WARNING CONTAINS SPOILER IMAGES AND DESCRIPTIONS.
Ever since the franchise’s revival back in 2017 with Resident Evil 7: Biohazard each new entry has been divisive among fans, especially the remake of Resident Evil 3, and Requiem will be no different.
This was easily my most anticipated game of the year and it surpassed every expectation I had. Seeing Leon S. Kennedy in all his glory again had me in a state of pure euphoria. However, it was Grace Ashcroft that completely stole the show for me and in all honestly, I think she ran circles around Leon. Not only in gameplay but more importantly performance. Angela Sant’Albano deserves all her flowers and could be a real contender for performance of the year at the Game Awards.
Grace’s character is that she is a shy and timid intelligence analyst who has virtually no training out in the field and Sant’Albano captures that perfectly. The way she stumbles over her words when speaking or how she sometimes says the complete wrong thing. Such as when Leon first meets her, he says he is from the organisation DSO, but she mishears it as CSO. This isn’t to say that Nick Apostolides as Leon Kennedy is not also great, because he is. His classic sarcastic one liners that had me cheering are still present, and the way he captures that traumatic look when revisiting Raccoon City Police Department was devastating.
Gameplay wise this might genuinely be the best Resident Evil game. It combines aspects from essentially all the main line games in the best way – but primarily Biohazard and Resident Evil 4. Due to Grace’s nature, she is heavily inspired by 7 and here it is perfected. 7 brought the franchise back to its horror roots by being the first game in first person and Grace was also made with this in mind.
Her section in the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Centre is some of the most pulse pounding and dread inducing gameplay I have ever played. She is constantly being hunted down by enemies and going through gruesome tasks, especially in the basement part. Grace’s section lasts about half of the game with a little bit of Leon sprinkled throughout (but I’ll touch on that later) and even with just that half it is noticeably one of, if not the, hardest modern RE games.
Any and all kind of resources are scarce; the game heavily punishes you for missing even one shot and health is hard to regain – This truly is survival for Grace.
Now Leon. Since 4, the franchise has less been about horror and more action, and with the remake of 4 they truly had perfected that action. In Requiem, it is basically the same but with some new finishers and weapons. He takes up the latter half of the game, with Grace sprinkled throughout, and it is pure movie action.
He returns to Raccoon City where he is welcomed by the biggest spider you may ever see in your life for an alright boss fight (This is probably my biggest issue which I’ll talk about later). From there it is action set piece after action set piece for him and they are some of the coolest moments of the entire series. I mean anyone that hates when Leon climbs and jumps off a building on a motorbike just does not see any whimsy in this world. Gameplay wise that sums up Leon and is exactly what I expected and wanted.
I want to briefly touch upon my issues with the game with my main one being the boss fights. I’ve never thought that any RE game have had any that well designed boss fights, but in Requiem they feel disconnected. Some bosses are never really explained as what and why they are and some are there purely for fan service – which in all fairness I can’t say that I don’t mind because on how ridiculously cool they were. They also go down quite fast especially compared to bosses from past games making them feel a lot easier.
The weak bosses lead to my second issue and that is the villains. They could have been so great but end up being quite bland. Zeno could have been a great villain, but he is severely underutilised and honestly feels like he is only there to set up potential future storylines. The real main villain is Dr. Victor Gideon and to be fair he is slightly more developed than Zeno but even in the end the blandness overcomes and he becomes fan service too – again though, I cannot really complain due to how cool the boss was.
My other complaint is that as cool as Leon’s half is, it felt somewhat like an afterthought (this is most definitely the wrong word but I’m not sure how else to describe it to be honest). The director said that Leon was always considered to be a main protagonist but because he is so experienced he would not fit into the horror element.
Due to this it felt like he was developed secondary to Grace and whether or not this is true, something is noticeably different with him. His first section of building this detonator feels weird and empty and drags on for way too long. Even after three playthroughs it is probably my least favourite part. It drags even more due to the fact that the zombies he encounters will simply not go down.
I don’t know what they were doing for the past 28 years but they are a different breed.
Back to the positives now with the story and the characterisation. A week before the games launch it leaked pretty much entirely – people were receiving physical copies early. Anyway, I was unfortunate enough to see a lot of leaks and based on them I was really worried that that game would feel really cliché and forced but I am so glad that is not the case. Grace and Leon are intertwined; their stories collide multiple times and eventually become one. Grace is kidnapped, as Gideon believes she is the key to ‘Elpis’ and Leon is following up on a lead related to ‘Elpis’ and Gideon, as a hope to explain what is happening to him and those who survived Raccoon City.
A common theme between the two protagonists is their shared guilt. For Leon it’s how he could not save everyone during the outbreak and for Grace, it is the guilt of everything bad that happened in her life. This ultimately comes together where in the final act that Leon explains he is here now to finally make a difference and tells Grace to stay put which she refuses saying “I don’t want anymore regrets.” This is such a hard-hitting movement and highlights how far each of their characters have come.
Leon’s characterisation is genuinely so good, and he is so well written. A large majority of this is when he actually goes back to the police department and he immediately starts getting flashbacks to that traumatic night. Him reminiscing over moments and saying “rest easy soldier” when he kills an infected police officer adds so much subtle nuances to his character. It gets even more emotional when he visits the gun shop from 2 and finds the shack that the father and his infected daughter were last seen then saying “I am so sorry” genuinely made me so emotional.
Again, due to the leaks I was worried about the ending and how they would resolve Leon’s infection but honestly it landed quite well for me. His cure, while is last minute, does not feel like that but actually felt earned by the end due to the nature of the cure and the twist surrounding it.
While Resident Evil Requiem will definitely be divisive, it does not divide me and feels like a love letter to the whole franchise with its near perfect blend of gameplay styles, great characterisation and their brilliant performances, even though it is dragged down due to its bland bosses, villains, and some drawn-out sections.