Combining the best elements from the franchise, Resident Evil Requiem could be the best game yet

Resident Evil has felt like it has been on a journey of rediscovering itself since the critically panned Umbrella Corps and the release of Resident Evil 6. But, with Resident Evil Requiem, that journey feels like it has culminated in a game that is taking the best parts from the franchise over the last 10 years and combining them together to create what could become the ultimate Resident Evil experience.

Taking inspiration from the franchise’s origins with Resident Evil 1 and Resident Evil 2, while evoking an even greater sense of terror than Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, alongside bringing across some of the action that made Resident Evil Village and Resident Evil 4 Remake so special, creates an impressive mosaic.

However, after spending three hours with the game earlier this month, I can say that Resident Evil Requiem isn’t just an amalgamation of previous games; it is evolving the franchise in fascinating and bone-chilling new ways. It has a greater sense of gameplay direction and style that makes it feel far more modern and grander in scale than anything we have seen from the franchise in recent years.

View Full-size

Zombies now retain traits from their former lives in Resident Evil Requiem, adding to the immersion.

Back To Where It All Began

Resident Evil Requiem takes the series back to where it all began, as we return to Raccoon City for an adventure that offers a similar gameplay formula to what we saw in Resident Evil 1 and Resident Evil 2.

You play as both Grace Ashcroft and Leon S. Kennedy, the latter of whom makes his long-awaited return to the series. The game is split between these two characters as a part of a shared storyline. You switch between the two at key moments as a part of a unified playthrough. There aren’t two separate playthroughs here for each character like in Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 6.

However, the game feels rooted in the original Resident Evil stories and lore, to a far greater extent than what we saw with Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil 8. Whether it is Grace being the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft and the events of her death, or the previous work Umbrella has done in the city. That’s about as much as I can say in this preview. Either way, I don’t think fans will be disappointed at all with the direction Resident Evil Requiem’s narrative is heading in.

Fighting For Your Life

Resident Evil Requiem flows like Alan Wake 2, switching between Leon and Grace at key chapter endpoints when the narrative demands it, or the game needs to shake up the gameplay, given Leon offers a more action-packed experience and Grace focuses on the survival horror, frights we saw in Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil 8 in moments.

In fact, it feels like Capcom took a lot of inspiration from Alan Wake 2 when making Requiem. The most obvious is the bold, full-screen chapter title cards that pop up when you switch between Grace and Leon at points.

While the zombies, or other creatures, have been scary or menacing previously, here they are creepy, terrifying, and consistently haunting. We have already seen a variety of abominations in trailers, such as the horrifying tall zombie lady Grace encounters, the towering cook, or the large chunky creature we saw in the Resident Evil Showcase, but these types of enemies were scattered throughout the sections I played, adding far more variety to gameplay, especially as Grace.

See, Grace’s playstyle relies so much on sneaking around and avoiding enemies that you have to learn their patrol patterns, how to avoid them, and where the nearest safe room is in order to survive. That goes for these tougher enemies and the regular zombies.

View Full-size

1

2

(1 of 2) Grace’s sections mimic the survival horror found in Resident Evil 1 and 2.

View Full-size

View Full-size

Grace’s sections mimic the survival horror found in Resident Evil 1 and 2. (left), You’ll need to rely on being stealthy to avoid the creatures you go up against. (right)

Around two hours of my play session was spent as Grace, and I consistently had next to no resources. There are barely any bullets, herbs are few and far between, and each time you want to use these resources, you have to weigh up the pros and cons of using them in this moment, as there could be an even harder set of enemies, or a fight in the room ahead that those bullets or healing items may have been useful for.

The experience felt very similar to playing The Last of Us on Grounded, where you are constantly on the edge of your seat, crafting items, having to be scrappy, and getting through encounters by the skin of your teeth. It’s a distinct and intense gameplay style that elevates what Capcom did with Resident Evil 7 and is executed almost flawlessly based on the section I played.

The area I explored was most similar to the police department in Resident Evil 2, a large explorable space you circle back across two or so hours. But the scale is much bigger, as the area is larger and the depth of the puzzles and secrets requires you to constantly backtrack and remember where you have been, what enemies you have killed, and where you can find resources you haven’t picked up yet, because of Grace’s limited inventory space.

Grace’s sections are only heightened by some of the direction that has been put into the base zombie designs this time around. It no longer feels like they are zombies in different costumes. During the section I played, set in an old hotel that evokes the halls of the Spencer Mansion, I stumbled across a dozen or so different types of zombies.

Some were former managers, dressed in suits, constantly stumbling around to turn off the lights in the hallways. Others, like housekeeping staff, could be found scrubbing a mirror in a bathroom constantly, or when stumbling upon a pool of blood on the ground, shrieking, “WHO MADE A MESS!”.

Former patients from the care facility attached to the hotel would walk around with bandages on their heads, unable to see. Swinging IV poles attached to their arms if you made too much noise, but you can also distract them and pull them away from areas by breaking vases or creating a distraction. Others will shriek and awaken all the zombies around them, turning an open room into a congested, deadly trap.

It was impressive to see this level of depth in the zombie designs and world-building, and it feels like a massive step up for the series. I walked away being most excited about how this could run throughout the whole game.

It’s Like He Never Left

On the other hand, Leon’s sections are the polar opposite, and it feels like he never left the franchise. He feels true to the origins of the character, while not abandoning the events after Resident Evil 4. Leon has none of the survival aspects of Grace’s sections, and instead, the game plays like Resident Evil 4 after drinking three energy drinks back-to-back.

Leon is action-centric, and I was quickly able to figure that out, as after playing as Grace, one of the large chunky monsters appeared, and I tried to escape the room, before quickly realizing that every exit was locked and saying to myself: “oh you want me to kill this thing”. It was viscerally cathartic to just be able to unload shotgun shell after shotgun shell, throw grenade after grenade, and perform flashy finishers on it, as I circled around a storage room on the upper level of the hotel. At the same time, Leon is constantly throwing out quips and puns that just feel so satisfying to hear again.

Whereas Grace’s sections feel like the buildup to a release, full of tension, Leon’s gameplay is the euphoria that comes after it as you wail on enemies, perform kicks, and land visceral kills with his axe, which he carries with him throughout the game. That pendulum swing between buildup and release, as Grace and Leon, if executed well, could make Resident Evil Requiem the most robust game in the series.

View Full-size

1

2

(1 of 2) Leon’s sections dial up the action.

View Full-size

View Full-size

Leon’s sections dial up the action. (left), This is a fantastic release after the tension-filled sections of Grace. (right)

Leon abandons all the typical item combinations and crafting, as well as the inventory upgrades Grace has, in favor of a large, expansive inventory right from the get-go that you can’t upgrade, allowing you to revel in the action, carry, and use as many of the tools the game gives you to murder anything in your way.

During Leon’s sections, you also see how the gore and over-the-top violence that have shown up in flutters throughout his adventures have been amped up here. Heads explode in pools of blood when Leon performs a finisher, showing you heads that explode or flatten under the pressure of his boot as he steps on a zombie’s head. It’s frankly nuts and amplifies the catharsis his sections of the game bring.

These two halves of the experience, and how Resident Evil Requiem feels like it pulls the best parts from every Resident Evil game from the last decade, have made me pretty confident that this will become the definitive game in the series. If the narrative delivers and a lot of the impressive direction and gameplay I saw in my three hours with the game continues throughout the rest of the game, then Resident Evil Requiem will very quickly become my favorite game in the series and an impressive kaleidoscope of the series, the journey it has been on, and the lessons it has learnt from its stumbles.