Resident Evil Requiem, A Humble Review

Resident Evil has always balanced horror and action. Originally focused on survival in resource-limited labyrinths, the series gained greater fame for its linear, arcade-inspired gameplay.

Merging horror and action is tough, so Resident Evil games typically focus on one. Recently, we saw horror in the seventh title and action in the eighth. Capcom’s latest idea: unite both horror and action in one game. That’s how Resident Evil: Requiem came to be.

With that in mind, this review asks: Did Capcom succeed in creating a game that skillfully balances both genres? Specifically, I’ll be looking for three things: a seamless transition between horror and action segments, consistent tension and atmosphere throughout, and mechanics that serve both styles without undermining the experience. These criteria will guide my assessment of whether Requiem truly delivers as a unified Resident Evil experience.

As a result, Requiem merges two distinct Resident Evil experiences into a single product. Readers should know upfront: the first half sends you creeping through dim corridors as Grace, while the latter half arms you to the teeth as Leon for a full-blown action shift. There are two separate characters, two camera options, two inventory systems, two upgrade mechanics, two gameplay styles, two save systems, and two different locations. Unsurprisingly, I came away with two very different impressions of these two games wrapped within one.

If you are in the mood for another sequel, check out our High On Life 2 review!

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Resident Evil Requiem and the Art of Subverted Expectations

Story-wise, Requiem continues from the tragedy of Raccoon City, making it the first direct sequel to Resident Evil 3. Or rather, to Resident Evil 2, since we return to Raccoon City as Leon Kennedy.

The premise is that people who managed to escape Raccoon City begin dying under unexplained circumstances almost three decades later. This sends a young FBI agent, Grace Ashcroft, into the investigation, followed by Leon Kennedy, who finds the case highly personal. Since Leon was among those who survived Raccoon City, he began to show symptoms of a mysterious infection. Leon and Grace cross paths after a former Umbrella Corporation scientist emerges from the shadows, throwing them into a new battle for survival.

The story in Requiem makes good use of subverted expectations and remains unpredictable for me right up to the very end. Returning to Raccoon City awakens nostalgia, although I must admit it feels somewhat forced. New plot elements are introduced that shed fresh light on how and why Raccoon City was destroyed. And this is not done to conclude the existing Umbrella saga, but to lay the foundation for further expansion of the Resident Evil mythology. As if the existing story were not already complex enough, they are now, following Kojima’s example, retroactively inventing worldwide conspiracies.

Why Grace’s Campaign Feels So Intense

If nothing else, Grace Ashcroft is an excellent addition to the series. Her performance is outstanding, and in expressing her fear, she is not irritating. Grace behaves more naturally in traumatic situations than Ethan Winters did, and the portrayal of her character benefits from the fact that we actually see her in cutscenes. Moreover, Grace is an atypical Resident Evil protagonist – insecure, timid, and physically weaker - which immediately distinguishes her from Claire, Jill, Rebecca, Sheva, Ada, and Helena… Grace does experience a certain growth throughout her adventure, but it feels natural, and the game does not try to turn her into a female Rambo, which I consider a positive choice.

The first half of Requiem largely belongs to Grace, and I truly enjoyed that portion of the game. The game recommends playing as Grace using a first-person camera, which makes sense because her gameplay involves a lot of hiding. This gameplay is close to the survival roots of the original games, with very limited ammunition, a tight inventory, and even tighter corridors. This is the kind of gameplay where you study the map and memorize the room sequence because you constantly run back and forth, searching for unusual items and puzzle solutions.

At first glance, it all feels familiar, but Requiem introduces some new tricks that enrich the entire gameplay and make it one of the better horror experiences in this long-running series. The best novelty is that zombies here are diverse and have specific behaviors. One type of zombie likes to turn off the lights; another is allergic to loud sounds; a third sings; a fourth is a huge butcher who patrols the kitchen corridors with a cleaver. Each of these zombies has a specific behavior, and it is fun to discover how to approach them, but what really makes this mechanic shine is how it directly shapes your emotions while playing. Running into the butcher for the first time filled me with dread, as I felt genuinely hunted in the oppressive kitchen corridors. Finding out a zombie would extinguish my only source of light left me scrambling in real panic, feeling exposed and desperate. On the other hand, experimenting and realizing that a zombie irritated by noise could be used to distract other threats gave me moments of relief and even satisfaction, as if I had outsmarted the game's horrors. This constant mix of anxiety, vulnerability, and growing mastery is what kept the tension so high and made every encounter more than just a routine obstacle.

Ammo Scarcity and Tactical Survival in Resident Evil Requiem

While in previous Resident Evil games zombies and other enemies were mostly predictable, in Requiem their behavior often surprised me. For example, zombies would surprise me by opening doors where I did not expect them, by following me through multiple rooms, or by simply moving in unexpected ways. I would sometimes watch a zombie for ten seconds, unsure whether it had noticed me. And just when I thought it had not, it would suddenly sprint toward me and start chasing me.

Since you never have enough ammunition, you must hide from zombies or find various ways to bypass them. I will just say this – blessed tables, zombies still have not learned to climb over them. However, there are also enemies you cannot avoid… In addition to these horrors, there is a specific plot mechanic borrowed from the remake of the first Resident Evil, where killing zombies can potentially make your life harder. Just as you could burn zombies in the remake, here you can turn them into a bloody balloon that explodes.

This ties into the new blood-collection mechanic, which allows crafting lethal injections and ammunition. While the logic of using zombie blood for bullets is dubious, it fits the Resident Evil tradition of prioritizing gameplay over realism.

Vulnerability as a Core Mechanic

There are also parts of the game where weapons are almost useless. Throughout Requiem, you are occasionally stalked by a monster you cannot fight, and your only salvation is escaping into the light. Although these sections are eerie, I would not call them the scariest. The primary reason is that fear here is driven more by the unsettling atmosphere than by unpredictability or high stakes. Encounters with this monster are fully scripted, offering little player agency or randomness to keep you on edge, unlike the clever, unscripted stalkers in games like Alien: Isolation. On top of that, the penalty for failure is mild: the monster will chase you but does not kill you instantly upon spotting you, so you rarely feel a genuine sense of dread or risk of sudden loss. As a result, these segments manage to be tense without ever reaching the intensity or unpredictability that defines the series’ most terrifying moments.

Grace’s fear is heightened by manual save points instead of checkpoints. On classic difficulty, save uses are limited by typewriter ink. Capcom strengthens the tense atmosphere with details like gun tremors in Grace’s hands.

If you had asked me after the first five hours what I thought of Requiem, I would have given it 99 out of 100 because I enjoyed it so much. They truly nailed the slow gameplay, the feeling of vulnerability, the discomfort of outsmarting zombies, and the solving of bizarre puzzles. With the clever addition of varied zombies and the blood-collection crafting mechanic, the horror in this Resident Evil became genuinely top-tier… And then Requiem decided to switch to something entirely different.

Resident Evil Requiem Trades Tension for Firepower

Listen – Leon Kennedy is one of my favorite Resident Evil characters as well. However, in Requiem, it feels as though he has a contractual appearance clause to help sell the game better. Just like the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT he drives and the Hamilton watch he wears. Unlike the Village section, where Chris Redfield answered the call of duty, Leon’s portion of the story is the entire second half of Requiem. It might function well as a standalone game, but after the excellent gameplay with Grace, it feels less frightening and less tense.

Leon’s campaign is recommended in third-person, focusing on eliminating zombies. His environments are more open and brighter than Grace’s. Combat shifts to ranged firefights, often requiring all enemies to be cleared before progressing. Leon uses a smartwatch for kill tracking and weapon points, and ammo drops are common. That said, there are moments when the action delivers genuine excitement. For example, one sequence puts you in the middle of a frantic siege, with zombies flooding in from every direction and forcing you to quickly swap between weapons and use the environment to your advantage. These intense firefights make the most of Leon’s expanded arsenal and more agile movement, providing a rush that classic fans may appreciate, even if the frequent checkpoints sometimes reduce the tension.

Checkpoints appear almost everywhere, map exploration becomes more linear, and the varied zombie behaviors from Grace’s campaign disappear entirely. There are different zombies here that throw rocks at you or attack with chainsaws, but you do not need to adapt to them in any special way – the same tactic always works: shoot and run before they reach you.

Leon’s axe appears indestructible; even after breaking, it is quickly fixed. On standard difficulty, repairing seems unnecessary, making durability mostly irrelevant.

A Tale of Two Game Directors?

The axe’s power dominates boss fights, reducing the need for varied tactics. Using the parry mechanic from start to finish makes these battles predictable, leaving little room for other creative strategies.

Leon’s gameplay at times ventures into Uncharted-style chase sequences and comes off as a less impressive copy. But that is not even the worst part. The bigger issue is that the game’s dynamic completely diverges from the slow horror of Grace’s section. It feels as though all the better ideas were used in the first half of the game, or that an entirely different team at Capcom worked on Leon’s segment. Everything in Leon’s campaign felt like something I would complete once and never think about again.

The only thing that saves it is that shooting zombies, hitting them with an axe, and dismembering them with a chainsaw, which unfortunately is not used often, is genuinely fun. Capcom made the zombies extremely fleshy, so they reacted convincingly to every bullet. The game is significantly bloodier than previous Resident Evil titles, so crushing zombie heads looks effective and powerful, almost like in Doom games. If the core of Leon’s campaign is “kill 500+ zombies,” at least that task is entertaining.

The Abrupt Gameplay Shift That Hurts Requiem

Unfortunately, I cannot shake the impression that Leon’s adventure lacks any distinctiveness. Anyone who played Resident Evil 4 remembers the merchant and his lines. Requiem has nothing memorable like that. Weapons are purchased from a high-tech chest with zero charisma. Buying and upgrading lacks excitement because long before the finale, you accumulate so many points that you have nothing left to spend them on.

There is a conflict in the game that could have been legendary, but it is so forced that it lasts less than a minute and ends in complete anticlimax compared to how Leon was treated by Krauser. The villains overall are disappointing, to the point that the circus-like cast from Village is at least a class more interesting than those in Requiem.

I cannot hide that I am largely disappointed with Leon’s gameplay segment in Requiem, but it is important to put that into context. If this part of the game had been completely separate from the first half, as a standalone title, my impression would have been much more positive. The fundamental problem here is the abrupt shift in dynamics, pacing, and style. You get used to one thing, and then the game serves you something entirely different.

When a similar character switch occurred in The Last of Us Part II, at least the gameplay mechanics remained similar. In Requiem, switching characters changes the entire gameplay philosophy. I am not claiming Leon’s gameplay is terrible or that it ruins the game. On the contrary, it is still fun, but it is not frightening like the beginning of the game, nor memorable enough to enter the “best of” collection of Kennedy’s adventures.

The Look And Feel

It should come as no surprise that Resident Evil Requiem is the most beautiful entry in the series. Character models are fantastically detailed, environments are highly realistic, and the game is extremely bloody. PC players will benefit most, particularly those with newer, more powerful RTX cards, as the PC version is the only one to support path tracing for advanced lighting and reflections. The visual difference between path tracing and traditional ray tracing is clearly noticeable – just look in a mirror. With high ray-tracing settings, you barely notice any blurry reflections on glass surfaces, while with path tracing, you are surprised by how often you see your reflection on a glass surface across a dark room.

Character models are fantastically detailed, environments are highly realistic, and the game is extremely bloody.

The sound is phenomenal, especially when you listen to it on our XP-Panther LED headset. I have already praised Grace’s performance, and the rest of the cast does not fall behind. Leon’s jokes may make you laugh out loud on several occasions. And the voice acting of one specific enemy is, in one word, sickening. The moment you hear it, chills run down your spine exactly as they should in a horror game. The conclusion for audio is therefore the same as for presentation – Requiem sounds better than any Resident Evil before it.

As for optimization, it is difficult to judge in this era of upscaling. If anything, I can say my framerate was mostly stable. There was noticeable stuttering in one very brief section of the game, but I believe it will be fixed by release or with early-optimized drivers. Regarding technical consistency, I encountered no bugs or crashes.

Replay Value and Unlockables Explained

There is so much that I like about Resident Evil Requiem. At the beginning, the game is tense and frightening, reminiscent of the best days of Resident Evil. I could not pull myself away from playing until three in the morning, and when I went to sleep, I kept thinking about where to use certain items. The first ten hours of Requiem were unforgettable… until the gameplay shifted to Leon.

It is not that the game becomes bad, but its dynamics change, and you are forced to adapt to something completely different. Instead of close-quarters struggles with zombies, you get long-range shooting. From dark and dimly lit rooms, you move to streets and daylight. After solving puzzles with Grace, there is nothing to think about with Leon. There are countless examples of how the first and second halves of Requiem are drastically different experiences.

Generally, I think this chapter of the story was not necessary, but I am glad we met Grace. From a presentation standpoint, I am glad that in 2026 Resident Evil has finally committed to modern hardware, making it graphically among the most advanced games on the market. I believe the game justifies its high price with its length: my first playthrough lasted about 18 hours, although the game itself states 12, probably not counting time spent in menus or on the map. At the end, you can unlock items that make subsequent playthroughs more interesting.

In Conclusion

In translation, I think Resident Evil Requiem is a very good game. It is just a shame that two experiences were unnecessarily squeezed into one whole. The ideal balance between horror and action is not achieved when the first half delivers magnificent horror only to discard it in the second half. I hope Capcom will recognize this after the experiment and learn a lesson for the series' tenth-anniversary installment. Because of course, there will be one. Did you ever have any doubt?

Our Rating: 8.3/10

It earns a strong score for its exceptional horror in the first half, atmosphere, presentation, and technical polish, but loses points due to uneven pacing and a less inspired second campaign.

Recommended age: 17+ (mature teens)

Due to intense horror themes, graphic violence, dismemberment, and dark narrative elements, this game requires emotional maturity.

Gemini AI summary:

Resident Evil Requiem delivers two distinct experiences in one package, combining an outstanding survival-horror campaign featuring Grace Ashcroft with a more action-focused Leon Kennedy segment. While the first half captures the tension and atmosphere of classic Resident Evil with inventive zombie behaviors and limited resources, the second half shifts toward conventional action, resulting in uneven pacing. Technically impressive and narratively ambitious, the game succeeds in presentation and atmosphere but struggles to maintain a consistent balance between horror and action.