Resident Evil Requiem (2026)

Resident Evil Requiem—More than nostalgia bait

Resident Evil Requiem is a survival-horror game with heavy emphasis on combat, playable in both a first-person perspective and a third-person perspective. Developed and published by Capcom in early 2026, it is the most recent entry in the series. Featuring two different protagonists—Resident Evil Requiem offers two completely different gameplay experiences, with one focusing on more "survival-horror" and the other on "action-shooter". More on that later, I'll try to keep the review short.

Graphics and Art-direction:

Requiem refines the already amazing look of the RE franchise. Shading and lighting are noticeably more atmospheric—which the characters benefit from the most, especially facial expressions. Character models feature more detail and clearer textures, though some textures are muddy.

Zombies look savage, bloodier, more so than ever before. Far scarier than last entries, as they seem to retain some humanity in this entry. It's fun to see the design for the zombies evolving with each entry—keeping things fresh. The weapons look cleaner and even more absurd.

The RE engine excels with interiors and it shows, far more furnished, moodier, creepier. The ruins of raccoon city felt so haunted, hollow even. Rhode Hills—The Care Center was extremely creepy, a place for rehabilitation turned into hell on Earth. The ARK Laboratory felt sanitized—void of humanity. The more "open world" sections (Certain areas of Raccoon city)didn't look up to par though, they seemed blurry, shading was flat too. I won't dock points since it's RE, not really known for exterior settings.

Plot and Writing:

The pacing was mostly fine! It neither dragged on nor was it abrupt and short. The start was a bit frenetic, it couldn't decide between Grace and Leon—Which was slightly jarring. Though the pace later settled down, letting me get more time with each protagonist.

Grace Ashcroft—The new girl on the block, such a fun character, reminded me of Ashley Graham. I love how she's just a normal young woman, weak and scared—almost powerless. Felt refreshing to play as her, seeing her go from a coward plagued with trauma and lack of self-worth to a selfless person who'd risk her life for someone felt nice.

Leon Kennedy—The poster child. Considerably more mature and badass. Older, stoic even—yet that lovable dry humor and one liners persist. Interesting to see Leon get some depth, he shows clear regret for his uselessness during the Raccoon City epidemic. And the fact that he's on borrowed time (won't tell why) makes him feel more human than ever before—even though his edginess has been cranked to the max, which I like.

Both sides were engaging but in my humble opinion—Grace edges out, ever so slightly.

Music and Sound design:

A bit disappointing, everything sounded subdued, nothing had that satisfying bass that most modern shooters have... not really my style but it was serviceable. I apologize but the music, I cannot for the life of me remember any standout tracks, it's a horror game so I couldn't focus on it much.

Gameplay and Combat:

Two different flavours—One game.

Grace—First time I felt so weak and vulnerable in the middle of a game. Sneaking around zombies had me holding my breath in real life, hoping that I don't mess up and or "The Girl" doesn't come over to say hello. Her gameplay highlights the traditional RE formula. Barely any ammo and resources, combing through the map for the way forward and trying not to die. The progression was rewarding—Clearing out all the zombies, the same ones I had cowered from was very fun.

Leon—No other way to put it, Fun. Much faster than Grace's gameplay, harder too. Not difficult due to powerlessness rather the amount of enemies that pour towards you. The amount of guns and the ability to customize them gives enough variety, though I wish the animations were slightly better, sound effects too. The executions are an appreciated addition, headshots were plenty fun—The bosses were iffy, no lasting impression left. Leon's progression was steady since he was already strong from the start.

Well optimized for a recent release! But the severe lack of QOL features bogged it down. Having no FOV slider and the permanent grain filter left a bad taste in my mouth but no big deal.

Resident Evil Requiem—Near perfect evolution of the classic formula and yeah... I also missed that Raccoon City hospitality—8.5/10

4.5/5

Resident Evil Requiem is the 9th mainline entry in the Resident Evil franchise. Sort of ignoring the last two entries with the Ethan story line except some vague references, this game gives us a new story with the ever popular yet aging protagonist Leon Kennedy, and a "new" character in Grace Ashcroft. Grace is the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, one of the playable characters in Resident Evil Outbreak and Resident Evil Outbreak File 2 spin off games for the PS2.

Where this game really shines is the differences between our two main characters. By default (both of these can be changed in settings), Grace's parts are played from a first person perspective and more along the lines of survival horror with less resources, a weaker character, and the need to play more cautiously. Leon's parts are played from a third person over the shoulder perspective similar to the recent RE remake games, as well as 4, with a lot more action and less need to worry about conserving any of your resources. The game does a good job of balancing when to switch characters, keeping the gameplay fresh.

The story here is a bit over convoluted, even with reading all of the files throughout the game. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention, but I had to read up on some synopsis and points afterward to fully grasp what happened. It's still an enjoyable journey, just a bit of a confusing one.

The settings in this game are fantastic, with you starting in a more confined building similar to the Spencer Mansion, or RCPD building, then really opening up in the second half to almost a small open world-esque level. The pacing struggles a bit once you get to the city portion of the game, but it's still pretty tense and I really enjoyed the callbacks/story beats in this zone. One bit that makes me a bit worried about this entry is the level of action, especially later on. The lowpoint of the series was 6, with over the top set pieces, qte's, and a whole lot more nonsense. This game has some traces of that, just like we saw in 5. It seems Capcom just can't help themselves and really struggle to keep things contained. Leon jumps a motorcycle off a collapsed skyscraper, plays motorcycle jousting with the enemy, and some other bits that go over the top. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come with the next entry.

Requiem is another fantastic entry in the Resident Evil franchise, even if they go a little overboard at times. The RE Engine once again really shines in the graphics department as the world has never looked so good while looking so bleak.

Resident Evil Requiem is a sort of a 'greatest hits' of the recent RE games. It mixes oppressive first person horror seen in RE7 and RE: Village with the over-the-shoulder action honed in RE4 Remake. It tops it off with callbacks to older games to score some nostalgia points.

The result? It's good. The game is really fun to play, which is the main thing. It also looks and sounds great. While the story is a bit naff and the alternating gameplay styles don't mix perfectly and are paced quite weird, it's hard to be mad. It's a fun game.

Resident Evil tiene ya un problema crónico, con unas primeras mitades absorbentes y llenas de misterio y unas conclusiones que son siempre más de lo mismo y cada vez algo más ridiculas. Requiem brilla mucho en los niveles de Rhodes Hill con Grace y es sólido, aunque menos notable, en las partes de Leon en Racoon City y el Ark.

Resident Evil es ya tremendamente previsible, demasiado caricaturesco y cada vez riza más el rizo de una trama que busca innovar complicándose con la conspiración de las conspiraciones. Aun así es jugablemente satisfactorio y esos cambios de personajes no dejan de ser interesantes.

9/10

Mini review:

Full review for some context, but basically, this is arguably my favourite Resident Evil. This or 4 Remake. Anyway, Grace is a great character with great voice acting. Leon was already a great character, so no surprise. Them switching from fear-inducing Grace to tension-alleviating Leon is a good call. I enjoy the second half more but that's personal preference. Beautiful game too.

Full Review:

I put this disclaimer in most horror game reviews that I write, but I'm not a massive horror guy, I played this on easy, and I HATE hiding and being chased in horror games. Stealth is fine in games like Metal Gear, but I don't like feeling powerless. So I avoid certain horror games. But I tried this out regardless. Figured I'd play for a bit, it would be too much for me, then I'd quit. Then I fell in love.

Now, playing on Easy does dilute what they're going for a bit, but that's on me, and frankly, Easy was the only way I was going to be able to play this. So when you see people saying that resources are scarce and they spend a lot of time sneaking, etc while as Grace, know that they can't be playing it on Easy. There are sections where you can't fight back, but you can tank almost everything if you're careful.

That's important to me. The beginning really stressed me out. The part in the basement when you're running around in the dark and The Girl keeps showing up, that also stressed me out (I almost stopped playing). A bit later when The Girl is back again also stressed me out. You can't kill The Girl until the scripted bit. However, elsewhere, like with Chunk, being able to kill him upped the experience for me because frankly, if I had to run away from that fat fuck every so often I wouldn't have enjoyed the game as much. So the fact that I could kill almost everything was nice.

It also means that minus one or two transitions to Leon, you don't fully get the tension release. I mean, it's still there. And it's still insanely awesome. Like when I first saw the chainsaw, it made me chuckle. It was much needed. But since I could murder almost everything with Grace, it does risk being lessened. Not for me, but for someone who isn't a wimp.

I'm not a massive RE guy. I'm not steeped in the lore. I loved the RE4 Remake (surprisingly) because it was action. My favourite parts in this are action, even though I think Grace is a wonderful character with a compelling and emotional arc. But even though I played it on Easy, I can still see and feel what this game was meant to be, and it succeeds admirably. The scary parts still work. The Leon parts work. It all works.

Also, I'm glad Emily is okay (in the good ending). The bad ending is a lot shorter but still pretty potent. Though I do recommend getting the good, which is easy considering the game asks you if you want to make the other choice. I also like that it does that.

So in closing, this is a polished, beautiful, scary, emotional, exciting RE. I don't know how they'll structure the next one, but if it strikes a balance like this or is more action oriented I'll be there. I want to see what happens.

Resident Evil Requiem is a game split in two, thematically and structurally: half edge-of-your-seat survival horror, half nostalgia-soaked action. It's challenging to know what to think of the game as a whole, because individually each half is a banger. But when you throw them together, you can't help but feel a little let down by the second half after you've gone through a first half that is a straight up masterpiece. How you respond to the fan service once the game makes it to Raccoon City probably depends on how invested you are in Resident Evil in general. For me, I didn't mind any of it because this is the second RE game I've ever played, with the last one being RE 3 over 20 years ago. So I'll take as much Leon S. Kennedy as Capcom wants to throw at me. But I can see how others might find it ingratiating.

Regardless, any fan of survival horror should do themselves a favor and at least play through the first half, which is one of the finest examples of the genre ever made.

There is no kind way to say it; this game was a colossal disappointment to me. I think the attempt to meld the two genres of survival and action horrors wound up being less than the individual parts. Too much was taken away from both genres in order to make the room, and it shows.

The story is barebones, with fun POIs and fan service (WAY too much) to distract from the cracks that are blatantly obvious. I did enjoy the first half of the game from Grace's perspective, the effective utilization of survival horror, and the brief interspersions of Leon, his action, and his quips; darkly delivered due to his affliction. However, the halfway point signaled the beginning of the end of enjoyment for me. Without wishing to delve into spoiler territory, I found Leon's chapters a frustrating change of pace, with very little joy to be had.

By the time I had gotten to the end, I could not care less about the story, and found myself literally skipping the ending cutscenes (after the obscenely easy last boss battle), just to roll credits, collect the achievements, and quickly uninstall the game. I can easily and honestly say, I will never play this game again. And to think, out of the main entries, I used to think RE6 was the worst, and it holds the current record of never having been completed for me (yet). At least it was honest in what it was; kind of like the Last Jedi of the Resident Evil games. Which make this, ironically, the Rise of Skywalker of Resident Evil games. Bleck.

I may install RE6 and give it an honest go after this.

Resident Evil Requiem combines all of the things you liked from previous RE games into one package. Its Leon sections take the tight action controls of the RE4 remake and put our fan-favorite hero in over-the-top scenarios reminiscent of RE 5 and RE6. Its Grace sections use the first-person horror approach of RE7 and RE8 to explore locations echoing the terrifying locales of RE1, RE2, and RE3. Whatever flavor of RE you prefer, you'll find a bit of it in here somewhere.

The game is exactly the sum of those parts, making it a wonderfully bonkers horror action game that controls like a dream. Its set-pieces are memorable and its character design spectacular, although its narrative is a bit weak and overly reliant on legacy character and location cameos. Those cameos had me rolling my eyes more than pumping my fist but it's still nice to have the series back to being about our favorite characters facing some shadowy corporate/government types.

Having a "Greatest Hits" Resident Evil isn't necessarily a bad move this long into a franchise known by its various genre swings, but I finished it a tad disappointed it didn't offer me anything I hadn't seen done better by previous entries. The action is better in RE4 and the horror is nowhere as terrifying as the highs of RE7 or even RE8. It feels like the game Capcom would have made if RE8 had been a bomb and the franchise needed to reset; except Village was a massive critical and commercial hit. That game also succeeded mightily in synthesizing all of the disparate RE trademarks into an experience that felt fresh yet still very much a Resident Evil game, bringing genuine scares to a first-person actioner. Requiem, in splitting up the action and horror to their own segments, feels like a regression.

That overall grip aside, Requiem is never less than entertaining and sets the series up well for its next overarching plotline. Here's hoping RE10, whenever it comes, takes what works here and adds something new to the equation.

Comparing to RE7 and RE8 (not a remake game), this is the most underwhelming RE game. Coming from someone who's not very good at aiming and using weapons effectively, the bosses are quite easy to defeat (normal difficulty). But the problem is that there's a lack of boss fights so it doesn't create much satisfaction. Even the puzzles are not as good as RE7 & RE8. A lot of sneaking into zombie's lairs or fighting them to get key items.

I don't mind the stark contrast in gameplay between Grace and Leon but I think Leon is a bit overpowered. It was fun but if you like challenges, you probably want to raise the difficulty or don't upgrade weapons. For me, this game feels unserious. However, I think it can still be an enjoyable game for those who wants to get started with RE, though they won't feel the nostalgia of Raccoon City.

Lastly, this may seem like nitpicking but nothing annoys me more than hearing an adult pretending to do a kid's voice. As for the voice acting, they were wrong not to cast a real kid for the role, or at least an adult who can convincingly sound like a kid. It makes me couldn't care less about Emily as I can't see her as an innocent kid but an adult in kid's body.

That's all for my opinion of this game. Sorry if you don't agree. But I personally only recommend buying this game when it's on big discount.

Wow. This game makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills, because I keep reading reviews of people describing how they didn't really enjoy it all that much, or felt RE was having an identity crisis, retreading past mistakes, it's a weak entry, it's attempting too much mass appeal, Grace was a poor protagonist, Leon's portions felt like tacked on arcade-style fan-service, etc etc etc.

And yet, these same people are still giving it 4 and 5 star reviews. It's so bizarre. I feel like I'm in a really unimpressive Black Mirror episode, where people go to a restaurant and hate their food but give it a 5-star review on Yelp.

This is one of those games that shows just how uniquely video games cater to people who brag about not reading books. It's just... bad. Thoroughly. The writing is poor (even for RE); the characters are just plot devices used to force the disjointed and ill-fit pieces of story forward with no thought to cohesion; the map design is tiny room after tiny tiny U- or O-shaped room pasted together end-to-end; the enemy design is tired and overplayed; everything has this 'copy+paste,' uninspired design that just feels phoned in (for instance, every time you grab a key item, like clockwork, an enemy will suddenly revive or be spawned in the exact space or path you need to be, without fail, i.e. every single step of the overly-long 3-breaker puzzle in the basement).

The game confuses 'inconvenient' with 'difficult' constantly. The amount of times The Girl is spawned DIRECTLY on my head, with zero effort by the devs to make an organic experience that creates an encounter that feels authentic and alive--the amount of times I have to go from point A to B and they just lazily spawn her directly in my path in front of point B so I have to sit and crouch for 2 minutes while the VA just gargles dish soap into the mic... it's just so. damn. bad.

Leon feels forced in as an afterthought, perhaps with the devs realizing how difficult of a sell Grace would be and hoping to get fans onboard with a familiar and beloved face. But the VA talking through a toilet paper tube in order to try and sound grizzled and aged while Leon gets 5 minutes of screentime every 80-120 mins just to force the plot forward every time it stalls just feels so, so unimportant. And then his whole arcade shoot-em-up section? What even is this game?

Grace is likely the single most inept and uncompelling protag I've seen this decade. She just isn't very good at anything. It's like being forced to play as an actual Capital-G Gamer who hasn't left their basement room in decades and can't make eye contact or go 3 steps without wheezing and moaning. I don't need to feel invincible or impressive in a game, but I also don't want to play as someone who can't walk down a short hallway without tripping over their own feet, or someone who thinks it's 'quirky' that the most impressive feat they can achieve is making a microwave dinner without setting their apartment ablaze. Grace strikes me as someone who calls going grocery shopping 'adulting,' and Leon comes off as a middle-aged dude who--like that POS shit Johnny Depp--manually counts out the numbers of bracelets and scarves he's going to wear that day in front of the mirror. They're both just so damn embarrassing.

Let me start by saying I am not a long-time fan of RE. Before this, I've only played the remake of 4 and the remake of 2, and only Claire's route from that game. I've also dabbled in 7, but have yet to beat it.

But to me, Requiem really hits the pinnacle of, if not horror itself, then at least the brand of horror that is most distinctive for the series, at least going by what I have played. That is, horror with a strong side of action. Here, those two elements are balanced in a way unmatched by the other games I've played. Four:RE kind of comes close with the Ashley sections, but they are relatively short and the rest of the game is more of an action romp.

Two:RE and seven actually come the closest, I think, specially as you explore the gloomy police department and the different parts of the dilapidated house respectively. However, and this might be funny, but the emphasis seven apparently has for gore is a bit of a turn-off for me.

Unfortunately, just as Two:RE eventually meanders into the laboratory sections, so too does Requiem. Neither are bad areas by any means, they are fun and well-designed, but their general tidiness, spotlessness, immaculate white palette mostly dispel some of the psychological horror. I guess for me it lacks some of the 'lived-in' that enhances horror for me.

Though I suppose if you have an aversion to going to the hospital, it might still work for you.

All that is to say, I loved Requiem. Honestly would have loved it more if the game had maintained the feel of the first two levels thorough with even less blatant shootout action, but what we got still worked extremely well. It was terrifying, it was cinematic, it was amazing, and both characters got time to shine.

A bang-up job!

Resident Evil managed to both blow past my expectations, while also confirming my suspicions and reservations with the game.

When they announced that it would be a dual protagonist game, with each character emphasizing either horror or action, my alarm bells went off. My biggest criticism of Resident Evil Village was its lack of clear direction and identity, instead feeling like a Frankenstein monster of cutting room scraps. And well, Requiem retains a similar issue.

If we were to divide the game into Grace and Leon, all of my criticism would fall on the Leon side. The Grace sections were absolutely incredible, perfection, a true successor to the gameplay and atmosphere of Resident Evil 2 Remake while also pushing the series forward in totally new territory. It was a 10/10 for me, and I wish I could end the review there.

But then there’s Leon, and boy I hated his sections. It’s basically the Chris Redfield ending of Village, but stretched out for half the entire game’s length. Just mindless action that completely runs counter to the survival horror genre - you are literally REWARDED points for killing as many enemies as possible. There’s zero strategic avoidance, tension and fear, slow methodical and atmospheric gameplay. It’s just a Call of Duty game, which is the last thing I want when I play Resident Evil.

If I had to guess why Capcom refuses to fully embrace its survival horror roots when its core fanbase is screaming for it to - it’s money. There is a section of its fanbase that only knows the games from Resident Evil 4. And there’s others that come to the series to just have an adrenaline fueled zombie shooter. Capcom, wanting to sell the game to as many fans as possible, decides to always cater the experience to both and neither at the same time.

This time, they billed it as a good thing (in one interview it was compared to sushi, with action and horror being like fish and rice). But no, this disjointed and bipolar game design is really becoming a pet peeve. I don’t know if I’m alone in this ( EDIT: yes, I am. Just saw the glowing unanimous review LOL. So basically everything I say here is irrelevant I guess) but please just make a spin off series that caters to the action fans - leave Resident Evil for the true survival horror fans (the majority of your customers).

Alas, I truly wish I could write a glowing review because half of this game earned it with stripes and stars. If I had stopped the game halfway through, then that’s what this would be. But instead, I am left with completely conflicted and bitter feelings that make me unsure of the future of the series. Hopefully, something will change and RE 10 will finally resolve this problem.

MAKE ACTION RE A SPINOFF, AND LEAVE RE AS SURVIVAL HORROR

Done with my first playthrough of the game. Uneven game, but I really liked it. I liked it a lot more than Village so that is something. Do I think my opinion on Requiem will wane more over time like Village? Less likely. Though Requiem does suffer from Village's trappings here and there like linear level design in some spots and there's more scripted stealthing around than House Beneviento (albiet with a bit more agency). First half has a good amount of survival horror, but the problem is that there is also a good amount of scripted segments. Grace is still a really great character with an amazing performance and it's satisfying to see her growth.

Leon takes almost the entirety of the 2nd half and it is wild and all over the place. Maybe Zeno/Wesker clone is inferior to his original. A major problem I have with Village's inventory management is how much ordnances and health items can stack upon each other and it's done better here in Requiem, but there are still problems. Medical injectors stack, grenades stack. You get a few key items as Leon in the later half and they are a part of your attaché case. One is only one square while the other gets combined right after you pick up each part. The stacking was something that was remedied in RE4 Remake and something that OG RE4 did back in 2005. In Requiem, I never thought of managing my space at all as Leon compared to both RE4's. Better action RE level design than Village, but not near both RE4 games. Maybe if you want more resource management as Leon, do not upgrade the attaché case.

One thing I have to ask though is how many times are we going to have a game that is a celebration of the series? Village was a horror of the area kind of game embracing all kinds of Resident Evil. And now Requiem has 2 protagonists: one survival horror(RE 0-3), and one action horror (RE 4-6). For the next numerical game, I really hope it's not an anniversary game celebrating everything Resident Evil again.

Arriving at the RPD was a nice shot of fanservice, but I'm surprised that there is very little combat. I think I only killed 1 zombie there.

Also no mention of Claire when Leon goes to the orphanage or when he talks wirh Sherry about September 30th, 1998?

No Jake Wesker? Worst Resident Evil game of all time. SMH my head.

Rough start, with every 5 minutes of gameplay being t-boned by 3-5 minutes of cutscenes.

Starting to feel like RE6 pt2, with how small the explorable areas are, how much the game wrestles control from you constantly and how nonsensical the actions of the protag have to constantly be in order to progress the story.

Hoping this improves, but even getting it discounted for $55, I'm still immediately let down. In 3 hours I've been allowed to actually play and control the game about half that time.

First impressions.

I have reached the Racoon City section and realized that there is a giant enemy spider fight :( so I am done for today. A good amount of Grace's sections are stealthing, which doesn't really seem fun for replays. Scary and entertaining for a first playthrough(that basement section is really tense), but I feel like my feelings on Grace's sections at the Care Center will wane on replay. There is a good amount of survival horror at the Care Center, and I'd say her survival horror stuff is good. Maybe it takes too long before we get down to actually playing with her and for her first zombie encounter, it's just a freaky setpiece with no actual use of weapons for tutorialization. Just QTE's. Maybe her time at the Care Center starts off too linear (like Castle Dimitrescu's level of too linear) before it opens up more once you're objective is to get the 3 things. Leon's sections were short lived and are too much in his favor. Barely filling up the attache case. I kinda get it from a power fantasy standpoint, but still. I wish there was also balance for him.

Also, I'm gonna be vague about a major spoiler just because of a joke, but RE9 has a Donkey Kong Bananza moment