Resident Evil Requiem is the 9th instalment of gaming’s most famous survival-horror franchise and a game I was practically destined to play. My surname is Requiem, Resident Evil 4 is my favorite game, it all fits together like the pieces of a bizarre puzzle you’d find in a spooky mansion filled with monsters. All jokes aside, Resident Evil Requiem was a game I had my eye on since it was first announced not only because I’m a fan of the series, but the fact that the director of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Koshi Nakanishi, would be returning to the director’s chair. Though I have not formally reviewed Resident Evil 7: Biohazard yet I will say it is a game I enjoyed so I was looking forward to seeing what RE7’s creative minds could do with a new iteration.

Resident Evil Requiem features 2 protagonists, the new heroine Grace Ashcroft and the series veteran Leon S. Kennedy, and takes place 26 years after the Raccoon City outbreak, but the survivors of the incident are starting to die off from a mysterious new ailment. Grace is an FBI analyst tasked with investigating these deaths, but when she is sent to examine a new body that turned up at the Wrenwood Hotel, same hotel where her mother was murdered 8 years prior, she is kidnapped by Dr. Victor Gideon, a mad scientist who believes Grace is the key to something called “Elpis”. Leon witnesses Dr. Gideon leaving the hotel during his own investigation and gives chase, but as a Raccoon City survivor himself Leon’s body is slowly succumbing to the strange sickness at the root of the matter.

Resident Evil Requiem plays it very safe in the story department, for better and for worse. Characters trapped in isolated locations surrounded by monsters wrapped up in corporate conspiracies and government espionage is the standard in this franchise, but it’s still largely enjoyable from start to finish. That being said, RE9 leans heavily on characters, locations, and plot points from previous games so at times I found myself questioning whether my enjoyment was due to the fact I was seeing a bunch of stuff from games I previously enjoyed rather than the merits of the game I was actually playing. I’m not going to complain about Leon coming back, because he’s one of the best characters in the entire franchise, and I do think there’s merit in exploring the ruins of Raccoon City, but did we really need to resurrect the T-103 for a boss fight? The cynic in me just can’t help but feel every cute call-back wastes an opportunity to do something more creative.

As for what’s actually new in RE9, I personally found a lot to like. Grace being an easily frightened introvert is an interesting departure from the typical Resident Evil protagonist, but it’s a good match for a horror game. That being said, I do think Grace’s panicked screaming and stuttering sometimes comes off as the game telling you how to feel when something scary happens rather than letting the situation speak for itself. Dr. Gideon was rather effective as an antagonist with his intimidating physical stature mixing creativity with his soft-spoken psychopathy. If anything holds Victor back it’s that he has to share the second half of the game with a far less interesting antagonist.

In the presentation department, Resident Evil Requiem’s visuals are easily the star of the show. Character models are highly detailed and the monsters are delightfully grotesque. The environments are eerie, unsettling, and packed with detail, which is helped in no small part by moody lighting and intense music. The voice acting is also quite strong, not as endearingly campy as the older games, but it still has its charming moments nonetheless. Be warned however, as the amount of blood and gore present in the game is a little excessive even by Resident Evil standards so proceed with caution if that kind of thing makes your stomach churn.

Before the gameplay in Resident Evil Requiem can be properly discussed I need to explain how the game handles perspective. One of RE9’s most unique features is the ability to choose whether the camera is first person or third person at any time. The game suggests first person perspective for a more horror-focused experience and third person perspective for a more action-oriented experience. This is an important distinction to make as the game will strongly recommend first person be used while playing as Grace and third person be used while playing Leon. Considering trust in the game’s director was a large factor in my decision to play RE9 at all I decided for my first run-through I would play the game “as intended” so to speak, but since I generally prefer third person games I imagine many of my future revisits will be played entirely from that perspective.

For the first half of Resident Evil Requiem the player primarily plays as Grace as she attempts to escape from the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center. Grace is one of the most physically weak main characters in the entire series and the amount of resources she has access to is very limited so confronting monsters head on as Grace is almost always a bad idea. Fortunately for Grace, many of the zombies infesting the care center have retained tiny fragments of their old routines, such as the chef who continues to chop up ingredients in the kitchen, so she can take advantage of these behaviors to sneak by undetected. Between the creepy enemies, foreboding setting, limited resources, and emphasis on stealth, Grace’s half of RE9 does everything in its power to be the scariest game it can be and to that end it succeeds with flying colors in my opinion.

In the second half of Resident Evil Requiem the player primarily plays as Leon as he explores the ruins of Raccoon City. Leon’s training as a special agent and decades of experience fighting monsters makes him one of the most capable heroes in the franchise with access to a variety of powerful weapons and enough resources to use all of them quite liberally. Leon’s greatest weapon of all however is his new axe which he can use to parry incoming attacks and brutally execute enemies while they’re down. The player still needs to have good positioning to avoid taking too much damage and good aim to make all that ammunition last, but overall playing as Leon is a total power trip compared to Grace and is definitely going to be many people’s favorite part of the game.

Whether you’re playing as Grace or Leon however, there is one big asterisk to all of the praise I just gave to both of them and if you’ve played any Resident Evil game from the past decade you know exactly what it is: Yellow Paint. Capcom has once again decided to make sure any and all interactable objects in the environment must have a bright shade of yellow incorporated somewhere in its design to reduce the possibility of anyone not named Darksydephil failing to understand they can get more items or solve a puzzle with said object. To be fair to Capcom, they are definitely trying to make the yellow’s inclusion more natural with things like yellow barcode stickers for breakable crates, but things like every fire escape ladder in Raccoon City being tied up with yellow rope is ridiculously insulting to the player’s intelligence. If Capcom really wants to improve this design choice, all they have to do is tie the first ladder with yellow rope then trust the player to understand they can interact with all subsequent ladders tied with similar ropes that have more natural looking colors.

As for my perspective as a Catholic on Resident Evil Requiem, the game actually gives me the perfect opportunity to articulate why I love Resident Evil to all the family and friends who are perplexed by my enthusiasm for it. Resident Evil is a series that frequently depicts horrifying monsters, depraved villains, bloody violence, and RE9 just might be the worst offender of them all in every way. Underneath all that wretchedness however, is a series about hope, because Resident Evil games always have triumphant endings where the heroes save the day and the monsters die in a big explosion. RE9’s ending in particular is so hopeful they could realistically resolve the series’ conflict for good in the next game if they really wanted to, but if the series must linger on in perpetuity at least it has characters like Leon and Grace who will undoubtedly come back to put the undead back in the ground.

Stories of hope like those found in the Resident Evil series resonate with so many people because everyone knows on some level that having hope against all odds is the only reason anyone survives in this fallen world. Of course the greatest hope of all can be found in our Lord Jesus Christ who shows us that there is hope beyond even death itself. So no matter how bad our economic prospects, or how many wars engulf the world, or how many powerful people partake in unspeakable conspiracies, we will always have hope that in the end God will give us the justice we so desperately desire.

So did Resident Evil Requiem live up to the hype? Well I certainly enjoyed my time playing it, but I also didn’t go into it thinking it had any chance to dethrone RE4 so by all counts I would say yes, the game did live up to my expectations. If you love Resident Evil you’ll probably have a good time with RE9 as well, but if you’re still new to the series I would recommend playing games like RE4 and RE7 so you can better appreciate the things RE9 does well and maybe a few things it stumbles over. With the case closed on Resident Evil Requiem, I better take a big old break to ensure I don’t decompose into a zombie myself. Till we meet again, stay safe and stay hopeful.

About Gaius Requiem