Resident Evil Requiem Review: Capcom's Horror Masterpiece Bridges Fear and Thrill

Resident Evil rejects any attempt at taxonomy. There are RE games that are strictly about desperately surviving nightmarish horrors, and there are others where you vanquish the nightmares with brute force yourself. Unlike Silent Hill, where the scary stuff largely comes from the trauma within, Resident Evil imagines that the bogeyman is out there. It's the nefarious pharmaceutical corporation, or the unhinged private military company. Eugenics-obsessed scientists ready to lose their own humanity for monstrous ambitions.

Capcom's storied horror franchise also doesn't shy away from a bit of silliness. There's an “okay, here we go again” element to walking into a house of horrors in every Resident Evil game, going room by room, unlocking doors and piecing together intricate little puzzles. Did you say that there's yet another strain of the T-Virus infecting and mutating people, and we need to send in hot people in tights to blow the whole thing up? Makes sense. No matter the version of Resident Evil that appeals to you, the series' undeniable pulpy Hollywood horror spirit contains multitudes.

With Resident Evil Requiem, Capcom pays homage to that history by doing it all. No need to pick and choose. Requiem, the series' ninth main entry that releases February 27, embraces the agile versatility of its predecessors with a self-assured reverence that's marvellous to behold. You want heart-stopping survival horror? It's here. Roughhouse action? You got it. Conspiratorial lore about bioterror threats and a story that confronts the past head on? Check. Hot people in tights? Have you, um, seen Leon in the trailers? Resident Evil Requiem is an ambitious, audacious game that puts all its cards on the table without a shred of hesitation. And boy, is it a winning hand.

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Capcom has clearly made Resident Evil Requiem in the mould of the franchise's multitudinous identity channelled through the game's two protagonists. The first is a new playable character, Grace Ashcroft, a timid FBI analyst with an intriguing link to the series' past. Her introduction here feels traditional to Resident Evil, a franchise known for its rotating cast of characters, all of whom occupy their own place on the tapestry. Grace is positioned as a powerless protagonist — an introverted deskie not used to being pulled into severe circumstances, although she's not a stranger to the shores of horror.

Years before the events of Requiem, Grace witnessed the grisly murder of her mother, the investigative journalist Alyssa Ashcroft — another known figure in the pantheon of Resident Evil characters. That incident clearly left her shaken for life. Grace is now, especially in stressful situations, a stammering mess. She lacks the poise usually seen in horror protagonists, and through her, Resident Evil Requiem plays out like an intense, hair-raising survival horror game.

As Grace, you get a tense survival horror experience in Resident Evil Requiem
Photo Credit: Capcom

The second is, of course, Leon Scott Kennedy, the rookie Raccoon City cop from Resident Evil 2 and now seasoned federal agent on the trail of a new threat. Leon, a video game icon, needs no introduction. He's been an integral moving piece on the Resident Evil chessboard for decades, and in Requiem, he appears as a grizzled veteran thrown into a situation he can very much handle.

Leon is the other side of the coin Capcom has flipped with its newest game. When you're playing as him, Resident Evil Requiem becomes a playground for righteous violence, a thrilling action game that turns you from the hunted to the hunter. If Grace represents fear, Leon is firepower. He unlocks Requiem as if it were Resident Evil's many locked doors.

Leon is the vessel for thrilling action combat in Requiem
Photo Credit: Capcom

This isn't a new thing though. Many games, including older Resident Evil titles, have featured dual protagonists that come with forked gameplay approaches. Last year's Assassin's Creed Shadows attempted something similar, promising the best of both worlds when it split its action and stealth gameplays between two wildly dissimilar protagonists. The result was an ill-fitting whole where the individual parts slid against each other like tectonic plates. But in Requiem, the effect of drastically bifurcating the experience is something entirely new.

In most cases, dual protagonists who play differently risk compromising the integrity of the game. They are often at odds with each other, undercutting or overcompensating for the other half. But in Resident Evil Requiem, that crucial split is the soul of the game. The game's thrilling action and its stomach-churning horror are in service to each other. One derives meaning from the other, and going from Grace to Leon becomes more than a gameplay gimmick; it's a complete psychological reset.

The thrilling action complements the stomach-churning horror in Requiem
Photo Credit: Capcom/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul

At the heart of that change are the gameplay styles of Grace and Leon, but there's more to the divergent experiences beyond pure mechanics. The difference is driven home through physicality and body language; through dialogues and quips, and perhaps most crucially through Grace and Leon's overlapping playthroughs of the same environment. Unlike most other games, where areas or levels are often crafted to favour a particular style of play over the other, Resident Evil Requiem, at least in its early sections, forces you to run the same corridors and rooms, alternating between Grace and Leon.

The result is an emphatic reorientation of the space when the perspective switches to the other character. After a brief introductory sequence, Requiem traps players in Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Centre, a sprawling mansion of madness run by the game's primary antagonist, Victor Gideon. The care centre is a maze of hallways and horrors; every room, attic, and basement hiding something that wants to kill you. Over the game's first act, you uncover every corner of the estate, first with trepidation as Grace and then with tenacity as Leon.

The first act of Resident Evil Requiem takes place in Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Centre
Photo Credit: Capcom

You'll slowly, cautiously explore the care centre room by room with Grace, battling her extreme anxiety in addition to the swarm of infected walking around the mansion. Resources are scarce and she's in mortal danger when facing a zombie. Often, the best solution is to sneak past the undead in a room, or to make sure you're armed and equipped to take on threats. Grace, and consequently the player, are clearly out of their depth. And then when the perspective switches to Leon, you march through the same mansion flattening the infected in your way with casual malice. For Leon, a survivor of the Raccoon City incident and a veteran federal agent, Grace's worst nightmare is a regular Monday.

Resident Evil Requiem handles this transition better than any recent game that has attempted something similar. Horror games usually feature cascading sections of tension and respite. After an extended period of terror and danger, a room or an area that makes you feel safe becomes imperative for the horror to work. In Requiem, Leon becomes the room of respite after the prolonged anxiety of playing as Grace. And that sense of safety eventually permeates to Grace's gameplay, as well. Over time, as I grew familiar with the hostile hallways of the care centre, I sensed myself growing more confident while playing as her, even though she remains considerably underpowered compared to Leon.

Grace can explore Rhodes Hill in both first and third-person perspectives
Photo Credit: Capcom

Here, Resident Evil Requiem does an excellent job of balancing resources between its two protagonists to underline the power differential. Grace has limited space in her carrying pouch for weapons, ammunition, consumables, collectibles, and key puzzle items — each takes up a single inventory slot. She can craft makeshift knives, ammo, and health items from critical but sparse resources she finds hidden across the care centre. Grace can also upgrade her carrying capacity and her vital stats like health and weapon firing power.

But these resources don't really make her combat ready. As Grace, your primary objective is to figure out a way to escape from Rhodes Hill in the first act of the game. To do that, your focus must be on solving critical puzzles spread across the mansion, rather than shooting at zombies. When pulled into combat, Grace's aim is shaky and bullets are in short supply. Your best bet is using the blood of the infected against themselves. Requiem equips Grace with a collecting device that she can use to stock up on infected blood spilled across the mansion, or from the bodies of zombies she has killed. She can then use the blood to craft a haemolytic injector that can one-shot the undead when used stealthily from behind.

Grace must rely on stealth to survive
Photo Credit: Capcom/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul

Using the injector on dead zombies also prevents them from further mutating into more dangerous, feral versions of the infected, known as Blisterheads. These grotesque monstrosities, once risen out of mutation, are much more aggressive and harder to take down. They cross the threshold of humanity that regular zombies in Resident Evil Requiem display.

The infected in the game retain traces of their personality before the T-Virus took over their mind. They remember their jobs and tasks from when they were humans and usually trudge along in their erstwhile spaces of work. A lounge singer, now infected, still croons at the bar in a horrific howl; an infected maid obsessively cleans blood-stained mirrors in the restroom; an undead chef chops away with his cleaver in the kitchen. This sliver of humanity seen in zombies in Requiem adds crucial depth to a horror staple monster otherwise homogenised in media.

The undead retain a sliver of humanity in Requiem
Photo Credit: Capcom

While every undead is a threat to Grace, the most fearsome enemies she faces at Rhodes Hill are the larger stalkers. She cannot take them head on and must find a way around them. One of them, a towering and mutated monster called “the Girl,” stalks Grace across her entire time at the care centre. The only way to fend it off is to find a room with ample light sources, which burn her flesh off. Requiem constructs thrilling encounters across multiple sequences before Grace and “the Girl” face off in a high-stakes showdown. Another, a giant, fleshy blob called “Chunk,” follows Grace through the corridors of the mansion. The infected enemy is large and rotund, so that it takes up all the space in any given hallway, leaving you only one way to run. But “Chunk” can't enter rooms as doorways are too small for it to fit through.

Aside from the undead, Grace takes on a series of escalating puzzles that grant unique keys needed to exit the care centre. To solve these, she must go fully explore the sprawling east and west wings of the building across three floors. The puzzles themselves are far from obtuse, but require you to be creative and agile. A central part of the process is inventory management. At any given point, you must prioritise what you carry and what you leave behind in the stash to make sure you have enough space in your carrying pouch for key quest items in addition to adequate ammo, consumables, and crafting items. Grace can also pick up ancient coins scattered around the mansion to unlock upgrades in the parlour.

Grace faces grotesque horrors at the Rhodes Hill centre
Photo Credit: Capcom/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul

All these gameplay ideas, however, are thrown out when the perspective switches to Leon. The veteran agent comes with an expanded inventory of deadly weapons, including a high-calibre handgun aptly named “Requiem” that can one-shot a corridor full of zombies with the force of a ballistic battering ram. With Leon, there are no puzzles to be solved, no ancient coins to collect, no stash to store items; the only way forward is through the infected. And you get to do that with an almost lazy proficiency. Leon is a sexy killing machine. There's perhaps no better way to describe him here. And Requiem does a marvellous job of establishing him as the most dangerous being at Rhodes Hill.

As Leon you shoot, slash, and roundhouse kick your way through hordes of zombies. His aim is steady, his shots more powerful, and his ammunition plenty. Combat with him is fierce and fun. It is crunchy and bloody — usually the blood of the infected. And it has its own rhythm that utilises all his modes of assault to make up a zombie-killing combo. You can shoot an infected in the head to stagger them, roundhouse kick them to the ground and carve out their skull with a finishing blow from Leon's trusty hatchet. This new melee weapon, great for close-range combat, can also be used to parry incoming attacks. There is perhaps no cooler moment in games in recent times than the sight of Leon casually sharpening his hatchet as a horde of undead lurches towards him.

Leon's sections in Resident Evil Requiem are action-heavy spectacles
Photo Credit: Capcom/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul

Perhaps more than the actual gameplay, it's what Resident Evil Requiem tasks you to do as Leon that puts him in stark contrast to Grace. The same terrifying stalker threats that you had to avoid as Grace now become prey. With Leon, you engage them head on in dynamic combat encounters. With his abilities and firepower, you can take out the stalkers in a matter of minutes. Remember the deadly Blisterheads? Leon takes on like half a dozen of them in a single locked room at one point. And once he's done spilling blood, he drops a dry one-liner about getting in the day's quota of stretching for his sore back.

Leon's sections in Resident Evil Requiem also default to the third-person camera, while Grace's are presented in first-person. You can change both their camera perspectives at any point, but it's clear that Capcom put a lot of thought into making the default options feel like the best ways to play. The scary, survival horror aspect of the game comes through when you're inhabiting Grace; Leon's professional badassery is more evident when you're an observer following his actions over his shoulder.

Exploring Rhodes Hill as Leon is a starkly different experience
Photo Credit: Capcom/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul

The third-person perspective also grants Leon a larger-than-life physicality. You see his biceps bulging through his shirt, his floppy K-pop hair staying perfect through a string of undead encounters. The animations in third-person view are highly detailed and fluid, too, making even the most mundane of Leon's actions look operatic: the way he snaps his weapon forward when you aim down sights; or the way he recedes his arms and pulls back his handgun when up close against an obstruction or a zombie; or the way he just holds his handgun adjacent to his torso with both hands in his trademark pose. His body language, his grunts and sighs, his quips and one-liners — all of which suggest that while Grace might be in mortal peril, Leon is merely inconvenienced.

At Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Centre, Leon, using his hatchet, can break through certain rooms and closets inaccessible to Grace. Here, he can find weapon attachments and charms that boost the stats of his guns, in addition to medical supplies and ammunition. As Leon sweeps through the mansion, he also clears up a path for Grace. The infested you kill in any area of the care centre as Leon will remain dead when you're handed control of Grace and vice versa. So, when Leon dispatches the larger stalker enemies in the building, Grace can explore a little more freely and find crucial upgrade items and crafting resources.

Leon can access certain closets and rooms than Grace can't
Photo Credit: Capcom/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul

Later, when you finally exit Rhodes Hill and arrive at the ruined wasteland that used to be Raccoon City, a location pivotal to the story of Resident Evil Requiem and the series as a whole, Leon's gameplay expands to accommodate new weapons and upgrades and more puzzle-driven open-ended exploration. In his early moments in city, Leon acquires a tactical tracker that reads his combat decisions and skills to accrue credits. These credits can then be spent at an abandoned camp to buy a wide array of firearms and attachments. Here, Leon can finally do things that were limited to Grace at Rhodes Hill: expand his inventory slots; manually save the game on typewriters, and take on multi-pronged objectives that send him exploring the scarred streets and ruined buildings of Raccoon City.

Moving from Rhodes Hill to Raccoon City is almost as much a stark contrast as switching between Grace and Leon. It's a clever change of pace and atmosphere that opens up the game beyond the claustrophobic walls of its opening act. In Raccoon City, a place deeply linked to Leon's past, the veteran federal agent gets to stretch his abilities and his memories. The excellent, overlapping level design of Rhodes Hill broadens in the new location, but retains its circular nature. You'll enter abandoned buildings and navigate multiple rooms and floors to eventually find a shortcut back to where you began. It isn't nearly as intricate as the interlinked expansive mazes found in FromSoftware games, but it makes each area you explore feel thought out.

Raccoon City is at the heart of Requiem's story
Photo Credit: Capcom

Raccoon City is also the epicentre of the story of Resident Evil Requiem. In essence, the game acts as a reckoning with the franchise's past, intertwining the fates of Leon and Grace, both of whom bear scars left by events that transpired in the city. Requiem takes place 28 years after the missile strike that vaporised Raccoon City in Resident Evil 3. Grace, an FBI analyst with a wounded past, is investigating a series of mysterious deaths across the United States, where all five victims were survivors of the Raccoon City incident. They all bear scars of the same disease, too.

The latest body turns up at the now shuttered Wrenwood Hotel in Midwest US, the same place where Grace's mother, a journalist investigating the Umbrella Corporation, was murdered eight years ago just as she had stumbled on a crucial piece of research. Grace, traumatised by witnessing the killing first-hand, reluctantly returns to the hotel to find clues at the latest scene of the crime. At Wrenwood, as she relives the day Alyssa was murdered, Grace remembers something her mother left behind at the hotel, a lead she discovered when she was looking into Umbrella: Elpis.

Grace investigates the Wrenwood Hotel at the start of the story
Photo Credit: Capcom/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul

Before Grace could follow up on the information, she is kidnapped by Victor Gideon, a former T-Virus researcher at Umbrella believed to be behind the latest string of deaths. Gideon takes her to Rhodes Hill, a care facility where he once ran his infectious experiments, and tells her his purpose: Grace, he believes, is the “chosen one” with special blood that he seeks to weaponise and unlock Elpis.

Meanwhile, Leon, tracking a police officer who went missing at Wrenwood, too, witnesses Gideon taking Grace and follows his trail to the care centre, where he discovers information that may prove crucial to his survival. Leon is showing symptoms of the Raccoon City Syndrome, a degenerative disease caused by a latent strain of the T-Virus. And Gideon and his Elpis project are tied up with the infection coursing in his veins. Grace, somehow, is the key it to all.

Former Umbrella scientist Victor Gideon is the primary antagonist in Requiem
Photo Credit: Capcom

At Rhodes Hill, Grace and Leon's paths intersect, but they largely follow separate narrative threads that eventually converge to an escape from the doomed facility. Grace, whose sole focus is on leaving the care centre, finds Emily, a sightless young girl imprisoned and experimented upon by Gideon. Over time, the two form an emotional bond, and Grace becomes determined to free Emily and escape with her. For Leon, Gideon and his plans remain the prime target even as he aids Grace and Emily's escape.

The intense opening hours of the game set up the bigger revelations that follow in Raccoon City. With Resident Evil Requiem, Capcom weaves an engaging and evocative story that ties up the horrors of the series' past to its consequences that Leon, Grace, and many others live with in the present. At Rhodes Hill there are at least two gut-wrenching moments that left me with my jaw on the floor, fearing for the fate of the characters.

Leon shows symptoms of an infection in Requiem
Photo Credit: Capcom/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul

The two protagonists represent contrasting themes, but are unified by their traumatic pasts and their shared sense of justice and morality. Grace, whose loss defines much of what she does in the game, becomes the emotional centre of Requiem's story. She is the vessel for the game's horrors to hit home. Leon, on the other hand, becomes the righteous avenger.

The two characters, performed, animated, and brought to life beautifully in the game, make for a compelling two-hander that delivers on both spectacle and scares. Capcom has strict embargo restrictions on the story that takes place beyond Rhodes Hill, and it's best to experience the events in Raccoon City without any spoilers or suggestions. But it's safe to say that Resident Evil Requiem, through its twists and turns, and returning characters and landmarks, tells an intriguing and emotional story that keeps pushing you to confront what's next.

Grace's past ties into the story of Requiem
Photo Credit: Capcom/ Screenshot – Manas Mitul

Next month, Capcom will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Resident Evil, a series that has shaped the medium itself. Unlike films, video games have always given horror its due. Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Amnesia, Alan Wake, Dead Space and so many more horror classics have pushed games to uncomfortable corners. Today, the medium is more mature for it.

With Resident Evil Requiem, Capcom seems to have written the next chapter in the story of the horror genre in video games. The developer has managed to craft an experience that rarely misses a beat; that takes ambitious, risky swings and sticks the landing. Requiem's two-pronged experience could have ended up feeling repetitive; it could have been a jarring mishmash of incongruent parts. Instead, Capcom has sewn a connective tissue between fear and thrill. And Resident Evil Requiem finds everything else in the middle of those exhilarating extremes.