Can Resident Evil 7 save survival horror games?

The latest instalment in Capcom's horror series breaks with many of its own conventions to provide a new whole new scare story

One of the most brilliant and unexpected treats of recent years was Konami's PT, a "playable teaser" for an unreleased and possibly cancelled reboot of the horror series Silent Hill. Directed by the great Hideo Kojima, alongside the film maker Guillermo del Toro, PT is notable not just for moving a third-person series into a first-person perspective, but also for offering an ingenious solution to a problem that faces every high-end developer of video games. As game assets become even more expensive and time-consuming to produce, how do you squeeze the most out of them?

PT's solution was a small but detailed house interior which plays out repeatedly, a snack-sized Groundhog Day. The player wakes afresh in the same room, explores the house and, depending on their actions, small details change. If you experiment enough, mysteries are solved and new secrets are uncovered. As an experience it has issues, primarily that it's too obtuse, but as a proof-of-concept, PT is exceptional, even if Konami's may never follow it up.