And here we are with the latest instalment
Resident Evil Requiem. It's quite the experience considering it combines the survival horror gameplay of the classic
Resident Evil games and
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard as well as the action horror gameplay from
Resident Evil 4 and
Resident Evil Village. But there's more to each one so in general it felt like a homage to every instalment in the franchise.
So where do we begin with this one. Capcom decided to revisit the
Resident Evil 6 model but combine them into one campaign that alternates between Grace Ashcroft, the daughter of
Resident Evil Outbreak character Alyssa Ashcroft, and Leon S. Kennedy, the main protagonist for
Resident Evil 2 & 4. Grace is the survival horror side while Leon is the action horror side of the gameplay setup. In general the premise works pretty well, though there is a pacing issue due to what happens in the story and I won't go over the % difference shown for those who wish to go in blind, but you can tell the shift when you reach the half-way point.
Grace's gameplay is a homage between
Resident Evil Remake,
Resident Evil 2 Remake and
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. The game recommends you play this in first-person mode (and in this game you can choose to switch between first and third-person at any point) and I went with that mode for her whole side of the story because it works really well especially amps up the horror too. The level design here is great, and definitely felt like reliving the Spencer Mansion and Police Station from the franchise. Grace is not an action hero so you have to rely on limited resources, barely any ammo for the most part and stealth through various segments as you look around each room. There's keys to unlock, items to combine, files to explore to solve puzzles and rewards like using antique coins to improve your health, storage and combat.
A new addition to the series is the ability to collect blood to craft items including a device that can instantly blow up zombies which on paper sounds rather random - but there's a reason why I reference
Resident Evil Remake in this game. Capcom have decided to bring back the crimson heads, or at least a version of them, in this game and it completely impacts how you proceed throughout the game including Leon's side. Simply put, your actions on how you interact with zombies can make your experience even harder if you aren't tactical enough and because of this, it makes the survival horror experience even more terrifying. If that wasn't scary enough, we also have a stalker enemy type but not in the same vein as Mr. X from
Resident Evil 2 Remake who was an annoying invincible being, so you can feel a sigh of relief as you navigate through the rooms, but I should note that the zombies are smarter than usual and will follow you if you're close to them.
Capcom also introduced two versions of the standard difficulty - modern mode allows you to save as many times as you would like, which was introduced from
Resident Evil 4 onwards. And classic mode which brings back ink ribbons for Grace's gameplay. For newcomers I do recommend going with modern mode so that you can learn how to navigate around and experience the horror at your own pace before revisiting the game on a more challenging format. Classic mode doesn't impact Leon's gameplay as far as I know.
I will admit that I did use guides to help support my progression for the survival horror instalments of
Resident Evil, but this is the first time that I wanted to experienced it going through blind and I was very happy with how I managed to progress. Because I had played the previous games I knew what I had to do in terms of managing my items and what to expect, which I reckon helped support my progression throughout
Resident Evil Requiem. The puzzles were also pretty simple and they primarily rely on you locating files that include the solution which aren't hard to find, though I wish they had included the colour-coding of the rooms like the previous games because that would have helped on whether I found everything or not.
Leon's gameplay is a homage to
Resident Evil 4 Remake and
Resident Evil Village. Right away you can bitch slap zombies with an axe that can instantly be repaired without issue, so the whole knife concept from the former is not an issue here. He also has a big suitcase that allows him to use dozens of weapons and hold tons of items. Over the course of the game you can also unlock new weapons and upgrade the gear so that the power, stability and range improves which you'll need when dealing with tons of enemies in your way.
During combat Leon can respond to enemies with melee attack prompts and sometimes insta-kill enemies from behind with his axe which is very rewarding, plus parrying also returns if you can time them correctly. His one-liners return and some of them were pretty funny, which I reckon is his way of coping with the events of
Resident Evil 2 now that I think about it. Honestly I will say that as much as I love Leon's combat gameplay (once you get used to the aiming controls), the level design felt a bit too spacious when compared to Grace's which is a shame, though in the context of the moment it does make sense. I did enjoy the journey but there could have been more with what was on offer.
Resident Evil Requiem's story was very good. Grace is the highlight of the game, she's an interesting introvert and her reactions make complete sense in the horrors that she experiences and her voice actress did such a great job. The story offers a lot of mystery, and some interesting takes to the lore of the franchise that will no doubt affect the future instalments. One moment also reminded me of
Code: Veronica which I won't spoil. I will say though that without spoiling it there is one character that appears who isn't as well fleshed out as I had hoped, which is annoying because their visual appearance and voice work was very good too. The final act (this game's equivalent to the classic countdown timer of the previous games) isn't as epic as I had hoped but there's a lot of emotional beats that are really great and the ending itself I was happy with.
Upon reflection, I do think the game probably would have benefited from having Grace and Leon's gameplays split up as separate campaigns than switching back and forth. Sure with how its structured it would break the pacing, but I do think it would make replayability a lot better. Plus we haven't had a model like the classic
Resident Evil Trilogy and
Resident Evil 6 in a long time, so if Capcom does want to bring back the two genres for the next instalment I think that would be the better approach.
Despite some criticisms,
Resident Evil Requiem is still an amazing addition to the franchise and Capcom did a fantastic job with the merging of the two genres. It felt like a love-letter to the whole franchise and adds more intrigue to what they could do next. My playtime for my Standard (Modern) difficulty playthrough was 11 hours 29 minutes and almost 100 saves mostly due to Grace's gameplay. And yes, much like the previous games, you can finish the game in under 4 hours if you know the crit-route which is insane. There's no VR support unfortunately but I hope they include it as it would be a fun addition (they did make it work with
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard,
Resident Evil Village and
Resident Evil 4 Remake).
