As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Fridge Brilliance:
- A lot of players mock the file that mentions Helena was moved from the CIA to the Secret Service after the incident with her sister's boyfriend, but it's entirely possible that was because Simmons pulled some strings. Her overprotective streak towards Deborah would also make her really easy to manipulate...
- A lot of people complained about the greater focus on combat in this one, especially in the Chris Campaign. The game takes place more than a decade and a half since the first Umbrella incident and the change in gameplay style can be seen as an indication of (mostly) everyone's veteran status with dealing with freaky bio-weapons. It's no longer terrifying to them, it's their job to be able to kill these things. Similarly, Leon's campaign is more reminiscent of the earlier survival horror titles because in comparison to Chris, who at this point has been a member of a dedicated anti-B.O.W. organization for years, Leon's relatively lacking in experience; while he is capable of fighting these monsters and has done so in Resident Evil 4, Leon has spent more time as an agent of the US government and bodyguarding the President more than battling B.O.W.s, and the same can be said for Helena. Also note that he lacks the heavier firepower (at least initially) of the B.S.A.A., since he doesn't need it during his usual duties. Jake's campaign is a compromise, with hints of the Nemesis/Mr. X confrontations from previous games. Both Jake and Sherry are physically more capable than ordinary humans thanks to their genes, and thus can go toe to toe with B.O.W.s easily, but as with Leon and Helena, they are ill-equipped compared to Chris and Piers.
- This also explains the apparent lack of prominent 'veteran' series characters in Resident Evil 7, at least to play as; if they're looking to genuinely bring the fear back to the franchise, it'd be difficult to achieve immersion as all characters in the series - as Chris, Jill, Claire, even Sherry or Moira - have been through literal 'end of the world' scenarios, at this point.
- Sherry mentions that the G-Virus survived within her even though she was treated with the DEVIL serum by Claire in Resident Evil 2. This may be because the DEVIL serum was compromised. A file in the 1998 version of RE2 mentions that shaking the serum too much may reduce its effectiveness. Claire running for her life and her constant weapon recoil very well might be the reason why DEVIL wasn't completely effective.
Fridge Horror:
- Jake and Sherry don't go into detail about what kinds of experiments they suffered during their six months in captivity. But knowing Neo Umbrella, it couldn't have been pleasant. Sherry probably got the worst of it. The researchers knew she carried the G-Virus, so they must have also known about her Healing Factor. One shudders to think of how badly they may have hurt Sherry in order to test it.
