Resident Evil Requiem Review
One horror game has been checked off for 2026. Resident Evil Requiem was an amazing horror game that balanced its immersive horror experience through Grace with an action-packed adventure through Leon. There are a ton of things I loved about it, and quite a few that I disliked.
First-Person View, Immersion, and Horror
Resident Evil Requiem is the first Resident Evil game that I have played from start to finish. While I have played other titles (Resident Evil 6, Resident Evil 1 on PS1, and Resident Evil 2 on PS1), I never completed any of them. A bit funny to think about on my end.
Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that I had never really finished a Resident Evil game, and the first one I did was largely in first-person mode—at least half of it—which makes everything way scarier than it would have been in third person. It must also be stated that the default and recommended camera option for Grace’s gameplay is first-person view.
I have finished Outlast 2, but that was a pretty linear experience. The idea of constantly running around, fighting, surviving, healing, solving puzzles, and managing resources in Resident Evil Requiem is something I am proud to have overcome.
Grace Ashcroft is shown as having a weak will, poor interpersonal skills, and as someone who has drowned herself in work. Definitely not someone you would expect to excel at navigating and communicating with people on missions or field assignments. Add to that, her director assigns her to explore a location that has a deep connection to her trauma—the death of her mother. All this combined should have solidified her as a noncombatant character. However, a lot of people seem to misunderstand her background in the FBI as proof that she should have excellent combat skills and is always ready for action. That seems misguided, but it is probably an issue with how widely the media portrays FBI agents as fighters, when there are tons of positions one can hold in such agencies—Grace, in particular, being a data analyst.
Anyway, a bit long-winded, but I really just want to say that Capcom did a great job, in my eyes, of laying the groundwork and setting Grace up as the perfect character to immerse players into the more horror-focused experience of Resident Evil Requiem.
The first “chapter” occurs in Wrenwood Hotel, which does not really have any combat or survival gameplay aside from its ending, which only last around five minutes or so. Still, it is a great level to ease us into the tension and the eerie, suffocating atmosphere we are about to bask in during Grace’s sections of the game.
While I am not a big fan of the survival hide-and-seek gameplay loop prominent in games like Outlast, Dead by Daylight, or Alien: Isolation, Resident Evil Requiem was one I welcomed. Part of it is that there are very few cheap jump scares, and most of them are executed through well-built tension from the sound design, music, and flow of the story. Moreover, you are not completely hopeless—you can fight back to a fair extent as Grace, which gives a bit of breathing room for players, no matter how futile it may actually be.
Grace Ashcroft’s sections make being smart and mindful of resources much more important than in Leon’s. While you can kill all enemies as Grace, it takes a lot of courage, patience, and understanding of enemy patterns to actually pull it off. Oftentimes, you are forced into stealth or just running away. Add to that, Grace is designed to be much less agile and capable of combat than Leon, as mentioned before.
All in all, I really enjoyed about 90% of Grace’s sections in the entire game. The first half of Resident Evil Requiem has more sections for Grace in the Rhodes Hill Care Centre and its nearby areas. The second half is more for Leon, but there is still a big chunk of that playtime for Grace as well. However, I found the sections for Grace in the second half of the game to be less fun. Primarily because the enemies are a bit buggy during my playthrough, it is much more linear, and the level designs do not encourage creativity as much as the levels did in the first half of the game.
THIRD PERSON VIEW, Action, and Chaos
While Grace’s gameplay focuses more on immersion and horror, Leon’s definitely leans on Action-Adventure. While I have not played Resident Evil 4 or 6, it is definitely more akin to the experience there.
Leon Kennedy is back in the driving seat; quite literally, with his new Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT. He returns, now plagued with long term effects of the T-Virus which weakens and slowly kills him. At this point of the story, the T-Virus’ long-term effects have reached near its end stage. If Leon cannot find a way to cure himself, he dies.
Together with Sherry Birkin, their investigation inadvertently leads them to Grace and chases after her as she is kidnapped by Victor Gideon from the Wrenwood Hotel. From there, the story proceeds to the Rhodes Hill Care Center, and eventually back to Raccoon City where the entire franchise began.
We’ll acknowledge the nostalgia trip later on.
For now, let’s focus on the gameplay in Leon’s sections. The default and recommended camera view when using Leon is in third-person view. As mentioned before, the gameplay is pretty similar to Resident Evil 4 or 6 for Leon’s sections in Resident Evil Requiem. He is still strong and handsome, capable of mowing down enemies with his handgun, axe, and an overpowered revolver called the Requiem. Ammo, Health Items, and other throwable weapons are the main resources you have to manage when playing the human terminator. Leon has a bigger inventory space than Grace; and has more weapons in his arsenal. You still need to craft ammo and health items, and there is a fair ton of resources to get from pretty much everywhere in the game. His section was very lenient, albeit still fun and occasionally challenging.
Overall, I think I had an incredibly easier time using Leon than Grace because of how his gameplay is designed. The combat is not too unique, but it is serviceable. It is not as terrifying as Resident Evil 4 and 2; especially 2 since that had a more survival aspect to it. The entire time I was using Leon was chaotic fun.
Story, Flow, and Switching Perspective
To some, switching perspectives between two characters can be annoying. It can disrupt the flow and, if not done correctly, can also confuse the readers, audience, or players (depending on what media you are associating this with) with the story. But in video games, there have been a lot of games that feature different characters and switch perspectives multiple times, like Grand Theft Auto V, Until Dawn, and Detroit: Become Human—all of which were praised for their story and storytelling. Resident Evil Requiem does the switching of perspectives pretty well too, and I was able to follow along pretty easily. Granted, the story of Resident Evil Requiem (barring any backstory or lore) is one that is easy to understand.
I won’t spoil much, but I like the deception they did with Grace Ashcroft being a false “centerpiece” of the puzzle, as well as the full-circle moment for Leon S. Kennedy as he goes back to Raccoon City.
Grace’s story isn’t really special, and that is the point of her story. I did not find any significant character development in her from start to finish, as her real goal seemingly is about finding the truth about her mother. Regardless, she was not a bore at all, and I still enjoyed who she is in the game. While I did say she isn’t special, she is still important to certain key figures in the game in many ways, but she is just not important the way that other characters thought she was. At the end of the game—spoiler alert—if you get the good ending, I really like how Grace became a mother figure to an orphan just like Alyssa Ashcroft was with her.
Leon’s story is very complex—not because it is deep, philosophical, or hard to understand, but because his presence in the game is interconnected with various figures and events in the game. As a mainstay character of the franchise from the very beginning, going back to Raccoon City allowed him—and us—to revisit his story. The game did a great job at humanizing Leon once again and giving actual emotional weight to the events of Resident Evil 2. The title of the game including “Requiem” is, in large part, a reference to Leon redeeming himself for “failing” to save the people he met and lost in Resident Evil 2.
My last favorite character in Resident Evil Requiem is Emily. I just love how innocent and fragile she is. Nothing really that special to note, other than the Capcom developers doing a great job at making us care for a frail child.
Aside from that, the other characters introduced are very unremarkable. One could say that this is a pretty bad thing, but I was never really attached to the villains of Resident Evil. With that said, I can acknowledge that this was a missed opportunity to build something or someone as sinister and important as Albert Wesker was in the first four games, or Mother Miranda was in Ethan Winters’ entries. There are a lot of unexplained plot points and loose ends, but I couldn’t care less as it opens up the game more for DLCs or sequels pretty easily. If there is one thing that could have kept this openness to its story while improving these villains, it would be to have more time where they are confronted more directly so we could care about and understand them more. But again, villains in Resident Evil are not something I attach myself to that much.
Oh yeah, it was really nice to see Sherry Birkin again.
My Frustrations
There isn’t a lot to hate or get frustrated with in this game, but there are still a few things.
First is optimization. I have seen and heard that the Resident Evil remakes were pretty well optimized, but this one might be a deviation from that. With the default graphics settings that were set upon startup, the game was incapable of hitting a stable framerate. My framerate was also not hitting over 60 FPS. The default graphics settings were all on High with Ray Tracing on.
I had to turn off Ray Tracing and lower the other graphics settings one notch down to get a stable framerate.
Second are certain game mechanics showing up and mattering only once or twice. For example, Leon has a section during his return to Raccoon City where he can let zombies fall off windows. I wish I could have done that more. Another one is the lockpicking, which was only relevant in the Care Center map. Regardless, this complaint isn’t really a big deal.
In fact, I thought about it more and decided that this is a positive design choice from the developers to keep the experience fresh for the entire game.
The last thing I had in mind was the lack of boss fights. Okay, it is not actually the lack of boss fights, but more of the way we confronted the main villains. I felt like our direct confrontations with the bosses were more like passing moments than actual major plot points. I just wish they had more screentime, just as I mentioned before.
Is Resident Evil Requiem A Good Game? Is Resident Evil Requiem Worth it?
Yes, Resident Evil Requiem is really good. It is quite short, and there are a lot of loose ends, but I genuinely cannot say I did not have fun.
It is a bit pricey, and I can see some people not enjoying it or experiencing it, then finding the cost to not match their enjoyment (if there was even one to be had).
But hey, if you love hide-and-seek survival horror and linear action-adventure gameplay, then this might be for you.
Resident Evil Requiem FAQs
What’s the story behind Resident Evil Requiem?
An evil organization tied to Umbrella has come back to revive bioweapon experimentation, and they think the adoptive daughter of a journalist who survived the original zombie outbreak is the key to completing their project. Oh, and some old guy who takes down bioweapon organizations for a living gets caught up in it too.
How old would Leon be in Resident Evil Requiem?
A news report at the end of the game says the Raccoon City outbreak happened 28 years ago, so that would make Leon 49 in Resident Evil Requiem if he was 21 years old in Resident Evil 2.
Will Resident Evil Requiem have DLC?
I have no clue. No announcements have been made confirming a DLC.
Who is the main villain in Resident Evil Requiem?
The main villain is a man named Victor Gideon.
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