End of Zoe

While the sudden shift from action horror to beat 'em up is a fun idea, The End of Zoe is unfortunately far from the best moments of Resident Evil 7, and, while it's a little bit more impressive than the Not a Hero DLC, it still falls into the "meh" category.

End of Zoe basically finished up the other hanging thread left by the main campaign and it does so with style. It introduces a new character, with ties to the family that are later revealed, but is basically a swamp hobo that takes care of problems by punching mold monster with his fist and throwing spears when that doesnt fix it.

Again the short FOV really troubles when the game tries to throw more than one enemy at the player. Its not an issue in boss fights through, and these tend to be the best moments. This campaign has very linear levels, that feature some shortcuts to previous sections but there are really not needed.

The story itself is quite simple and linear, and I really felt no emotional payoff. Its all about its campy appeal and different tone compared to the main campaign. Like Not a Hero its still a big drop in quality, but I feel like these short DLCs are essencial at making the game complete and elevate it.

So when Resident Evil 7 released in 2017, it ended up being a huge surprise not only due to changing the camera to first person but totally focusing on new characters and going back to a pure survival with hardly any action (well at least the first 3/4 before the boat part that we all wish we could forget). RE7 was a good new start after the disaster that was RE6 and the terrible online games like Operation Raccoon City. The Revelation games just didn't bring in enough and while they were alright, just weren't able to reach the heights the series once achieves. RE7 had the mainstream marketing and was able to hook new fans because it tried to start fresh and many people who never played an RE game before were suddenly now playing RE and using this as a gateway, although RE2 remake sort of did a better job being a gateway because I saw so many youtubers play the older games by starting RE2 remake vs this. Either way RE7 was mostly good and did bring back the sense of survival and tension the past few games lacked, and so it was only natural this game would get DLC, after all, the last 2 RE games did and this game left a couple of things unanswered so most could assume DLC would just come, especially after the sales and success.

This DLC pretty much chronicles after the main game, it shows what happens to Zoe at the end of RE7, basically a badass uncle rescues her and then attempts to find a cure to return her to normal, and throughout the game battles molded by punching them. Its definitely different because instead of relying on guns and knives you punch and block enemies. You do get spears you can throw as well, but most of these are used to fend of alligators when you do the water segments which are basically like one hit kill traps you need to eliminate or avoid. Thats basically all this DLC is, going from one area to the next punching out mold monsters and going through water areas evading alligators. There is occasional exploration where you can find items to increase your attack power or healing items. But this game is just super repetitive compared to the mainline game. There are really only 2 bosses in this, a generic mold monster and a variation of Jack. The DLC is pretty short and can be beaten in around 2 hours, and the story really doesn't add anything significant, it basically just explains what happens to Zoe which all that happens is she gets rescued by a random uncle then Chris ends up taking her away in the end. It doesn't really explain what becomes of the uncle. I mean this DLC could have been interesting but I just didn't like the whole fist punch mechanics, even for Resident Evil this felt a bit to action and cheesy like Rambo or something. And well I'm glad Zoe didn't die, I don't thin we needed a dlc to explain she was cured and Chris eventually took her away. It's not a bad DLC, but really it doesn't add anything interesting and is a downgrade from the main game, and do we really need to see Jack come back again, like we already kill him 3 times in the main game, is he going to be like Michael Myers where he just keeps coming back infinite times no matter how much he is killed, they could have done an original villain for this instead.