Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is now free on Xbox Game Pass — and if you haven’t played it, this is one of the best free games you’ll claim all year. It hit Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Premium on March 31, 2026, and it’s the horror game that saved the entire franchise after the mess that was RE6.
Verdict: Claim it immediately. RE7 is one of the finest survival horror games ever made — 86/100 on Metacritic, a GamingBolt 9/10 in their 2026 revisit, and still genuinely scary nine years after launch. Normally $29.99 on Steam or $39.99 for the Gold Edition. Today it’s included in your Game Pass subscription.
What Changed When Capcom Went First-Person
After Resident Evil 5 and 6 turned the franchise into an action shooter, Capcom pulled a hard reset. RE7 ditched the over-the-shoulder third-person camera for first-person, dropped the international super-soldier protagonist, and put you in the shoes of Ethan Winters — an ordinary guy searching for his missing wife in rural Louisiana.
The Baker family estate is the setting, and the Bakers are terrifying. Jack Baker in particular is genuinely frightening — he can’t be killed conventionally for most of the game, and he keeps showing up. The AI and encounter design around him hold up completely in 2026. You hear him before you see him. You run. You hide. It works every single time.
The shift to first-person wasn’t just aesthetic. It made the game feel claustrophobic in a way RE hadn’t managed since the original. Tight hallways, low ceilings, flickering lights — you’re inside the Baker house, not observing it from a third-person camera with convenient action-hero animations. The game uses the perspective to its advantage constantly.
The Gameplay: Deliberately Slow, Intentionally Tense
RE7’s combat is not satisfying in the traditional shooter sense — and that’s the point. Aiming is stiff, recoil is heavy, and molded enemies don’t react to bullets the way you’d expect. You’ll debate every single shot because ammo is scarce throughout. Healing items are precious. Every locked door is a potential threat. This is a game where you spend a lot of time thinking “is this fight even worth it?”
The average first playthrough clocks in at 9–12 hours. That’s enough to feel complete without overstaying its welcome, though the third act noticeably changes pace and location — a shift some players love and others hate. If you push through to the end, the game sticks with you. If the pacing dip breaks you, just know the finale is worth it.
Boss fights against the Baker family are less about skill testing and more about endurance — surviving long enough, moving intelligently, using the environment. Jack Baker’s chainsaw fight is a highlight. It’s ugly and uncomfortable in the best way.
Does It Still Look Good in 2026?
Short answer: yes, with caveats. RE7 runs on the RE Engine, the same foundation that powers RE Village, RE4 Remake, and Resident Evil Requiem. The estate and early game look excellent — dark, detailed, full of environmental storytelling. Lighting is still impressive. Some late-game areas look noticeably less polished, but they’re brief.
On PC via Game Pass, you can push it to 4K/60fps on mid-range hardware. The Xbox Series X version targets 4K/60. If you’re playing on Game Pass Ultimate via cloud streaming, you’ll lose some fidelity — but the game was designed around VR originally, so the first-person gameplay holds up even at lower visual settings.
The Gold Edition Content: Is It Included?
The Game Pass version includes the base game. The Gold Edition ($39.99 on Steam) adds the Banned Footage Vol. 1 and 2 DLCs plus the “Not a Hero” and “End of Zoe” expansions. These are sold separately at $7.99–$14.99 each on Xbox Store.
The “Not a Hero” DLC starring Chris Redfield is free via Steam and should be included on Game Pass — worth checking in the extras menu. “End of Zoe” costs extra but rounds out the story and takes about 3 hours. If you like the base game, it’s worth the $10.
How Does It Compare to RE Village and RE Requiem?
RE Village (RE8) is the direct sequel and tones down the horror significantly in favor of action and spectacle. It’s a great game but a different experience. If Village was your first RE, 7 will feel slower and more suffocating — which is either exactly what you want or not your thing at all.
Resident Evil Requiem came out in late 2025 and is a direct follow-up to Village — if you played Requiem and loved Grace’s sections, Reddit’s r/residentevil is pretty clear that RE7 is the most tonally similar game in the franchise. Scarier than Village, more grounded than RE4 Remake, and shorter than both.
The full Game Pass March Wave 2 lineup also brought Disco Elysium and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth — solid month overall if you’re a Game Pass subscriber.
Should You Play on Madhouse Mode?
No — not on your first run. Madhouse mode locks the difficulty to punishing from the start, randomizes item locations, and is genuinely brutal. It’s for series veterans or people who already finished the game on Normal and want a reason to replay it. Item boxes are your best friend in Madhouse. Save tapes (the game’s physical save points) become scarce, so you’ll lose progress on deaths.
Play Normal first. If the game clicks for you, Madhouse is one of the better reasons to do a second run in any survival horror game released in the past decade.
The Bottom Line
RE7 is one of those games that rewards players who slow down and let the atmosphere do the work. The Baker family is one of gaming’s great villain households. The first-person perspective still feels fresh because most survival horror games still haven’t matched it.
If you’ve been on the fence about jumping into the modern RE era, this is where to start. Better entry point than Village, more accessible than the remakes, and it’s already paid for by your Game Pass subscription.
Playing via cloud on Game Pass? It works fine — the game’s not twitch-demanding. Playing on PC Game Pass? Go windowed borderless at your monitor’s native resolution, drop shadows to High if you’re on older hardware, and it’ll run great. Got a controller? Use it. RE7 was designed for it, and the aiming stiffness is part of the experience.
For more Game Pass picks worth your time, check out our best games on Game Pass right now roundup, and if you’re wondering whether the subscription itself is worth the price, we broke that down in our honest 2026 Game Pass breakdown.
