Released on February 24, 2026, by Capcom, Resident Evil Requiem serves as the ninth mainline entry in the long-running franchise and a direct follow-up to Resident Evil Village. Launching across PC, PS5, and other current platforms, the game has quickly cemented itself as one of the best-reviewed entries in series history.
Rather than reinvent the wheel, Requiem refines nearly every system the franchise has experimented with over the past two decades. The result? A tense, cinematic survival horror experience that feels both familiar and impressively modern.
Dual Protagonists, Dual Philosophies
At the heart of Requiem is its split campaign structure between FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft and series veteran Leon S. Kennedy.
This dual approach isn’t just narrative flavor — it fundamentally changes how the game plays.
Grace Ashcroft: Survival at Its Purest
Grace’s sections lean heavily into classic survival horror. Limited ammunition, minimal combat dominance, and constant vulnerability define her gameplay. A relentless stalker enemy pressures players into stealth, distraction, and calculated evasion. Tools like glass bottles create diversions, while her lighter becomes essential in oppressive, light-starved environments.
Her mechanics introduce some of the game’s boldest new ideas:
- Blood-Based Crafting: Instead of relying solely on herbs and chem fluid, Grace collects infected blood as a primary resource. Blood is used to craft injectors, upgrades, and anti-mutation tools.
- Injectors & Permanent Stat Upgrades: Hemolytic and stabilizer-style injectors allow players to permanently boost aim stability, damage, or survivability. Progression is directly tied to how effectively you harvest and manage blood.
- Corpse Control: Specialized injectors can be used on dead enemies to prevent later mutation. This creates tense decisions — do you conserve resources now, or prevent a future nightmare?
Grace’s combat style reflects vulnerability. Her high-caliber Requiem revolver can pierce tougher enemies in a single well-placed shot, but ammunition scarcity makes it more of a panic button than a primary weapon.
Her gameplay demands planning, precision, and restraint.
Leon S. Kennedy: Refined Action Horror
Leon’s campaign swings toward aggressive combat without abandoning tension. His sequences take place in zombie-infested hospitals and ruined sections of Raccoon City, delivering high-intensity encounters balanced by mechanical depth.
The most significant shift? His classic knife is gone — replaced by a hatchet.
- Hatchet System: Instead of breaking outright, the hatchet dulls over time. When dull, it loses parry functionality but can be resharpened. This creates a maintenance loop rather than disposable gear management.
- Expanded Parry Mechanics: Leon can time hatchet parries against heavy attacks — even chainsaws — rewarding skill-based melee play.
- Enemy Weapon Pickup: For the first time, Leon can briefly use certain enemy weapons like chainsaws after disarming foes. They’re limited-use, high-risk tools that add chaos to encounters.
Leon’s combat introduces a strong rhythm:
Leg shot → stagger → shove → finisher.
Reliable leg shots open enemies for melee chains. A shove mechanic creates space and interrupts attacks, giving combat a shoot–shove cadence that feels deliberate and tactical.
Execution-style finishers — like forcing a shotgun blast into a zombie’s mouth — emphasize cinematic brutality. Many critics have described Requiem as the goriest entry in the franchise.
Smarter Enemies, Deeper Tension
One of the game’s standout features is how zombies behave.
They retain fragments of pre-infection memory. Some are found mimicking old routines — cleaning hospital rooms, standing in kitchens as if cooking. It’s unsettling, tragic, and morally complicated. Mercy-kill dilemmas emerge organically, especially in quieter environments.
Targeted dismemberment is heavily emphasized. Headshots are no longer the obvious solution; leg shots often provide better crowd control. Enemies react dynamically to terrain and knockback, allowing players to chain melee attacks or push foes into hazards.
Inventory pressure is tighter than ever. Progression items take up space alongside weapons and healing supplies, forcing meaningful trade-offs. Scrap can be created by breaking down items, reinforcing the constant survival calculus.
Story: Bloodlines and Buried Secrets
The narrative follows Grace as she investigates late-onset T-Virus deaths among Raccoon City survivors. Her trail leads to the Wrenwood Hotel, where her mother died, and eventually to the ruins of Raccoon City itself.
There, she teams up with Leon to confront ex-Umbrella scientist Victor Gideon and a mysterious agent known as Zeno. Their discovery of the Elpis Project — a potential universal antiviral — sets up a moral and existential dilemma.
Multiple endings hinge on Grace’s choices, including a password tied to her origins and branching outcomes involving self-destruct sequences or cures.
Thematically, Requiem grapples with legacy — of infection, of trauma, of survival.
What’s Actually New?
While Requiem feels familiar, several systems genuinely push the formula forward:
- Blood as a progression currency.
- Corpse prevention mechanics.
- Weapon durability based on maintenance (not breakage).
- Enemy weapon usage.
- Physics-aware melee chaining.
- Stacked hand grenades with expanded blast radius.
- Expanded weapon mods that alter behavior, not just stats.
It’s less about innovation in isolation and more about integration. Nearly every mechanic feeds into resource tension and combat flow.
Critical Reception
Resident Evil Requiem currently sits in the high 80s on major aggregate platforms, including a Metascore around 88 on PS5 — making it one of the strongest-reviewed entries in the franchise.
Critics have praised:
- The balance between Grace’s horror and Leon’s action.
- Exceptional production values and voice acting.
- Deep, flexible combat systems.
- Emotional storytelling grounded in series lore.
However, common criticisms include:
- Playing it safe with nostalgia.
- Pacing dips in the latter half.
- Systems that don’t fully evolve by the endgame.
- A perception that it refines rather than revolutionizes.
Some reviewers even consider it slightly less original than Village, despite being technically superior.
Player Reception
If critics are impressed, players are ecstatic.
User scores are among the highest in the franchise’s history, with Steam reviews labeled “Overwhelmingly Positive.”
Players frequently highlight:
- The successful horror/action balance.
- High replay value due to multiple endings and build paths.
- Memorable enemy behavior and gore effects.
- Grace as one of the strongest new protagonists in years.
The most common complaints?
- Grace’s sections can feel too stressful or restrictive.
- The dual structure feels uneven to some.
- Puzzles may be too simple for longtime fans.
Still, the overall consensus among players is clear: this is top-tier Resident Evil.
