Capcom has never been afraid to push the boundaries of horror, but with Resident Evil Requiem, it seems they’re aiming to make us uncomfortable in a way that’s less about combat and more about raw, unfiltered fear. After watching a thirty-minute presentation, it’s clear: this isn’t just another return to Raccoon City, this is a descent into something colder, more anxious, and far more personal. And I can’t stop thinking about it.
Set to release next year, Resident Evil Requiem is already positioning itself as one of the most disturbing entries in the series, and not just because of the grotesque monsters or the return to nuclear-blasted Raccoon City. The fundamental shift comes from the perspective, not just the literal camera perspective, which you can toggle between first and third-person on the fly, but in the narrative tone and how Requiem wants you to feel. The operative word here is helpless. And it’s doing a damn good job of bottling that into every breath and misstep from protagonist Grace Ashcroft.
Grace isn’t a gun-toting action hero. She’s no Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield. Instead, she’s a scared FBI agent who wakes up strapped upside down to a hospital bed, injured and utterly disoriented. Her breathing is ragged. Her footsteps pound like someone dropped an anvil on the ship deck. Her voice trembles, constantly on the edge of panic, as if every step is a mistake. It’s unnerving, and at times, exhausting, but that’s the point.
“Resident Evil Requiem isn’t just simulating fear, it’s imposing it.”
Yes, the heavy breathing and pained groans might grate after a while, and yes, the booming footsteps feel like they were mixed to shatter eardrums, but there’s a method to this madness. Resident Evil Requiem isn’t just simulating fear, it’s imposing it. The game wants you to feel overexposed, vulnerable, and like every action is a gamble. It wants your head to hurt a bit. At least that was my takeaway.
Thankfully, you’re not locked into that claustrophobic first-person view the entire time. At any point, players can pull up the pause menu and flip to a third-person perspective, a feature that we eventually got in Resident Evil Village’s Winters Expansion DLC. It’s not just a gimmick, either. It meaningfully changes how you perceive Grace and your surroundings. Third-person provides a little distance, a little detachment, a welcome break from the choking intimacy of the first-person view, especially when you’re running from the hulking monster that stalks Grace through the decaying corridors.
That monster, by the way? A grotesque, towering woman-beast with hands like catcher’s mitts and the presence of a nightmare. She doesn’t just chase Grace; she devours her prey and messes with the area they occupy for the demo, chasing and cutting power to the lights, forcing Grace to once again travel through pitch black. One moment in the Resident Evil Requiem demo plays out like a horror museum piece: the beast picks up a corpse and tears into it. It’s a gruesome, visceral moment, and the animation work here is so good it borders on offensive.
Much of the Resident Evil Requiem demo plays with this kind of tension. You’re not always being attacked, but you never feel safe. Most of Grace’s time is spent trying to understand where she is, flicking dead light switches, rooting through drawers for keys and fuses, and peeking into shadows that seem deeper than they should be. The environments are dimly lit, often by red emergency lights that cast a blood-like glow over everything. The facility she’s trapped in is run-down and claustrophobic, full of narrow hallways and locked doors. This is textbook Resident Evil, but through a lens that feels more psychological, suffocating, and quiet, until it isn’t.
The moments of violence, when they come, hit hard. An infected body falling out of a doorway is the closest thing to a jumpscare we got in the early portion of the demo, and even that is undercut by the reveal of something far more monstrous behind it. Grace doesn’t fight back, at least not in this slice. She runs. If you’re looking for shotgun blasting action like in Resident Evil 4 Remake, we didn’t get any of this so far. If you’re a fan of the slow, dread-laden panic of Resident Evil 7, however, you’re right at home.
Still, that doesn’t mean Grace is useless. She has training, we’re told she’s an FBI agent, after all, but that shows itself more in how she handles herself under pressure rather than through combat. A syringe replaces the traditional green herb as the healing item of choice, instantly delivering a shot of relief after a brutal bite. The inventory system will feel familiar to longtime fans, with survival horror staples like ornate keys, busted switches, and too few resources scattered about. It seems like you’ll spend just as much time managing your limited tools as you will hiding from the monstrosities that want to wear your skin.
And then there’s the legacy. Grace Ashcroft isn’t just a new face in the RE universe; she’s the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft from Resident Evil Outbreak, the cult classic spin-off from 2003. That connection is subtle but loaded. Especially for fans who’ve been itching for Capcom to re-release the cult classic spin-off, and finally connect the dots between its sprawling cast of characters and the mainline games. If Alyssa’s history factors into the plot in a meaningful way, it remains to be seen, but it’s a smart hook for fans looking for deeper lore beneath the blood and bone.
Director Kōshi Nakanishi described Resident Evil Requiem as “the overture to our darkest symphony yet,” and after watching the demo, I believe him. This is not just a scary Resident Evil game; it might be the scariest Resident Evil game. It strips away the power fantasy, the perfectly aimed headshots, and the last-minute rocket launcher saves. Instead, it leans hard into the feeling of being alone, outmatched, and just smart enough to survive one more night.
We’ll have to wait to see how the full Resident Evil Requiem game plays out, but if this demo is any indication, Resident Evil Requiem might not just earn its place alongside the greats, it might redefine what scary means for the franchise going forward.
