How Resident Evil 7 Saved Resident Evil [video]

A lot of video game talk on HN recently, but the Resident Evil series has had a pretty impressive comeback over the past few years. Having recently gone through RE7 and RE8, it's really cool seeing a classic franchise take the lead in cinematic horror experiences again, especially since they've really started pushing technical boundaries again. RE7 is a whole different experience from the standard shooter-shlock that the series had devolved into after 4, and took a lot of risks while basing everything on a revamped game engine that won a lot of people over.

Resident Evil 8 might seem sorta lame in comparison (and maybe it is, that's not what I care about though), but the detail in the models of that game are truly remarkable. Especially the architecture and interior spaces; I can't even begin to imagine what kind of render pipeline or asset capture is required to get such great-looking buildings. The shaders and material work come through gorgeously, and look even better with RT enabled. From a visual standpoint, it feels like a culmination of the last 20-some years of incremental 3D rendering improvement.

A lot of people are pretty disenfranchised with the idea of "next-gen" games, but Capcom's RE team is one of the few studios that consistently pushes the envelope in overall visuals. Hats off to them, now if only they could figure out their dismal DRM issues...