There is always that point in a horror movie where you can’t help screaming at the screen because the character has decided to follow the most outrageously stupid path possible. I always love horror video games when you find everything blocked, and then you, the player, have to make the worst possible decision despite being painfully aware of the fact. In Resident Evil: Biohazard, this point of no return comes when you pull up to the creepy as hell house in the middle of nowhere in Louisiana. I feel like every part of that is equally terrifying.
At least in this case, there is some motivation to do so, as Ethan Winters has traveled this way to find his missing wife, who emailed him after vanishing three years ago. The setup is, in fact, very Resident Evil in that there are many questions being begged here that should just be ignored for the absolute best experience. As he shows up at this derelict ranch house, you are greeted with the last bit of sunlight you might ever see and some serious hints that something bad is going to happen to you. Originally released in 2017, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard remains a masterful slow build to the actual horror of the game, coming in the form of the Baker family that stalks and haunts you.
Coming into this experience on the Nintendo Switch 2, I was a little trepidatious. While everything before VII had been released on the original Nintendo Switch, there were technical issues that felt out of place for such dated games. Resident Evil 6 was released in 2012, marking a five-year gap between this soft survival horror-oriented reboot of the franchise and the Nintendo Switch, which was released only about a month after it. Of course, the Nintendo Switch 2 boasts more power. The fact that several of the missing Resident Evil titles were coming to the platform after all this time had been boasted in part as a true testament to this next generation, having been a cloud port on the original.
In practice, it really is. Now, to be fair, Resident Evil 7 is a slightly sluggish title, which remains my biggest complaint about it. Ethan moves slowly; in a title where you are constantly being chased, it can get old fast. This is not a performance issue, though. The game aims for 60 frames per second, and I would believe it hits that, with smooth and constant frame rates across portable and docked modes. Ethan’s movement speed, though, might make it difficult to feel like it is hitting these marks even when it is, which can get frustrating. I understand the sentiment, to ratchet up fear, but in horror games, I always find it odd when everybody moves away from the thing that wants to literally kill them, like they have smoked a pack a day for the past 8 years.
The Baker family that makes up this threat serves a similar function to the old nemesis Resident Evil games, though far less egregious. They don’t chase you everywhere all the time, only in specific areas along the story path. In fairness, this might be the deepest cut the game pulls from the classic experience. Even then, though, these moments bring a sense of tension and dread unlike anything even Nemesis used to. The old-school door loading screen is replaced by Ethan slowly pushing a door open in real time, so the very fact of doing this, the next room slowly coming into focus, can be met with “Come here, boy!” as Jack Baker, who stalks you through much of the first half, soon fills up the entirety of the visible area, which can make you scream and jump. I know because I did, and I KNEW ALL THIS ALREADY.
This being said, the bakers can be annoying to avoid as well. There really aren’t any objects you can use to avoid them, like lockers or under a bed, which means you need to duck behind things to actually hide, and, depending on the angle, even if you are mostly hidden, you could still be spotted as he walks into the room. Just as likely, he is oblivious while you are mostly out of cover, too, so it’s dependent.
At one point, while I was moving to open a door that I had just gotten the key for, I heard Jack entering the room and quickly hid behind the bar in the area. Jack never noticed me; instead, what he did was walk over to the door I was trying to enter. He stood there for a while, aimlessly slinging taunts while feeling like less of a threat and more of a hindrance that I wanted to move oh so desperately. He eventually did… When I literally shot him in the head so he would change me out. This often happens, even in these tight zones, in which you need to move around them to progress.
The house, even by traditional standards, is pretty small and claustrophobic. This isn’t a negative, though, as it allows the terror to shine through at every step of the experience. Unlocking a new area will make you approach it slowly and with caution, not sure just what is around every corner. This also allows puzzle solving, finding a wooden block for a shadow puzzle, or getting the next key to unlock the master bedroom, so that progress is not hindered by finding a needle in a haystack.
This level design is bolstered by the choice to use a first-person perspective, which keeps the player always in the moment, in constant dread of their situation. There is some kind of filter placed on it, too, I think, similar to those Body Cam games, that makes everything look spectacular, even as the graphics become dated. On the Nintendo Switch 2, there is very little that feels like it was downgraded in pursuit of helping the experience function. So, expect to see all the bad things you would expect to happen to Ethan’s body to happen, with no loss of detail or visceral.
The biggest complaint I have with the Nintendo Switch 2 is the fact that the game is inherently very dark. In dock, this was manageable, though noticeable, but in handheld, the dark visuals became very hard to see through. If you are going to play outside, that’s to be expected, but it even becomes muddied at 10 PM in bed, which means that much of the game has this issue, but it is a small price to pay.
Boss fights also cause some frustration, given that the player is asked, in a survival horror title where ammo is limited, to fire bullet after bullet into enemies that seem to just keep coming at you. The bigger issue is that almost every fight plays out in very tight quarters, with Ethan again being a sluggish protagonist. In the first fight, after doing enough damage, Jack jumps into a car and drives around. It isn’t really challenging to fight him, but dodging the car in a tiny garage can prove a frustrating endeavor.
In another fight with Jack, you fight him in a locked arena. Even though Jack lumbers around in your sprint, turning around is usually greeted with his body taking up the entire screen, with his attack only acting slow enough to allow a consistent run to outprogress it. There are clever twists to fight like this, like using a dangling bag with something you don’t want to know what’s in it to stun him slightly. Since all the fights play out in small spaces, the limitations to Ethan’s defense, especially his guard, are highlighted extensively.
These aren’t the only enemies in the game; similar to the stalkers operating in certain zones, other areas will have a goo-like enemy type to contend with. There are a few variations on these enemies, but not nearly enough to keep them interesting throughout Resident Evil VII: Biohazard. This becomes far more noticeable in the second half of the game, when players might have heard, removing much of what made the first so memorable. These enemies are almost entirely fought by running backwards, turning, aiming for the head, and repeating. If you are me, that process includes missing four times, then hitting the headshot.
It is hard not to underestimate the Baker house, which is visually inviting and nightmare-inducing, but it is not the full experience. Capcom had a habit in their older games of ending them in a generic underground laboratory, and it feels fitting to some degree to see this return to form pull a very similar stunt. It pads out the experience for about 3 additional hours, but it feels more like a slog than anything meaningful and starts to make you wish the game had just shortened itself for a better landing. Since guns don’t upgrade, and by this point, if you haven’t unlocked better guns, which is a very possible outcome, you could also doom yourself to an even slower experience, as it takes longer to kill the enemies that engage you.
Verdict
In 2017, there was a reason why Resident Evil VII: Biohazard made such a splash. Five years before the series had hit a roadblock with the over-the-top, three-story action entry that abandoned almost everything that made the series great. Then, Ethan Winters goes to Louisiana and discovers true terror. Every taught encounter evokes that first time that a zombie turned around all the way back in Spenser Manor, and now, Nintendo Switch 2 fans can enjoy the game the way it was meant to be. No cloud streaming, just enjoy it right on the console.
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Reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2
A review key for this title was provided by Capcom for the purposes of this review.
Developer/Publisher: Capcom
Release Date: February 27, 2026
Pros:
+Great Nintendo Switch 2 Performance
+Focus on Horror
+Tense moments of being tracked
+Great level design
Cons:
-Boss fights feel too claustraphobic
-Sluggish move speeds
-Second act
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Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
