Resident Evil Requiem (2026)

Since you can't give half stars, I guess it's getting the full 5/5!

Honestly, I might've went for the 5 star rating anyway, this was brilliant and among the quickest I've ever gotten through a game in my adult life. Rarely do I encounter a game these days where I just HAVE to play it. Like I'm at work, visiting with family, watching a movie, doing anything BUT playing it and all I wanted to do was play it.

I'm sure some RE purists will disagree, but I think this may be my personal favourite. I know it can technically be switched in the settings, but leaving the camera perspectives set to their defaults, the way the devs intended, is absolutely the best way to experience this.

Combining the first-person horror from Biohazard and Village, with the more action-heavy over-the-shoulder gameplay from the series of remakes was a stroke of genius and is masterfully executed.

As Grace, I was scared out of my wits. Numerous times I shrieked out loud, felt my heart pounding and my blood pressure rise, and would sit, wait and intently listen for the threat to pass me by.

As Leon, I felt like John Fucking Wick in the zombie apocalypse and that was awesome. I don't think I ever felt TOO overpowered, as I died way more with Leon than Grace, but when you stock up and get a good flow going, you feel unstoppable and I dug that.

The story flowed really well and though I'm not the most well-versed in RE lore, I was able to pick up on pretty much everything and enjoyed every beat/callback/fan-service moment, along with the uniquely crafted new additions.

The villains are great, especially Victor Gideon, the new stalkers had me shitting my pants and though I do admittedly think the last third or so of the game is weaker than the rest, it's still a hell of a ride. It's not like it drops from a 10/10 to a 5/10 in that last act. More of a 10/10 that drops to an 8/10.

The performances were well-rounded, it was super well paced (took me 9 hours), graphically it is insanely impressive and I loved the character work. It's Leon at his most vulnerable and determined. Hard-headed, yet fragile and the clock is ticking. While Grace brings the humanity and hope for the future.

TLDR: I loved it and I think any true RE fan, especially if you dig the modern take that started with Biohazard, should too. Can't wait to see where we go next, remake, new entry, or otherwise.

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