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| Resident Evil Requiem puts Grace and Leon at the centre of a campaign that runs two completely different games at once. |
By Jon Scarr
Thirty years in and Resident Evil still knows how to scare the pants right off of you. Resident Evil Requiem is the series going all in on two completely different games at once, pulling them into one campaign and asking you to keep up with both. It mostly works, and when it does, it is one of the best the series has produced in a long time.
You play as Grace Ashcroft, an FBI analyst investigating a string of deaths connected to Raccoon City survivors, and as Leon S. Kennedy, who is already neck-deep in the same mess from a different angle. The campaign moves between them. You don't pick a side. One chapter you are creeping through a hotel corridor with six bullets and a bad feeling. The next you are booting a zombie down a staircase with Leon's full loadout. The tonal shift is deliberate. It shouldn't work as well as it does, and the fact that it does is probably the best thing I can say about the whole game.
Resident Evil Requiem Details
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, PC
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Genre: Survival Horror / Action
Game Modes: Single-player
Two Characters, Two Completely Different Games
Grace's side is where Requiem reminds you that this series built its reputation on making you feel like you had no business being wherever you just walked into. Her chapters strip you down to almost nothing. Ammo is tight, health items are scarce, and most of the time your best option is to not be seen at all. You move through compact hotel wings, clinics, and back corridors, learning the patrol routes of infected staff who still carry the habits of their old jobs. A cleaner keeps working the same stretch of hallway. A patient reacts badly to noise. You start reading those loops and routing around them, and on higher difficulties that habit-reading matters more than anything in your inventory.
Staying Hidden Without Losing Your Mind
Grace's stealth has just enough give to stay fair. If you get spotted you are not instantly dead. There is usually a door you can slam, a room you can duck into, and a few seconds to regroup before everything goes wrong. That margin keeps the dread from tipping into frustration. The game is not asking you to be perfect. It is asking you to be careful, and there is a real difference between the two.
The Blood Injector Changes How You Think About Every Corpse
The blood injector is the smartest piece of kit Grace picks up. You can harvest from fallen enemies to craft ammo or create injections that stop a body from mutating into something worse. Both are useful. Both require you to get close to something you would rather leave on the floor. Deciding when to risk that approach becomes its own small puzzle on every floor you clear.
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| Grace's chapters put you in the shoes of someone who is completely out of her depth, and the game makes sure you feel every second of it. |
Leon Comes In and Lets You Stop Tiptoeing
After a few hours with Grace, Leon's chapters feel like someone finally handed you the keys. Camera over his shoulder, you push back through areas Grace barely survived, and this time you have the tools to actually clear them. His combat has a clean flow. Pop a leg, close the distance, kick, axe, done. Groups get more complicated, but the d-pad weapon swap and briefcase loadout give you enough to handle the escalation. One early fight has you disarm a chainsaw carrier, bury the weapon in the next enemy, and watch a third pick it up off the floor. Moments like that show how much room there is to improvise once you are comfortable with his kit.
The Veteran's Briefcase
Leon's inventory is closer to classic RE4 territory than anything in recent entries. You arrange gear in a grid, sort what you need for the next encounter, and make sure the right tool is ready. Enemies hit hard and swarm fast if you get sloppy. Requiem never makes Leon feel untouchable, which means stepping back into a Grace chapter after an hour with him snaps your nerves right back to where they were.
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| Leon walks into the same spaces Grace barely survived, except this time you have the tools to actually do something about it. |
Raccoon City Has Never Looked This Bad, and That's a Compliment
Requiem's version of Raccoon City is lit like a nightmare. Harsh beams, broken bulbs, signs throwing colour across wet pavement. The RE Engine does exactly what you need it to do here. Faces sell the performances when the camera gets close. Every location has enough detail that you notice things before you hear them. Infected loop through old routines. A maid drags a cloth across the same mirror. A worker jabs at a light switch. You clock the pattern from across the room and it is almost always your first warning.
Sound design keeps pace with the visuals. Footsteps change texture as you cross from tile to carpet to concrete. Distant sounds make you stop and think before you commit to a corridor. Gunshots have real impact and the wet crack of a finished fight is audio you do not forget. Performance on PlayStation 5 is clean throughout, with short loads and a steady frame rate even in busy fights. The graphics mode options are genuinely useful, not just a checkbox feature.
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| Every location in Requiem looks like something terrible already happened there. The kitchen is no exception. |
The Story Treats Raccoon City as More Than a Name Drop
Requiem's narrative is the most thoughtful the series has been with Raccoon City since the city was still standing. Grace's investigation ties into the disaster through personal history rather than files and archive footage. Leon's arc pushes him to face choices from past games that were mostly left unexamined. Together they make the setting feel like it actually matters, not just to long-time fans but to the characters living through it.
The back half is where the balance slips. Grace's early chapters build a personal story with real stakes, but the finale shifts hard toward Leon and the wider Umbrella plot. Her arc does not get the payoff it earned in the opening hours. Some of the late callbacks hit well. Others read more like a recognition checklist than a genuine plot development. If you are coming in without much series history, some of those late moments will not register the way they are intended to.
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| Raccoon City feels like a place with a history in Requiem, not just a name the story drops to get a reaction out of you. |
Resident Evil Requiem Is the Best the Series Has Been in Years
Requiem doesn't coast on the 30th anniversary. It tries to earn it by running two leads through a campaign that respects both sides of what this series has always done well. Grace brings back the slow, careful dread that made the originals unforgettable. Leon brings the drive and firepower that kept the series going through its action years. Together they make a case that Resident Evil still has room to grow after three decades. That is not something you can say about many franchises this old.
The split screen time and the lore-heavy back half will hit differently depending on how deep your Resident Evil history goes. If you have been with the series since the beginning, the late game is going to mean more to you. If you are newer to it, a few of those moments will not quite connect the way Capcom clearly intended.
None of that changes what Requiem gets right. Grace's chapters are some of the most genuinely tense survival horror I have played in years. Leon's combat is the best he has had since RE4. Together they make Raccoon City feel like it still has something to say thirty years later. That is a hard thing to pull off, and Capcom pulled it off. Do not sleep on this one.
Resident Evil Requiem Review Summary
Liked
- Grace's chapters bring back real survival horror panic
- Leon's combat is satisfying and gives you room to improvise
- The blood injector keeps every encounter tense
- Enemy behaviour makes each location feel lived in
- Raccoon City looks and sounds genuinely dangerous
- Performance on PlayStation 5 is rock solid
Didn't Like
- Grace's personal arc loses space in the back half
- Some lore callbacks feel more like a checklist than new twists
- Late story relies heavily on existing Resident Evil knowledge
Overall Assessment of Resident Evil Requiem
Gameplay: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ (4.5 / 5)
Presentation: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5 / 5)
Performance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ (4.5 / 5)
Story / Narrative: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ (4.5 / 5)
Fun Factor: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ (4.5 / 5)
Overall Value: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ (4.6 / 5)
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