Resident Evil Requiem (2026)

On my second playthrough. Definitely not as intense/scary as the first time, which is what I really love coming to RE for. Nonetheless, still fun and has its moments trying to just scrape through a fight.

I got to Raccoon City and the Police Department. And it is such a great moment to go back to. Even though I know where to go I still enjoy walking more slowly, soaking in the aesthetic and listening to all the ambient noises. Any game that can make me “stop to smell the roses” is fantastic in my book.

Playing this on my Switch 2 this time. 4th playthrough.

Orphanage section is the worst no agency stealth section in the entire series. At least there's a way to skip a majority of Ashley's section in RE4 Remake if you already know the puzzle solution, making the section more tolerable to go through on replays. At least RE2 Remake's Sherry section had actually clear tells as to who does what. It is scripted properly enough. The part where the clones are around the corner is so bad. Sometimes, the script for them to turn around just doesn't work. Even when I know the tell, I get close enough to them and they don't turn around. So I'm just stuck. No way to skip this section. You play as a different character that isn't Leon or Grace so I have no real connection to them. Could have been a cutscene. I dread this moment everytime I replay the game. By far, the lowest point in the game.

Ever since Resident Evil 7, it feels like there have been two distinct Resident Evils. There is the excellent, atmospheric horror that 7 reconnected with, but there was also the wonderful, goofy B-movie action-adventures that kept being delivered through the remakes of Resident Evil 2 through 4.

Resident Evil 9 is an attempt to marry these threads of Resident Evil into a single title through a dual-protagonist structure. New protagonist Grace Ashcroft leads us through creepy horror sections where you are sneaking around, avoiding enemies and scrounging for scarce resources. Then there are the sections led by series veteran Leon Kennedy, where you are essentially an action superhero mowing down zombies.

This structure works really well, especially in the first half of the game where you spend a lot of time as Grace in the creepy Rhodes Hill Sanitorium. You are vulnerable and have to deal with limited resources for a significant stretch. When you are finally given control of Leon and you are allowed to go to town with a full military arsenal, it's a super rewarding moment.

Once you leave Rhodes Hill in the second half, the game isn't able to repeat that payoff successfully, and the pacing feels a bit off with some sections that drag on too much. But there are still some really rewarding moments that keep you glued to the very end, especially if you're a long time fan of Resident Evil. And of course, Leon is still hilarious and carries the whole experience.

The Switch 2 port is quite impressive in motion, targeting 60fps and consistently hitting it in the early portions of the game, though some of the later sections struggle and made me wish for a 30fps cap option. But I have no regrets getting this version as it was great to play the game on the go.

Resident Evil 9 is a great game, but it's like a multi-course meal that gives you great samplings of the different versions of Resident Evil. It doesn't quite show me how these two variants could be merged together into one single cohesive whole. But when both sides are this fun, it's hard to be disappointed in the end.

"i hope the fbi agent is fine" the fbi agent found out that her fight or flight response is homicide and left you with an empty sanatorium and enough blood on the wall cracks to fill an olympic pool. i think she is fine yes.

everything i had to say is on my last status on this game but just to add after playing myself: i surprisingly found grace's parts far more fun! leon was entertaining and i like the action, but i loved the resource management with grace and it felt SO GOOD to wipe out a place with a makeshift knife and a dream.

I rarely do this but I am actually playing through this again; the atmosphere is so good. This time I get to wear the crazy outfits (Lady Dimmedtru for Grace, film more for Leon), played on slightly higher difficulty, and choose 3rd person perspective for Grace. It keeps the play fresh enough.

It doesn’t feel like the actual difficulty has changed too much, but I have to use blood to create ink ribbons which constrains my resources a bit more.

The Care Center is such a great setting, but the latter parts were not nearly as interesting. So I am not sure if I will see a full replay thru.

(not properly rating it because i didnt play most of it myself, so i cant fully judge the gameplay aspect until i do, but spiritually this is a 5star for me lol)

after watching the game 2/3 times on my own i finally played this with my bf and we binged it in a day and a half! i have to say that character wise this is one of my favorite residents up to date. i loved grace so much, she felt so close and so human and the contrast between an inexperienced young office worker vs a seasoned field agent was so chefs kiss. i like having characters that move away from usual resident evil protagonists, it really puts into perspective the horrors these people go through when its just a normal person experiencing it. the attention to detail was lovely aswell, grace cursing withe every weird shit she saw, the shaky hands that slowly become steadier, the difference in the recoil of the guns. i also have to say that i quite liked the contrast between grace's survival and leon's action, its a huge whiplash at times but i enjoyed how it kept me at the edge of my seat.

even though it did not feel like a massive expansion of the lore like other games did, it still contributes and adds to it in a meaningful way while leaving a door open to continue the story (i wish it had been more, yes, and i was a bit dissapointed about that, but the RE universe is obscenely big and not that well written and i find it hard to think of satisfying ways to keep the story moving forward beyond "new virus just dropped" so im not super mad). it also adds interest to older characters like spencer which im super happy about. i liked all of the winks to characters that dont come up (rebecca, jill, wesker, ada) and honestly i personally didnt feel like it was entirely driven by nostalgia. character design was peak imo, the girl and gideon are absolutely gorgeous.

some parts felt pretty underwhelming, i will admit. like the helicopter part (very short and felt a bit inconsequential, i feel like there was a different way to show what they wanted to show) or the fight with the new mr. x (it felt very very short and not as scary as in RE2, it can be argued that its because leon is no longer a rookie and yes that makes sense, it would be weird if he was terrified and suddenly really bad at handling a tyrant, but i feel like the enviroment heavily affected it with the final fight being an open area in broad daylight after not that much stalking and following). zeno as a character was also a bit whatever, i guess that is partially the point of him, that he is just a poor imitation of wesker, but i wish we had gotten more time to see him getting hyped up only to show that he is a failure and a nobody. similarly with gideon, theres a lot of potential to him as a villain and a lot of lore to explore, but he was better utilized in this game (wished we had seen way more </3 )

finally, i adore the campy-ness, the over the top scenes, the dramatism and all the unnecesary shit they add solely because its cool (resident evil vendetta motorbike scene reference i see you and i love you), it would not be a RE game without them.

capcom please bring my girl grace back for future games dont lock her in the basement :(

Finally finished this. I liked their blended formula of Leon and Grace levels, though the Grace levels were more the survival horror balance I enjoy. The beginning of this game is so good, with the early Leon and Grace levels. I found it fairly bad-ass for Leon to give Grace his BFG as they were separated early on and Leon stood down a new unknown threat. And there were lots more great Leon moments in the game.

As is typical, Resident Evil tends to get a bit dull in the end. You are in yet another lab in some previously undiscovered location fighting hordes of creatures in test tubes looking for an anti-viral.

Ultimately, I want them to keep experimenting as they did with 7 and 8 and breaking from crew of regulars we know and classic viruses and nemesis monsters and such.

Solid 8/10 game. Actually make it 7/10. why?

Im having fun EXCEPT grace personality and gameplay.. ohmygawd. How the hell she is in FBI? one can only guess. Is she autistic? Zero intuition and common sense? emilllyYYyyYyy ? i really cant with her.

I thought no one cant top ashley sloopiness but heyy well done writers !

I was expecting something like resident evil 4 which remains my absolute fav.

Oh well, at least there's LEON !!

Capcom has had a seemingly impossible problem to solve for the past 20 years. How do you satisfy two entirely different groups of Resident Evil fans with one game? How do you please the people like me who still worship at the altar of RE4 and RE5, and want less horror and more action and dumb one-liners and ridiculous set pieces? How do you ALSO please old-school fans of RE1-3 and the more modern survival horror triumph that is RE7?

The answer they came up with is so simple that it couldn't possibly work, and yet it does. Split the game up into two protagonists, with entirely different styles of gameplay and tones.

Grace's sections play like a more brutal and pared back RE7. She doesn't aim well, she has very limited ammo, she only has two guns (one of which is a magnum you will only find a few shots for), has a very small inventory, she can't take very many hits before dying. You are incentivized to sneak around, avoid conflict, scrimp and save as much ammo as you can. Many of her sections are crouching around in the dark with a flashlight.

Leon's sections echo the recent RE4 remake. You march into rooms with big guns, a big axe (that can be infinitely resharpened whenever you want so is less precious than the knife in RE4 Remake), and big dick energy. His inventory is as huge as his biceps and you will be stuffing an entire armory into your pockets. Towards the end of the game I was running around with a handgun, shotgun, SMG, two different sniper files, and almost 10 grenades.

Most of Leon's gameplay is in the back half, but you will get short sections of him interspersed throughout Grace's sections, and it will usually be some kind of boss fight.

Beyond the core gimmick of two different protagonists, it's a standard resident evil game that gets all the fundamentals perfect. The zombies look cool, they look even cooler when their head explodes from a shotgun shell. The environments are dense, looping, beautiful, varied, and memorable. I would go so far as to say the first big area you play in as Leon has my favorite level design in the whole series and echoes Dark Souls with shortcut doors and elevators aplenty. The puzzles are, as ever, simple and completely ridiculous from an in fiction standpoint.

The story is an intentional call back to RE2 and has a lot of fanservice. Depending on your disposition that's either a positive or negative. But the performances are entertaining from top to bottom. Grace's VA in particular does an amazing job.

On a personal note, this wound up being quite a fun bonding experience for me and my friend. Like I said, I don't really like PLAYING the survival horror resident evil games, though I love them dearly. And that's because I'm a wimp, I have trouble pushing through scary games where you feel powerless and actually have to just run and hide and conserve ammo, even mildly scary ones like RE. Personally I have only played the (many) different versions of RE4 and RE5. But I've watched my friend play through the remakes of RE1, RE2, RE3 and RE7 and RE8. He has never played RE4 but he watched me play through the original and some of the remake. We both played through RE5 together back in the day. So for this one we literally traded off, he played Grace's sections and I played Leon's sections, and that was a ton of fun and a totally new way to play a resident evil game for us.

10/10, would highly recommend. I personally think this is the best RE game since RE4. A triumphant win for Capcom, who has done nothing but cook for the past decade. I eagerly await Pragmata.

My new favorite game of all time, replacing Resident Evil 4 from my top list. This game combines the horror of Biohazard (but done even better), with the action of Leon in Resident Evil 4. The best of both worlds done masterfully.

The game's story is told through various cutscenes and notes and they include a lot of lore from older games. If you are new to the series, you may feel very lost playing this game. If you are a veteran and a long time fan, this game is a love letter to 30 years of horrors. Requiem was very emotional for me; it messed up my sleep and my focus in everything. I couldn't stop thinking about the game and what could happen. I took it too seriously, I think! Anyways, it's a must play for fans.

As good as it is, there were a couple of things that could use some improvements. For example, Leon's gameplay can feel a bit clunky at times, especially in small spaces in the game. There were not as many boss fights that distinguish every Resident Evil game. And lastly, I did get a lot of stuttering from the game. It may ne my fault, but I used the automatic settings, where the game inspects your PC and sets the graphics to what your PC can handle. I also chose performance mode, and it was still stuttering, especially closer to the end of the game. The first half was fine. Again, it could be my fault for not using the proper settings.

In conclusion, a must play. Try it out and have a blast!

I've never played Resident Evil 6, but I know it had a poor reception. It's regularly held up as the low point in the Resident Evil series, so it was odd that the same idea of having multiple different horror experiences in one game returned in Resident Evil Requiem. But fans seemed excited for it without even mentioning their most-hated entry in the series, and the game went on to be well-received by critics. I don't have such high praise for this game myself though.

Resident Evil Requiem follows two protagonists: Grace and Leon. Grace is a rookie FBI agent tasked to investigate an abandoned hotel for a case. She has a history with this place because its where her mother was murdered. During her investigation, she is accosted and kidnapped by a man named Victor Giveon. This same man is being chased by Leon S. Kennedy who is working to cure his T-Virus infection.

The story sets up for the two protagonists Grace and Leon to regularly cross paths while on their own adventures. The game bounces between both protagonists as I progress through the game aiming to deliver different experiences in tandem. The idea is that Grace's game play is "Survival Horror" while Leon's half is "Action Horror".

I hate what the term "Survival Horror" has become. The definition has been taken from it's creator Shinji Mikami and been co-opted by an annoying, gate-keepey fanbase. The definition has become an unclear mess that few describe the same way, but all love to say when a game isn't "Survival Horror". I'm throwing out this term here because I think Grace's game play is better described as "Stealth Action Horror". It's not much different from a Splinter Cell game.

And this is great news as I hate "Stealth Horror" games such as Amnesia: Dark Descent. Games like these need action. I'm fine with limited resources, but I need to be able to fight back. Otherwise, the experience is boring and frustrating. Because of this combination of stealth, action, and horror, Grace's half of the game turned out to be the best of the two.

Grace's gameplay is set up like classic Resident Evil in structure. She's dropped in an area open for exploration. She has to sneak her way through halls choosing what to kill or avoid based on the limited resources she has, but there are also un-killable enemies she has to purely avoid with only the ability to stun them for a better chance of running away. She also has safe rooms to restock or store items and save the game. I love taking a look at the map and planning trips with the least amount of resources to get the job done. It's a slow-paced, satisfying experience.

One of my favorite touches of Grace's experience and the game as a whole is how it handled her crafting system. Grace's crafting system is entirely based around blood. She finds blood in her environment and sucks it up with a syringe. She uses the blood to craft items like bullets and upgrades. It makes no since but is pleasingly disgusting. This is taken even further as Grace is able to craft a hemolytic injector. These can be used to stealth kill an enemy. Grace can sneak up behind an enemy to stab them in the neck with this thing or stab a staggered enemy during a fight. When injected, the enemies head swells up and explodes for an instant kill. Blood flies everywhere. It's hilarious, and I loved doing it as much as possible.

Leon's side of the game takes a while to get going. It's amusing upfront as he has new moves such as picking a melee weapon off the ground to throw at an oncoming zombie. They make him even more of an action hero with cool poses as he shoots at zombies. The difference between Grace and him is immediate as he has an over-abundance of ammo, and his guns do more damage. It's overkill, but his gameplay sections are unsatisfyingly brief in the first half of the game.

In the first half of the game, Leon comes in the clean up the mess after Grace has already left. Since I kill most enemies as Grace, it leaves Leon running through a mostly empty building only able to kill off the larger enemies Grace wasn't capable of killing. It's dull. Not a good design choice.

Leon gets his time to shine in the second half as the game mostly follows him then. He's sent back to Racoon City, but the present day version has been decimated by bombs in the aftermath of Resident Evil 2. There's a lot of fan service and nostalgia delivered here has Leon is sent back to the Racoon City Police Department.

The progression of Leon's side of the game has a major difference from Grace's. Leon has a whole shopping system. Every zombie he kills gives him points. He can uses these points at shops in safe rooms where he can purchase new weapons and upgrades and sell unneeded items. It's funny to see the game incentivize killing every enemy I come across. It feels the exact opposite of Grace's experience of conserving as many resources as possible.

Leon's section does a good job of mixing things up to create memorable moments, but I also found his part of the game more frustrating than Grace's. I think the developers pushed the action gameplay beyond what they were capable of. There are some sections where it just turns into a straight up third-person shooter, but it lacks the control and features to make it feel fair. I died often in these parts, and I was just annoyed by it. It also has some weak boss fights that were either too simplistic or not doing a good job of communicating how much damage I was doing to the enemy.

The story for both sides is weak. Resident Evil has never been good at this. Grace's story has obvious twists I could see coming from a mile away, and I have to wait too long for her to finally catch up. Leon has become a meme-ified version of himself with the lame one-liners that I can't take him seriously any more. The story tries to have some emotional reminiscing during this time in Racoon City, but it all falls flat. The swapping back-and-forth between protagonists also hurts the pacing of the story. It just feels like it hits pause on one story to continue another instead of feeling like one continuous storyline.

Resident Evil Requiem's attempt on combining the two different gameplay styles they've originated into one game didn't all come together. Grace's stealth action horror feels like the most ideal version of the gameplay style popularized by Amnesia: Dark Descent. Leon's action horror still doesn't hold a candle to the original Resident Evil 4 which I feel is misunderstood at this point. That man had many limitations in that game, so I don't know why the evolution of that led to half-baked Gears of War. And they need to calm down with the one-liners or stop trying to be so self-serious in its storytelling. With as bad as these stories are though, the latter would probably be the better choice. As for the series as a whole, Requiem was an odd swing to try to please all fans. I think they made a good game, but it's hardly the best in the series. The series will probably forever live in the shadow of the original Resident Evil 4, but when looking at the modern games, I would also take the Resident Evil 3 Remake over this. I'm very curious to see where they go from here though.

An absolute early 2026 banger and holy cow is this indeed a love letter to RE fans across all generations, especially those like myself who grew up with the original games. Definitely don't want to spoil anything and I'm sure most fans who've watched several review videos heard the same comments from those folks.

On that note, I'm quite a ways in now and just spent HOURS exploring everything I could in a certain place :)

The only real fuss I'm having is with how low the character's voices are, whether it's on my TV sound or Home Theater sound. Leon's voice in particular is so low I have to lower the dang sound effects just to hear him better. Not a fan of that. Not sure how it would sound on my newest dolby atmos soundbar system in the living room, but on my Klipsch 5.1 system AND LG CX sound it's like that. Not a huge deal, but quite annoying if this is a flaw with the game's sound design, because I LOVE horror atmospheric effects, and having to lower those down just to hear the character's sounds more is bad juju. Maybe it's just me.

Keep the scares coming so I can verbally yell while my window is open and my close neighbors can hear :)

This is the RE we needed next!! I'm looking forward to RE1 remake as well!! But please please please do Code Veronica next, and not RE5.

With how people talk about the mixed-bag identity crisis that was Resident Evil 6, you would not think it was the second best-selling game in the long-running series, but it still feels like subsequent games breathed new life into that series in an important way. On one side you have my two favorite games in the series in RE7 and Village, which took the series into first-person and more fresh ideas while still feeling like Resident Evil; and in parallel, you also have a series of highly-acclaimed remakes of three classic entries, which gave them a more modern feel in game design, graphics, and tone. Enter Requiem, which kinda sets itself up as a victory lap sequel to both styles of games, half first-person survival horror as new protagonist Grace and half third-person action as series regular Leon.

I'm not the biggest fan of how this split approach lands, but at least the game's first half is really good. Its centerpiece is a large area that brings to mind classic RE zones, lighter on puzzles but still offering that satisfying adventure game progression along with modern RE's scarier feel. The story also has a promising mystery setup, and Grace is a much more compelling protagonist than Ethan and many others in the series. These sections slightly overuse big unkillable super enemies that stalk you around, but they fit well with how the levels play with light and darkness and are preferable to standard boss fights. I do also wish there was no all-purpose resource collection / crafting in these parts, but it's only a minor annoyance. Each part of this first half has something pretty memorable about it, even the smaller bits, and I found myself pretty invested in what was going on and enjoying the tension.

Leon of course takes over occasionally during this first half to not disappoint those who were looking for action. I found his parts' tone and gameplay style felt shoehorned into these earlier segments, and I didn't care for how he left the main thread on cliffhangers. At least those were brief parts, but I was unprepared for just how much he would eventually take over the game. In the second half you play as him for at least a couple hours with minimal interruption in a really bland environment, literally earning points from kills to redeem for items. Combat as Leon feels nice, and the section has a decent flow through a bunch of connected areas, but this section is still forgettable and uninspired compared to anything that happened before. It didn't help when it tried to go over the top or drew heavily from the well of fan service, falling flat for me at a point hours removed from the last time I was having a truly great time. Still, the fundamentals of the combat and level design help keep this feeling at least okay.

It frustrates me a bit that that's what they turned the exciting direction of the first half into, kinda failing to cohesively marry these two game styles, but the game's final stretch bounces back decently. After playing as Leon for that long, the sudden realization that you're back to Grace's limited arsenal and perspective is a pretty nice moment of story and game design reinforcing each other. This section balances the two sides a bit better both in gameplay and narrative, bringing the story to a mostly satisfying conclusion. Resident Evil is a series I love as a whole but that's full of games like this with great peaks but also parts that are a bit of a drag or don't quite work. In this case, I can't tell if it's being overly ambitious or not ambitious enough, definitely leaving me wishing this was a Grace-only game but still ultimately succeeding in spite of its misfires.

Game looks absolutely incredible on a high end PC. I hear great things about the PS5 Pro edition too.

I've only completed the first long main institution as Grace, and I have to say the sound design is incredible. You can actually FEEL her whimpers as she fearfully tries to figure out what's going on. Perfection!!!

The monsters are amazing, and there's already variety with the big, terrible baddies just like the last two entries.

5/5 love it, even if I've barely scratched the surface. I can usually tell what my score is by the immediate "sucks you right in" factor.

PLAY THIS NOW!!! I can't believe Capcom just keeps nailing this series after the abysmal RE6. And a new Megaman coming in 2027 I believe!!!! I tried their new sci-fi game and the puzzle combat was so tedious and annoying I couldn't finish the demo.

Holy shit this game is actually amazing. I dont want to risk spoiling anyone, so uh, spoilers for at least like. 8 hours:

After finishing the Care Center, it already kinda felt like a pretty complete and good RE game. One of the shorter ones to be sure, but not by a whole lot. But then I got to Racoon City and... it kinda feels like that was just a prologue. This game is nailing both the sense of vulnerability and horror as Grace and the adrenaline pumping action as Leon without even changing their mechanics all that much. Its too early I suppose to call it but right now this feels like the best RE game since Remake2 or RE4.

I think the platitudes make sense... peak RE, a love letter to the fans, the compartmentalized action and horror segments enrich each other, Leon is a chad, et al. It's all pretty much true.

A little RE4, a little RE7, the appropriate amount of kojima style nonsense, more nostalgia bait than expected, and a near perfect pacing and length for a super cinematic AAA blockbuster game... truly the best version of the resident evil experience to date.

A little surprised to say I really loved this game. I had mild expectations going in after being extremely lukewarm on RE8, having me a little bit concerned how future main entries would turn out. Thankfully, I was rather pleased with the entire experience. The beginning admittedly was a little rough with being switched perspectives maybe a little too often. Grace's section in the care center, however, was really fun and did in my opinion a phenomenal take on horror survival. Grace is completely and utterly out of her league and everything about the way she plays and reacts to things fit that perfectly, but not to the point of it being so egregious and annoying like Ethan's campaigns were, especially in RE8. Leon's sections, though a bit too short for my liking, were also really fun. Also I just really like Leon and parrying so I don't think it's possible for me to not be biased.

As far as story goes, the one thing I did appreciate from RE8 was how ridiculous and silly it was. In a good way. Requiem tones it down by a lot and approaches the story more seriously, which is perfectly fine. That said, alot of it felt like it was... wrapping things up? Or maybe setting things up? I'm not sure how to describe it, but it certainly felt like not exactly much happened. Not that it was bad, I still quite liked it.This was honestly quite literally just Grace's absolute worst day of her life so far. Or maybe second worst.

Few more things I want to add, though they are spoilers.

• Was neat to see Sherry come back. Now they just gotta bring back Jake haha...
• Kinda really messed up they gave me control of Leon to kill Emily as if the whole thing with Kendo in RE2 remake wasn't bad enough
• I went full soyjak point when Hunk appeared. Can't believe they actually did that.
• I love title screen changes. It really made me smile, it would have been far too cruel otherwise.

As of now, I am keeping up with the Last Puzzle that has people online stumped, though I don't think it'll take too long to solve. Though I do wonder what exactly it means and how much it matters for the series as a whole. Or if it's just a fun little ARG capcom wanted to do. Really looking forward to more RE going forward but I do wonder where we're going from here. Most likely a Chris game. Though we kept saying that since RE7's ending and well... You think they'll ever give us a Leon/Chris coop game? I don't think the RE universe will allows these two to ever be together in the same place at the same time. That said, I do wonder how long we can keep going with Leon and/or Chris as central figures to the series.

Resident Evil: Requiem opens with a confidence that borders on... well, predatory. From its first moments, it's clear that the developers understand atmosphere as a bloodstream as opposed to a decorative layer. The air feels thick. The silences feel intentional. As with the previous games, Capcom deftly demonstrate a damn near surgical degree of control over tone. The result is, fortunately, one that manages to drag a player under rather than just lure them in.

The brutality is striking - points all around for that. Not gratuitous in a juvenile sense, but shocking in a way that restores danger to a franchise long familiar with excess, and one that managed its execution perfectly in the seventh mainline game. Several cutscenes land with genuine jaw-dropping force. Violence in Requiem is staged with deliberation and it often feels consequential. Well done, developers, for succeeding in making the horror experiential.

Among the game's new threats, the so-called "Girl" stands as an instant fucking icon, good god. Her presence - her stalking, the relentless percussion of her footsteps - evokes a primal anxiety that even the towering figures of the Tyrant or Nemesis struggled to achieve at their most operatic. And she doesn't rely on scale alone, oh no. She weaponizes proximity and rhythm. In doing so, she earns her place among the series' most memorable monsters. Bitch scared me silly.

On the human side, Victor Gideon is rendered with remarkable nuance. The performance is layered and charismatic without slipping into caricature, and keep in mind that caricature is safe ground for Resident Evil - it's allowed, it's part of the fabric of this game franchise. Yet he commands attention whenever he appears, and I sense that the actor fully understood the tonal register the game demanded. Leon is a great contrast, as he tends to remain almost mythic in his composure. He's cool to the point of abstraction, y'all. He functions as a stabilizing axis for the narrative, a figure shaped by trauma yet never consumed by it.

The same cannot be said for Grace. No, it really fucking cannot. As a character, she strains credibility. Look, I can overlook a certain degree of timidity in an FBI agent thrust into extraordinary circumstances: fear is human. What proves more difficult to reconcile is the manner of its portrayal.

The performance frequently veers into exaggeration so pronounced that it fractures immersion. I grow irritated just typing this as I recount the constant stuttering and hyperbole that is her collective on-screen time. Her reactions feel less like the irrationality of terror and more like the artificiality of scripting. Instead of embodying a person unraveling under pressure, she is fucking entirely constructed for effect, her gestures and expressions repeating in ways that become distracting rather than feeling like a genuine nod to, say, neurodivergence in an untenable situation. It's rare for a protagonist in this franchise to feel like an obstacle to one's own engagement, yet Grace occasionally approaches that threshold.

Also, why the hell does she never close her mouth? Bitch may as well not even have lips. I seent her teeth more in the 9 hours it took me to play this game than I seent my goddamn own choppers in my entire life.

Mechanically, the hide-and-seek sequences, brief as they are, continue a long, long, long standing series tradition of overstaying their welcome. On a first playthrough, sure, they sustain tension. On subsequent runs, they risk becoming procedural interruptions. Allowing these sections to be streamlined or bypassed would only strengthen replayability, which remains one of the series' core virtues. I will not be replaying this one, and it's partly because I know I'm going to have to suffer through the slow-paced sneaking section within the orphanage again.

One of the game's most impressive achievements is its integration of franchise history. References to the events and tonal shifts of Resident Evil 7 and Village are woven in with subtlety rather than fanfare. And again, fanfare is safe ground. They could have gone that route and it wouldn't have been worse off for it. But with how they orchestrated these gestures and nods, the effect is organic, akin to the way Alien: Romulus gestures toward the mythic scaffolding laid by Prometheus and Alien: Covenant without completely collapsing into exposition, god help us all. The continuity feels earned.

Leon's return to the RPD and the Kendo shop exemplifies this restraint quite well: these sequences could have devolved into indulgence, but instead, they function as quiet meditations on memory. His recollection of the gunshop owner and his daughter could be argued as being nothing but a sentimental aside, but more accurately it serves as a clarifying force, sharpening his resolve. The city's ruins are a backdrop, yes, but they're also a mirror that reflects that trauma lingering in the architecture. Another outstanding section.

If there is a misstep in the realm of nostalgia, it's the reappearance of the Super Tyrant. Where other callbacks feel purposeful, this one edges toward spectacle for spectacle's sake - a "greatest hits" moment that momentarily breaks the game's otherwise careful calibration, a lot like how Siegmeyer of Catarina and Andre the Blacksmith from Dark Souls somehow show up in Dark Souls III.

Similarly curious is the absence of a stronger response from Sherry regarding the orphanage. Given her history of, you know, being threatened and hunted by a fucking serial killer, her silence feels conspicuous. I wouldn't go so far as to say the omission derails the narrative, but it's one hell of a missed opportunity for emotional resonance.

The aesthetic rendering of Raccoon City's ruins carries an unexpected echo of Paul W. S. Anderson's Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Whether intentional or not, the visual homage is strangely delightful. These sections, however, are more expansive than what the series traditionally offers. The openness lends scale but occasionally diffuses urgency, making certain exploration segments feel longer than necessary. Familiarity on repeat playthroughs may well temper this sensation, so it's not a huge complaint.

As with many entries in the franchise, the conclusion arrives abruptly. This time, the lack of conventional catharsis feels deliberate. We are left not with tidy closure, but with lingering lore and bold narrative decisions, one in particular that demonstrates admirable narrative nerve. Resolution is partial, and implication is plentiful.

So to round it all up, Resident Evil: Requiem stands as a worthy successor to the revitalizing brilliance of its immediate predecessors. It's perhaps slightly overlong, it's occasionally... scratch that, frequently undermined by an uneven central performance. Still, its atmosphere, its creature design, its performances elsewhere, and its willingness to engage thoughtfully with its own history secure its place among the stronger modern entries. If this is the direction forward, the future of the franchise remains compelling. Don't let me down.

And Grace, close your goddamn mouth, please.

Enjoyable review by Kimimi the Game-Eating She-Monster via Ko-Fi

The back half of the game is little more than fanservice, keen on forcing in as many strained references and reheated takes on old ideas as possible. It's like the game had no confidence in where it was going…and so keeps showing me familiar things because it knows fans like this stuff instead. Well, they liked it the first time, when it was fresh and surprising and made sense.

It's Vaguely Remembering Things: The Boss Battle, a reheated, directionless serving of something I've already done. I was hoping the game might use these moments as some sort of commentary on the lingering stain of corporate evil, how companies can go bankrupt and founding members can die but everyone else still has to live with the emotional and environmental damage they've done. It's not.

The article linked above is currently available to supporters on Ko-Fi but will eventually be posted for free at Kimimi the Game-Eating She-Monster

This game worries me in the sense that it gives the impression the developers are heading down the same direction that gave us Resident Evil 5 and 6. Whereas 7 and 8 give you a character who can fight with melee weapons, plenty of guns, and can run worth a damn, Requiem separates this into two sides of the campaign that play very differently.

First, you have newcomer Grace, an FBI agent. She gets a few pistols she can use, but she never has a permanent melee weapon like Leon's knife from 4. Her segments of the story are slow, creepy, dark, and a perfect horror atmosphere. The genre of her gameplay segments is survival horror. Her segments are for the old school fans of the series.

Then you have Leon's segments. Throughout the story, you switch between characters. Whereas in 4 you had Leon, who can fight with numerous guns, launchers, some physical combat like punches and kicks, a knife, etc. while in a dark, scary, horror-filled atmosphere, in this title his environments are much more akin to 6 where the focus is on action. There is nothing scary or even an attempt to be scary in Leon's segments, and this is where my main issue with this game lies.

Capcom is trying to appeal to both groups. Those who prefer the horror of 4 or 7 and those who prefer the action shooter style of 6. They could have given Leon the same treatment as 4 does where he is in a scary, dark environment full of the living dead, but they chose not to. Instead, you essentially get parts of 7 and parts of 6 in this game. The development team, however, said they were aiming for similar gameplay as in the remake of 4. I think they missed the mark.

Other than that, it's a typical Resident Evil affair. Unkillable monsters you have to avoid (like the Tyrant from 2 or Lady Dimitrescu from 8), puzzles that are similar to those in previous entries, and doors that require three "keys" inserted into a lot to open are all here. The story is generally good, Leon is back, and Grace is a welcome newcomer that I hope we get to see more of in future titles.

The only other gameplay gripe I have is that the boss fights are very easy. At most I died once during a boss, and I believe it was the final battle in which this happened. All of the others can be beaten on the first try. I started in "Standard (Modern)" difficulty for reference.

All in all, Resident Evil requiem is not a masterpiece like the remakes of 2 and 4, and not quite as good as 8, but still an exceptional game that fans should play