REVIEW: Resident Evil 7: Banned Footage

Resident Evil 7 is one of the best horror games released in a long time. If you’ve played it you probably already know that. The only downside of the game is that it’s roughly ten hours long and once you beat it there isn’t much else left to do. Luckily, Capcom has released some really great add-ons in the form of the Banned Footage packs which offer a variety of different modes with different types of gameplay.

Whether you’re looking for a good story, intense, fun combat, or some puzzles, these packs have you covered. This review will be broken down by each mode with an overall score at the end, if you’re looking for new Resident Evil 7 content, you’ll probably want to pick these up in the future.

Banned Footage: Volume 1

Bedroom

Bedroom is one of the most unique modes offered in this pack. You play as Clancy, the character from the demo and some of the tapes found in the main game. You’re chained down to a bed and Mrs. Baker is treating you like a son almost. She brings you disgusting food that she cooks with love, but if you eat it you’ll just throw it back up. When she leaves the room, she locks the door and you must find a way to escape. Luckily, your chains are loose and you can roam the room looking for a way to escape.

You’re going to have to use all of your wits and scour every corner and tiny crevice of the room if you want to get out. Examine notes and clues to find out what you need to escape and even learn some backstory. For a mode that takes place entirely in one room, I had a lot of fun. If you make too much noise, Mrs. Baker will come back upstairs and you have about thirty seconds to a minute to put everything back that you moved. If she notices something’s missing or in the wrong place, she’ll unleash her wrath on you and it’s quite grotesque. It’s a really fun piece of content and adds an intense layer of suspense to an already terrifying game.

Nightmare

Nightmare is a wave-based horde mode which requires you to survive until dawn in the basement of the Baker House. You earn scrap by killing enemies and using a machine that produces more which in turn allows you to craft weapons, skills, bullets, and more resources you’ll need to survive. If you’ve never played Resident Evil 7, the basement of the Baker House is probably one of the tightest, most claustrophobic spaces you could imagine. The hallways are narrow, the rooms are filled with objects to prevent you from having too much space, and the enemies will stop at nothing to back you into a corner and kill you.

I couldn’t stop clenching my controller due to how intense it ended up getting. I got so nervous I kept narrowly missing easy shots and wound up wasting vital ammunition. If you’re a bad shot or a nervous wreck like me, you’ll want to buy some traps lying around the map which will buy you some time to catch your breath and regain your sanity. It’s a fun challenge and the better you do, the more items you’ll unlock for the next time you play. The first time I died, I ended with about 70,000 points and was allowed to buy a machine gun among many other items on my next run.

Ethan Must Die

Ethan Must Die is an arcade-like shooter where you must make your way through the Baker House while picking up power-ups and other resources in an old-school Doom-Wolfenstein fashion. This mode is brutally difficult: enemies are harder, all of your weapons are given to you at random, and you must fight your way through the house just to get to an even harder boss battle with Mrs. Baker. If you like difficult games, this is right up your alley!

Banned Footage: Volume 2

Daughters

Daughters is a prologue to the story of Resident Evil 7. It’s the origins of the Baker family and how they came to be the despicable animals they are in the main game. Turns out, they were a really kind, loving family prior to the incident and you end up feeling absolutely awful for them as they slowly descend into madness.

Not only is it fairly sad, it’s horrifying for multiple reasons. This loving family becomes incredibly abusive and it’s very dark. Sadly, it’s pretty short but it gives you answers to some of the questions you may have regarding the backstory of the Baker family.

21

If you’re a big gambler, you’ll love 21. Your life is quite literally on the line and you must play several rounds of blackjack to escape unscathed. Each round of blackjack has some sort of new torture device that raises the stakes. You start with a strange contraption around your hand. Each time you lose, a finger gets chopped off. The traps get worse and worse as time goes on and it even becomes slightly unfair.

It’ll eventually go beyond just a game of luck and chance and will require you to outsmart your opponent. The game is a sick, twisted Saw-like trap and it’s actually really fun and fits within the tone of Resident Evil 7.

Jack’s 51st Birthday

Jack’s 51 Birthday is probably the goofiest mode yet. As the name implies, it’s Jack Baker’s birthday! You must scavenge your environment for a variety of food to satisfy Jack’s hunger, while also fending off enemies. The quicker you fill Jack’s hunger bar, the better grade you’ll get and the more rewards you’ll unlock.

Different foods will fill the hunger bar more and you can find other things like spices that you can combine with the foods to boost their rating. It’s a bit of a strange mode, but it’s still pretty fun nonetheless.

Summary

The only downside to these packs is the fact that they’re pretty expensive for what’s in them. You may only play the content and mini-games once or twice and they aren’t very lengthy. Some modes offer additional difficulty settings after you beat them but $15 for just the second add-on is pretty pricey. If any of this sounds appealing to you, you may want to wait for a sale or just buy the season pass which will include all future content.