Return to Raccoon City
The events of Resident Evil Requiem take place in 2028 — 30 years after the missile strike on Raccoon City. It is symbolic that in the series' anniversary year, Capcom is once again turning to the city where it all began. The authors prefer to remain silent about the global plot for now, but some details about the motivations of the key characters are already known.
At the center of the story are two protagonists, vastly different in character and gameplay role. Grace Ashcroft is a new character for the series, an FBI analyst with no combat experience. She goes to the city to investigate a new virus outbreak and look into the circumstances of the death of her mother — Alyssa Ashcroft, the heroine of Resident Evil: Outbreak, who died eight years before the events of Requiem.
The second hero is Leon S. Kennedy, a veteran of the series and one of its most recognizable characters. His return to the ruined city is personal: Leon is infected with an unknown virus and is looking for a cure.
Their paths cross at the Rhodes Hill long-term care facility — a medical institution run by the mysterious Dr. Gideon, a surgeon and proponent of experimental treatment methods. However, the hospital is just the beginning.
The shown materials also feature other locations of the destroyed city, including well-known places from previous installments — for example, the police station from Resident Evil 2.
In the series' anniversary year, Capcom is unlikely to miss the opportunity to play on nostalgia, so the return to the city will almost certainly include both new spaces and recognizable locations from the franchise's past. But let's get back to our heroes.
Yes, Leon once again encounters a pretty blonde girl, and at some point, their storylines intersect — but only so that Leon can hand her the powerful "Requiem" gun and move on to smash the undead without waiting for another "Leon, help!". Some have already seen this gesture as a symbol of continuity — as if the old generation of heroes is passing the torch to the new one.
Let's not get carried away with theories, though, and just hope that Leon survives the events of the game with dignity and doesn't get hit by a golf club of power at the most inconvenient moment, like Joel in The Last of Us Part II.
The developers emphasize that the campaign is divided almost equally between the two characters. Each can be played in both first-person and third-person perspectives, but by default, the first-person view is chosen for Grace, and the third-person view for Leon.
This decision is directly related to the fact that the heroes are deliberately placed on opposite sides of the gameplay barricades, offering two fundamentally different versions of Resident Evil. Therefore, it makes sense to analyze the gameplay separately for each of them.
Grace: Survival and Stealth
The episodes featuring Grace Ashcroft harken back to the origins of survival horror — slow and anxious. The heroine is almost defenseless, limited in resources and capabilities, so she relies on stealth most of the time. She can crouch, hide under tables and behind furniture, waiting for the moment to bypass the threat.
Exploring the hospital as Grace largely resembles classic episodes of the series — primarily the police station from Resident Evil 2. The location is a semi-open space with many intersecting routes, tasks like finding keys and items for puzzles, and regular backtracking.
Although the hospital gradually opens up to the player, to maintain tension, the creators have saturated the location with different types of enemies requiring a thoughtful approach. The new virus does not completely erase the personality, and some infected retain their former habits. A maid wiping mirrors in the restroom with blood looks more tragic than dangerous and often simply ignores the player's presence. But this is rather an exception.
Most creatures have clearly defined characteristics. Some are blind but sensitive to noise, others react sharply to light — they can be distracted by switches or temporarily blinded by a flashlight. The picture is completed by more dangerous pursuers assigned to specific zones, as well as monsters capable of returning after death in an enhanced form.
Therefore, even successfully eliminating a threat does not always mean the right decision. Returning to the location later, Grace may encounter a much more dangerous creature.
Direct confrontations here are the exception rather than the rule. An attempt to openly shoot all enemies usually ends in death. Although Leon hands Grace his "Requiem," ammunition is always scarce, and it is often wiser to fire a shot to stun and slip past than to waste precious bullets on a finishing blow.
Grace's survival is tied to a separate progression system. It is built around collecting infected blood and analyzing samples. Using a special tool, the heroine extracts materials from the environment and defeated creatures, and then studies them in the laboratory, gradually unlocking new crafting recipes and upgrades. This is a full-fledged development branch that expands capabilities as you progress.
Through the same system, the player gains access to injectors — a powerful but rare tool that allows for the instant elimination of an enemy and prevents its subsequent mutation. The risk-reward logic works here: an enemy destroyed by an injector no longer poses a danger but also provides no resources for creating new consumables.
By engaging in combat using weapons or improvised means, the player risks health and ammo but receives valuable material for future crafting. It is also known that there are additional upgrades for found coins, but the details of this system remain behind the scenes for now.
Leon: Zombies Will Cry
After the intense survival as Grace, switching to Leon feels like a relief. This is adrenaline-fueled Resident Evil at full throttle, where fear gives way to pure combat excitement. Enemies that Grace bypassed become expendable material: Leon methodically grinds them down, occasionally dropping sarcastic remarks in the style of Dante from Devil May Cry.
Leon's inventory is noticeably more spacious: a 7×10 grid case (compared to Grace's 8 slots) allows him to carry an impressive arsenal. There is more ammunition, and the health pool is higher. Capcom emphasizes the hero's "veteran" status, taking into account all his combat experience.
The combat system largely relies on the best solutions from the Resident Evil 4 remake but with significant enhancements. Battles are built around crowd control, smart positioning, and constant alternation between shooting and melee combat. Grenades, firearms including the Alligator Snapper pistol and the MSBG 500 pump-action shotgun, cold weapons, and brutal, almost cinematic finishers are all used.
As before, the arsenal has a set of familiar characteristics: damage, stability, accuracy, rate of fire, reload speed, and magazine capacity. Upgrades are logically close to the system from the Resident Evil 4 remake, and crafting is familiar from previous parts — with resource gathering and the creation of ammunition and first aid kits.
A new feature of melee combat is the combat hatchet, which replaced the knife. It can be used for quick attacks, charged swings, and finishers, as well as parrying enemy attacks.
For this, the hatchet has its own sharpness scale: when it decreases, the ability to parry is disabled, but the axe's edge can be restored at any convenient moment. There are also stealth finishers with the hatchet — in case you want to act more carefully.
At the same time, melee capabilities are not limited to the hatchet. Leon can still kick stunned zombies, but the format of finishers depends on the environment. Sometimes, instead of a classic kick, there is a satisfying crunch of a zombie skull crushed by a heavy boot, or a grapple with a point-blank execution shot — and it looks especially spectacular.
In addition, the hero is capable of picking up dropped weapons and using them against the crowd, including chainsaws. As a result, fights turn into a dense, rhythmic flow where the hero carves his way through the crowd. And the player thinks less and less about survival — and more and more about how to do it as beautifully as possible.
Two for the Price of One
The contrast between Grace's and Leon's gameplay makes one think about balance. Formally, the developers speak of an almost equal distribution of content, but in the demo, this equality looks conditional. Segments similar in volume are perceived differently — due to the pace, density of events, and the very nature of the gameplay.
Grace's walkthrough develops slowly and viscously. Cautious advancement, returning to familiar zones, resource control, and route planning set a rhythm in which the same section of the hospital takes more time.
Leon, on the other hand, passes through similar zones noticeably faster, compensating for the linearity of the route with firepower and an aggressive pace. As a result, action segments seem shorter simply because Leon spends less time on the same stretch.
Why is this important? Resident Evil 4 Remake draws you in with its polished gameplay. It gives a sense of control over the situation, allows you to dominate in fights and "play with your food" — Requiem maintains this dynamic in Leon's segments.
In Grace's case, everything works the other way around. Here, the player becomes the prey, and survival requires patience and attention. In recent years, such an approach has been associated by part of the audience with projects like "walking simulators" with a "horror" tag.
Capcom, however, emphasizes that the demonstration fragment does not reflect the structure of the entire campaign. In the demo version, Leon and Grace indeed visit the same zones, but the overall world works as a system with persistent consequences.
Grace's actions remain relevant when switching to Leon: killed enemies do not return, living ones stay in their places, and uncollected resources can be picked up by the other character. At the same time, the heroes' access to space differs. Leon is able to break open crates and passages using the hatchet, gaining access to zones inaccessible to Grace. This creates differences not only in pace but also in walkthrough routes, reducing the feeling of repetitiveness.
The stated balance will work if it is maintained throughout the entire game. So far, even taking into account the shift in pace in favor of Grace, journalist reviews remain positive.
Analysis
Resident Evil Requiem synthesizes the best ideas from different stages of the series' development — with a clear reliance on Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4 as the "gold standard," but with a cautious evolution of key principles. There is no attempt to choose a "correct" course between classic survival horror and staged action. Capcom rather emphasizes that these approaches do not contradict each other but together form the DNA of the series.
It is not yet known how long the story campaign will be and what additional modes the final version will offer. However, the very idea of combining two full-fledged interpretations of Resident Evil in one game looks ambitious, to say the least.
If the creators manage to maintain the pace and not let one approach suppress the other, Requiem could well become the "ultimate" entry in the series. We expect nothing less from the main horror game of the year.
We will find out if our expectations were met as early as February 27, when the game is released on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.