It’s been a whopping thirty years since the release of the first Resident Evil game, as well as its impact taking survival horror to the next level. The franchise has, admittedly, had its fair share of ups and downs over the past few decades, but it’s still a series I’ve stuck by every step of the way. We now have a brand new canonical entry with Resident Evil Requiem, the ninth (tenth if you’re counting Zero) mainline title, meant to celebrate RE’s history, delivering an experience that combines all the franchise’s eras into one. It was a bold move, with two playable characters in a single campaign, but also one that has paid off tremendously. 

Grace is easily the highlight of Requiem’s story.

After a series of murders across the US, FBI Technical Analyst Grace Ashcroft is sent to the Wrenwood Hotel. Grace is sent there to investigate a new murder has taken place, exactly eight years after her own mother, Alyssa Ashcroft, was murdered at that same location. However, the investigation goes wrong and Grace is captured by a former Umbrella researcher, Victor Gideon. He takes her to his newest facility at the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Centre, believing she is the key to, well, a conspiracy I won’t mention in detail. Grace is thrown into a battle of survival against the ghosts of her family’s past… and tons of zombies.

At the same time, DSO investigator Leon S. Kennedy is conducting his own investigation into Victor Gideon, as the survivors of the incidents that occurred in Raccoon City decades prior are showing symptoms of a mysterious illness. Time is running out, and Leon’s hunt takes him to Rhodes Hill, where he encounters Grace until finally returning to where it all started: Raccoon City. This leads to a story that puts Grace and Leon on a hunt for answers.  

Resident Evil has always been a franchise where the story doesn’t take itself too seriously, and neither should the player base. Don’t get me wrong, that’s exactly why I love it. It’s a universe packed with lore, world-building, and some genuinely great characters. In Requiem, though, I was hooked almost immediately, thanks to a strong central mystery. Grace is a fantastic new addition to the roster, starting off as an awkward rookie completely out of her depth and gradually growing more confident as things unfold.

This is helped along by Leon S. Kennedy, who brings his usual quippy energy to lighten the mood. Unexpectedly, Victor Gideon stands out as one of the strongest villains in the series. Overall, the story managed to surprise me in the best ways, with some great twists and some hilariously bonkers moments. That said, one character introduced about halfway through feels completely underutilised.

Keep cleaning until it’s spotless!

Resident Evil Requiem is very much a game of two halves. You have Grace Ashcroft, our inexperienced series newcomer, delivering a slower, more tension-filled horror experience. Then there’s Leon S. Kennedy, the series veteran, who shows up and decimates anything in his path without ever breaking a sweat. He’s basically the Doom Slayer of the Resident Evil universe. Taking these two wildly different approaches to gameplay was a risk, but for the most part, Requiem pulls it off really well.

Playing as Grace, the game feels like a cross between Resident Evil 7 Biohazard and Alien: Isolation. There’s a much stronger emphasis on slowly creeping your way through each area. Stealth is something the franchise has explored before, but it feels far more fleshed out here. Whenever I was controlling Grace, I was constantly on edge, worried about what might be waiting around the next corner and doing everything I could to avoid even a basic zombie.

This renewed focus on stealth adds a fresh layer to this era of the franchise. It’s not a full-on stealth game, though; it just gives you the tools to approach situations that way if you want to. The classic survival-horror elements are still here, with tight inventory management and resource gathering pushing you to backtrack through larger areas. Taking on zombies isn’t just about clearing a room either; it becomes a strategic choice as you plan your routes through the environment.

Zombies are incredibly resilient, usually taking many shots to go down. But, like in Resident Evil 2, just because you downed a zombie, it doesn’t mean it’s permanently dead, as they have a chance to reanimate later. Sometimes it’s better to take a few shots to stagger them, push them over, and make a quick escape. Or if you’ve got the resources from a brand new blood collector that picks up zombie pieces, you can try to craft a Hemolytic Injector. Injecting any staggered or unaware enemy with it will cause them to explode into a red paste that paints the floors, walls, and ceiling a nice new shade of red. 

Instead of randomly shambling around in preset locations, these zombies retain fragments of who they were before the infection. For example, a zombie maid can be seen (horribly) trying to clean different rooms, and if you decide to use an injector to blow zombie chunks all over the place, you might later find another maid attempting to tidy up the mess. It leads to genuinely unpredictable moments, like walking back into an area you thought was clear only to find a zombie blocking your path. At the same time, it gives you a surprising amount of control over where zombies end up. It’s a clever twist that helps Requiem stand out, and there are a few additional surprises tied to the zombies that I’ve been hoping to see for a while.

Yeah… I’m just going to sit in this corner and try not to cry now, thank you.

Stalker enemies are, of course, back, and there are more of them this time. Capcom has chosen to confine them to specific zones, though, which keeps them from becoming overwhelming. They’re a huge part of Grace’s section, but there are ways to deal with them. While a few encounters feel a little too straightforward and scripted, they’re no less effective because of it.

The main stalker this time is simply known as “The Girl,” and she genuinely put the fear of God into me. I don’t think I’ve ever been that tense in a Resident Evil game. She shambles through the area before slipping back into the darkness, never quite letting you feel safe. The Girl can’t be killed, but you can slow her down by hiding in a well-lit room or landing a well-placed shot with the Requiem revolver.

For much of the first half of the game, you’re playing as Grace for extended stretches with a very limited set of weapons. You’ll occasionally get glimpses of what Leon is up to while she’s absolutely terrified and fighting to survive. Playing as Leon feels like a reward for pushing through those long, nerve-racking sections as Grace. Enemies that once had you sneaking around suddenly become things Leon can demolish without breaking a sweat. In a nice callback to the Zap system, it was great to revisit one of the earlier areas as Leon, seeing all the damage I caused as Grace and then cleaning up what I left behind with ease in a fraction of the time. I just wish the game had leaned into that contrast a bit more.

Whenever you take control over Leon, you will notice quite a lot of changes, from the UI and inventory screens to some of the core mechanics. Including a brand new progression system and a store that allows Leon to upgrade his weapons. If you played Resident Evil 4 Remake, then you will feel right at home here, and Requiem builds on it in interesting ways. To start, Leon has swapped his trusty knife for a brand-new hatchet, which lets him parry just about every attack. That includes grabs and attacks from more special infected you’ll be fighting. You will be mowing down hordes of the infected with a wider variety of guns and melee combos that lead to some absolutely brutal finishing moves. 

Oh, Leon, never change.

As is tradition for the franchise, the second half takes a more action-heavy approach. Leon pretty much dominates the entire second half of Requiem, whilst Grace takes a more of a backseat role, occasionally showing up in gameplay to remind us that this is still a survival horror franchise at its very core. It may sound jarring, but Requiem does a great job of building up to it. 

There are more enemies to fight, bosses show up more regularly, and Requiem does a great job of making you feel like a zombie-slaying badass who’s been at this for thirty years. Capcom fully embraces some of the franchise’s more ridiculous elements, with action scenes that feel ripped straight out of Resident Evil 6. It’s absolute insanity, and I loved every second of it. Coming off the sheer terror I went through as Grace, though, I was hoping for just a little bit more as Requiem races toward its conclusion.

As a whole, Requiem feels like one of the most varied and feature-rich entries in the franchise, with two incredibly distinct gameplay styles. I’m a huge fan of both, but Grace’s chapters left the biggest impression on me. They might just make this the most terrifying game in the series, and I was genuinely on edge the entire time. The Rhodes Hill section is a masterclass in level design, tension, and horror. While exploring the ruins of Raccoon City brings in plenty of nostalgia, it never feels forced, largely because of the strong action gameplay that comes with it. It all comes together as a well-balanced, consistently thrilling experience.

However, it’s not perfect. A few sections drag on a little too long, while others feel like they’re over just as they’re getting started. There’s also a late-game moment I won’t spoil that suddenly slams the brakes on the otherwise fantastic pacing. Puzzles are another weak point, and it’s something the franchise still seems to struggle with. The handful included here feel pretty basic, and the solutions are often spelled out on a nearby piece of paper. I’d love to see Resident Evil take some notes from Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill f when it comes to puzzle design. Offer multiple difficulty settings and really commit to making them more complex and memorable.

Requiem can also be played in first or third person, allowing you to help it fit in whichever era of Resident Evil you prefer

Once you’ve wrapped up the roughly 10-hour story, there’s still some solid replay value, as you’d expect from Resident Evil. An Insanity difficulty unlocks, remixing puzzles, enemy placements, and item locations. You can also complete challenges to earn new weapons and items from the in-game store. My only concern is that, without the option to choose between Grace and Leon, you can’t just jump into the playstyle you prefer, which could hurt replayability in the long run. Plus, with no additional modes like Mercenaries or Raid available at launch, it’s a little disappointing that there isn’t more on offer. Hopefully, Capcom has plans to support Requiem with extra content, maybe even a substantial expansion like Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways.

Another thing worth pointing out is that you can play the entire game in either first or third-person for each character. My personal advice is to stick with the defaults, playing Grace in first person whilst taking Leon through in third-person. Though if you aren’t a fan of the more horror-heavy section, you can switch between first and third person at any time, and it doesn’t feel cheap like in Resident Evil Village, where the post-launch third-person update felt a little awkward. A good level of detail has been provided in both viewpoints. In the first person, Grace will begin to tremble and shake if enemies are nearby. However, in third-person, Grace will actually interact with the environment more and even stumble around. Meanwhile, Leon is just an absolute badass regardless of perspective. 

The cast delivers strong performances across the board. Angela Sant’Albano gives what I’d argue is a new franchise high as Grace Ashcroft, convincingly capturing her panic and fear, even down to the stutter in certain lines. It’s already proven divisive, but for me it adds a lot more personality and realism to the character. Grace might be the most fully realised protagonist the series has had so far, and her growth over the course of the story really lands.

That said, I do wish the panic attacks during gameplay were toned down slightly, as they can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming. Elsewhere, the sound design is about as good as it gets, with excellent directional audio that makes it much easier to track where the stalkers are coming from.

Requiem plays with nostalgia without making it feel forced.

Running on Capcom’s RE Engine, this might be the studio’s best showing yet. The environments are incredibly detailed and, at times, an absolute joy to just stand there and take in. The gore system is just as impressive, with eyes popping from their sockets and limbs being blown apart by shotgun blasts, leaving blood splattered across walls and floors that persists even when you backtrack through an area. It’s not flawless, though. Every now and then you’ll spot a low-resolution texture when inspecting objects up close, which slightly undercuts the otherwise stellar presentation.

Playing on an RTX 4070 at 3440×1440, performance was actually better than I expected. I was able to push most settings to high, including ray tracing, which feels borderline transformative for the overall look of the game. If you’ve got the hardware for it, path tracing is also an option. I gave it a brief try and it looked absolutely breathtaking, but I switched back to ray tracing on high for more consistent performance. On PC, there’s a huge range of graphical settings to tweak, which makes the lack of an FOV slider even more disappointing, especially at ultrawide resolutions.

Resident Evil Requiem might not be my absolute favourite entry in the franchise, but it gets really damn close. It’s easily one of the most ambitious games in the series to date, somehow balancing two completely different gameplay styles while still delivering some of the most thrilling scares I’ve had in a horror game. Then it shifts gears into full-blown, over-the-top action, backed by a ridiculously compelling story.

Resident Evil Requiem is available now on PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC and Switch 2. 

Reviewed on PC with an RTX 4070, Ryzen 7 7800X3D and 32GB RAM. 

A copy of Resident Evil Requiem was provided by the publisher.