Mitch’s Game Corner: Resident Evil Requiem — They Come in Three’s

I’d say that Resident Evil is one of my favourite series’, but I also have a lot of expectation for it, similarly to my love for Star Wars. The highs are incredible, but the lows leave me scratching my head, thinking “I can’t believe this got through the writer’s room”. Requiem, thankfully, is a high, feeling like a worthy return of Leon, Grace is hugely likeable, and I feel Capcom have really nailed both the third and first-person gameplay with this one.

There will be major spoilers, so don’t hang about if you haven’t finished it yet.

As a note, I detested Village. Even now I still find myself unable to like it, mainly due to plot and — dare I say it in a series that’s frankly ridiculous — being unable to coincide the series’ bioweapon roots with Village’s supernatural flair. I think the Rose plotline, especially with her being split into four and then you having to put her together, was greatly convoluted and silly, which is a shame because I adore Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.

This means I wasn’t particularly excited when Requiem got announced. I’d been waiting for a new RE game for a long time, and I was lukewarm on the CGI movie Death Island, and I really wanted to see some characters who’d been left out to dry to finally get another time to shine, but here Capcom were pivoting to yet another new face. Thankfully, Capcom proved they have what it takes to follow up on a beloved character, for the first time in a long time (the remakes make it not feel so long), and introduce a new character that felt she slipped right in.

So, what makes Requiem so great? Capcom were always going to Raccoon City, and I’m surprised they didn’t sooner, but I think this really done the idea justice. Seeing it be a former shell of itself, how being there affects Leon, and finally bringing an end to the Spencer and Umbrella plotline was worth the trip back into the zombie-infested hellhole.

Whilst the first half has you believing that this is a Grace-centric story first and foremost, by the midway point it feels split down the middle with a larger focus on Leon. The split between both, and the recommended play order of Grace being in first-person, whilst Leon is in third-person, felt like the perfect way to play.

Grace feels a lot more shaky, less accurate, and generally weaker (especially when it comes to melee attacks), whilst playing as Leon makes the game borderline a comedy with his one-man army arsenal, flips and kicks, and a hatchet with insane parries that just keeps on giving. I’d be curious to play it again in the future, but I already dread some aspects of it.

If you’ve played it, you might also have had the same thought as me, “why is everything done in three’s?”. I ask this because it feels like every objective can be boiled down to you needing to collect, or activate, three things. Find three power sources, find three items to create a key item, turn on three things to help you progress, so on and so on.

I know Resident Evil is a series that thrives on speedrunning, but that’s never been for me, so as someone who’ll likely take their time on subsequent playthroughs, the thought of retackling some of the repetition makes me groan.

That said, as somewhat of a critical fan, I loved how it tied Leon’s arc together and brought what feels like an actual end to the Spencer and Umbrella plotline. I’m sure we’ll still feel remnants of it, as it’s hard to scrub out entirely, but learning that Spencer regretted his actions and wanted to create an anti-virus was genuinely surprising. Don’t get me wrong, he’s obviously still a bellend, but I didn’t think he’d have any redeeming qualities, but it didn’t feel unbelieveable, either. Towards the end, I thought we were going to have a The Rise of Skywalker situation!

Does Requiem feel like a send off for Leon? Not at all, if anything, they leave the door wide open and hint at a collaboration with Chris. A long-time coming, I’d say. It does feel like a best of for him though, having him face off once again with Mr. X, lickers, and returning to where it all began for him in Raccoon City. I think it’s one of the better Resident Evil narratives we’ve gotten, across both Grace’s and Leon’s stories.

I really enjoyed Grace’s character. I’m still upset that she, someone who works in the F.B.I., doesn’t lock her laptop when she leaves her desk, and that she seemed entirely ill-equipped to go onto a crime scene (I realise she’s an analyst and not a field agent, but her ID and her gun were both in her backpack, not optimal to react to an emergency), but she grows, she faces all of the dangers head on, and I enjoyed how caring she is. The way she cares for Emily, adopting her at the end, and in pushing herself forwards for Leon’s sake when he’s at his worst, I think Grace really shined and stood alongside fan-favourite Leon, which is a tall order. I loved RE7: Biohazard, but I feel Ethan’s lack of characterisation is still a barrier to it really standing out.

Talking about caring for people, I didn’t care much for Zeno at all. He’s primed as the main antagonist of this game, when you’re led to believe that you’ve killed Victor Gideon, but he doesn’t do much. He’s very Wesker-lite (along with the implication that he’s a clone or similar), even down to the sunglasses and The Matrix-style dodging of bullets, and doesn’t ultimately do much before dying at Gideon’s hands. I expected a fight, or at least a “seven minutes is all I can spare to play with you” situation, but nah, he moves at 360fps, makes a critical error, and that’s all she wrote.

Victor Gideon though? A great villain, and truly unsettling. I didn’t think he was up to much until he stood up, and he towered over both Grace and Leon. I’m happy he had great presence in the story, and his soft-spoken but slimy, eerie voice really stood out. He surely won’t be returning, but Gideon had a large impact on how the risks to both Grace and Leon felt real, so I’m glad it’s him who you contend with from beginning until end.

I really loved Emily too. I expected something really bad to happen all game, then when it happens, I was surprised as it happened sooner than expected. I also thought it would be that Grace would be forced to put her down in a gruelling fight, but Leon being the one to do it felt saddening, not only because of the situation, but because her monster form didn’t feel inherently evil.

I didn’t expect her to be saved, and sometimes I feel that sort of direction is a cop out for a happy ending, but it felt well-earned for both Grace and Emily, and Leon who struggles to move past being unable to save many people during the initial Raccoon City incident.

That’s all to say that Resident Evil Requiem is a fantastic game. Capcom really nailed it. It’s tense, it’s scary, and it’s camp — all the things the series should be. I’m not sure it’ll have the replayability of the likes of Resident Evil 4, but then again, how many games do? As a big RE fan (I even put 14 hours into ReVerse, unfortunately 14 hours I can’t get back) I fully recommend Requiem, and I’m exicted to see where the series goes from here.

That said, we already know the adventure continues in Leon and Grace duos on Fortnite.