Review: Resident Evil Requiem The Silicon Sasquatch Podcast

So we’ve got a ninth Resident Evil now. The ninth entry in just about any series often represents a long-accumulated but little-addressed identity crisis: how do we make this feel meaningful still?

There aren’t a lot of success stories to draw upon. Final Fantasy went delving for nostalgia and came up with mere pastiche with its much-beloved, but in my opinion emotionally hollow, ninth entry. Mega Man 9 went all the way back to the visual style and limitations of its 8-bit ancestors, delivering a game that felt authentic but ultimately unnecessary. Dragon Quest IX aimed for some creative online features but wound up delivering another rote Dragon Quest, one that even fans of the series, the people who kinda just — said with love! — want more Dragon Quest, don’t hold in high esteem.

With Resident Evil Requiem, Capcom decided to have it both ways: a game for fans of every era of Resident Evil, somehow all wrapped up into a single game. It’s kind of a risky proposition — didn’t they try that with the much-maligned Resident Evil 6? — but this time they delivered a game that, at its best moments, is a truly excellent ride. And at its worst moments? Well, it’s still all right, but it lacks the courage to follow through on its telegraphed intentions and close the book on a bygone era.

We’ve got to start with the game’s structure and presentation. Like many games in the Resident Evil series, Requiem starts out quite scary. You’re alone, vulnerable, under-resourced, and in an unfamiliar labyrinth full of untold horrors, and it’s going to take a lot of caution and courage to make it through. By the second half, though, we’ve largely abandoned that sense of powerlessness for a merely creepy action power fantasy.

This is by design, and the game communicates this intention to the player through its recommendation about which camera system to use. Before playing, you’re instructed to choose a default camera view — first- or third-person — for the two playable characters, Grace Ashcroft and Leon Kennedy. Grace’s sections are designed for first-person, much like Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil Village; they lean heavily into themes of vulnerability and terror, and they’re best experienced in first-person for maximum impact. Leon’s sections, on the other hand, are more action-themed and far less scary. You can mix and match as you like, but I chose to follow the game’s recommendations: give me horror when you’ve got horror to give, and give me stupid action when that’s what’s on the menu.

We’re mostly in Grace’s shoes for the first half. We’re treated to, yes, another mansion to explore, but one that is immaculately designed and populated with a delightfully creepy host of undead creatures to disable or flee from. The pacing is, in my view, nearly perfect: it’s taut, exhilarating, and interspersed with quiet victories and sinking terror in equal measure.

The game swaps between player characters frequently in the first half of the game, which allows it to convey even larger tonal shifts to the player than in the series’ earlier games. I remember a palpable relief when I saw a cutscene starring Leon begin to play just after finishing a stressful Grace sequence, knowing I’d get a hit of catharsis while I run-and-gun some zombies down. The inverse also applies: just as my victory lap with Leon comes to an end, I’m thrust back into fresh horrors as the far-less-powerful Grace.

For the first half of the game, I think this all works marvelously. My sense was that this game was trying to grapple with the very real challenge of being the ninth entry in a long-running series, one with sky-high expectations placed upon it. The first-person games are critically beloved, but the intense horror of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was a step beyond anything from prior games, and its hard commitment to a first-person perspective drove some fans away.

So now we have a Resident Evil for everyone. Play it all in third-person if you like! It’s up to you! From an accessibility standpoint, I think that’s lovely. From a game design standpoint, however, it becomes apparent that this is a particularly unbalanced experience, even when compared to the rest of the series.