Resident Evil Requiem Review

Resident Evil Requiem feels like a homecoming, a lap of honour for one of this generation’s great developers. In the ninth mainline Resident Evil title, Capcom has resolved to flex every muscle its built after 30 years with the series, learning from its missteps and honing its successes to deliver a brilliantly polished thrill ride. Unashamedly corny, relentlessly cool and murderously terrifying, Requiem is a tour-de-force of survival horror action.

Right from the start, Resident Evil Requiem sets the tone for what will be an unforgettable experience. Players are put in control of series newcomer Grace Ashcroft, a fledgling FBI analyst tasked with investigating a mysterious string of murders. The site of the investigation? The very hotel where her mother (yes, it’s Alyssa Ashcroft) was murdered eight years ago. Things take a delightful death spiral from there, with Grace kidnapped by the terrifying Dr Victor Gideon for reasons unknown, and forced to escape a labyrinthine care centre.

At the same time, the inimitable Leon S. Kennedy is on the job, desperately looking for a cure to an affliction that he and other survivors of Raccoon City have inexplicably contracted. His search leads him to Gideon, bringing him parallel with Grace’s bid for escape. The story’s central mysteries continue to evolve with exceptional competence, which is saying a lot for a series in which the narratives usually play second fiddle to the gameplay. Requiem offers up some confident and compelling storytelling in which self-awareness is its central strength. It’s full of fan service and Easter eggs for series veterans, but the thrills are entirely accessible for newcomers. The only thing it’s missing in this regard is a story recap in the main menu, which would have no doubt been handy for the inevitable first timers.

The gameplay throughout is split between both protagonists: Grace offers the heart-in-mouth survival horror of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 7, while Leon’s is the tense, stylish action of Resident Evil 4 dialled all the way up to 11. Both characters feel entirely distinct and their mechanics are polished to a fine sheen, while retaining a cohesive experience that feels like the ultimate evolution of all that’s come before in the series. Of course, some players may prefer one style over the other, but the way their portions are split up is handled extremely well. Taking control of Leon feels like a gory palate cleanser after the tense sections as Grace.

While Leon is all roundhouse kicks, hatchet decapitations and brutal headshot takedowns, Grace’s sections are tense, survive-at-all-costs affairs. She doesn’t have the strength or combat acumen to dispatch zombies with Leon’s ease, but she has tools in her arsenal for avoiding confrontation or dispatching enemies stealthily. If things go south, she has the aptly titled magnum revolver, “Requiem”, to get rid of enemies in a pinch. But in her case, ammo is extremely limited. 

Grace’s gameplay centres mostly on avoiding the many lurking horrors while making use of the crafting system to make tools that get her out of trouble. Her crafting system is a new one for the series, relying on harvesting blood to craft bullets (don’t question it), meds (alongside green herbs, of course) and one-shot injectors that explode unaware or stunned enemies in a shower of viscera, ensuring they can’t reanimate later. Any blood spatters she causes on her own adventures will also persist when Leon passes through, as will any items you didn’t manage to pick up as Grace. It’s a glorious touch of continuity and polish, and just one of many evident throughout the experience.

It’s worth noting that both Grace and Leon are playable in first-person and third-person, with individual toggles for each character, and both options are extremely well implemented. Neither camera view feels like an after-thought, as was the case with Resident Evil Village’s tacked-on third-person mode. It’s very rare to have this level of customisation, and it’s an absolute game-changer for giving every player the experience they want. It adds something new to subsequent replays – and those replays will be many, with a myriad memorable experiences that are worth revisiting time and time again, alongside challenges to complete and unlockables to obtain. RE titles always hinge on their replayability, and in this regard Requiem is sure to be one of the best for many years.

Also, it has to be said: this is the most visually stunning console game released to date. The sheer quality in the environments of the Rhodes Hill Care Center, and eventually the ghostly shell of Raccoon City, is exceptional. The character models are ridiculously detailed, with realistic skin and hair giving life to the Resident Evil universe’s inhabitants like never before. For players fortunate enough to be experiencing Requiem on the PS5 Pro, the results are even more gorgeous with the addition of the best implementation of ray-tracing seen thus far. Further enhancing this experience is the tremendous voice acting of every single character. The standout here is newcomer Grace, with a wonderful performance by Angela Sant’Albano that firmly establishes the character in the world of Resident Evil.

The villain, too, is the best yet in the entire series, with a chilling presence and characterisation that feels imposing when playing as Grace, and suitably antagonistic when playing as Leon. As all these parts continue to evolve throughout the experience, it just keeps getting better and better, with a competently told story and brilliant pace to the action as Grace and Leon journey closer to the answers they seek. 

Requiem truly is Capcom at the peak of its powers. The game deftly ties together the series’ many threads that have come loose over the years, both in the sprawling story and the many gameplay mechanics. The result is an extremely sleek hybrid, a cohesive chimera that grounds the series and successfully weaves together everything that makes it great in one memorable touchpoint. If there’s one criticism that can be levelled at Requiem, it’s that there’s no Mercenaries mode at launch. If history is any indicator, though, it’ll surely be added soon.

After almost three decades and over a dozen titles, the Resident Evil series has built a sprawling, often confusing lore, and experimented with a wide variety of gameplay mechanics. The question of where the next title in the series goes – and there will always be another RE title – is always a topic of much debate, and often trepidation thanks to the few missteps the series has made (looking at you, Resident Evil 6). With Requiem, the direction is hidden in plain sight, in the name itself: this is a requiem, an honouring of the past that has built the series, and a masterfully composed capstone on the journey so far.