Originally written March 31, 2026.
The success of the Resident Evil series after it regained its footing following such maligned entries as Resident Evil 6 and that horrifically bad multiplayer spin-off Umbrella Corps is one of the better ongoing stories in games at the moment. Buoyed by the powerful RE Engine and a team of designers who have really honed in on what makes these games tick, it feels like Capcom can do no wrong with its old but increasingly reliable survival horror franchise.
Rejuvenated in 2017 by Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, which took things to a first-person perspective and largely moved away from a number of series tropes in favor of a swampy bayou horror story, it’s been mostly hit after hit for Capcom when it comes to new mainline releases and remakes of older titles (the new Resident Evil 3 was a bit of a letdown). So in some respects it’s a little disappointing that Resident Evil Requiem is the next major follow-up to 7 and Resident Evil Village, two games that pushed the series in some really exciting directions. Requiem, by comparison, doesn’t really push things in any direction. It settles for being an unsurprising but solid Resident Evil game which, to be sure, still makes it one of the better releases of the year and a worthwhile venture. But the bar hasn’t been raised by Requiem so much as it has been confidently met, a great but relatively safe release from a studio that has proven it can push its own boundaries in some fantastic ways.
It’s not the most encouraging way to begin a recap of my time with Requiem but it must be stated (and probably restated again later on) that this game is excellent. Requiem looks and sounds incredible and is as much of a joy to play as the last few entries. Its story and structure mash together desperate survival against up-close-and-personal terrors and aggressive roundhouse-kicking zombie-slaying on a larger scale rather than sticking to one lane entirely. All the hallmarks of Resident Evil are here: gemstone puzzles, ink ribbon saving (on the harder difficulty), roundhouse kicking, weapon upgrading, herb chewing, gruff voice acting delivering ridiculous one-liners, and notes left behind written in that typical series parlance of:
“September 1: I created a monster today. I hope things don’t go bad.
September 3: Oh no, it went bad.”
In Requiem, series newcomer and FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft is investigating a string of deaths among Raccoon City survivors when she becomes caught up in the machinations of Umbrella scientist and evil video game man Victor Gideon, who believes she is essential to obtaining some kind of bioweapon left behind by Umbrella founder Oswell Spencer. Meanwhile Leon S. Kennedy, who is near to succumbing to the mutations that have claimed the lives of other survivors, carries out his own investigation that inevitably leads him to pursue the other two.
Requiem’s story trades in confronting and overcoming past traumas, but truthfully it’s quite forgettable as a whole. It lacks the lively and provocative character work of previous games like 7 and Village, relying instead on plain villains with generically vile aims and demeanors. Returning to the well with things like Umbrella and Raccoon City are lacking in impact, especially since it hasn’t been that long since the Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 remakes took us back here. The real standout in Requiem is Grace, who is voiced by Angela Sant’Albano with some of the best, most impassioned voice work I’ve ever heard in a game. It’s amazing stuff that totally outshines everything else going on in the game’s narrative.
Having explored both first- and third-person perspectives in recent releases, Capcom utilizes both in Requiem for its two very different protagonists, though you can freely play in either perspective with either character. Grace defaults to a first-person view, perfect for the slower, creeping horror-oriented design of her sections. Leon defaults to a third-person view, naturally, as he engages foes more openly and with a significantly larger arsenal.
The typical Resident Evil combat and puzzles are intact here across both sections of the game, but there are some mechanical differences between the two. During her lengthy traipse through a chronic care facility, the highlight of the game, she is able to collect infected blood and use it to craft resources, including a one-hit kill injector that causes enemies to explode into a crimson splash. During Leon’s primary segment through the ruins of Raccoon City he uses a BSAA wristband to earn points for eliminations and can spend said points on new weapons and upgrades, a goofy arcadey system that nonetheless feels at home in a series that likes its brushes with silliness.
Resident Evil’s survival combat and careful item management are in predictably great form during Grace’s portion of the game. Encounters and resource availability feel expertly paced—I was right on the edge of being out of ammunition and healing items for much of my playthrough, and on the occasions I did run dry I found ducking and dodging through a room to hopefully find items somewhere else to be a valid strategy. Grace moves at a slow and deliberate pace, and her section feels the most like classic Resident Evil.
Leon’s gameplay is very much in line with the Resident Evil 4 style of business, with lots of kicking faces, spraying bullets, and popping heads with a combat axe. Grace’s portion of Requiem isn’t a slog, but it was always a thrilling change of pace to switch over to Leon and be able to duke it out with zombies with a severe firepower advantage after carefully sneaking around and conserving ammo with Grace. Leon’s weirdly clunky movement is the only real snag in this part of the game. There were a couple instances where I took damage or even died in an encounter because I couldn’t quite navigate around an obstacle in the environment with the fluidity I expected, something I don’t quite remember being the case in his previous games.
The chronic care facility and Raccoon City ruins are not the only locations in Requiem but they do make up the bulk of the game, and while it’s encouraging to see Capcom diversifying its settings to this degree I do wish these places were a bit more memorable. Grace’s journey through chronic care is terrifically designed, with Resident Evil’s combat and puzzle designers still operating at excellent capacity, but I struggle to remember much about the location itself save for certain encounters here and there. It’s a lot of plain white rooms and hallways, more noteworthy for the creepy, almost human behavior of the infected that roam the facility—and the enormous monstrous creatures that pop up throughout—than in the actual look and feel of the place.
Likewise, Raccoon City, completely dusted over with ash after the bombing that wiped the city out after the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3, has the gritty brown look of an early Xbox 360 game, which perhaps helps make all of Leon’s roundhouse kicking and points-collecting feel even more old school. (Oh God, is the Xbox 360 old school?) But while these environments may not always be feasts for the eyes, they’re still an absolute joy to explore and survive in thanks to all the interconnecting pathways and satisfying door-unlocking (yes, really) that makes any Resident Evil game shine. It also all looks and sounds terrific, with Capcom’s RE Engine continuing to facilitate viscerally realistic visuals and, better yet, rock-solid performance on PlayStation 5.
So while I didn’t find Requiem to reach the same highs as the last few games, the notion that even a relatively predictable and safe Resident Evil is still worthy of your time remains true here. I would’ve appreciated a more memorable setting and character work, but it’s hard to argue against a survival horror experience this well-constructed and nerve-wracking.
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