Resident Evil Requiem (NS2) - Review

  

Capcom's latest return to the Resident Evil franchise had a lot of expectations weighing on it, largely due to a long string of highly successful games in the series within the last decade. With Resident Evil Requiem billed as the ninth mainline title in the series, and also bringing back the extremely beloved Resident Evil 4 protagonist (as well as Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 6 co-protagonist) Leon S. Kennedy, hopes were even higher for it. So how does it fare in comparison to its own predecessors and the general gaming landscape of 2026 as a whole? Well, let's have a look at each aspect of Resident Evil Requiem in order to answer that burning question.

The game's narrative and progression focuses on a brand new character, Grace Ashcroft, daughter to an already existing but fairly obscure character called Alyssa Ashcroft, who appeared in Resident Evil Outbreak way back on the PlayStation 2, as well as the aforementioned Leon S. Kennedy. Both are survivors of the Raccoon City outbreak, an important event in Resident Evil lore that was largely focused on in Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3. While it has a lot of tie-ins to prior titles, it doesn't feel like you're ever required to have played previous entries in order to enjoy Requiem; however, it'll definitely give you a lot more satisfaction if you have as you progress through it. 

  

The gameplay starts off focusing much more heavily on Grace, whose segments are very reminiscent of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, and by extension the original Resident Evil (since the seventh entry took a lot of cues from the original title). When playing as Grace, classic Resident Evil staples such as puzzle-solving, clever routing, and ammo conservation are important, and you definitely feel the horror aspect of Resident Evil being very much alive and well more than 30 years since the series' inception.

  

  

Once you're controlling the much more seasoned Leon, however, the gameplay and even inventory system instantly transfers over to something much more akin to Resident Evil 4. While the horror backdrop is still there, Leon is such a capable fighter and equipped with so many weapons that it becomes much more of an action title. There's ample thought put into both gameplay styles as well, with different resources available for each character, in the form of a crafting system for Grace and a shop system for Leon, both of which cater to their respective gameplay loops. For Grace, you're rewarded for exploration and inventory management with being able to craft tools to increase your chances for survival, whereas Leon is incentivized to go for more kills in order to gain credits to upgrade or buy stronger weapons.

  

Because of this juxtaposition between the two characters and their roles, it almost feels like two different games jammed into one. This might sound like a bad idea, but to be honest Requiem pulls off this transition flawlessly, where both characters' segments feel like they bring their own value to the experience. If you're the type of player who only likes the older Resident Evil games or only enjoys the newer ones, this experience might be jarring, but as someone who enjoys both of Resident Evil's eras for what they offer, I was pleasantly surprised to see how well-polished they managed to make both gameplay systems.

  

  

Speaking of older Resident Evils, the difficulty settings offer a good variety. As is commonplace for this series, there's a very hardcore difficulty available once you've completed the game, but even on your first playthrough you can choose between an easier mode or two more difficult ones, though one is aimed at modern players and the other at more classic players. Being a long-time Resident Evil fan who counts both the original Resident Evil 2 and the Resident Evil 1 remake in his top three entries in the series, I opted for the classic setting, which gives you limited saves by making you use ink ribbons during Grace's segments. The added tension from this was something I was very happy to see return and it really made me appreciate the design of Grace's parts even more. The best part about it is that it's an option, meaning that anyone who thinks limited saves are too stressful can just choose to play without it, so it's the best of both worlds.

  

The visuals are absolutely gorgeous, and I say that as someone who hasn't been too big of a fan of Capcom's RE engine for the most part; Requiem is an absolutely stunning game. I personally played the Nintendo Switch 2 version, which has lower graphical fidelity, but even then it absolutely wowed me with how good it looked. I was livestreaming my entire playthrough, and several people in my chat were also surprised when they noticed the Nintendo Switch 2 home menu at the end of my gameplay sessions, so it's definitely a shared sentiment that Requiem is very well optimized on Nintendo's hardware.

  

  

If there's one drawback to the game for me, it's a phenomenon common to Resident Evil titles, where some of the latter parts drag on a bit and don't feel as exciting as the start. Perhaps that's an inevitability to some extent, but in Requiem it felt a bit more sad because of how unbelievably fantastic the first half was. The second half is still good, or even great, but has markedly worse enemy variety and environmental design. Towards the end, there were two short segments I'd rather have not had in the game at all, but they only slightly mar the experience.

  

At the end of the day, Resident Evil Requiem stands tall with an unbelievably good first half, a very good second half, and just a few stumbles along the way. The narrative mainly harkens back to Resident Evil 2, but the spirit of it also feels very much in-line with Resident Evil 1, Resident Evil 4, and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. If you enjoyed any of these installments, you should have a blast with Requiem. As someone who has largely felt that recent Resident Evil offerings are generally fine but not spectacular, Requiem pretty much blew me away and makes me very excited to see what's coming next for Capcom's flagship franchise. If it had maintained that same level of excellence that the first half offered throughout the entire run, I'd probably put it in my top 5 games of all time. As it stands, though, it'll have to settle for just being in the top 5 games of the last decade.