Resident Evil Requiem

Requiem starts with a lot of promise, seemingly striving to pave the way for the future of the series that it then seems too afraid to follow through on, but the bigger swings it had the chance to take only happen if a game is interested in real introspection about its legacy. Resident Evil is 30 years old now, and we’ve reached a point in this medium’s existence where a lot of franchises are celebrating long lives and considering what the next 30 years looks like. Requiem seems mostly content to think about the past and not give much thought to the future. But hey, the guns shoot good, the scares still hit, and Leon still looks good in a tight shirt. So maybe there’s no real need to make sweeping changes when the formula of multiple eras still goes down real smooth, even if it leaves me feeling a little bit empty.

Capcom isn’t out to radically reinvent its flagship series as it did with both Resident Evil 7 and Village. Instead, it plays like a coda to the original trilogy. It returns to the Raccoon City incident, both in its classic survival horror gameplay and story, to allow its characters to finally unpack decades of grief, regret, and survivor’s guilt. That’s what ultimately links Requiem’s two heroes together, even if their stories don’t totally fit together: Grace deals with loss on a micro level, while Leon deals with it on a macro one. Both face their fears for the hope that they get a chance to save even one life.

If you’re a seasoned survival horror geek, Resident Evil Requiem might still worm its way under your skin like a persistent centipede. The game is dark and startling, with a rich story that unfolds smoothly between the dual perspectives.