Resident Evil Requiem - Requiem For A Scream (Review)
- James Stephanie Sterling
- Mar 4
- 7 min read
Resident Evil Requiem Released: February 27th, 2026 Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Systems: PC, PS5 (reviewed), Switch 2, Xbox X/S
The average mainstream game series can struggle to maintain consistent quality in just one category, but Resident Evil’s been dual wielding subgenres with impressive resolve for quite some time. As either a first-person frightener or a third-person remake, Capcom’s been hitting the mark for a long time now - and yes, I’m including the remake of Nemesis here.
Resident Evil Requiem is a showcase of the series’ double-fisting, a bridge between both flavors representing in equal measure the spooky and the shooty. It’s a move that could’ve gone so wrong and the split focus between storylines has evoked memories of Resident Evil 6 in some minds, but I’m delighted to say they’ve nailed it.
The ninth main installment switches intermittently between two characters, each dealing with the same shitshow but going through dramatically different experiences. FBI agent Grace Ashford faces the horror aspect, relying on guile over firepower and partaking in some classic item hunting. Leon Kennedy is where the action happens - an arsenal of guns, big ol’ roundhouse kicks, and high octane preposterousness. Thanks to a shared overarching plot and a through line of endearing camp, there’s very little mood whiplash, both elements actively complimenting one another.
While either side can be played in either perspective, Grace defaults to a first-person view and Leon to third. After trying out the options, I stuck with the defaults as they really do make sense to me. When I attached dot sights to Leon’s guns, I disabled the subsequent first-person aiming, as it just didn’t feel right without looking over his shoulder. That said, I love that we have options, and that they all work well enough to be viable.
Requiem’s story is in part a direct, if distant, sequel to Resident Evil 2, exploring significant repercussions of the now ancient Raccoon City Incident and providing a measure of closure for a truly iconic game. I was reminded of Metal Gear Solid 4 in some ways as an aging Leon, suffering from the lingering effects of T-Virus exposure, reopens old wounds in old places. It helps that both games have a sequence involving motorbikes and… well…
Y’know, I’m just going to deviate from my review structure to talk about this. While ordinarily I’d detail the story before focusing on the first half of the game, I’ve got to jump ahead for a moment to discuss Leon Kennedy’s bike chase section. It is a work of fucking art. Representing Resident Evil at its schlocky best, it’s so utterly audacious I was legitimately laughing throughout. The ridiculous stunts, the defiance of physics, the deadpan one-liner, it’s pitch perfect. Up there with Chris Redfield’s legendary boulder punch in terms of glorious implausibility.
Anyway, there’s a string of murders going on, with each victim being a survivor of Raccoon City’s zombie mayhem in 1998. Grace is the daughter of one such survivor, who in a nice touch is Alyssa from Resident Evil Outbreak. She’s also an FBI crime scene investigator, and it’s while she’s on assignment at the very hotel where her mother was murdered that she encounters Victor Gideon, aka Requiem’s mad scientist du jour. Meanwhile, Leon is hunting down Gideon for his own ends, and from there we have an enjoyable story about legacy, making amends, and coping with failure.
Things start a little disjointedly, as we swap between our two protagonists quite rapidly, but once the back-and-forth settles down, a lovely pace is established and the story matures into one of the series’ better written.
Grace takes up the lion’s share of the first half, which provides some wonderfully tense survival horror material. As she attempts to escape an overrun sham hospital, she encounters the victims of a new strain of T-Virus and my favorite kind of zombies in media - ones that talk while compulsively echoing their previous lives. They remind me of the enemies from Siren, properly creepy zombies with a ton of personality.
The FBI agent's first brush with the zombies is so perfectly staged, nailing a vibe of “what the fuck is happening?” I’ll never forget quietly bypassing a zombie obsessed with light switches only to walk in on one headbutting a bathroom mirror. Everything is placed to maximize anxiety and keep you guessing. This frantic atmosphere informs the game’s front end along with lovely setpieces, gory surprises, and the presence of things far larger and freakier than zombies to worry about.
Grace can find breakable blades and a few handgun variants, as well as spend the titular Requiem revolver’s precious rare bullets, so she can defend herself in a pinch. She’s nonetheless not a fighter, and most scenarios are best navigated sneakily. Your strongest asset in these chapters is a craftable injection that can be sneakily jabbed into zombies - not only does it kill them instantly, it explodes their bodies like something from Fist of the North Star, which ensures the corpse doesn’t stick around.
Clearing corpses isn’t a bad idea, because they’re capable of turning into something that makes the OG T-Virus’ Crimson Heads look like a joke. When a body starts convulsing, it’s time to tool up or run, because they’re becoming a Blister Head, a tanky, quick, and juicy fuckface. While they can be staggered and injected, trying to fight them with just a handgun in your inventory is rough - I tried it once and it felt like the most dramatic boss fight of the whole game.
While Grace can theoretically fight everything that comes after her, Requiem does a fantastic job of convincing you she can’t. So threateningly were some of the bigger monsters presented it never occurred to me to try and fight them, and switching over from Leon always makes the comparative lack of power feel more dramatic. I’m really rather impressed at how long the game manages to fuel a fear of confrontation - even after being emboldened to fight more, I was still nervous throughout all of the horror chapters.
Nerves can get you with Leon too, despite his access to handguns, shotguns, machine guns, rifles, and a hatchet that can be eternally repaired. It’s less due to scariness and more due to the anarchic nature of combat - enemies will come from all corners, more aggressive than anything Leon faced with Las Plagas, and fights are a constant case of ammo management, parrying offense, and wondering how much punishment a single enemy can take.
At times it can be frustrating, as zombies love to grab you from behind or lunge through your shots, and it can feel more like petty harassment than a battle. Most of the time it’s thoroughly entertaining, and even the toughest battles end with a feeling of exhilaration, a sense that you just ran one hell of a gauntlet. It’s so consistently extreme - parrying is flashy, melee attacks are excessive, critical headshots pop with splatter movie enthusiasm, and I love it.
The game throws a zombie with a chainsaw at you early and the thing will clatter and spin on the floor when it’s dropped. If a zombie falls while still holding the chainsaw, its teeth will actually drag it along the ground. You can of course claim it yourself to chew through enemies until it gets stuck inside one, and then you’ll have to retrieve it amidst the increasingly bloody scrum.
Enemies might wield other melee weapons which can be picked up and automatically lobbed at the nearest target, Ghost of Yotei style. Naturally, there are a good few explosions as well, and good lord does an enemy paint the walls when it bursts. Ammunition isn’t so restricted you’ll run fully dry, but it’s valuable enough to keep you conscious about wasting anything. Every combat scene feels truly consequential as a result of these factors, making for a memorable encounter every time.
The second half suffers a little from enemies lacking the personality we see in the hospital. After Grace cedes her screen time to Leon, we end up moving to a new location where the zombies are more traditional. This is tempered somewhat by the change of scenery coming with oodles of nostalgia porn and several absurd situations where the violence ramps up to hilarious degrees.
I’d say each side of this game only has one major weakness apiece.
For Grace, it’s a paltry inventory capacity that does nothing to heighten the tension, only causing a silly amount of backtracking as you ferry shit to and from the storage chest. This weird idea that games are “harder” or “scarier” as a result of limited item space really needs to change across the entire genre. It’s just a pain in the ass that reduces the effectiveness of a horror environment by making you traipse back and forth to the point of overfamiliarity.
The second weakness is far more important - Leon’s boss fights are all damp squibs. At least on the default difficulty, they’re significantly less of a challenge than several of the more basic encounters and the revolver can end any battle in mere moments. It’s a huge shame when you consider the campaign’s back half has some narratively momentous bosses that should mean a lot to Resident Evil 2 fans, but they die quickly and often unceremoniously.
These disappointments did little to lower my enthusiasm in the end. I had an absolute fucking blast with this thing, jumping immediately into a second playthrough when I finally concluded the campaign.
When it comes to presentation, Capcom knocked it out of the park. The visual design is grotesquely gorgeous and Resident Evil continues to have some of the best lighting in the business - as well as some incredible audio design. Special mention must be made of the actors, who are all fantastic. Grace’s performance is far and away the best, some of the best I’ve ever heard - her fearful stuttering is so believable, and when she needs to scream or shout she fucking goes for it. I was immediately impressed and remained so throughout.
Resident Evil Requiem is up there among the highest highlights of the long running series. Being composed of disparate styles could have been messy but they pulled off both intimate horror and batshit action in one consistently entertaining package. I think this is the best entry since Resident Evil 4 and I don’t say that lightly.
More than even the remakes, Resident Evil 9 celebrates the series’ legacy in its full breadth, and does so exquisitely.
9/10
