As featured in the April Issue of Mage Magazine, Casey reviews Resident Evil Requiem, the latest Resident Evil game from Capcom.

Resident Evil has always held a special place in my heart ever since I was a young kid cowering in fear as my neighbors played RE2 on the PS1. Maybe it wasn’t exactly my favorite back then, but over the years through a combination of fear and intrigue, it’s earned its rank as one of my favourite franchises next to Final Fantasy and the Legend of Zelda. Whenever a new mainline Resident Evil is released, it’s a big deal and with Requiem we’re seeing some familiar faces back in the fray.

Looking at the Resident Evil franchise as a whole, the games tend to lean in one of two directions. Either hard into the horror aspect with plenty of scares and limited ammo or the opposite with tons of action and firepower at your disposal. Capcom has tried to give players their cake and let ‘em eat it too by combining both playstyles with varying degrees of success in the past, but I feel they really hit the mark this time in Requiem. This is done by featuring two protagonists where franchise favorite Leon S Kennedy takes the helm of the action set pieces while newcomer Grace Ashcroft is left to deal with the confined halls of the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center.

Throughout the campaign you’ll bounce between the two, but the adventure starts off with the timid FBI agent Grace who finds herself leaving the comforts of her desk for some in-person investigation. Since she’s not a field agent, being thrown into this terrifying situation works out perfectly for the horror survival focused gameplay. Conserving ammo and health items is essential as you creep through the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center Mansion. The location gives off massive Spencer Mansion vibes as it’s similarly filled with locked passages, puzzles and interesting documents to find along the way.

Leon on the other hand is a battle tested disposer of bioweapons who’s managed to elude death on more than one occasion. For those familiar with the series, we know Leon is a badass, but even if this is your first Resident Evil game, you’ll learn that within just a few moments of gameplay. These sections aren’t nearly as stress inducing, in fact they almost act as a way to blow off steam after long chunks of time playing as Grace. Leon gets more access to ammo, but more importantly he can utilize melee attacks to deal punishing and lethal damage. Being able to fire a few rounds at a zombie’s knee to stagger it and following it up with a crushing head stomp or axe to the skull feels incredibly rewarding and even more so as your ammunition starts to stack.

There are a few main areas we get to explore, however one in particular is sure to drum up some nostalgic feels for any long time RE fan. I’m sure it’s already been spoiled for most anyone who watched pre-release coverage, but for the few that haven’t seen it I’ll keep it out of the review for good measure. That being said, between revisiting historically important areas and exploring new ones, Capcom nails the atmosphere and feeling of dread. Zombies in the Care Center hold onto traits of their living life, giving way for the singer from the bar to roam the halls singing or the chef to wander around, clever in hand, looking for some fresh meat. This is a great addition that not only helps differentiate zombies from one another, but also helps to make the Care Center feel more authentic. In other areas the zombies don’t have as much flavor, but I’m never going to be upset about seeing a zombie RPD Officer or two.

Often the best horror games have next level audio design and that’s most certainly the case here. Playing on PS5 while wearing headphones and no lights on is peak, but from all accounts it runs well on other consoles, most notably a great Switch 2 version. The voice acting is some of the best performances I can remember from recent history, with Grace in particular being a high note for the series.

Resident Evil is in a bit of a golden era with Capcom delivering high quality remakes and new installments seemingly every couple years or so. With Requiem, they’ve once again raised the bar, wonderfully blending horror and action segments allowing tension to build up and giving players a release in the form of some skull crushing fun.

Review Score