Resident Evil Requiem — A Gamer's Heart Review by Alton Fox

Survival horror is by far one of the best genres in the game industry, and yet, it is also one of the most challenging to create. Balancing exciting gameplay with slow tension is incredibly tough to master considering the heavily clashing tones of each, and many games unfortunately fall short of this balance. It takes years and many games of familiarizing oneself with the nuances of this type of design to create the perfect experience. Thankfully, Capcom has put in those years.

◆ INTRODUCTION ◆

Resident Evil Requiem is an action/survival horror game developed and published by Capcom earlier this year. This is the 9th mainline entry in the Resident Evil series, of which I've played and reviewed the remakes of 2, 3 and 4, along with Biohazard (7) and Village (8). I found all the games super fun, with 4 being my favorite, but I found each of the others to be missing something, as each focused heavily on only one specific aspect of gameplay like exploration for 2, action for 3, and horror for 7. The 8th and most recent game in the series was unfortunately a bit disappointing, as it attempted to incorporate all these aspects of gameplay at once, but to me felt unrefined in each area, with some pretty bad dialogue and writing to boot.

These games are still all fun though, so of course I bought Requiem as soon as it was released, and I am happy to say it was incredibly fun, and perhaps the best entry in the series. I was very happy to see just how much Capcom has learned over the years, applying the best aspects of all their games into this latest entry. What's more, is that the story had me more hooked than any of the other games, and while not a masterclass in writing by any means, it was genuinely super fun, scary, and climactic, with a pretty nice ending to boot.

◆ GAMEPLAY ◆

Gameplay is the most impressive development for this series. There are two playable characters: Grace Ashcroft and Leon Kennedy, who you switch between periodically throughout the story, but generally the first half is focused on Grace, while the second shifts to Leon.

Grace's gameplay is focused on a survival horror experience, often being given the scariest and slower-paced scenarios to match with her nervous personality. She is given few resources to combat enemies, and is thrown into terrifying and limiting situations filled with jump-scares and slow methodical exploration. Her gameplay takes all the best aspects of the 2nd and 7th games of the series, creating a super tense yet exciting experience for the player. Usually my main criticism with horror in games is how the tense feeling dies away as you get further into the game. It's only natural to be desensitized of course, especially when you're getting stronger as you go, but a truly good horror game should be able to combat this. This game was so impressive to me because it gets a step closer to that great tense feeling for the full runtime. I don't know if it's the great level design or the limited resources, but I was always at least a little tense when playing as Grace, and that is a great feat on Capcom's part.

Leon's gameplay is focused on an intense and exciting combat experience, often having hordes of enemies thrown his way in fast-paced and climactic scenarios. He has a wealth of weapons and upgrades to choose from, and is frequently thrown into combat with powerful enemies on linear paths or various unique arenas. His gameplay takes all the best aspects of the 3rd and 4th games of the series, which focused heavily on the same type of action, though this game has refined it just a bit, leaning completely into making the player feel powerful against an army by giving more resources to keep them in the fight. Usually combat, while fun, has felt just a bit clunky in previous games due to the survival horror gameplay clashing with the combat. Now that the two roles are completely separated, Capcom was free to refine both to their extremes, and I am super happy to see this done so well, as it doesn't sacrifice either of the great things that define this series.

◆ STORY AND SETTING ◆

I won't go as deep into the story for this game because it contains many details and callbacks that I simply haven't played the games required to understand. You don't need to know everything about Resident Evil to enjoy any of the games in the series, which is something I always appreciated as a latecomer to it. I am however aware of the full story, I simply haven't played some of the games in the series, so I don't want to explain something I haven't fully experienced. I do however want to discuss the setting and some things that hooked me, as they were integral to my enjoyment.

The first half of the game has you playing as Grace, and you are trapped in a terrifying hospital run by the evil Dr. Victor Gideon, the antagonist of the game. This hospital is huge, and has a very gothic and over the top style. It's overrun with zombies thanks to Victor's experiments, and has tons of puzzles and elaborate paths to traverse. This was probably my favorite area in the game as having a more deliberate and slower level is a great feeling as you slowly grow accustomed to the vast and looping environment. Grace is very nervous and inexperienced, clearly out of her depth after being kidnapped by Victor. The antagonists have a special interest in her, believing her to be the key to retrieving a powerful viral agent called Elpis that they plan to unleash upon the world. In the world of Resident Evil, powerful viruses are manufactured by evil corporations, and often these viruses end up breaking containment, turning anyone infected into zombies or monsters. Elpis doesn't seem to be any different at first, so naturally the protagonists want to stop this evil plan.

The second half of the game follows Leon, who's been investigating Victor's background and plans for some time. He saves Grace a few times in the hospital, but she ends up being taken by Victor and his partner Zeno by the end of her half of the story, and so Leon rushes to save her and stop the villains. His part of the story takes place in Raccoon City, the place where the 2nd and 3rd games in the series take place. By the end of those games the city is completely destroyed with missiles by the government to contain the zombie outbreak, so now the city looks like a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The city is full of callbacks to older games and great action set-pieces befitting of Leon's great combat skills and serious yet sarcastic personality. Most of Leon's narrative revolves around his search for a cure to the virus afflicting him. He was present in Raccoon City when the zombie outbreak occurred, and over time became infected with the zombie virus. It now slowly takes hold of him as he traverses the ruins of the city.

The story ends in the lab where the Elpis virus is being held. There, Grace and Leon work together to stop Zeno and Victor from getting the virus. I won't go into the ending as that requires explaining the lore of 8 other games… and even I wouldn't do that to you! But long story short, Grace finds a cure for Leon, and Leon defeats Victor in a big final boss. The twist reveal as to what the Elpis virus truly is also occurs here, and while I won't go into it, it is a very cool and even heartwarming one that I encourage you to play and find out.

The only loose ends left after the story is over revolve around Victor's partner, Zeno, and the organization he works for, The Connections. You may have noticed that I glossed over Zeno a bit in my summary, and that's because almost nothing is explained about him. He bears a striking resemblance to the longtime antagonist of the entire series, Albert Wesker, but Albert was supposedly killed in a previous game. It's pretty clear that Zeno is Albert in some way, but the game doesn't address this at all, and Victor kills Zeno right before fighting Leon… so who was he and why was he here? Who knows! I assume this will be addressed in a future game, but I must admit it was a little disappointing to see Zeno just die without even getting to fight him or learn anything new. Regardless, I found this game's story to be much more captivating than previous ones, and I look forward to what comes next.

◆ CONCLUSION ◆

Overall, Resident Evil Requiem is a fantastic game, serving as a culmination of all the best parts of the series in terms of gameplay, and a surprisingly fun story to invest in. Story-wise I'd say it's maybe second only to the 4th game's story, simply because that game stands on its own slightly better than this one in terms of understanding lore and whatnot. Gameplay however is the best it's ever been, and I'm excited to see where they take it next. I highly recommend this game to anyone who loves Resident Evil style horror or intense action, it truly has the best of both worlds.