Introduction
Basic information
Developer Name: Capcom
Full Name: Resident Evil Requiem
Release Date: February 27, 2026
Released on: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Cross Play: No
Initial thoughts
My wife played this one, and that already made sense because she loves going through the Resident Evil games. This series is one of those franchises where the atmosphere, grotesque monsters, survival tension, and ridiculous action movie nonsense all somehow work together. Resident Evil Requiem understands that balance extremely well. It wants to be scary, but it also knows people are here for the legendary nonsense too.
Leon being back is one of the biggest reasons this game works as well as it does. He is older, tired, and completely done with this zombie nonsense, but he still keeps dropping those ridiculous action one liners like he wandered out of a 90s action movie and refused to update his personality. He can be infected, nearly dying, surrounded by monsters, and still act like, sure, maybe this is how I go out, but I’m taking some zombies with me. That is exactly the Leon energy we missed.
Grace, meanwhile, brings the fear back. Where Leon feels like someone who has survived so much horror that he can barely be bothered to panic anymore, Grace is often genuinely terrified. When a spider gets too close, she reacts like a normal person trapped inside a nightmare. That contrast works beautifully. One half of the game gives us horror through vulnerability. The other half gives us horror through an exhausted veteran who is one zombie bite away from retirement but still has time for a one liner.
Story and setting
Plot overview
This is basically Throwback Thursday: Resident Evil Edition, and I mean that as a compliment. We return to Raccoon City, we see familiar locations again, and the game understands that this place still carries enormous weight for the franchise. Going back to the orphanage after all these years is genuinely awesome. It is not just fan service; it feels like digging up old trauma buried under decades of Biohazard nonsense.
The story alternates between Grace and Leon, giving the game two very different tones. Grace’s sections lean more into fear, investigation, and survival horror. Leon’s parts are more action driven, with the kind of combat confidence you expect from someone who has survived Raccoon City, cults, parasites, bioterrorism, presidents, and probably seven forms of emotional damage. Capcom officially presented the game around Grace and Leon’s return to Raccoon City, and that dual structure is one of the strongest things about the experience.
The only thing that kept nagging at us: where the hell is Jill? We are back in Raccoon City territory, legacy characters are being invoked, and somehow Jill Valentine still feels like Capcom forgot she exists outside remakes. The last major chronological appearance for her in a new mainline story was Resident Evil 5, and it is bizarre that a game this connected to old Raccoon City trauma does not give her a stronger presence or even proper acknowledgement.
World building and immersion
The world building is excellent because Raccoon City still matters. The destroyed city, old institutions, labs, orphanage connections, familiar monster types, and Umbrella rot all tie into the feeling that the past never really died. It just mutated underground and waited for another sequel.
The game is very good at making old places feel new again. It does not simply point at nostalgia and expect applause. It rebuilds those spaces with modern horror presentation, new threats, and enough grotesque detail to make them feel dangerous again. Seeing Mr. X return, dealing with Lickers again, and discovering yet another underground lab run by Umbrella adjacent lunatics is absurd in the most Resident Evil way possible.
Character development
Grace gets a strong introduction and works well as the fear driven side of the game. She is not Leon. She should not be Leon. Her panic and uncertainty help restore some of the survival horror vulnerability that the series sometimes loses when veterans return with military training and enough weapons to invade a small country.
Leon, meanwhile, is exactly what he needed to be: older, still skilled, still ridiculous, and still capable of turning a horrific situation into a one liner contest with death itself. The only major character complaint remains Jill’s absence. For a game this steeped in Raccoon City legacy, that omission is hard to ignore.
Emotional impact
The emotional impact mostly comes from contrast. Grace is scared, vulnerable, and often overwhelmed. Leon is exhausted, and damaged, and yet still moving forward because that is what he does. That pairing gives the game a surprisingly strong emotional rhythm.
Leon’s near death attitude is especially effective. He does not feel invincible, even when he is mowing down monsters. He feels like someone who has survived too much, knows how bad things can get, and has accepted that every mission might finally be the one that kills him. That makes his jokes land harder, because underneath the comedy is a guy who has seen hell too many times.
Rating for story and setting
I have visited multiple aspects of the story, and after some thought and objective thinking, I rated the story and setting with an 9.3
Gameplay and mechanics
Core gameplay mechanics
The game works because it gives us two different styles without making either feel like filler. Grace’s gameplay is more survival horror focused. She is more fragile, more frightened, and her sections feel closer to being hunted through a nightmare. The stab zombies with needles side of things gives her gameplay a more desperate, vulnerable identity, especially when compared to Leon.
Leon’s gameplay is the opposite kind of joy. He mows down zombies, fights bigger threats, drops lines like he is allergic to silence, and generally plays like someone who has done this too many times to be properly surprised. That does not mean his sections are brainless. They are just more confident, faster, and more action heavy.
This split could have gone wrong, but it works because both styles serve the game’s tone. Grace brings fear. Leon brings catharsis. Together, they create one of the better modern Resident Evil structures.
Difficulty and balance
The balance is strong because the game does not let either character completely dominate the tone. Grace’s parts create tension through limitation. Leon’s parts create intensity through escalation. When the game throws in Lickers, Nemesis style threats, Mr. X energy, and what can only be described as Wesker from Temu, the challenge stays entertaining without becoming miserable.
There are moments of heavy pressure, especially when the game stacks enemies and environmental hazards together. But that pressure usually feels intentional. It is the kind of stress Resident Evil should deliver: you are uncomfortable, but you still want to push forward.
Pacing of the game
The pacing is excellent. The game knows when to slow down for dread and when to explode into action. Grace’s sections give breathing room through fear and careful movement, while Leon’s sections kick the door open and remind you that sometimes horror also needs a man with a big gun and no patience left.
Returning to familiar locations also helps pacing because the player carries expectations into them. When the game revisits places like the orphanage or underground labs, it uses franchise memory as tension. You are not just exploring a location. You are thinking, oh no, what did they do here this time?
Innovation and uniqueness
The game is not reinventing Resident Evil from scratch, but it does combine the series’ modern directions very well. It takes the vulnerability of newer first person horror entries, blends it with the action legacy of Leon’s games, and wraps it in Raccoon City nostalgia without feeling completely lazy.
The dual protagonist design is the big win. It lets the game have both slow dread and ridiculous action, which is exactly where modern Resident Evil often works best.
Controls and user interface
The controls are simple and responsive, with a user interface that is clean and easy to navigate. The game is clearly designed with a focus on ac
The controls feel polished and responsive. Grace feels appropriately more vulnerable without being annoying to control, and Leon feels heavier, stronger, and more capable. The UI stays clean and readable, which is important because this game shifts tone and tempo often.
Inventory and combat management feel like classic Resident Evil in the right way: tense enough to matter, but not so clunky that the game becomes a menu simulator.
Microtransactions
There are Deluxe Edition cosmetics and extras, including costumes, weapon skins, charms, filters, custom audio, and bonus in game letters, but the core game itself does not feel compromised by them.
Rating
After combing through many of the mechanics, the pacing, and other factors of this game, I rated the gameplay and mechanics with a 10.
Graphics and art style
Quality of graphics and art direction
Holy hell, are we watching a movie? The game looks stunning. Capcom’s RE Engine continues to be ridiculous in the best way. Faces, skin details, lighting, streets, monster texture, blood, grime, wet surfaces, and environmental decay all look incredible. I am pretty sure I saw a mole on a character in the street rendered with unnecessary hyper realistic confidence.
The gruesome deaths are also spectacularly horrible. Leon getting sawed in two? Yay, trauma! Grace getting her head bitten off? Horrible, disgusting, and exactly the kind of thing Resident Evil fans both fear and secretly expect. The game has no problem showing failure in brutal detail, and that makes danger feel real.
Technical performances
Performance is strong overall, especially considering how visually dense the game is. The lighting, gore, enemy detail, and cinematic transitions all hold together impressively well. Even in more chaotic combat scenes, the game generally maintains its polish.
That polish matters because the horror depends on it. If the game looked cheap, some of the scares and monster designs would fall flat. Instead, the presentation makes everything feel nastier, heavier, and more physical.
Environment and design uniqueness
The locations are fantastic. Raccoon City has been revisited many times, but this game finds new ways to make it feel sick, cursed, and worth returning to. The orphanage, ruined city areas, labs, and monster infested corridors all have enough detail to avoid feeling like recycled nostalgia.
It is very much a look how far we have come moment for the franchise. Old locations and old fears return, but with modern detail that makes them feel freshly disgusting.
Rating
It took me some time to give the graphics and art style an objective rating. There are many things to consider, but ultimately, I rated this section with a 10.
Sound and music
Music score and how it contributed to the game
The music is creepy as always. It knows when to stay subtle, when to build pressure, and when to step back so environmental sound can do the work. Resident Evil is often at its best when silence becomes part of the soundtrack, and this game understands that.
The action sections also get enough musical punch to make Leon’s parts feel bigger without turning the whole thing into a superhero movie. It keeps the horror in the room, even when Leon is being Leon.
Sound effects quality
The sound effects are superb. Lickers sound vile. Zombies sound wet, broken, and hungry. Heavy enemy footsteps immediately create panic. Guns have a satisfying impact, and the creature audio does a lot of work in making every encounter feel gross and dangerous.
The sound design also helps Grace’s sections a lot. Small noises matter more when the character is scared. You hear things before you see them, and that creates tension beautifully.
Voice Acting
The voice acting is excellent. Leon’s lines are ridiculous in exactly the right way. He is edgy, tired, funny, and somehow still believable because this is Leon S. Kennedy and he has earned the right to talk nonsense while surrounded by monsters.
Grace’s performance works well because she sounds genuinely afraid without becoming annoying.
Wesker from Temu sounds stupid, but honestly, that is fine. He is a clone anyway, and Resident Evil has long since earned the right to be gloriously dumb when it wants to be.
Rating
After a lot of consideration, I rated the sound and music section with a 10.
Replayability
Game Length and content volume
The game feels substantial. It is not padded for the sake of being huge, but it also does not feel thin. The dual character structure helps the runtime feel varied because Grace and Leon bring different moods and different mechanical expectations.
This is the kind of game where the campaign itself is already satisfying, but the replay incentives give it a longer tail.
Extra Content
There is a good amount of extra content, including collectibles and side quests, that adds replay value to the game.
The updates and additional modes are a big plus. Resident Evil games often live long after the first run through challenge modes, harder difficulties, unlockable weapons, and silly costumes. This entry understands that tradition and continues feeding it.
Replay value
Replayability is high because this is Resident Evil. You can go back for better ranks, missed items, alternate difficulty runs, challenge modes, unlocks, and the simple pleasure of seeing Leon say dumb things while doing cool things again. The game has that classic I know how this works now, let me run it better energy.
There is also free post-launch content already adding replay value. Capcom released the Leon Must Die Forever mode on May 8, 2026, adding a brutal combat challenge mode.
Rating
After thoughtful consideration, I decided to rate the replayability and game length of this game with a 10.
Suggestions and comparisons
Suggestions and feedback
The biggest suggestion is obvious: add more legacy characters. Bring back Jill properly. Do not just keep circling Raccoon City history while pretending one of its most important survivors is not sitting somewhere waiting for a phone call. If Leon can be back and still throwing one liners while half dead, Jill deserves her time too.
Beyond that, keep adding characters, modes, and scenarios. The foundation is strong enough that extra content could make this one of the most replayable entries in the series.
Comparisons
Compared to Resident Evil 7 and Village, this feels like a stronger blend between fear and action. Compared to Resident Evil 4, Leon’s sections carry that same action horror confidence, but with an older and more exhausted version of the character.
Compared to many modern horror games, it simply has more personality. It can be scary, gross, stupid, funny, and awesome all at the same time. That is very hard to pull off.
Personal experiences and anecdotes
Of course Leon takes out a Nemesis style monster in super style with an axe. Of course he does. The man is old, tired, and probably needs three doctors and a vacation, and he still manages to make it look like he is doing monster cleanup as a personal hobby.
We also loved the big gun with the difficult name. Resident Evil always knows how to make one ridiculous weapon moment feel earned, and this game delivers that kind of payoff. The jump scares were solid too, not cheap all the time, but enough to make my wife react exactly the way a good horror game wants.
And yes, another underground lab run by Umbrella or Umbrella adjacent madness. At this point, Raccoon City probably has more illegal labs than normal basements. But honestly? That is part of the charm.
Rating
Taking in all the personal experiences with this game, I give it a personal rating of 10.
Last words
Pros
- Leon is back and wonderfully ridiculous
- Grace brings strong survival horror vulnerability
- Raccoon City return is handled extremely well
- Great balance between action and horror
- Fantastic visuals
- Gruesome death scenes are horrifyingly impressive
- Excellent voice acting
- Strong monster variety
- Lickers remain terrifying
- Mr. X / Nemesis style threats work well
- Great pacing between dread and action
- Strong sound design
- Replay value is excellent
- Post launch content adds more longevity
- The game feels like a proper modern Resident Evil
- Leon’s one liners are gloriously stupid in the best way
Cons
- Jill’s absence is bizarre given the Raccoon City legacy
- Some villain elements lean into Wesker from Temu territory a bit too hard
Resident Evil Requiem is a fantastic entry in the series. It brings back Leon in peak exhausted action hero form, introduces Grace as a strong horror focused lead, and returns to Raccoon City with enough respect, spectacle, and grotesque detail to make the setting feel important again.
It is scary, stupid, cinematic, brutal, nostalgic, and extremely fun. In other words, very, very Resident Evil.
Now Capcom just needs to remember Jill exists.
FINAL RATING
9.7
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