Hiya!

Hindsight is 20/20. This is an expression that just means that it’s easy figure out what’s the right thing to do once something has happened. This is true for video games as you have to make choices all the time and then you regret the decision later. Maybe I should’ve built up my defense instead of putting all your level up points into strength. Maybe I shouldn’t have sold that one fire weapon I never used before you got to that ice based boss. Maybe I should’ve chose the “good guy” choice instead of the “bad guy” one. In the case of Resident Evil 7, Capcom’s latest entry in their highly successful survival-horror franchise, maybe should’ve saved my wife instead of that other chick.

In Resident Evil 7, after you, Ethan Winters, face off against a mutated Jack Baker in the barn, you have to make a choice between giving the cure to either Mia Winters, your wife who had been presumed dead for the last 3 years, or Zoe Baker, a young woman you have never met before that night. For most who played the game, they probably picked Mia. After all, she is your missing wife and you’ve just been reunited with her after several years. And Zoe Baker is the part of the Baker family, the psychotic brood that had been hunting down Ethan ever since he arrived at the house. Ultimately, the game remains the same no matter who you pick but I’m guessing Capcom really expected most people to choose Mia over Zoe, which is why you get the “good” ending when you save your wife.

Everyone but me, apparently. Because I actually picked Zoe over Mia.

Unlike most people, I actually thought long and hard on who I was going to give the cure to. I stared at the TV while Mia and Zoe awaited my decision. For me, this wasn’t something I wanted to rush in. I really wanted to make this decision based on the information I was given throughout my play through of the game. And based on what I’ve experienced from Resident Evil 7 up to that point, I figured out that, yes, Zoe Baker, the total stranger, was the lady who deserved to be saved by Ethan. To best explain my decision, I have to tell you my experience with the game.

I know Resident Evil 7 has been out for a while but, as I mentioned last week with my IT commentary, I have this thing regarding scary movies. Oddly enough, this doesn’t carry over to horror games totally; I can watch someone play horror games but I can’t exactly play them. I usually get all fumbly with my thumbs while playing as I’d be too scared or too engrossed with what’s happening on the screen to actually play. But I decided that Capcom’s latest Resident Evil would be my first horror game I would play straight through because someone told me there’s an Easy mode, which makes the monsters easier to kill. Well, that’s suits me fine because I love the Resident Evil games because of the stories they told and not the gameplay anyways.

I have no idea how I did it, but I managed to avoid any sort of story spoilers for Resident Evil 7 until playing it this month. So, in the opening moments of the game, you are introduced to Mia Winters, Ethan’s wife, who has recorded herself during happier times while at her babysitting job she hates. But she then records a second video for Ethan asking him to stay away from her. It’s never revealed if the video was actually sent. Anyway, 3 years later, Ethan gets an email from Mia stating where she is and he goes straight to her (without bothering to call ahead or anything). He does eventually find Mia in a derelict house, locked in a cell. They both try to escape but something seems to overcome Mia and she attacks Ethan. Rather violently, to say the least. This does result in Ethan appearing to kill her with an axe.

Soon after that, we get a call from Zoe Baker, who actually gives you advice and help throughout your jaunt through the Baker house. Throughout your entire time there, everything seems to be trying to kill you. Jack Baker, the patriarch of the family, chases you throughout the house with the sole purpose of murdering and dismembering you, not necessarily in that order. Marguerite, his wife, sends killer insects at your from her vagina (yes, I checked) because you didn’t eat the literal grub she put out for you.

Their son, Lucas, traps you in some house filled with traps because I’m guessing he watch Saw that one time and loved it. Even the house’s mold aren’t content with giving you lung problems and decide to just come after you and rip your lungs out among other things. Old lady Eveline, well, she doesn’t really try to kill you until much, much later in the game. But she does love to pop up in and out of really weird places just to scare the beejeezus out of you.

Who the heck wheeled grandma in the crawlspace?

The only person who’s not trying to kill you is Zoe! In fact, she’s the only one who trying to help you out throughout the entire game. She’s also seemed to be incredibly smart. At least smarter than your regular redneck when it comes to medical stuff. You first get a quick glimpse of Zoe when she’s stitching your severed hand (the one your loving wife cut with a chainsaw) back onto your body. She also has a good idea on how to cure whatever is happening to her family (and Mia). She’s the one who asks Ethan to get the ingredients to get the serum in the first place.

It’s around this point where I’m given the choice to save either Mia or Zoe. Should I try to save Mia, my long-lost wife, who called me after three years so that I would get caught by Jack Baker and his murderous brood and tried to kill me? Or should I try to save Zoe, the only woman who never tried to harm me and seems legitimately like the only one who’s actively trying to help me throughout this entire mess?

You told me to use the other one on Jack, remember?

Look, I knew that Mia was being mind controlled by the same thing that the Bakers were infected with. I knew she wasn’t in full control of herself so it’s not her fault. But it seemed to me, at that time, Zoe was the logical choice. She was actually good to me and she may even have knowledge on the cure. Maybe she could even make more of it once we get out. Heck, I even thought she was just an undercover Umbrella scientist at this point! I mean, she just so happened to know that there was a possible cure for whatever was ailing the Baker family? Even the Baker house is built with puzzles and traps just like the Spencer Mansion in the first Resident Evil. So I reasoned that the Bakers may have been former Umbrella employees and one of their experiments got loose, making them violent and dumb… except for Zoe.

Of course, I realized that I made a mistake in picking Zoe quickly. Just a few minutes after we left, Zoe turns to stone because of Eveline and then the twist with Mia: she’s not just your plain boring nanny. It turns out Mia actually worked for some bioweapon corporation and she was assigned to transport their newest invention, a young child named Eveline. Mia is actually some kind of badass who’s good with a machine gun! How was I supposed to know that when it was never revealed until we got to the tanker?

I’ve already finished the game on Easy and I got the ending where neither Mia nor Zoe survived. It’s a sad ending but it’s an ending that I actually liked as it suited the horror vibe where one lone survivor makes it out. Sure, I would’ve wanted to leave with Mia if I knew she was some sort of super soldier who could hold her own in combat. But what are you gonna do? Play the game from the start?

You know, that might not be a bad idea…

Who did you choose to save in Resident Evil 7? Mia or Zoe? Let me know in the comment section below!