Off the Shelf Media

At long last, another original Resident Evil title has “Graced” us with its presence. Resident Evil: Requiem is the ninth mainline entry in the series, following 2021’s Resident Evil Village. Since the series’ revival with 2017’s Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Capcom has been trying to strike several fine balances between genre characteristics and gameplay elements. 

While Biohazard seemed to recapture the magic of its legendary progenitors, Village seemed to begin slipping into that more action-y, jump-the-sharky sort of territory– the sort of territory that had made some of the games prior to Biohazard so controversial. 

I’m happy to report that Requiem does a mostly masterful job at striking that sweet survival horror balance. There are plenty of moments where the player feels absolutely hopeless and must simply stumble their way to relative safety. Conversely, there are moments where players will feel as though they are the biggest threat in the game’s world by the sheer magnitude of destruction they’re able to bring about. 

In short, Resident Evil Requiem brings so many amazing components of video game development and design together. Gameplay, story, atmosphere; it’s all here in its beautiful RE Engine glory. The only real glaring problem with this entry is simply that it leaves you wanting more throughout the experience. Let’s bite into the neck of the golden goose of Capcom’s latest entry.

Gameplay: 1

Simply put: it’s a modern Resident Evil game. In the year 2026, that statement is rather ambiguous. In spite of that ambiguity, it’s actually a great way to describe the gameplay of Requiem. More specifically, the gameplay of Requiem is split between two characters: series veteran Leon S. Kennedy and newcomer Grace Ashcroft. 

Fans of the series will instantly be familiar with the style of play that Leon’s segments consist of: non-stop roundhouse kick-filled action. Grace, on the other hand, inserts the player in a much more tense and atmospheric horror environment

Both characters provide some of the best survival horror gameplay in recent memory. The problem with cramming both of these styles of horror in one game is that both styles don’t get enough time in the spotlight. Just when I was getting into the flow of the combat in many of Leon’s sections, they were over. Just when I had built up a wealth of ammo reserves and healing items with Grace, I was switching back to Leon. Since both of these Resident Evil gameplay styles worked so well, they deserved their own standalone experience within the world of Requiem. 

Both Leon and Grace’s gameplay segments are almost perfect in many ways, but a few segments in both stories end up being a bit frustrating. Some of the enemies in Grace’s campaign feel a little too ‘bullet spongey’ in the early going before the player has enough of a means to defend themselves. 

On the other hand, some of the encounters in Leon’s sections might be overwhelming for less familiar players. Leon will be travelling through a desolate warehouse without a sign of life. Suddenly, ten to twenty zombies will emerge from the ground below, able to grab onto Leon and slowly drain his health, throw a chunk of concrete at him, or run him through with a spear. 

In an effort to create a high-octane action environment, the game leads players into some absolute buzzsaws of situations in certain moments. These can be jarring, especially having run and hid with Grace for several hours moments before. For many grizzled vets of the series, however, overwhelming showdowns against hordes of undead or other abominations are what they were seeking in the first place. 

Leon plays most similarly to his Resident Evil 4 Remake version, but some small tweaks have been made that only improve upon the already great combat system in that 2023 title. In lieu of a breakable knife seen in previous entries, Leon now has a degradable hatchet that can be ‘sharpened’, essentially functioning the same way Leon would reload one of his assortment of firearms. 

As with most of the third-person over-the-shoulder iterations of Leon, even in his advanced age in this title, he is able to use brutal hand-to-hand combat against stunned enemies. These melee finishers are highly contextual. For example, Leon will bash a zombie’s head against a wall if they are close to one. Another might occur when an infected person is using a weapon themselves like a pipe. Leon will take their weapon and turn it against them. This fun little feature was first seen years ago in the controversial Resident Evil 6. While RE6 got a ton of hate in many aspects, one thing that game absolutely nailed was the movement and the combat. It was as though Capcom took some of the best strands of DNA from RE6 and grafted them into Requiem with the way Leon’s gameplay feels.

Another strand of DNA Capcom has grafted into this Frankenstein’s survival horror is that of the aforementioned Biohazard from 2017. Grace’s segments can be played in third person, but they are recommended to be played in first-person view. This becomes apparent very early on as the game leads players on a sensory assault of an introduction, complete with maggots, moldy food, sticky freezer doors, falling animal heads, and so on. For some, a surprise; for the veterans, the standard fare. 

Grace’s segments are unsettling and even downright terrifying throughout the experience. It’s a pure survival horror experience that a fan of the genre will appreciate for hours on end. A few blemishes do slightly tarnish Grace’s experience, but all in all, Capcom “cooked” with this one, for lack of a better term. 

Moments that feel half-baked consist of times when Grace’s big ‘stalker’ enemy pursuing her gets the upper hand simply because her character model is so large. “The Girl”, as she is known in universe, has a knack for blocking the player’s path. This enables her to get a severely damaging attack on the player. Grace’s sections can often feel too frequently contained in incredibly tight spaces. Even in the intended first-person camera view, this can make the experience bland and repetitive after a while, even sobering after the more action-heavy Leon sections. 

A nice gameplay touch differentiating between Leon and Grace’s segments involves something many players might not catch initially. When Grace readies her weapons, players will notice her hands shake, and the recoil from the shots of her firearms has a great effect on her. Whereas the hands of Leon, a veteran of the original 1998 Raccoon City outbreak, remain steady even after a prolonged engagement. Grace’s shooting ability and max health can be improved with various injectors that can be crafted or found in the game world. 

An additional key feature of Grace’s gameplay involves the use of the ‘blood collector’, a special tool designed to collect infected blood to be used by Grace to craft various items. With this collected blood, she can craft ammo, healing items, a single-use injector that automatically kills a zombie, and much more. Leon can also craft ammo and grenades with various gunpowders and scrap that he finds in various nooks and crannies in the world. 

All in all, the gameplay in this entry of the series is amazing. It really is great. I just wish there was a little bit more of it. All of it! Not just the pulse-pounding action with Leon. I really thoroughly enjoyed Grace’s segments on their own as well. Beginning with how to figure out how to best navigate around “The Girl” was one of the most fun progressions I’ve had in a horror video game as of late. 

Recently, it has been revealed that more content is coming to the game soon. This additional content includes DLC possibly already in development, according to the game’s director. Time will tell if this offers a mass improvement to the gameplay if Capcom significantly expands the experience with content updates post-launch.   

Story: 1

It’s a modern Resident Evil game. For some reason, that sentence seems more astute when it comes to the story of Requiem. I’ll explain. 

The beginning of the story follows Grace Ashcroft, an FBI analyst and daughter of one of the characters in the 2003 title Resident Evil Outbreak, journalist Alyssa Ashcroft. Grace is tasked with investigating the latest in a string of deaths of various people who reportedly survived the 1998 T-Virus outbreak but only showed symptoms three decades later. Her investigation leads her to the Wrenwood Hotel, the site of the most recent of these deaths, and a pivotal moment in both her and her mother’s lives. Just before being able to gather some key intel left behind for her, she is abducted and taken to a mysterious location away from the city of Wrenwood.

From there, everyone’s favorite vague government agent Leon S. Kennedy and his team are given similar leads as our FBI agent protagonist Grace. Leon’s investigation leads him to the Wrenwood hotel as well, where he’s tracking a relic of evil pharmaceutical giant Umbrella’s past. 

Dr. Victor Gideon functions as one of the main big bads in this title, and he’s a pretty good villain. Tall, imposing, gold-toothed, and donning a snakeskin trench coat, Dr. Gideon also sports a complex and creepy set of goggles as well as a very Frankenstein or Solomon Grundy type complexion. He’s no mindless monster, however. Despite appearances, Dr. Gideon might be one of the more devious and capable villains in the series to this point. Able to fire a specialized dart gun that infects hapless passersby with an advanced strain of the T-Virus, Dr. Gideon demonstrates his capability to easily bring about chaos as a villain early on into the journey. 

Leon’s pursuit of Dr. Gideon leads him to a foreboding ‘Chronic Care Center’ in the nearby town of Rhodes Hill. This facility also happens to be where Grace Ashcroft was spirited away after being trapped in the Wrenwood hotel. 

Leon and Grace eventually encounter each other, throwing them both in the middle of an adventure with incredibly massive, grave implications.  

It’s fun, it’s high stakes, and fans are going to love it. Though, it ends up being oddly paced due to the fact that there are constant changes in perspective. The pacing of both Leon and Grace’s sequences would be far better in their own, self-contained experiences, but that is indeed asking a lot of a company that is trying to satisfy many demands of devs, boards, and fans alike. The fans already love it. At the time of writing this article, the game has already sold 5 million copies. There’s sufficient tone and tact used by the cutscenes that even those unfamiliar with the series will be on the edge of their seat during the game’s cinema-quality cutscenes. 

Atmosphere: 2

The RE Engine, Capcom’s in-house engine, is one of the best in the business for titles like this one. The lighting, sounds, colors, music, and environments are all top-notch in this entry. 

From the eerie halls of the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center to the desolate urban wasteland environments of a familiar locale, everything in this title looks, sounds, and feels great. Players are going to love finding those moments of just stopping and digesting the environment around them. Whether it’s one of the safe rooms or a long, narrow hallway where a crazy shootout against zombies just took place. 

Textures look as real as they ever have in an RE Engine game, and have looked amazing for almost a decade now. Debris, rubble, flesh, weaponry, hair, all of it looks and feels as real as a video game can look in the year 2026. 

While the music of this game does provide a sort of cookie-cutter, modern, atmospheric, cool factor, I really enjoyed how the Deluxe Edition offered an option to replace certain background music tracks with older versions’ background music. Entirely worth the extra money, in my humble opinion.

Value: 2

As far as that contemporary console videogame release day-adjacent price tag can be quite a commitment for many consumers, I say you’re still getting your money’s worth purchasing this one close to launch. Any bugs or glitches I have encountered on the PS5 version have been small to insignificant. A BGM file not playing/looping properly here and there, and the straps of Leon’s long guns going crazy were some of the only true glitches I experienced in my 50 hours of gameplay. This one is worth the money, even if the campaign might seem on the shorter side after a few playthroughs. 

Duration: 2

Despite the fact that some sections seem dreadfully short, you get a lot of bang for your buck with this title. It’s a Resident Evil game. You’re going to replay it over and over again if it’s your thing. If it’s not your thing, I think this game can start you on the path to making it your thing. 

I remember the first time I finished the classic Resident Evil 4, I immediately wanted to play through it again. I knew how to manipulate it. I knew where I had messed up and used too many healing items or ammo and wanted to improve. Requiem delivers that same sensation for me perfectly in this entry. I sincerely cannot wait to get back into this game and play through it again.

Total Score: 8/10

Capcom has done it again. Though the name of the game is Requiem, we are not at all announcing the series untimely passing. It is indeed alive and well. In a recent post on across RE’s social media pages, director Koshi Nakanishi announced plans to add photo mode, a new mini game as well as additional story content that will come later on down the line. This entry was an incredible ride, plain and simple. I am incredibly excited to see the direction the series goes after playing this one. 

What did you think of Resident Evil Requiem? Did you love it? Or did you think it got close to jumping the shark again? Does it make a case for an early favorite for certain Game of the Year awards? Let me know in the comments!