Resident Evil Requiem Review - Best RE in Years

I have a complicated history with Resident Evil. I love the remakes of 2, 3, and 4 unreservedly. I bounced off Village partway through, found the first-person perspective fine but the atmosphere less interesting than what came before. And I've always had the feeling that the series was trying to figure out what it wanted to be - scary or action-packed, intimate or blockbuster, old fans or new ones.

Resident Evil Requiem, released February 27, 2026, is the ninth mainline entry in the series and the first game designed specifically for current-generation hardware. It answers the question of what Resident Evil wants to be by deciding it wants to be both things at the same time - and it actually pulls this off.

Two Characters, Two Games

The structural decision that makes Requiem work is its dual-protagonist setup. You play as both FBI agent Grace Ashcroft, a new character, and Leon S. Kennedy returning after a fourteen-year absence from the mainline series.

Playing as Grace is genuinely frightening. She's operating in first-person in a care center that feels like something designed specifically to make you feel small and trapped. Limited inventory, scarce ammunition, an indestructible stalker-type monster that hunts her through environments with excellent Hitchcockian lighting. The game doesn't want you to fight this thing - it wants you to flee from it, and it succeeds in making that feel terrifying rather than frustrating.

Playing as Leon is a completely different experience. Third-person, more combat-focused, carrying the tone from Resident Evil 4's remake rather than survival horror. His sections in the ruins of Raccoon City lean into action, one-liners, physics-defying motorcycle sequences, and the kind of cheerful absurdity the series has always balanced against its horror. It's schlocky in the best possible way.

The tonal contrast works because the game is confident about what each character represents. Grace is survival horror. Leon is action horror. Neither compromises for the other, and the alternating structure means neither overstays its welcome.

Where It's Weaker

Leon's sections have a real problem in the middle section of the game. When the focus shifts heavily to Raccoon City - the ruins, generic undead, armed human enemies in uniform grey environments - the game loses the careful design that makes Grace's sections so effective. The visual monotony of destroyed urban environments is a stark contrast from the baroque detail of the care center, and the enemies feel less distinctive and less threatening.

This isn't a fatal flaw. Leon's sections have strong moments too, including some encounters that use his combat toolkit in genuinely creative ways. But if you're playing primarily for the horror, you'll notice when the game shifts away from it, and you'll probably want to get back to Grace's storyline.

The RE Engine at Full Power

On current-generation hardware, the RE Engine is doing things that weren't possible even two years ago. Ray tracing in the care center creates shadows that feel genuinely unsettling - not in a cheap horror game jump scare way, but in a way that makes the architecture itself feel threatening. The character models for both protagonists are detailed enough that small expressions convey real emotion during dialogue.

Sound design deserves particular mention. If you can play with good headphones in a dark room, do that. Every creak of a door, every step on broken glass, every distant sound in Grace's sections is deliberate and effective.

Verdict

Resident Evil Requiem is the best mainline Resident Evil since at least the RE4 Remake, and depending on your tastes, possibly better. Capcom has found a way to deliver both things the fanbase has wanted since the series split its identity - genuine survival horror and confident action spectacle - without making either feel like a compromise.

It's not perfect. The Raccoon City sections drag. The narrative requires familiarity with several previous games to fully follow. But the core dual-protagonist structure works, Grace Ashcroft is a strong new addition to the cast, and Leon's return is handled with the affection the character deserves.

If you've been waiting for the series to justify its legacy again, this is the one.

Score: 8.5/10

Reviewed on PS5. Completed main story in approximately 14 hours.