Review
Played on: Xbox Series X
Released: 2026
Resident Evil is a franchise with on a long journey behind it, far too long to cover here, but Requiem is to my knowledge the ninth instalment. Just without a numeric value in the title and instead a nod to the name of Leon's big gun. Pun, intended?
The avoidance of using a nine in the title is perhaps to distance itself from the tightly connected story of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil Village, although the latter lacked a numeric value too. Requiem focuses in on two main characters for a short and tight experience and doesn't really require prior knowledge to enjoy, although there are references throughout for the fans. If you're curious about other RE titles though, check out my reviews here.
While RE7 aimed in on a specific, slower paced, first-person horror sensation, RE8 veered dangerously into the lane of trying to cover too much ground and horror genres. I'm glad to see RE9 narrow that down again, pretty much dividing the game into two distinct gameplay styles; horror and action.
With such a legacy and many titles to compare with, does RE9 deliver to its high praises?
Let's axe down some zombies and take a closer look!
First off, man this game is gory. Like seriously bloody and extremely violent. Take for instance one of Leon's early encounters with a chainsaw wielding zombie, of which he has a history with, at resting ward; cutting down everything surrounding him, including other zombies. The aftermath after taking him down, and a bunch of his undead friends, is a room completely covered in blood from roof to floor, including walls and furniture. Cutscenes too, depict some truly nasty stuff. Splatter horror indeed.
Interestingly, the story reaches all the way back in Resident Evil lore to the multiplayer, online based, RE Outbreak. Remember those titles from the later days of the PlayStation 2? Capcom have used Alyssa Ashcroft from RE Outbreak #File 2, specifically, who is the mother to the main character Grace in Requiem. It's a cool nod far back to lesser-known characters in the franchise.
Grace is working as an FBI investigator and is, cold heartedly, tasked by her boss to investigate the abandoned hotel where her mother was killed. As she delves into her past and recalls the fire where her mother died, she is captured by a mysterious, and gruesome looking, ex-Umbrella scientist named Victor Gideon and taken to Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Centre. A classically inspired building, keeping to the heritage of using grand mansions as the backdrop of the series!
This is the place where the main two characters' paths cross; Leon is on his way to investigate the same hotel and witnesses Grace being kidnapped by Victor. Thus, they both end at the vintage Care Centre. This is also where you begin to understand the duality of the gameplay; Grace is survival horror, set in the style which RE7 raised a high bar, while Leon is action focused, think splatter horror with lots of weapons inspired by RE4.
This dynamic of alternating between the two characters at various story points, allowing the player to feel in the intensity of surviving pure horror and then being able to sit back shoot down lots of enemies, makes Requiem am incredibly smart game. It will please both sides of the franchise, bringing back the horrors of RE7 and RE8 with Grace, while Leon is a continuation of his confident and cocky attitude from RE4; shoot, kick and melee zombies while throwing out snarky one-liners.
With Grace being a young woman and Leon aged to his fifties, it helps bring variation to their age, expertise and dialogue. However, it fumbles somewhat in that process; while it obviously has a western design and voice overs, the appearance of Grace and Leon are clearly Japanese styled and a tad cliche. Grace is super fragile, whines a lot and is scared in a juvenile manner, while Leon is the overly choreographed, flipping his hair, with a grumpy attitude. It's like an anime with a schoolgirl and a boy band character, disguised by western characters.
It’s a little distracting, but it works fine. I just wish they’d toned down those quirky personalities in favour of matured mannerism. Both characters grow on you though, and the key here is their diversity in personalities and appearance.
When it comes to gameplay, we're treated to the same smooth and satisfactory game mechanics of the many recent RE titles. There's a better focus on making melee stronger here and using it wisely to conserve ammo and kill off enemies quickly.
Grace's part is about sneaking, using distractions and avoiding direct conflict. Her ammo is extremely limited and her aim is nervous. However, Grace has another ability to aid her. She can take blood samples from dead enemies and turn them into various injections. Be it permanent health or accuracy boosts, or instant kill poison for zombies.
In addition, she can craft more traditional items by combining scrap metal and blood to make ammo. It's a neat way of rewarding thorough exploring, even though you're afraid to do unnecessary detours past zombies.
Playing Leon is the complete opposite, it's all about all about guns blazing and killing as many zombies as possible. Dead enemies will leave ammo and about halfway, when you arrive at Raccoon City, there's an open world styled area which Leon receives a kill point wristband. These kill points will allow you to upgrade and buy weaponry from special item boxes.
I found the upgrade system a little large in its scope in comparison with the short length of a playthrough, so you should try to kill as many zombies as possible to rack up points. On further playthrough the points begin counting from the very first time you play Leon at least, but still, you need to really narrow down what to upgrade.
New to Requiem is the sheer variety in zombies; not only in their appearance, but they all seem to be mimicking their earlier life as they stumble about, partially doing what they used to as humans. Resulting in unpredictable movement, walking speeds and aggression. Don't get me started on the reawakening or singing zombies, let's just say you're in for a distinct first impression!
A little too often for my liking the unpredictability connected to spawning of enemies though. Areas you felt had been cleared and are clearly empty, only to return a little later to see the game going out of its way of screwing you over by throwing in a couple of zombies behind you. It's a mechanic I wasn't overly happy with. Some situations are completely impossible to predict as such., I know it’s intentional to keep you at your toes, but it also feels a little cheap.
While the story is unique and standalone, there's also a heritage from RE7 and RE8 here when it comes to viewing options. The default is playing Grace in first person to give a more immersive horror sensation, while Leon is in third person to cater for a better view of the fast action. You can change between first and third person for any of the two characters as you please, though.
There's no doubt that first person is far more creepy as you're never able to look around corners before walking around them, yet with such a strong focus on the main characters designs it feels like a game made to show off both Grace and Leon in third person. I feel Capcom have listened a bit too much to the fanbase and can't decide.
Continuing with its excellent RE Engine, Capcom once again delivers a 60fps and stunning visual experience to the franchise. At this point in the console generation, with engine's multiple titles behind it, it's also an expected visual quality. There's nothing here that stands out much more than the last RE titles and it’s most comparable in locations and style to the Resident Evil 4 remake, also featuring Leon.
The most graphics splendour scene is the busy city street from the opening level right at the beginning. Featuring Grace wandering beneath a railway bridge, down a busy, rainy drenched street with lots of people walking about, shop windows and light sources from cars. It's probably the most visually awe-inspiring moment of the entire game, but it's just a short sequence and extremely limited one in scope, thus appearing more advanced visually.
The Rodes Hill care centre is also beautiful, with a grand main hall and key vintage areas like a dining hall, a parlour and even an elegant bar room. As well as creepy hospital wards, experiment rooms and gritty kitchen. There's a lot of finesse to the smaller detail too, with rooms crowded with furniture and items. Very pretty, yet also expected for limited indoor spaces in games.
Worth mentioning here is the small lab right at the tail end of Rhodes Hill, beneath the helicopter port, which has a creepy and old-school vibe to it but lasts extremely brief and begs for more rooms and playtime.
The latter half of the game shifts tone to a post-apocalyptic Raccoon City, which on paper I was excited about, but the result is a highly unoriginal set of mundane apartments and a dusty, unappealing colour tone. There's just a grey dust laying on everything and repetitive, empty, apartment building areas including overused locations like parking lots and factory halls. There's a bonus for daring to open these areas up with a portioned free roaming appeal, giving players a taste of what a free roaming Resident Evil might be. But it’s disappointingly visualised and far too safe as an experimental gameplay style.
Equally disappointing, with the exception of the creepy orphanage section, is the last portion set in Umbrellas laboratory; sporting extremely high-tech, sterile white rooms which all look the same and like something from a sci-fi spaceship. Being hidden under Raccoon City for years on end, it begs to have rather been a worn down, antiquated laboratory instead. It would've made much creepier and grounded as a real looking location.
That said, the lickers do an excellent job of retaining the horror in the laboratory area and are the star of the show for this otherwise sterile environment.
With such a huge shift in visuals and tone from the great first half to such a mundane and sterile second half, I'm torn in my experience. This goes for how the plot develops too. First half is intriguing and beautifully executed with a fantastic balance of horror and action, while the latter half just crumbles into generic zombie shooting in a dusty city with Leon, basically leaving Grace unused for hours, shifts a little back to horror in sterile looking labs, then finalises into a stereotypical boss fight with tentacles as the end.
Music has a few homages to the older RE titles sprinkled in at just the right moments, while voice acting is great with Nick Apostolides returning from the RE2 & RE4 remakes to do a great version of Leon. Grace is given a little stuttering by her voice actress Angela Sant'Albano, giving the character a unique touch. My gripe here is the overly shy personality to Grace and her moaning noises as you walk around. Isn't she an FBI agent? Equally, Leon makes grating grunting noises all the time while wandering about.
Overall, the first part is a great entry to the series, but I question the hype from tons of casual players perhaps overlooking the last half?! People that enjoy just shooting stuff will probably like the Leon part in Raccoon City, but then again; there are lots of shooters that cater better for this experience.
So, I’m left with this; the first half is by far the strongest and absolutely the brilliance it's praised for, with an equally divided playtime and significance of both main characters and gameplay style, but the latter half is shockingly average and reverts to cliches and generic design. Even the return to the RPD police station in Raccoon City feels underwhelming after your first seconds of awe disappears and you're just left wandering a generic, crumbled building.
As such, my score for this title is extremely torn. The first half is, without doubt, excellent in my book, but the second half drops down to complete averageness, saved only by some tense Licker moments.
While I praise modern titles that are shorter in their playthroughs, Requiem clocks in at the ten-hour mark, I wish there had been more of those hours spent like the first half and not the latter. It would've made for a more satisfactory usage of better environments and atmosphere.
I want it to be like the first part throughout, but it isn't. As such, it's a solid entry lacking the overall design direction to be excellent as a whole.
