Resident Evil Requiem Review (No Spoilers)
Background and Settings:
As someone who started and fell in love with the Resident Evil series in the summer of 2023, I have long awaited the moment that I get to play a mainline entry on the week of release. I’ll try my best to accurately reflect my feelings while playing the games with the notes I took as I played through RE9 for the first time, however, this can end up a bit flawed on my end. As these stressful games grow in tension and difficulty, I despise them while playing in the moment. A lot of “What the hell”, “This is dumb. Can I have one calm section please?”, or “That’s bullshit! I did not!” burst out from my mouth as I take them on for the first time. After a period of reflection and completing them again, I find myself admiring these sections more and more and calmy announce “That was awesome! I love that part!”
It’s also worth noting that I completed the game on the Classic Modern difficulty and utilized the classic RE third-person view for both characters. The game is scary enough already when I have headphones on. It certainly doesn’t need a first-person point-of-view for its most terrifying sections.
Review
Resident Evil Requiem provides a fun and more prominently, tense experience to both new and longtime fans. No matter how long one has played, the influence of earlier games in the series is tangible. Plus, though the first two-thirds of the game follows a similar survival horror formula where you have to complete the classic process of unlocking different parts of the map by acquiring an item in one room, all hell breaking loose when you pick said item up, and then placing it in the correct spot to advance the game with the few bullets remaining in your inventory, Requiem still finds a way to produce its own identity. This identity is created with the balancing act achieved between its longer anxiety-inducing survival horror sections and its shorter over-the-top action sequences.
During Grace’s survival horror sections, the settings and scarier moments felt reminiscent of previous Resident Evil titles like RE Biohazard/7 and RE 2 Remake while also finding its own way to increase your heart rate. Spaces may look familiar, but they’re tighter and provide the player with a false sense of comfort that amplifies the ultimate scare. The decision to make the zombies talk and continue their individual day-to-day habits in an uncanny fashion rather than just groan somehow made a creepy atmosphere more eerie.
Another classic horror game element, but vital inclusion nonetheless, was the utilization of the light and the dark. On top of being a thematic device, one has to decide whether the luxury of being able to see is worth the result of what will chase you after making that decision. As someone who hated the dark as a child, this game evoked the memories of the terrifying nights where I had to jump into my parents’ bed to escape whatever nonexistent thing lurked in the darkness of my bedroom.
These elements forced me to play the game in a stealthy and hypervigilant manner. While this style of play increased my time of completion, it also provided me with the opportunity to become mindfully immersed in the environment. Additionally, it also enriches replayability with a variety of playstyles available to you.
I admired the new protagonist, Grace, who resembled an accurate representation of how many of us would be in an overwhelming state of panic if placed in this setting. Her realistic reactions, nervous breathing, and topnotch voice acting enhanced the spine-chilling surroundings. I think Grace and I would have benefitted from a non-drowsy anxiety pill or just ripping an occasional cig.
I had a lot of moments where I completed a stressful section or even just made 5 minutes of progress and needed to take a mental break. At times, I even saved the game, quit, and played a couple of games of Rocket League to help me calm down. Perhaps I should have played on the Casual Difficulty, but this type of stress only enhances the first playthrough. Ultimately, among the RE games I’ve played, Requiem would earn the bronze behind RE7 and RE2 Remake for scariest entries in the series.
As someone who plays these games with a resource conservationist mindset, adapting to the action sections was likely tougher at first for me than others. However, over time these sections grew on me. While I haven’t played many of the action-based RE games, I have watched them and recognize that this entry’s action side maintains the entertaining arcade-like play style of shooting first and asking questions later. I believe these sections separated themselves from other past game experiences by staying grounded as the secondary element of the game. It’s there to support the main horror section with its cathartic emotional release as you get to become a badass hatchet-wielding, dad-joke-telling, action hero that oozes machismo and easily decapitates the group of zombies that caused you to spend the past two hours cowering in fear.
When I first learned of Leon being selected as one of the main protagonists I was disappointed. I like Leon, but I just felt like his presence had become oversaturated and overpowered in recent mainline entries. I wanted one of the other Raccoon City girlies who hasn’t appeared in a non-remake entry to be the mentor or hero type here. Maybe I’ll get my wish with RE 10. Nevertheless, how can you not adore the always-charming, down-to-Earth Leon Kennedy? Especially considering most of his sections are completed rather quickly, so they’re both exhilarating and don’t overstay their welcome. Unlike from what I’ve seen from some in online discourse, I had a blast with Leon’s longest section. That was until the final third of game starts.
Without spoiling any that wasn’t released in trailers, I’ll admit I beamed with excitement as the game guided me on a walking tour down Raccoon City’s world famous Nostalgia Street. Unlike earlier moments in the game that echoed the feeling of past RE entries, this part was fan service served on a silver platter that made the presence of these past entries feel inescapable. I didn’t mind being surrounded by them, but when a historic enemy of yesteryear appeared, my mood shifted. After that person or thing arrives, Capcom hammers you over the head with recycled elements of nostalgia embodied in rehashed enemies and situations that were already conquered various times in the previous games. Most disturbingly, this trend continued with an unwarranted section, the worst part of the entire game, that was a shitty clone of my least favorite section in the entirety of the series.
Personally, I conjecture this issue coming down to three potential reasons centered around the same idea: they originally had two games in mind and wanted to merge them, they didn’t know how to end the first game (the first two-thirds), or they needed the last third to justify a $70 price tag.
The ending is on par with others in the series. As one may expect, it features an unrealistic, over-the-top boss fight that transpires in a clichéd setting.
I imagine many who have limited or no playing experience would find no issues with these sections of the game. However, as someone who has dedicated too many hours of his life replaying various games across this series and was also strongly encouraged by the heart exhibited in this game’s first ten or so hours, Requiem completely loses its originality during this last phase of the game. Since completing the game, I’ve read defenders’ comments state it’s a love letter to the past games. I detest that reasoning. I welcome homages and expect some overlap after thirty years of games. However, there’s no justification for a love letter costing seventy goddamn dollars.
For many, is it worth the price? No. Even as a fan of the series and most of the game I would have preferred just a $60 price tag before even playing it for the first time, but that’s your average cost of a new game these days. I think everyone should play it at some point, so if you are someone who is interested but willing to wait, I’d recommend adding it to your wish list and buying it on sale during the summer if possible. In the meantime, if you haven’t already played them, go try one of the other Resident Evil games like 2 Remake, 4 Remake or Biohazard (7) that heavily influenced Requiem.
I’m aware my expectations are higher than most, so I’ve struggled to evaluate a fair score for Requiem. While I can’t hand out a score resembling its numeric entry spot, I am willing to provide a good score that reflects both the joy it brought me and the core elements it borrowed from other entries in the series.