Resident Evil Requiem Review: This Is How You Do AAA Horror
Grace's first-person terror and Leon's third-person action, stitched into one game. Our resident Resident Evil superfan calls it the best in the series.
Ace took a full week off work for Resident Evil Requiem, beat it in two days, then didn't know what to do with himself and played through every remake in the series instead. We've never seen him more hyped for a release. Ryan grew up with the originals at friends' houses. Josh dips in and out of the series and admits the lore of viruses, parasites and mold has always lost him. (Ace explained it on the show. It didn't help.)
The verdict is unanimous anyway: if you're even a little curious about Requiem, go play it.
Two heroes, two perspectives
Requiem's big idea is splitting the game between two characters and two styles:
- Grace Ashcroft, a brand-new character, is an FBI analyst who wakes up strapped upside down to a gurney while it drains her blood. She's played in first person and leans into stealth, scarce resources and pure survival horror.
- Leon S. Kennedy, older, creakier and as cool as ever, is played in third person, and it's an action game: shotguns, axe parries, and stomping zombies' heads into the wall.
If I'm creeping around that basement trying to find the power switches and down from the ceiling comes a monster, and I'm in first person and I turn around and there she is... completely different experience.
(You can swap either character's camera in the settings, but play it the way it's set by default.)
The tonal whiplash is the point. Just as the creeping starts to feel routine, you're Leon, ripping through enemies. Just as the action starts to blur together, you're back in the dark with Grace. The two stories overlap too. Leon idly spots a helicopter, and you know exactly what Grace went through to get it there.
Grace is the star
Some people online complained about Grace's panicked breathing in the early hours. Our take: that's what you'd be doing. She's an everyday person thrown into a nightmare, which makes her far more relatable than the series' grizzled veterans. And she grows. When she first fires her handgun, it shakes in her hands and kicks hard. By the end she handles it like a pro, and the animations show the change.
This is one of the few shining examples of AAA horror. I played this game lights out, headphones on, every single time.
Josh's favorite parts were the Grace sections, and Ryan agrees they're special. The audio design deserves its own award. You hear something a few rooms away and can't tell if it's ahead of you, behind you or coming for you. And the zombies have personalities, which somehow makes them scarier.
Leon is the fun
Ace leans Leon, if he has to choose, because of the combat. Shoot a zombie's legs to stagger it and crush its head against a wall with your heel. Pull your gun just as you're about to be hit for a point-blank gun parry, a slick animation cancel that works with any weapon. And the axe parries are, in Ace's word, nasty. There's also an over-the-top dirt bike sequence where Leon leaps off a toppled skyscraper and just keeps riding, and Ryan loved every ridiculous second of it.
Classic Resident Evil touches
The little things are all here: the slow-spinning item inspection, the light puzzles, hidden secrets (analyze a certain severed hand in the blood analyzer and see what it opens up), and a few surprise cameos for longtime fans. It all connects back to Leon's origins in Resident Evil 2, which is why Ace says to play the RE2 remake first if you can.
The gripes
- Length for the price. It's about 14 hours real time for $70. The in-game clock said 9 for Josh because it doesn't count cut scenes. (Don't skip the cut scenes.)
- One story moment. Josh and Ryan couldn't buy one big decision Grace makes partway through. We'll leave it there. (The episode's spoiler section gets into it.)
The VGP take
This is why games cost $70. This game was worth $70 to me.
Ace gave it a 9.8 and calls it his favorite Resident Evil ever, made for a modern audience and a love letter to the whole franchise. Ryan gave it a 9.2, an all-timer and far and away his favorite in the series. Josh gave it a 9.1, impressed by how masterfully the whole thing is presented. With seven, eight and now nine, Resident Evil has pulled off one of the best turnarounds in gaming.
Lights off, headphones on. This one's a must-play.