Capcom has had varying success in their pursuit to define the Resident Evil experience, as they have attempted to balance horror and action as the series grew past its tank-control origins. Resident Evil 4 marked an important evolution, beautifully marrying the two types of experiences into an all-time classic. As someone with an immense soft spot for Resident Evil 5, even I can admit that leaning too heavily into the action hero archetype can cause the fear to completely evaporate into a cloud of gunsmoke. It’s a problem that peaked with the series in 2012, and forced Capcom to reevaluate their flagship franchise’s identity. The games have, arguably, been on an upward trajectory since that point, enjoying titles like Resident Evil 7 that have doubled down on horror in an all-new perspective and classics lovingly remade for a modern era. Resident Evil Requiem acknowledges both identities that have been separated by mainline entries and remakes by removing the separation. The dread-filled, first-person horror stands firmly beside the third-person action. It is Capcom throwing compromise out the window, embracing the prominent forms of its history, and crafting a game that finds its confidence to proudly display both representations.
Note: This is not a spoiler-free review. While the ending and bigger surprises are avoided, certain gameplay and smaller story components are discussed.
Resident Evil Requiem executes this vision through its dual protagonists: Grace Ashcroft, the daughter of Resident Evil Outbreak survivor Alyssa Ashcroft, and the legend who needs no introduction, Leon S. Kennedy. Instead of forcing both characters to play by the exact same rules, Grace and Leon are essentially given completely different games that crash into each other over a roughly 10-hour campaign. And it works sublimely. Grace embodies the suffocating, constrictive terror of Resident Evil 7, while Leon highlights the slick gunplay of Resident Evil 4 and, to a certain degree, his action-packed outings in the CGI movies (Vendetta, Death Island, etc.). One moment you’re terrified, and the next you are the terror. Okay, maybe that’s exaggerating it a bit, but you get the point. It is easily one of the most (if not the most) self-assured, well-paced entries in the series.
The Terrifying Pace of Grace
Starting with Grace, she takes the lead in kicking off the story as she chases a story that hits close to home, reawakening trauma from the past—her present gets a whole heaping of new trauma, too. Although Grace is employed by the FBI, she isn’t a bioterrorism veteran who casually chows down on green herbs in her spare time. She lives the desk-bound life of an intelligence analyst. That means she handles like a regular, vulnerable person trapped in an absolute nightmare. And her anxiety-ridden performance effectively communicates that fact.
Her sections are played in a claustrophobic first-person perspective—there is a toggleable option for third-person perspective for Grace, if desired—slamming the brakes on the pacing to bring the momentum to a terrifying crawl. Given her lacking combat prowess, Grace spends much of her time observing enemy patterns, circumventing formidable foes and hunting down pieces of puzzles necessary to progress. While she does have a couple guns at her disposal, including the absolute behemoth of a revolver known as Requiem (a thunderous firearm reserved for mightier challenges), ammo is scarce. Firing off shots at the shambling monstrosities will quickly see those limited reserves reduced to a heart-stopping zero. The resource restrictions are mirrored by an equally unforgiving number of starting inventory slots, forcing players to to leave precious healing items behind just to carry a mandatory key item. It’s a burden only slightly alleviated by risking exploration for invaluable inventory slots upgrades.
Everything about Grace’s segments feel like deadly, interactive puzzles. Early on, the FBI analyst has to push a medical cart to access a toolbox. The slow pull of the cart in the dimly lit environment is rife with tension, which skyrockets once the movement of the cart results in its contents toppling to the floor in what feels like a deafening crash. Knowing that the lurking horror heard this too, the game becomes a panicked scramble for any semblance of concealment before the ill-prepared Grace is discovered. It’s a moment reflected countless times through her gameplay; hulking beasts (and smaller abominations) wander halls and stand between Grace and her objectives. Overconfidence and mistiming movements often mean death, or at the very least a hefty hit to her health status. It is agonizingly tense to watch shadows spill out from around corners and inhuman groans to carry through hallways, both pointing to unseen horrors awaiting our reluctant heroine.
The most valuable tool in her arsenal isn’t a gun, but a craftable item called the Hemolytic Injector. A quick injection of this purple liquid can outright eliminate enemies approached stealthily, causing the transformed host to explode in bloody fashion. It can also be used to take care of the bodies littering the floor. Corpses don’t despawn once neutralized, meaning there’s this uneasy threat of them rising up once more to terrorize Grace. Or worse, transform. If the words “Crimson Head” trigger childhood trauma, brace yourself; there’s a whole new beast to contend with in a similar vein. And the limited-supply Hemolytic Injector is one of the only barriers preventing their haunting emergence. Countless times I found myself torn between crafting much-needed ammo and these injectors—both require blood collected from defeated enemies and other sources, like conveniently placed buckets of blood.
Just as the hide-and-seek tension threatens to become overwhelming, control shifts over to Leon. The transition gives immediate whiplash in the best way possible. Leon plays entirely in a third-person, over-the-shoulder view (again, there is a first-person toggle). He has a much more robust arsenal, an inventory with far greater space, and a killer roundhouse kick. He drops sweet one-liners while exterminating zombies with the deadly efficiency borne from having honed the skill for three decades. He didn’t just survive the apocalypse; he actively hunts the source of it. And, boy, does he look damn cool doing it.
Capcom took the fantastic combat loop of the Resident Evil 4 and cranked the dial to its max. Leon’s gunplay feels heavy, fast, and incredibly violent. You can shoot a zombie in the kneecap, stagger it, run up, and let his feet of fury leave an excruciating boot print on the pale faces of the undead. Or he can execute a brutal new handgun finisher right under their chin. He even gets a hatchet for close-quarters crowd control, deflecting grabbing hands and swinging chainsaws with satisfying feedback. Unlike the knife in Resident Evil 4, the hatchet does not permanently break. It simply needs to be sharpened as repeated attacks dull it to the point of being unusable. It’s as if Capcom looked at their Monster Hunter franchise and decided this mechanic had a place in their horror series. And they were right. Leon may not be chasing Rathalos and Deviljhos, but the monsters at the heart of the apocalypse require equal preparation. But the absolute peak of Leon’s (temporary) arsenal may very well be the chainsaw. After many years of running away from burlap-sack guys with chainsaws, Leon finally gets to pick one up and turn it on the undead hordes himself. It is overpowered, completely ridiculous, and I loved every single second of it. Now let me love all of it in a glaringly missing Mercenaries mode.
The Terrifying Talent of Leon
Leon’s chapters also house the major boss fights. You trade the slow dread of the hospital for explosive set pieces across the ruined streets of Raccoon City and a secret underground lab. You fight a gigantic mutated spider, recapturing the essence of past showdowns with oversized mutated snakes, sharks, etc.; you duel a highly skilled combatant in this entry’s equivalent of the Krauser fight; you even play out an entire boss encounter while riding across the broken, dilapidated infrastructure of Raccoon City. It borders on the absurd. But it never crosses the line into full-blown parody because this is Leon S. Kennedy we’re talking about. That said, he has been fighting this same viral fight for thirty years, and you can see the weariness and hear the exhaustion in multiple scenes.
The narrative tying all this mechanical whiplash together is surprisingly strong. It dives deep into the tangled lore, with impactful reveals for new and old characters alike. This is where I’ll refrain from saying too much, but the story advances meaningful series plotlines while peppering in numerous callbacks and references. Virtually every entry, from the humble beginnings of Resident Evil 1 to the misguided Resident Evil 6, is referenced. As a side note, Resident Evil Requiem largely feels like the game RE6 should have been. Although I’m sure there are those who might argue differently, none of the callbacks and references felt like shoehorned fanservice. Each moment was specifically selected to highlight the long-standing spirit of Resident Evil, and each does so to great effect.
The proprietary RE Engine powering all of this continues to produce absolutely stunning visuals. There were countless moments that I truly felt that I was playing out on of those aforementioned CGI movies, especially during Leon’s gameplay. Also, the lighting deserves a special shoutout. When Grace is navigating a pitch-black environment using her flashlight, the shadows several feet ahead often look impenetrable, diminishing any sense of safety . This may be the first time since Alan Wake 2 that I cannot overstate how transformative an OLED is for the experience. The gore system is equally detailed, leaving viscera permanently coating walls and floors where encounters took place, adding to the sinister vibe of the latest outing.
Resident Evil Requiem Review Verdict
Resident Evil Requiem: is a union of the series' predominant personalities, bringing them together in beautiful unison. It gives creeping anxiety with Grace, and it feeds the action through Leon. The 10-hour campaign is so meticulously crafted, so tightly paced, and so satisfying that it demands multiple playthroughs just as Resident Evil 4 once did. Requiem is a love letter to its past and present, showing how wonderfully the two can coexist. – Joshua
[Editor’s Note: Resident Evil Requiem was reviewed on PC, and a copy was provided to us for review purposes.]
