Resident Evil Requiem

I went into Resident Evil Requiem half-expecting the dual-protagonist structure to collapse under its own weight, the way it did back in RE6. It doesn't. What Capcom has built here is closer to two tightly designed horror experiences stitched together at the seams, and the seam work is the part that impresses most. Grace Ashcroft, an FBI intelligence analyst with no combat background to speak of, carries the survival horror half. Her sections are first-person by default, set primarily in the Rhodes Hill Care Center: a place full of locked doors, scarce ammo, and zombies that retain creepy fragments of their former personalities. A maintenance worker still hunting for light switches to flip off. A chef mini-boss who won't stray far from his kitchen but absolutely will cleave you in half if you wander too close. Downed zombies that don't stay down unless you use a hemolytic injector or blow the head clean off, mutating instead into faster, stronger Blister Head forms if you ignore them. Grace's inventory is small, her crafting resources are tight, and the indestructible stalker enemy hunting her through the facility's corridors is exactly the kind of relentless, unavoidable threat this series does best. Her chapters feel like the purest distillation of classic Resident Evil survival logic the series has offered in years. Then the game cuts to Leon S. Kennedy, and the tonal whiplash is very much intentional. Leon plays in third-person, returns to Raccoon City, and operates with a suitcase inventory, a parry mechanic built around an axe, and a much larger arsenal where aggressive combat is actively rewarded. His sequences include motorcycle chases that defy physics in the most gloriously schlocky way possible, roundhouse kicks, John Wick-style firearm finishing moves, and the kind of action-movie confidence that makes Grace's fragility feel even more pronounced by contrast. The flip side is that Leon's sections, while mechanically satisfying, can feel a little less tense. Raccoon City as an environment is atmospheric but occasionally bland compared to the claustrophobic indoor horror of the Care Center, and the sheer combat dominance Leon projects drains some of the dread. Some reviewers flagged this, and they're not wrong. It's the one structural trade-off the game makes and owns without fully resolving. The perspective-switching feature is worth calling out specifically: you can toggle between first-person and third-person for either protagonist at any point, which ends a long community argument and, more practically, gives players genuine control over how they want to experience the horror. The dual-ending structure, triggered by a binary choice late in the game involving a character called Elpis, adds replay incentive without overstaying its welcome. Series newcomers can follow the story reasonably well, but longtime fans will catch the Raccoon City callbacks, the Outbreak connection through Grace's mother Alyssa, and the way Sherry Birkin slots back into the Leon half of the plot. The slow opening hour, heavy on walk-and-talk and light on gameplay, is the one early friction point worth knowing about before you start. At a 92 Metacritic and 96% positive across over 175,000 Steam reviews, the reception is about as clear as it gets. Requiem earns those numbers by doing the hard thing: committing fully to two different design philosophies and making both of them feel purposeful rather than compromised.

Alex · Scout Team

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