to the background story. If Resident Evil 7 was a one-and-done playthrough for you, these details might be a reason to go give it another run-through.
5 A House Of Horrors
The Baker’s Residence is quite reminiscent of the derelict farmhouse in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series. From the get-go, you can sense there just something right about the gigantic house lit in the golden afternoon sun. Before finding the “Derelict House” tape, the house is just seemingly abandoned. You soon find that to be untrue.
The Newspaper Clippings
Throughout the latter half of the beginning of the game, you come across clippings that define an increasing number of disappearances in the area over the course of two years. You know that Mia went missing three years before, which would mean that it took over a full year for The Mold to transform the Baker family into a murderous clan.
Andre
The videotape “Derelict House” depicts three crew members of a TV show gathering footage for an episode. At the end of the videotape, you come across one of the members, Andre, and is bleeding from his mouth and eyes. After watching the videotape you begin to venture throughout the cellar and a body unearths in the flooded basement. The body is that of Andre’s.
4 The Victims
When investigating the rooms of the Baker Residence, you come across journals from people that were abducted. You will also come across a morgue-like room where a note on the wall tells the player that the code to unlocking a freezer door is in the names of the victims. After the door is unlocked a Molded creature comes out of the door.
Some, But Not All Of The Molded Were The Abductees
While in the Mine sequence of the game, you learn that during the trials of exposing people to The Molded toxin, that they cut their limbs off to track the regenerative capabilities of the monsters. Some of the monsters in the Mine do not have certain limbs.
While most of the molded creatures were once humans, some of the molded are completely manifested by Eveline.
Some Of Those That Were Abducted Were Children
During the “Happy Birthday” puzzle sequence as Ethan, Ethan tells Lucas a few choice words. Lucas responds with “Ethan, language. We have kids running around here somewhere. Maybe. Maybe not. I’m not sure anymore.”
The other disturbing fact is when you go to retrieve the arm of E-001, that you pull it off of what seems to be the corpse of a child.
3 Lucas Was Always Sadistic
We meet the son of Jack Baker, Lucas, pretty early on in the game. A very annoying young man that becomes the second most important antagonist in the game. With Lucas’s elaborate mechanical puzzles, traps, and mazes, we learn that Lucas is somewhat of a genius, as well as a psycho.
When you are tasked with finding the Keycards, we get access to Lucas’s childhood room. In his journals, we find that he is a young and ambitious inventor, but we also learn that he killed a childhood peer, Oliver. In the journal, Lucas explains that he invites Oliver over to play, but he locks him in the attic using his mechanized door. Eventually, Oliver’s screams and pounding stop, and a liquid begins to drip from the ceiling.
From the writing style, we know that this journal was written well before The Molded ever came in contact with Lucas. Unfortunately, we don’t get the satisfaction of finishing him off in the main game, but we do in the free DLC “Not A Hero” as Chris Redfield.
2 Clancy Had It Rough
Clancy was the cameraman in the Derelict House and we learn of his story at The Baker’s house from the beginning, middle, and end. Clancy was also the main character for the Resident Evil 7 VR tech demo, Kitchen.
Banned Footage DLC
The Banned Footage is a DLC pack that contains episodes. Of these episodes, Clancy is the main character of the majority of them. The Banned Footage that Clancy stars in is Nightmare, The Bedroom, and 21. Nightmare is essentially a take on the classic mercenaries mode, the only difference being is you play as Clancy. You must survive rounds of enemies while taking on Jack Baker. Another DLC where you play as Clancy is The Bedroom.
The Bedroom was an episode from the Banned Footage DLC, that stars Clancy and Marguerite Baker. Clancy is locked in a bedroom and is visited by Marguerite and being force-fed whatever nastiness she is cooking. He is trying to figure out the puzzles that are in the bedroom so that he can escape, but we know that his efforts are all for nothing. Lucas continues his torturous games with Clancy when he sets up a contraption to cause pain to Clancy when he loses a hand of blackjack.
Happy Birthday
After the Derelict House videotape, we also find a tape titled “Happy Birthday.” In this tape, we see that Lucas had put together an elaborate puzzle for him to complete. No matter how he completed it he was doomed. This videotape gives the player the details on how to complete the puzzle without dying, so Clancy’s death was not in vain.
1 The Callbacks To The Original
In Resident Evil 7, several elements in the gameplay and layout call back to the original Resident Evil trilogy.
Gameplay
Resident Evil was the video game that brought survival horror to the mainstream. With enemies in tight corners, item management, and conservation, and puzzle-solving, Resident Evil 7 hits all of the points that make Resident Evil’s survival horror on brand.
Story And Level Progression
Ethan has no idea what he’s about to get himself into as he ventures into the Bakers Residence, much like Jill and Chris arriving at the Spencer Mansion decades earlier. While the player is faced with the horrors lurking in the mansion, they unraveled the mystery from reading journals and documents. The Bakers Residence also closely resembles the Spencer Mansion as far as layout.
The Imagery From The Original
In the main hall of the Baker’s Residence, you will find a painting of the Arklay Mountains. The same mountains where the Spencer Mansion was located, right outside of Racoon City. Also, in the “Old Videotape” tape where you play as Mia, you will come across an open magazine where its title states “16 Years Since The Nightmare of Raccoon City: The Survivors Are Still Suffering” With Resident Evil 7 being subtitled Biohazard, the Japanese title for Resident Evil, all of the revival to the gameplay formula is very appropriate.
NEXT: Resident Evil 7 Boss Fights, Ranked From Least To Most Challenging
