I went into Resident Evil Requiem nervous. I’ve always loved the Resident Evil world and storyline, but horror is also the one genre I tend to avoid, which is why I’ve spent years watching playthroughs instead of finishing the games myself. That’s what makes Requiem such a surprise for me. After feeling like Resident Evil Village leaned away from the kind of fear the older games nailed, Requiem feels like a love letter to the fans, and somehow it helped me find beauty in fear. It blends dread and action into something that feels both fresh and deeply nostalgic.

This is a full review of Resident Evil Requiem, so expect spoilers.

Story

Premise: The story kicks off with FBI reporter Grace Ashcroft investigating a string of mysterious deaths tied to an infection. Her work brings her to a place that already carries trauma, the very hotel where her mother was murdered. From there, the case stops feeling like “just a job” and turns into something deeply personal. Running alongside Grace’s investigation is Leon Kennedy’s storyline. Leon is searching for Dr. Gideon, and it becomes clear this isn’t only about solving a case. It is about Leon himself, because he is infected with the same disease Grace is trying to understand.

Characters: The two leads are Grace Ashcroft and Leon Kennedy, and they are designed to represent two different versions of Resident Evil. Grace is timid, quiet, and constantly vulnerable, which makes her sections feel like true survival horror. Leon is the fan-favourite return, but with a sickness hanging over him that makes you genuinely uneasy about where his story is going. Leon’s side is the action fantasy. It is the part where you get to breathe, go loud, and enjoy being powerful.

Pacing and structure: The pacing constantly switches between slow dread and high-pressure action depending on who you’re playing. Grace’s horror sections are tense and methodical. You creep forward, second-guess corners, and play carefully because mistakes feel expensive. A death means you are back at your previous save, and with Grace that threat always feels real. Leon sits on the opposite end of the spectrum. He feels almost untouchable most of the time. The odds of Leon dying felt very slim because he is equipped to dismantle almost everything in his way, and he stays well-equipped throughout. Structurally, it feels like the first half leans heavily into Grace, with the second half leaning into Leon. You do switch between them, but I found the experience depended a lot on playstyle. In my case, I pushed through the hardest parts as Grace without knowing that I would come back later as Leon and flatten the area so in that section I did not have much to do as Leon.

Tone: The tone is exactly what it promises: horror with Grace, action with Leon. The game doesn’t fully pick one lane. It commits to both and lets the character you are controlling determine the mood. The overarching tone however is one of dread and uncertainty.

Payoff and endings: The ending was genuinely satisfying, and the fact that both endings landed made it even better. The ending I chose first, not releasing Elpis, was rough as a fan. Leon dies, Grace escapes, and you are left with that heavy feeling that she survived but couldn’t save him. Releasing Elpis gives you the more hopeful outcome: Leon is freed from the infection, you find a cure for what is happening, Leon gets one last fight against the big bad, and then both characters are rescued by Chris Redfield’s elite operations team. And because it’s Resident Evil, it still ends with a sharp cliffhanger: a mercenary group wipes out the BSAA and takes something from the wreckage of the ark potentially another virus???

Gameplay

At its core, Resident Evil Requiem is survival horror in the purest sense: explore, scavenge, manage limited resources, and try not to get killed. With Grace Ashcroft, the loop leans into stealth and avoidance, but crafting keeps you from feeling powerless, letting you create tools that can swing fights in your favour, especially things like the hemolytic injector which can basically one-shot most enemies (outside of certain stronger threats where running is the only real option). Leon’s sections flip the loop into pure action, and it actually feels rewarding to clear enemies because killing zombies gives you rewards that feed into upgrades for you and your gear, so fighting doesn’t feel pointless compared to just sprinting past everything. Crafting still works well across both characters, and it feels like more than just picking up ammo because you are choosing what to build based on how you want to play, with enough materials to feel capable without it ever becoming infinite, though you still need to explore for blood and supplies to maintain that edge. I also appreciated how much the game respected my time on Standard (Modern), since it lets you save whenever you want, which suited my playstyle and made the tension feel fair instead of punishing.

Combat and Enemies

Combat in Resident Evil Requiem works because it feels completely different depending on who you are playing. With Grace, your weapon options are limited, usually a pistol and scarce ammo, so encounters feel heavier, and while you can make things much easier by playing stealthy and using the hemolytic injector to delete enemies, she struggles more with crowds or enemies you cannot reliably sneak up on. Leon flips the game into full action, with a huge range of weapons like pistols, shotguns, machine guns, sniper weapons, an RPG, and the Requiem weapon, and they all feel great, with my favourites being the sniper-style guns because they can practically one-shot most standard enemies, even if some tougher enemies still soak up an almost insane amount of damage. Boss fights stay simple but satisfying, mostly about shooting weak points and parrying attacks, and the overall balance feels fair: Grace’s combat keeps tension high because you are not always perfectly equipped, while Leon is built to dominate, and the game backs that up by giving you enough ammo and resources that even after a boss, you quickly feel stocked again in the next area.

Level Design and Exploration

The level design and exploration in Resident Evil Requiem is excellent. It gives you a clear main objective, but it rarely feels like you move toward it in a straight line. Instead, the game encourages that classic Resident Evil rhythm of backtracking, unlocking doors, and finding the right items to progress, and it never felt frustrating because the spaces are built to support it. I also loved that when you double back, the game often spikes the pressure by respawning enemies or making them stronger, even if you cleared the path earlier, which keeps exploration from turning into a safe victory lap. The puzzles fit that same sweet spot too: easy enough to understand but still satisfying to solve, and the Easter eggs sprinkled throughout add a constant layer of nostalgia. The locations themselves are a big part of why exploring feels so good. Moving through the hotel, the medical center, Raccoon City, the police department, and the underground areas felt purposeful, and each chapter used its space well whether you were playing as Grace or Leon. I also got strong FromSoftware vibes from the way most doors are locked and you have to loop around to open shortcuts, which worked perfectly with how I play games. It genuinely felt like the save room was your bonfire, and you were always hunting for the next shortcut to make your route safer and faster. A standout for me was the medical center basement, where the battery mechanic forces you to keep certain rooms lit so you can safely navigate back to your save point, which added a really cool layer of tension and planning.

Atmosphere and Audio

The atmosphere and presentation in Resident Evil Requiem genuinely blew me away, and I say that as someone who is not even a horror connoisseur. In Grace’s sections, everything works together, lighting, spacing, environment detail, and that constant sense that danger is just off-screen, to create horror that feels earned rather than forced. Leon’s areas are less “scary” in the traditional sense, but they still feel wrong in the best way, like a decrepit, dystopian world where something is always off even when you are not actively afraid. The gore and visual continuity are also a standout. Blood splatter persists even when you switch characters, so Leon can walk into a room Grace was in earlier and see the aftermath of her hemolytic injector turning enemies into a mess. Environmental storytelling is strong too, with puzzles and secrets making the spaces feel lived-in, and the return to places like the Raccoon City police department hits hard with nostalgia while also feeling like it is pushing Leon’s “redemption” arc, the idea that he could not save Raccoon City back then, but now he has another chance. More than anything, the variety of locations makes the game feel deeply Resident Evil, with each area having its own identity, mood, and flavour of tension. The audio design is just as important, and it is one of the reasons the horror lands so well. Grace’s anxious breathing can get a bit tiring at first, but over time you actually notice it changing, she breathes less, sounds steadier, and you can hear her becoming more in control as her goal becomes clearer. Leon’s sickness is also communicated brilliantly through both sound and visuals: the occasional coughing, the way the screen treatment and colours shift as he worsens, it all adds to that uneasy feeling that something is happening to him. The scare style is exactly what works for me, because the music and audio cues build dread rather than relying on cheap shocks. The stalker-type enemy is a great example: hearing the chains of the girl is scarier than not knowing where she is, because the sound tells you she is close and it forces you into panic decisions. And when the game does use a jump, it feels telegraphed and well-placed, not random or lazy, which kept the fear intense without ever feeling cheap.

Performance and Accessibility

On the performance and polish side, I had a smooth experience from start to finish. I’m on a pretty beefy PC (Ryzen i9 and an RTX 5070 Ti), so I personally didn’t run into any frame drops, stutters, or stability issues at all, and from what I’ve seen, the game also seems to run well even on mid-range setups if you drop settings. In terms of accessibility and quality of life, it has the modern essentials: options like motion blur toggles, colourblind settings, and general visual tweaks that make it easy to tailor to your comfort, and overall the game feels well-built and player-friendly. The only real gripe I had was a camera control mechanic on controller, the quick 180 turn (pulling the left stick down and pressing B). It felt completely unnecessary, I never needed it in a real situation, and it honestly just felt awkward and “gross” to use, like the idea of dodge-rolling in first person. Aside from that, aiming and general handling felt good, and while there is not much in the way of aim assist, it never felt unfair, just a case of getting comfortable with the weapons and landing your shots.

Replay Value

Replay value in Resident Evil Requiem is definitely there, even if it’s not something I personally feel pulled to do. Once you finish the game, it opens up a harder difficulty mode for anyone who enjoys suffering, and there’s a solid bonus/unlock system that rewards extra time spent completing challenges. Those challenges feed into bonus credits that let you unlock art, character models, and more meaningful stuff like infinite ammo, which can completely change how you approach a second run and just let you have fun. There are also plenty of collectibles, extra story bits, and puzzles that make revisiting areas worthwhile. For me though, I’m usually a one-and-done player with story games. I had my experience, I loved it, and I’m satisfied, but if I ever decided to go for 100% I could see myself doing it because the game is fun enough to justify the grind, even if some of the challenges (like finishing in four hours or running without healing) sound more stressful than enjoyable.

Final Thoughts

Final thoughts: from the start, it’s obvious I loved Resident Evil Requiem. The best way I can sum it up is just: wow. It was an amazing experience, and it hit me in a way I didn’t expect, especially because horror isn’t usually my thing. In fact, my favourite part was how uncomfortable the horror made me feel, because that discomfort made me genuinely look forward to Leon’s sections where I could finally breathe and just blow things up. But then that constant thought of “Grace is coming back soon” kept the tension alive even during the action, and that push and pull between dread and release is what made the game so special for me. I also loved Grace’s progression, watching her go from feeling like a weakling to slowly gaining the tools and confidence to deal with threats that would have destroyed her earlier. Add to that a story that feels packed with lore (both subtle background detail and big, direct moments), and it all lands. For me, it’s a 10/10.