Earlier in the year, CAPCOM tore the lid off their latest title in the Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil Requiem, by revealing a two-protagonist system, and a location far removed from the Umbrella Corp and Raccoon City. We learned Grace Ashcroft and Leon Kennedy (yes, the backflipping knife dodger) would take over as the series leads after the events of Resident Evil Village.
After seeing such a jump in tone and style (while maintaining its signature identity), I knew I had to get behind the controller to check out the latest entry as soon as possible. After playing for a short while, one thing is certain: Resident Evil Requiem embodies the very best the series has to offer, and in its history, they’ve brought everything they’ve done to the forefront of Resident Evil Requiem (even letting the player choose to play in first-person or third-person). My preview even started where the series started many years ago, a mansion-like building filled with secrets and typewriters.
After a short cutscene, I was thrust behind the very capable hands of Leon Kennedy, one of the main heroes of the Resident Evil series so far. Aside from the scruff he’s gained since his appearance in Resident Evil 6, Leon has not lost a beat in combat nor comedic timing.
Like the Resident Evil Requiem version of Dante from Devil May Cry 4, Leon’s moves are almost too stylish to be recommended, but he dispatches T-virus-infected enemies with targeted efficiency. After an overzealous infected rushed forward to end Leon with a chainsaw, I was able to spin around his back and deliver a particularly nasty execution that ripped through the infected lab coat-wearer’s skull. With this first moment, it feels good to be back.
Leon’s movements are deliberate and fluid. His experience from Raccoon City and the near dozen or so instances between then and now have seasoned him from rookie cop into a zombie-killing machine on par with Frank West from Dead Rising. Going from knee-capping an infected (which smartly drops them to their knees) to kicking them clean off their now shot-out knees with a roundhouse feels powerful, and Leon’s new hatchet can parry incoming blows from the more equipped foes.
Although Leon is possibly most popular for his time backflipping over a knife in Resident Evil 4, he’s evolved to the point of a killing machine, and his massive damage-inflicting blows feel like you’re putting down the undead for good. After pushing one infected into a wall, Leon can perform a spinning back kick pulled from the Chuck Norris archives to explode infected skulls against that very wall, changing the wallpaper to a dripping red. Leon also brings his signature Ian Fleming-like charm to Requiem, as his wisecracks (and dad jokes) always lift the mood in every room he’s in, even if he has the toughest crowd imaginable.
After this small montage of being Resident Evil Requiem’s action hero, I was then put in control of Grace Ashcroft, and it feels like the difference between going from Resident Evil 4 to the very first game (the one with tank controls). Grace is an FBI Agent, and it appears this is her first experience with the infected. The difference between a normal person who has worked on paper cases and a hardened war hero is staggering. Leon walks the hallways of the building with a killing confidence, and Grace navigates the very same hallways with ragged, drawn-out breaths and genuine fear.
Jeannie Tirado’s voice work is remarkable here; she carries the weight of each room, and her raspy gasps for air are on queue with each frightening moment. As Grace Ashcroft, Resident Evil Requiem becomes a different beast as you go from the hunter to the hunted. From the wisecracking, confident Leon, you are thrust into the same rooms as Grace and vice versa. Resident Evil Requiem smartly forces the player through the hallways as Grace first, to not give players the layout of the land before getting their pants wet in the hallways.
Resident Evil Requiem brings mostly everything Biohazard does with tension, atmosphere, and fear. You can often hear the shuffling of one or more infected through the paper-thin walls and doorways, and most times it’s best not to engage with them and just flit past.
Where Leon can dispatch zombies with brutal experience, Grace shakes when firing her weapons, struggles to wield a knife (as opposed to brutally overpowering zombies with Leon’s hatchet), and stumbles frightened down hallways while running. I found it best to deploy OUTLAST-like tactics, to sneak around each infected as to not waste bullets or precious knife health, and this drives suspense home. Getting caught by the infected kept lifting my heart into my throat, no matter how many times it happened.
“Resident Evil Requiem embodies the very best the series has to offer…”
While sneaking around, some infected will be attracted to light or other noises, so Grace can throw objects or turn on light switches to distract them from their next meal. This is key to moving forward, giving ADHD-infused zombies bright lights to ponder. In this hospital-mansion hybrid, Grace must find items, solve puzzles and figure out what exactly happened here through the discovery of documents. There are also closed doors that only Leon can open scattered throughout the compound, a genius design choice that works wonders in practice.
If Leon’s gameplay can be considered an adrenaline dump, Grace is a tense fight within the player, with the constant question “Should I go now?” when waiting for zombies to clear hallways. This duality between protagonists shows itself in one of the bigger infected that populate upstairs. This monster is HUGE, and he can finish Grace with a grab from his fleshy mitts.
The design of this creature is staggering, and you can almost see the mucosal membranes lining the walls of its gross feeding hole. Its large stature cannot get through some doorways, so you’ll have to play ‘run around’ to get past it. The monster’s nonsensical utterings of “it’s your fault” are also horrendous and unsettling. I have no idea what Grace did to this monster, but I wasn’t willing to stick around to find out.
After getting hold of the Requiem revolver as Grace earlier in the preview, you can tell this is a special weapon. This elephant trunk of a gun fires massive rounds that decimate infected, and it becomes Grace’s ace-in-the-hole out of tight spots. While Leon (and Chris Redfield from Resident Evil 5) can fire these massive hand cannons with ease, Grace shoots a single round that can tear through an entire hallway of infected torsos, and she shakes her hand recoiling from the firepower. CAPCOM took great care in differentiating the gameplay styles of these two heroes, but both parts of gameplay are compelling when tied together.
CAPCOM does a delicate balancing act of bringing what fans loved about the action-oriented Resident Evil titles and tethering that feeling to what fans loved about the diaper-necessary terror-based entries in Resident Evil Requiem. Grace has to scamper away from this hallway-clogging monster and must figure out how to get past it.
When in control of Leon again, he has the ability to overpower the monster and eviscerate it in a pool of blood. Grace can craft special bio-weaponry to deal with threats, and Leon can storm a castle in a turtleneck. Both of these shifts in gameplay compliment themselves very well, and although it does feel like genre-shifting, CAPCOM has so far done a masterful job at keeping the core experience intact.
In my short time with it, Resident Evil Requiem took my breath away. So far, this entry has utilized everything they’ve learned in Resident Evil game development (yes, even Resident Evil 6) to sharpen Requiem into a fine edge that cuts deep, whether it’s serving action or terror and suspense. Resident Evil Requiem has already left an impact, and all I know now is what I will be playing on February 27. It can’t come soon enough.
