Here at WayTooManyGames, we rarely, if ever, review two versions of the same game at the same time. Sure, reviewing Switch or VR ports of a game released a year or two prior is common and expected, but Resident Evil Requiem was a very special exception. More than simply being the most anticipated game of the first quarter, it was also the big actually big AAA game coming out on Switch 2 alongside its PS5, PC, and Xbox counterparts. I, in particular, was really curious about it, so I decided to play this specific version on my Switch 2, as it was also the most financially interesting option (you could also get ports of Resident Evil 7 and Village for just a few bucks more).

How would the port fare? How well would the Switch 2 handle a true current-gen multiplat title? All of these questions were answered right away, with Resident Evil Requiem running shockingly well on a portable. It might not be perfect (and I wasn’t expecting it to be), but it’s easily the most technological impressive game on the Switch 2, and dare I say, the most visually astonishing game ever put in a Nintendo system.

Excellent deducting skills, Grace. No wonder you’re in the FBI.

I won’t dive into story and gameplay details as I’d sound like a scratched record. Our own Kyle Nicol wrote a big and detailed piece about Resident Evil Requiem when it first came out, so I’d recommend reading that if you’re still curious as to who the characters are, how the game is designed, and so on. What I really wanted to talk about in this Switch 2-specific review is regarding how well it plays, how good its visuals are, and if it’s actually worth your money. I can already answer the latter right away: it surely is. It’s not just a mere “Switch port”, the way I used to call miracle ports of bigger games onto the old Switch’s clunky hardware. It’s, purely and simply, Resident Evil Requiem, on-the-go.

You shouldn’t expect 4K visuals in a game like this, and that’s not a problem. Capcom’s focus was to deliver a simple visual mode, one which features a few ray-tracing elements, upscaled visuals, and an ambitious framerate target. As previously mentioned on my Star Wars Outlaws and Persona 3 reviews, although the Switch 2 is able to render ray tracing, most earlier ports decided to impose a 30fps cap in order for these more advanced visual settings to be implemented onscreen. Requiem outputs, with the help of upscaling, at 1080p, looks decent enough (at least better than the Xbox Series S version), and TRIES to reach 60 frames per second during gameplay. Key word here: TRIES.

I don’t like her. I doubt you will.

For the most part, I’d say that the performance is, indeed, as good as the developers intended. When Grace is exploring the abandoned hospital ward, or when you’re in a more cramped environment with either character, you’re getting sixty juicy frames per second. Controls are responsive, movement is fluid, and you’re not seeing any egregious effects you’d expect from older Switch ports, such as dynamic resolution changes tanking the visuals to borderline blurry degrees.

But that doesn’t mean it’s all perfect. Leon’s later sections, as well as setpieces featuring a lot of enemies and particle effects (such as that one burning chapel) are more taxing on the Switch 2’s hardware, making the framerate drop to something between the mid-30s and mid-40s. I’m not going to say it’s ideal, I’m not going to say it isn’t distracting, but I somewhat expected that to happen. The fact these hiccups weren’t as egregious as expected, and the fact the game was still rendering shockingly impressive visuals in the process, made me attempt to overlook these setbacks, in a “glass-half-full” kind of way. “Hey, it’s chugging, but I’m getting to play something as good as a Series S port, if not better, on a portable. A Nintendo portable to boot”.

All of these particles effects… I can’t believe a Switch 2 is rendering them.

Elsewhere, there are some Amiibo perks (I obviously don’t like that, but I do want to buy a Leon Amiibo for the novelty), and every single piece of content seen in other versions. The scary stalkers, the occasionally funny zombies, the absurdist Leon sections. I was playing this game alongside colleagues in other platforms, and we were having the same experience. I don’t think the game’s pacing was as good as other critics were saying, however.

I loved playing as Grace, and I love playing as Leon. I don’t think that both sections were paced accordingly, however. At first, there was a lot of Grace, and not a lot of Leon. Halfway through the game, the campaign would revert to an EXCESS of Leon, making Requiem feel like its own Mercenaries mode, with just sprinkles of Grace thrown into the mix, with some sections actually feeling unnecessary and distracting. I wish Resident Evil Requiem had been planned with two separate campaigns for you to play, Resident Evil 2-style: a horror-centric campaign starring Grace, and an utterly idiotic (in the best of ways) bonanza fest starring Leon. But that’s just a matter of taste. I’d be foolish if I said I wasn’t having a ton of fun playing this game.

All of the dad jokes and one-liners a 90’s action hero would need.

The Switch 2 port of Resident Evil Requiem basically sold me on the system’s potential as a whole. If other ports felt like small appetizers and proofs of concept, this felt like the real deal: I am sold on the system’s capabilities, graphical output, and overall potential. Grabbing this game on the Switch 2 doesn’t feel like a setback: you’re going to have the same experience as anyone else, with great graphics, decent enough performance, and the added benefit of portability. It might sound like an exaggeration, but this felt as impressive as seeing Resident Evil 2 being crammed into a Nintendo 64 cartridge all those years ago.

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

Reviewed on Switch 2.