Resident Evil Requiem is the culmination of everything Capcom has done with the series since Resident Evil 7 Biohazard. It offers some of the best survival horror action gameplay in the series, while finding ways to keep the more horror-focused sections still feeling tense. The story requires you to be all in on the series lore, but Leon and Grace both offer plenty of fantastic character moments to keep anyone engaged.
Resident Evil Requiem
Developer: Capcom
Price: $70
Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Switch 2, PC
A PS5 code was provided by the publisher for review
We start from Grace’s perspective, sent to investigate a series of mysterious deaths by returning to the hotel where her mother, Alyssa Ashcroft, was murdered years ago. When playing as Grace, Resident Evil Requiem is firmly in the modern survival horror mode. Her sections are in first-person by default, although you have the option to swap, which makes the horror aspects pop. Even if the opening sections feel a bit paint by numbers in terms of horror, with the haunted hotel feeling overdone, I was quickly distracted with Grace and Alyssa’s backstory, which serves as a perfect primer to get right into the story.
While your first sections involve getting the plot rolling, you eventually reach the first major section of the game, the hospital, where you get to explore a fuller section. Here, you get to see Resident Evil Requiem showing off everything learned from past games. Grace’s smaller frame makes enemies feel larger, and she feels woefully under-equipped for the situation compared to Leon, making each engagement far tenser. It bridges the gap between being scared and being well-armed, making even a single zombie feel threatening, despite the 30 bullets in my inventory.
This massive section is marked by multiple large special zombies, in addition to the regular ones. These special zombies, like the Chef, are more dangerous than the others, but where they differ compared to some of these style enemies in Resident Evil Village, for example, is that you absolutely can kill them, but the amount of resources required makes it a tough choice to make, even before you consider the risk of taking them on.
This risk-reward trade off with the big enemies, some of whom are real freaky, adds a nice level of strategy beyond just avoiding them. When I noticed that I could use the special injector Grace has access to on the special enemies I was incredibly excited to take them out, only to discover, at the same moment as Grace based on her reaction, that it was going to take more than one to get the job done, creating a moment of excitement as I forced to quickly flee after boldly biting off more than I could chew.
Grace also benefits from a new addition to the crafting system: blood. Grace collects blood from dead enemies or random buckets, which can be combined with other materials to make bullets, health, or a special injection that can take out regular zombies in a single hit. Since you primarily gather it from enemies, now there’s a resource incentive to take out zombies instead of avoiding them to hoard supplies. Encouraging you to fight as Grace takes the tension of the first-person Resident Evil games and gives it a nice spike by putting you into tough spots. I love having an incentive to take enemies head on, even knowing that I could potentially use more resources than I gain if I’m not careful.
Between the new resources and special enemies, Resident Evil Requiem excels at offering just enough rewards that you’ll always subject yourself to the risks. I love feeling scared in these campy games, and constantly running from an enemy you can’t kill only works for so long. Being encouraged to get far closer than I want to an enemy that I know could be killed, keeps the atmosphere tense in a way that I love.
Grace also marks a vast improvement in protagonists. While Ethan Winters’ relentless quest to save his wife was certainly admirable, he lacked the charisma of someone like Leon. Grace, in her fear but also her desire to do the right thing, makes for a perfect horror protagonist. She doesn’t know what’s going on, she’s terrified, but she has FBI training and the urge to help people, which makes for great character moments with her. Grace has genuine emotional depth, and often reacts in the way someone seeing all this nonsense for the first time would, making her easy to root for.
Leon, on the other hand, is exactly who you remember, which is exactly what I want. Sure, he’s older and perhaps a bit wiser in how he approaches situations, but he hasn’t aged out of ripping some incredible one-liners. A true smack-talker who always has something stupid to say, regardless of how much danger he is in.
And boy is Leon in some danger in Resident Evil Requiem. His sections, which make up about half the experience, are all modeled after Resident Evil 4 (2023) and go all-in on action. Leon, in his old age, has switched to a hatchet as his melee weapon, which can be used to parry incoming attacks. It has a durability meter, but it can be repaired with a simple sharpening. This creates a nice push-and-pull during fights, where you are often surrounded by enemies. Parrying an enemy does create an opening to take them out, but you lose a ton of durability, and it’s tough to sharpen in the middle of the fight.
Leon is also equipped with all sorts of firearms in his third-person sections, and the amount of enemies thrown at you feels dialed to 11. In order to keep the tension of Leon’s sections, the length of which range wildly from short set pieces to large sections, you are constantly dealing with several enemies, including special enemies. Fighting off a dozen zombies, some of whom are armed with chainsaws or other weapons, is both incredibly satisfying to do — headshotting an enemy to open them up for a melee finisher, but having to rush through other enemies to complete the combo forces quick decision making that never loses its luster.
While I rarely felt like I needed to actually manage my resources as Leon, the amount of ammo you go through creates the feeling all on its own. Instead of the tension of resource management, Leon’s sections are all about the tension of how to handle an onslaught of enemies. The combat is a ton of fun to do, the improved melee system adds strategy without making melee weapons a limited resource, and Leon is incredibly charming the whole time. Leon also has an action set-piece in the game that is one of the most ridiculous in the series, while also being exhilarating the whole time, truly a high point of the experience.
Leon and Grace Deliver the Best Resident Evil in Years
The pacing between Leon and Grace’s sections feels perfectly orchestrated. Grace’s sections will ramp up to a loud conclusion before sending you over to Leon. Leon’s action sections provide a nice palette cleanser for these set-piece finales, while also letting you feel powerful. Going back to Grace after being Leon gives the game the chance to reset the horror stakes and make you feel like you’re being stripped of your combat prowess without actually taking away Grace’s capability. The way experience ebbs and flows back and forth, at almost unpredictable intervals, allows for the horror tension to sustain itself. Playing as Grace towards the end of Resident Evil Requiem felt far scarier compared to the final sections of 7 Biohazard or Village.
In between fighting and surviving, both sections contain puzzles, a series staple. Unfortunately, that’s perhaps the weakest aspect of Resident Evil Requiem. Puzzles were far more oriented to simply finding the next key or access card so you could explore the next set of rooms. The most advanced version of this was managing three batteries to open a series of doors, but even that puzzle followed a linear path to “solve.”
I don’t necessarily have an issue with the puzzle being about navigating a space safely instead of an actually solvable puzzle, but for there not even to be one standout where I actually had to solve something is disappointing. I love finding new keys as much as the next guy, but you need to mix it up every once in a while.
The story, which is tough to discuss due to some strict review embargo requirements, is quite good, even if a bit tough to follow at times. It ties heavily into past Resident Evil games, requiring you to have a pretty good grasp on past events. Luckily, the game’s immediate plot is clear and is well paced while offering mystery. For me, the individual character arcs of Leon and Grace throughout the story were the best parts. Both characters get strong arcs where you get to see them learn and grow, while building on their previous stories.
The Final Word
Resident Evil Requiem takes the best of the modern games and remakes and smashes them together to create the best Resident Evil in years. The horror sections are expertly tuned to be terrifying without losing out on the excellent combat, and the action sections are as engaging as they are overwhelming. Both sections enhance each other through impeccable pacing. The story gets the job done, but Grace and Leon elevate the experience through their characterization. It’s big, it’s dumb, and it goes off the rails in all the ways the best Resident Evil games do.
MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
