Taken for a Quickie | Resident Evil 7: Banned Footage Vol. 1

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Out now for all platforms following a period of timed exclusivity on PS4, Banned Footage Volume 1 is the first of three DLC packs available standalone (£7.99) or as part of the Resident Evil 7 season pass (£24.99). We’ve taken the package for a quickie to see if it’s something you might want to commit to.

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by Sam
​Sant

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​@SlamShotSam

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Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Platforms: Xbox One,
PS4, PC
Players: 1

What’s included?

Three pieces of content:

• Bedroom VHS tape
• Nightmare VHS tape
• Ethan Must Die game mode​

Ooh, more tapes! What happens in Bedroom?

Bedroom's a puzzle-focused excursion in much the same vein as Birthday from the main game. You endeavour to escape Marguerite’s clutches after being strapped to a bed and left to enjoy entrails for supper, solving a series of progressively more difficult puzzles in ol' Marge's absence.
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Turning the place upside down can cause a bit of a ruckus, however, so she won't stay gone for long. You get a window to put your surroundings straight and get back in bed as she approaches, hopefully doing so before she enters to catch you in the act and unleashes her wrath. You’ll grow ever-closer to freedom with each successful hoodwink, and, conversely, ever-closer to death with each successive failure.

And Nightmare?

Nightmare's a wave-based survival mode that tasks you with holding out until dawn by besting five rounds of Moulded in the Baker’s dank basement. Compactors continuously generate scrap that can be used to purchase supplies, upgrades and automated defences to aid you, but as your toolset grows, so too do the enemies’ numbers. 

There’s a decent degree of strategy to the mode, especially on the unlockable Night Terror difficulty, while a self-contained progression system makes it highly replayable.

So what’s with the new game mode, other than a Devil May Cry reference?

Ethan Must Die has a jovial presentation, but don’t let that fool you. "Ultra-difficult" by design, you're tasked with running a gauntlet of traps and enemies to find the greenhouse key, which is then used reach the final battle with Marguerite. You begin each run with just a knife, busting open randomly-spawned crates in the hope their contents will afford you something with a little more stopping power. Mercifully, enemy and trap locations always remain fixed.

While the mode is just as dependant on luck and memorisation as skill, each permadeath feels like part of a learning process, ensuring it remains more engaging than annoying.

Do the three make for a worthwhile collection?

Yeah, they definitely do. There’s a good mix of mechanics here that accommodate thoughtful, tense, and action-based gameplay to ensure everybody has something to sink their teeth into. While you could argue it should’ve been included from the start, what with equivalent modes like Raid and Mercenaries having been in previous instalments, don't be tempted to cut your nose off to spite your face - it's easily worth the investment.