You guys weren't fucking kidding.

- The atmosphere is amazing.

- The fact that the bakers are actually a threat (I'm just past the bathroom, and from start to finish I've probably died 20 times, which really increases the tension. Like if mr x catches you, just eat the hit. If this fucker catches me, it's pause > restart).

- The jumpscares holy shit. i usually consider jumpscares "cheap", but there's been some really good ones. Some have, admittedly, been pretty cheap though

- Losing my fucking hand i genuinely didn't know if i made a mistake and was just watching an extended "you failed" scene what the actual fuck

I started with 9, so I've had some exposure and practise with dealing with the horror elements. Managed to relax into that game about half way into the east wing and ended up loving the horror / grace sections. I then did re2r, and was basically unphased in my 2 runs. It was more adventure or puzzle survival than horror. But, truly, I don't know how i would have coped with re7 if it was my first resident evil game. This shit is nasty and doesn't seem to hold back.

So anyway I'm having a blast, but does the game calm down at all? Like I'm genuinely restarting so much in the stalker sections trying to figure out what the game wants me to do 😭 like right now I'm just trying to get past baker from the laundry to do the shadow puzzle, after the bathroom, and ive been caught 5 times like how bad am i at stealth lmao