Strange Girl Gaming

After having completed the base game of Resident Evil 7 last year I never got around to playing the DLC, until now. All I can say is how could I be so stupid as to take so long to play them!? All the DLC was fantastic, a truly enjoyable experience that was worth each and every penny, CapCom kept the ball rolling for sure. Today though I want to discuss my favourite piece of DLC for Resident Evil 7, the final piece of DLC known as End of Zoe. A SPOILER ALERT is in effect here.

An incredible piece of DLC, it felt like the game had finally come full circle, I don’t know about the rest of you but I always wondered what exactly happened to Zoe when we left her behind in favour of Mia. A tough decision had to be made, of course for the sake of this DLC we chose Mia for if you did choose to save Zoe in the main game she meets an untimely end before we can get away. That doesn’t mean she got away from Evie however, far from it. Evie still takes action against her, thus leading us to the events of the final piece of DLC RE7 has to offer, I thoroughly enjoyed playing as a new member of the Baker family, a face we hadn’t even heard of before never mind met and let me just say he was an absolute badass, it was certainly a new experience to play as Joe Baker, the brother of secondary antagonist Jack Baker.

The story of the DLC is simple, Zoe is going to die if we are not able to give her the serum that the Umbrella Corporation has created to reverse the damage, a simple but effective premise for a two hour long mini campaign I think my main reason for liking our protagonist here is the hand to hand combat we get to experience when playing as him, Joe must have had some career as a boxer for he has some serious hooks and uppercuts on him! We quite literally punch our way through this DLC with the use of makeshift spears that we can craft from time to time which is the only way to deal with the numerous crocodiles we encounter. The implemented melee system adds something new, something different from the main game where fire arms are a necessity.

I thoroughly enjoyed the environments of the main game, from the Baker residence to the guest house to the abandoned ship, I thought exploring the mine system in Not a hero was excellent and that is no exception with the swamp in this piece of DLC. Getting to explore that bit more of the surrounding areas has been great. Searching your surroundings thoroughly certainly pays off, it enables you to find the various critters that joe can eat to regain a small piece of health or combine them with chem fluid to create a proper first aid kit. But perhaps what will be more of a benefit than an extra source of health is the boxer and champion effigies that are spread throughout the area, a 1% stat increase per each boxer effigy and a 5% stat increase per champion effigy, these all stack up to give you a nice increase to your stats should the effigies be in your inventory (where they should be). Naturally the molded enemies you will encounter throughout the DLC do have an increase to their own stats as the campaign goes on so finding the effigies is advised.

As with the previous DLC Not a Hero we do have a main antagonist for this little outing, a being known as the Swamp Man, a good antagonist with a twist that I simply didn’t see coming. You see he isn’t just another molded enemy, far from it, there is a reason he was after Zoe, a reason that he decided to take her away from joe before he could administrate her cure. To see Jack Baker make a final stand was unexpected to say the least, not unwelcome mind you. The final fight between the two brothers was great, I felt like I was in some kind of supernatural boxing match, the use of the mechanical glove was an added bonus (felt like joe was using a power glove!…). the feels were real here, we were finally putting Jack down for good, saving Zoe from what was set to be a gruesome fate. The story came full circle, the daughter who had been struggling for freedom for some time was finally free thanks to this estranged uncle and an old friend, as we find out at the very end of DLC Ethan kept his word, he was the call that Chris received at the end of Not a Hero. End of Zoe certainly tied things up nicely, the story of the Bakers is finally done.

As far as DLC goes Resident Evil 7 has produced some of the best that I have played for a while, my only problem is that I now I have to wait for the next instalment in the series! Ah well I will have no problems re-entering that house of horrors, blasting Marguerite and those damn bugs away with a shotgun is always fun.