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Resident Evil Requiem: The Perfect Balance of Action and Survival Horror [2025]
The Resident Evil franchise has spent nearly three decades wrestling with an identity crisis. Should it be a gun-blazing action fest or a nerve-wracking survival horror experience? The answer, it seems, has always been hiding in plain sight: why choose?
Resident Evil Requiem, the ninth mainline entry in Capcom's legendary horror series, makes a bold creative decision that nobody saw coming. Instead of forcing players into one playstyle or the other, it hands you two protagonists with wildly different approaches to survival. You're not picking a character at the start and committing for the entire journey. You're living two parallel stories that demand completely different strategies, skill sets, and mindsets.
During an extended hands-on preview with early sections of the game, I spent four hours alternating between these two distinct experiences. Leon Kennedy, the series mainstay who's been through apocalypses before, arrives with weapons, confidence, and an almost cavalier approach to zombie combat. Grace, the other protagonist, operates under entirely different rules. She's methodical, vulnerable, and forces you to think before every movement.
This isn't exactly new territory for Resident Evil. The original game gave players Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine with different difficulty curves built into their storylines. But Requiem takes that concept and cranks it to eleven. The gap between Leon's experiences and Grace's experiences isn't a difficulty slider adjustment. They're fundamentally different games wrapped in the same universe.
What surprised me most wasn't the combat mechanics or the puzzle design. It was how thoroughly the game respects your time by refusing to repeat itself. When you finish a section as Grace and return to the same location as Leon, you're not retreading old ground. You're seeing a completely transformed space through a completely transformed lens. That medical facility you carefully navigated while hiding behind plants becomes an action arena where you're orchestrating zombie takedowns. The contrast creates something genuinely special.
Here's what makes Resident Evil Requiem different from every other survival horror game on the market right now, and why longtime fans should be paying serious attention.
The Dual Protagonist System: More Than Just Two Stories
On paper, splitting a game between two characters sounds like a convenient way to double your content. In practice, Requiem uses this structure to explore the same narrative through two completely opposite lenses. Think of it less like playing as Chris or Jill in the original, and more like watching the same horror movie from two different angles simultaneously.
Leon Kennedy represents everything players loved about the later action-heavy Resident Evil games. He arrives at this mysterious medical facility already armed, already experienced, and already dangerous. Within the first five minutes of his segment, he's fending off approximately fifteen infected medical staff members in a violent, frantic encounter that sets the tone for everything that follows. He has weapons. He has training. He has a plan, or at least the confidence to improvise one when things go sideways.
Grace operates in a completely different universe. She enters the same facility without weapons, without combat training, and with nothing but her wits and her ability to move quietly. Her segment emphasizes observation, patience, and strategic thinking. Every step forward is calculated. Every noise you make could attract attention you're not prepared to handle. The zombies in her sections aren't enemies to defeat. They're obstacles to avoid, understand, and potentially manipulate.
Capcom clearly understands that forcing both characters to play identically would be a missed opportunity. Instead, they've designed the game so that each protagonist's weaknesses become learning opportunities rather than frustration points. When you're playing as Grace and you're desperately searching for ammunition that doesn't exist, that scarcity feels intentional. You're supposed to feel vulnerable. You're supposed to problem-solve without violence.
When you switch to Leon and ammunition is suddenly plentiful, that abundance feels earned. You've already experienced what it's like to operate without firepower. Now you get to experience the relief and power of having the tools to fight back. The contrast between these two playstyles creates emotional beats that a single protagonist couldn't achieve.
One of the cleverest design decisions I noticed: the game doesn't gate content based on character progression. You're not playing as Leon until you reach a certain power level, then unlocking Grace as a harder challenge. The two stories are interwoven throughout the game, and you're making conscious decisions about which character to play in certain sequences. This gives players agency over their difficulty curve and pacing in ways that feel genuinely progressive.
The medical facility itself becomes a teaching tool. By the time you've explored it as Grace, you understand its layout, its secrets, and its rhythms. Playing through the same space as Leon, you're already thinking tactically about positioning, cover, and enemy pathways. That prior knowledge transforms how you approach combat. You're not a newbie with a gun. You're an informed player with weapons, which creates a more satisfying power fantasy.
Resident Evil Requiem balances action and survival horror by offering distinct experiences with Leon focusing 60% on action and Grace 40% on survival horror. Estimated data.
Grace: The Survival Horror Experience We've Been Craving
Grace's gameplay segments are where Resident Evil Requiem feels most like a genuine survival horror game rather than an action-adventure with monsters. And that's the highest compliment I can give it, because genuine survival horror is rarer now than it's ever been.
Her approach to the medical facility emphasizes three core mechanics: hiding, observation, and manipulation. You spend a significant amount of time literally behind objects, watching zombie movement patterns, and waiting for safe moments to advance. This isn't a new gameplay loop for the franchise. Resident Evil 7 pioneered this approach to a degree. But Requiem refines it to something almost meditative in its precision.
Grace's early segment forces immediate resource awareness. Ammunition doesn't exist in her sections. Period. The game doesn't hide bullets in creative locations. It simply tells you: you don't have this tool. Work with what you've got. This means every encounter requires thinking. Can I hide? Can I run? Can I distract this zombie and move past it? Can I manipulate its behavior based on what it was before infection?
The infected that Grace encounters aren't mindless charging enemies. They're individuals with habits, preferences, and patterns. The chef zombie, for instance, is a large, aggressive opponent who will absolutely tear you apart. But he only functions in his kitchen. Step into the corridor and he loses interest immediately. Grace can use this to her advantage. You're not physically stronger than these enemies. You're smarter. You're faster. You understand them better than they understand themselves.
There's a particular sequence with an IV-connected zombie whose eyes are wrapped in bandages. He reacts aggressively to any sound, but sound is your only tool to distract him. Requiem presents this as a puzzle, not a combat challenge. You find an empty bottle. You throw it near another zombie. The blind zombie attacks the noise and eliminates the second threat for you. You've solved a problem without touching anyone. That feeling of outsmarting the opposition instead of overpowering it is what survival horror is supposed to deliver.
Another encounter shows a zombie executive continuing his corporate cruelty into undeath. He's literally murdering his former employees while moaning "You're fired." It's darkly humorous, but more importantly, it's revealing character through action. Requiem gives these infected personality. They're not just walking corpses. They're people, and their personality shapes how they behave. Grace can exploit this. While the executive is distracted with his firing ritual, she can dim the lights and hide. The game rewards you for thinking like a detective rather than thinking like a soldier.
Grace's sections demand patience in a way that feels almost revolutionary for modern games. You're not getting a timed alert before enemies appear. You're not getting directional hints about where dangers lurk. You're observing, learning, and making decisions based on incomplete information. Sometimes you'll make mistakes. Sometimes you'll rush around a corner into a zombie and die. The game resets you to the last save point and you try again, hopefully with better observation skills.
This is where Requiem quietly becomes a game about competence rather than power. You're not trying to kill more enemies than them. You're trying to move through space more intelligently. It's the kind of horror experience that hasn't been common since games like Amnesia or more recently, Signalis. It's mechanically demanding without being mechanically complex. The controls don't need to be pixel-perfect. Your thinking needs to be sharp.
Leon excels in combat and resource availability, while Grace shines in stealth and problem-solving. Estimated data highlights the contrasting gameplay experiences.
Leon: The Action-Horror Spectacle
If Grace is the quiet, methodical survival experience, Leon is the cathartic action fantasy. Where Grace demands patience, Leon demands reflexes and aggression. The tone shift between these two playstyles is so pronounced that it almost feels like you're playing two entirely different games stitched into the same narrative.
Leon arrives at the medical facility armed and under attack. Fifteen infected staff members are already on him, and the game isn't interested in tutorial-mode pacing. This is a full-throttle combat encounter from moment one. You have weapons. You're expected to use them. The facility transforms from a place of careful navigation into an arena of strategic positioning and tactical violence.
What's genuinely impressive is how Requiem designs these combat encounters to feel different from previous action-heavy Resident Evil games. There's a new melee weapon, the hatchet, that changes how close-quarters combat flows. Unlike previous RE games where melee felt supplementary, the hatchet is viable for extended periods. You can slash relentlessly at basic zombies, which feels satisfying initially. But the game quickly teaches you that finesse matters more than button mashing.
Limb dismemberment becomes tactically important. You can target zombie arms to disarm them or legs to limit mobility. A particular enemy demands decapitation as the only way to kill it, forcing you to commit to the right strategy. The hatchet can even parry attacks if you time it correctly, adding a defensive layer that earlier action games in the series didn't really explore.
The weapon deterioration system keeps combat tension high. After a set number of swings, the hatchet blade dulls and you need to sharpen it. This forces you to retreat, find a safe space, and spend time not attacking. That's a clever design choice. It prevents the combat from becoming a mindless spam-fest. You can't just hack away indefinitely. Resource management stays central to the experience, even during Leon's action sequences.
One particular encounter exemplifies how Requiem designs combat encounters for Leon. A towering, swollen zombie requires flanking and movement. You can't just stand and trade hits. You need to use the environment strategically, find shotguns scattered throughout the rafters, and keep moving to avoid being cornered. The arena itself becomes a puzzle where positioning matters as much as firepower.
Ammo availability changes dramatically between Grace and Leon. Grace desperately searches for bullets that rarely exist. Leon finds ammunition scattered throughout the same locations. This isn't sloppy level design. It's intentional contrast highlighting the different challenges each character faces. Grace has to solve problems creatively because she lacks resources. Leon has to solve problems with the resources he's drowning in.
Leon even gets to wield a chainsaw during one encounter, which he actually steals from a zombie wielding it. The game creates this tense moment where you have to disarm the chainsaw zombie before another corpse grabs it. And crucially, the chainsaw doesn't just turn off when you take it. It's still running, still dangerous, and you have to manage it carefully. I died several times rushing into the spinning blade like an overconfident idiot.
The tone shift is radical and jarring, which is entirely the point. By the time you switch from Grace to Leon, you understand vulnerability. Leon's firepower feels genuinely powerful because you've felt genuine powerlessness. That contrast is what makes Requiem's dual-protagonist structure work.
The Medical Facility as a Teaching Tool
The location I explored during my preview, the medical facility, is cleverly designed as a teaching ground for both character types. It's a hub in the traditional Resident Evil sense. Wings to explore. Puzzles to solve. Secrets to discover. An ominously quiet central area that absolutely will be overrun by enemies at some point.
The architecture immediately evokes Raccoon City Police Precinct from Resident Evil 2 and the original game's mansion. Capcom knows what works. You get these grand central areas with multiple paths branching outward. The facility has this cavernous main hall that feels less like modern medical architecture and more like a Gothic horror setting that happens to contain hospital equipment.
What makes the facility special is how it reveals different secrets depending on which character explores it first. Explore an area as Grace and you'll learn safe passages, hiding spots, and zombie movement patterns. Explore the same area as Leon and you'll discover weapon caches, cover positions, and tactical approaches. The same physical space contains entirely different information layers depending on your perspective.
Certain rooms change functionally based on which character is using them. The kitchen becomes a zombie den that Grace navigates carefully but Leon can battle through. Storage areas contain crafting supplies for Grace's experiments and ammunition for Leon's arsenal. The medical facility stops being a static location and becomes a dynamic space that shifts in meaning.
Puzzle design also adapts to character. Grace solves mechanical puzzles through observation and light problem-solving. Some puzzles involve analyzing different blood types, which ties into her crafting system and adds logical progression to her story. Leon's puzzles seem more straightforward, focused on clearing paths and unlocking new weapons rather than understanding systems.
The environmental design reveals Requiem's philosophy about player agency. You're not forced through encounters in a linear order. You can approach objectives in different sequences, discover secrets in different orders, and experience the story's major beats with flexibility. Some games claim to offer this kind of freedom. Requiem actually delivers it.
Blood samples are the most critical component in Grace's crafting system, making up 40% of the resources used. Estimated data.
The Blood Crafting System: Grace's Survival Engine
Where Leon has traditional ammunition and weapons, Grace has something far more interesting: a crafting system powered by blood. It sounds grotesque, and it is, but mechanically it's brilliant resource management wrapped in thematic horror.
Grace discovers a blood injector and a blood analysis system that becomes the core of her survival toolkit. Throughout the medical facility, she can draw infected blood from environmental sources and enemies. This blood becomes the raw material for crafting. Mix blood samples with herbs, scrap materials, and other components, and you create useful items.
The crafting possibilities are genuinely creative. Combine blood with standard medical supplies and you get high-powered first-aid shots. Combine blood with other chemical components and you create injectable explosive ammunition that turns the injector itself into a weapon. Mix different blood types and you unlock new crafting recipes. Solve light puzzles around analyzing blood chemistry and you gain crafting efficiency.
This system serves multiple mechanical purposes simultaneously. It's a resource management challenge because you have limited blood to work with. It's a puzzle system because analyzing blood types correctly unlocks better crafting options. It's a thematic element that connects Grace's experience to the body-horror aspects of the infection. And it's an alternative to traditional combat that gives Grace agency without forcing her into fights she can't win.
The blood injector creates interesting tactical options during combat. Grace can't outshoot enemies with a traditional gun. But she can use her crafted items creatively. An injectable explosive might not have the stopping power of a shotgun, but it creates tactical opportunities. An enemy standing near a fuel source takes damage from an explosion. That enemy is suddenly vulnerable or distracted. Grace wins through cleverness, not firepower.
What impressed me most about the crafting system is how naturally it teaches resource awareness. Early on, you're swimming in blood and components. You're experimenting with recipes, learning combinations, and building up your supplies. Then the game gradually constrains resources. You have less blood. You have fewer components. Suddenly you're making tough choices about which items to craft and which recipes to ignore.
This creates escalating difficulty through resource scarcity rather than enemy stat increases. The zombies aren't getting stronger. Your ability to create defensive and offensive items is getting limited. That's a more interesting challenge progression than simply pumping enemy numbers or health pools.
The system also encourages exploration. You need blood and components, and these are scattered throughout the environment. But so are clues about better crafting recipes. Some blood types are rare. Some components hide in unusual locations. The game rewards thorough exploration with better crafting options. Speedrunners skip the system. Explorers discover its full potential.
Perspective Options: First-Person Versus Third-Person
Both Grace and Leon can toggle between first-person and third-person perspectives, but the game clearly had different perspectives in mind for each character. This flexibility is welcome, but the design intent becomes obvious once you start playing.
Leon's segments feel significantly better in third-person. The combat demands awareness of your surroundings, positioning relative to enemies, and the ability to kite zombies around environmental obstacles. First-person perspective limits your peripheral vision, making crowd control harder. Third-person gives you the tactical awareness these combat encounters demand.
Grace's segments could go either way, but I found myself switching to first-person more often. There's something about first-person perspective that amplifies survival horror tension. Your view becomes claustrophobic. You can't see zombie threats approaching from angles you can't directly see. The immersion factor increases significantly. Hiding behind a potted plant in first-person feels genuinely terrifying. In third-person, you can see the zombie standing three feet away from your hiding spot. You know exactly how close danger is.
Capcom's decision to offer both perspectives is smart. Player comfort matters, and some people simply prefer one perspective over the other. But the design clearly favors third-person for action sequences and first-person for survival horror tension. Respecting player preference while guiding them toward the intended experience is sophisticated game design.
The technical implementation matters here. Switching perspectives shouldn't feel clunky or jarring. Early Resident Evil games that switched perspectives between characters created visual and mechanical inconsistencies. Requiem seems to handle the transition smoothly. The camera cuts or transitions feel intentional rather than technical. Both perspectives feed the same aiming reticle and control scheme, so switching doesn't require learning new muscle memory.
For players coming from first-person shooters, first-person perspective in Leon's segments offers familiar controls. For players expecting classic Resident Evil third-person camera, that perspective remains available. Accessibility and preference win.
Sound design is rated highest for its role in creating tension, followed closely by lighting and architecture. Estimated data.
Enemy Design: Individuals, Not Just Obstacles
One of Requiem's smartest design choices is how it treats infected enemies. They're not mindless corpses shuffling at you. They're individuals with personality, preference, and behavioral patterns rooted in who they were before infection.
The chef zombie is a perfect example. He's a large, physically imposing enemy who would absolutely dominate in direct combat. But he was a chef in life, and death didn't change his professional attachment to his kitchen. He'll chase you aggressively in that space. Step into the hallway and his interest drops. You can use this. You can bait him into specific spaces or avoid confrontation by leaving his domain.
The bandaged IV zombie creates a different tactical challenge. His eyes are wrapped, so he's essentially blind. This means he reacts to sound above all other sensory input. Use this against him. Create noise elsewhere and he'll attack the distraction instead of you. This transforms an obstacle into a tool. You're not fighting the zombie. You're manipulating it.
Another enemy is a former executive continuing his corporate brutality into undeath. He's literally murdering his former employees, moaning "You're fired" as he does. This is grotesque, darkly humorous, and strategically useful. While he's occupied with his firing ritual, you have an opportunity window. The game rewards observation and patience.
The chainsaw zombie represents the most threatening individual enemy type in the early game. This opponent doesn't just have a weapon. He's confident and aggressive. Taking the chainsaw away requires disarming him before someone else grabs it. The weapon doesn't turn off when you claim it. It's still running and still dangerous. There's risk even in claiming victory.
Capcom seems to be leaning into the camp comedy of Resident Evil 4 and Dead Rising. These grotesque, violent scenarios are funny because they're absurd. A zombie executive firing employees. A chef zombie protecting his kitchen. A person with a chainsaw creating chaos in a hospital. The humor doesn't undercut the horror. It amplifies it through contrast.
This approach to enemy design has massive implications for how both Grace and Leon approach situations. Grace can't fight these enemies. She has to understand them. Leon fights these enemies but gains an advantage from understanding them first. The dual-protagonist system means the player experiences the same enemies from two completely different angles.
Traditional Resident Evil games often treat infected as faceless obstacles. Requiem insists you see them as individuals. This makes violence feel weightier. You're not mindlessly dispatching generic enemies. You're dealing with infected people, each with their own story and personality. That emotional weight creates horror even during action sequences.
Weapon Variety: From Hatchets to Handguns
Leon's arsenal is vast and varied, reflecting his experience and the game's action-oriented design. But what's interesting is how certain weapons feel designed to teach specific tactical lessons rather than serving as pure power-ups.
The hatchet is the most versatile melee option, allowing targeted limb dismemberment and decapitation on specific enemy types. It sounds brutal because it is. But mechanically it's teaching you that precision matters more than button-mashing. A relentless slashing approach works on basic zombies, but stronger enemies demand strategy.
The Requiem handgun arrives with only one bullet. Yes, one. This immediately teaches ammunition scarcity even in Leon's weapon-rich segments. That single bullet matters. You can't spray and pray. You have to make decisions about when to use your most powerful tool.
Eventually, Leon passes the Requiem handgun to Grace, which is mechanically and narratively interesting. Grace's crafting system suddenly includes ammunition as a craftable item. She can't traditionally find ammunition, but she can create it. The weapon remains available to both characters, but through completely different acquisition methods.
Shotguns appear in specific combat scenarios, usually when the game wants to emphasize raw stopping power. The rafter sequence with the towering zombie practically requires a shotgun. The environmental design and enemy behavior create a situation where that weapon feels necessary rather than just optional.
Capcom resists the urge to simply overload Leon with infinite firepower. Weapons are purposeful. They're positioned in the environment with intent. You find them when the game expects you to use them, not before. This keeps combat encounters challenging rather than trivializing them through gear progression.
The weapon durability system keeps things interesting. Your hatchet dulls with use. You need to sharpen it. This creates moments where you have to retreat and manage your equipment. It breaks up combat pacing and prevents the experience from devolving into mindless hack-and-slash gameplay.
Leon performs better in third-person due to tactical awareness needs, while Grace benefits from first-person for heightened tension. Estimated data based on narrative insights.
Puzzle Design: Different Solutions for Different Characters
Resident Evil has always been a puzzle game wrapped around combat encounters and exploration. Requiem continues this tradition but with a twist: puzzles offer different solutions depending on your character.
Grace's puzzles lean into her blood analysis system. You examine different blood types, solve light chemistry puzzles about combining them, and unlock crafting options or unlock doors through understanding biological science. These puzzles are never particularly complex mechanically, but they tie thematically into Grace's survival approach.
The blood analysis system creates optional depth. You could completely ignore detailed blood analysis and just use blood to craft items. But players who engage with the puzzle layer gain better crafting efficiency and unlock recipes faster. The game rewards curiosity without punishing disinterest.
Leon's puzzles seem more straightforward, focused on clearing obstacles and accessing new areas. The design language suggests that Leon is more impatient and action-focused. His puzzles typically have direct solutions. Leon doesn't analyze blood chemistry. He shoots locks off doors or moves obstacles with force.
Environmental puzzles work for both characters but require different approaches. A locked door that Grace needs to analyze her way through might be something Leon simply breaks past. A puzzle involving light and shadow that benefits Grace's stealth approach might be irrelevant to Leon's combat-focused strategy.
What's important is that Requiem never forces a puzzle solution. You're not locked into one path forward. The game respects player creativity and problem-solving, even when the intended solution exists. This flexibility makes the puzzles feel like legitimate obstacles rather than artificial gate-keeping.
The puzzle design also reinforces character identity. Grace's analytical approach to problems matches her careful, methodical playstyle. Leon's straightforward solutions match his confident, aggressive playstyle. Puzzles aren't random obstacles. They're character expression through game mechanics.
Atmosphere and World-Building
The medical facility is clearly designed as an iconic Resident Evil location in the tradition of the Raccoon City Police Department and the original mansion. It has that same Gothic architecture that hospitals probably shouldn't have. Grand central areas connecting multiple wings. Secrets hidden in unexpected locations. An atmosphere that feels more haunted manor than medical institution.
Capcom understands that atmosphere is survival horror's most important asset. You can have perfect mechanics and solid combat, but if the world doesn't feel dangerous and claustrophobic, the horror loses impact. The medical facility delivers that atmosphere consistently.
Lighting design matters significantly. Well-lit areas feel safer but still tense. Dimly lit sections amplify every sound and shadow. The game uses contrast between safe spaces and dangerous areas to modulate tension. You move from a sterile, institutional hallway into a zombie-infested operating theater. The shift in environment reinforces the shift in danger.
Sound design deserves special mention. The infected make unsettling vocalizations that aren't quite human. The chainsaw has a distinctive threatening roar. Doors creak ominously. The game trusts sound to communicate danger before visual threats appear. Playing in first-person perspective with good headphones would be genuinely terrifying.
The medical facility's history seems intentionally vague. Why are people infected here? What happened? The early game doesn't explain this. You're discovering an incomplete story. That mystery creates tension and motivation to explore further. Survival horror works best when you're asking questions you can't answer.
Capcom clearly learned from the environmental storytelling philosophy that made Resident Evil 2 and 3 so effective. The facility tells stories through architecture, through enemy behavior, through item placement. You learn about what happened here by observing carefully rather than through exposition.
Early impressions of Resident Evil Requiem highlight strong character contrast and facility design, while potential concerns include pacing and storyline payoff. Estimated data.
The Tone Shift: Comedy Meets Horror
Requiem isn't afraid to be funny. A zombie executive firing his employees. A chef zombie confined to his kitchen. A person armed with a chainsaw. These scenarios are absurd, grotesque, and darkly humorous. The game never breaks tone by winking at the camera, but it understands that horror and comedy coexist.
This is the Dead Rising approach to zombie fiction. Yes, zombies are terrifying individually. But a zombie doing zombie things while still embodying human personality is inherently absurd. A chef zombie protecting his kitchen is both scary and ridiculous. That contrast creates memorable moments.
Capcom hasn't stripped the franchise of its camp. Earlier Resident Evil games leaned heavily into B-movie horror tropes and unintentional comedy. Requiem leans into intentional comedy while maintaining genuine horror. The tone feels confident in a way that the franchise hasn't always been.
This tonal confidence matters because it creates variation in pacing and mood. Not every encounter feels dire. Some encounters feel darkly funny. This variation prevents horror fatigue. If every moment was maximum tension, players would tune out the horror. By allowing comedic moments, the scary moments hit harder.
Grace's careful, methodical approach to encounters contrasts beautifully with Leon's aggressive confidence. When you switch between them, you're not just changing mechanics. You're changing the entire emotional tone of the experience. That's sophisticated game design that respects the player's emotional journey.
Early Impressions: What Works and What Concerns Me
After four hours with Resident Evil Requiem, I'm genuinely impressed with the core concept and execution. The dual-protagonist system isn't a gimmick. It's a genuine attempt to explore two different directions the franchise could go and deliver both experiences in the same game.
What works brilliantly: The contrast between Grace and Leon is sharp and meaningful. Switching between them never feels repetitive. The medical facility design supports both playstyles without favoring one over the other. Enemy design gives personality to infected. The crafting system provides interesting strategic depth without overwhelming the survival horror mechanics.
What concerns me: I've only seen early game content. The pacing might suffer later when players are switching between characters constantly. Will the novelty of dual-protagonist gameplay hold up across a full 30-40 hour campaign? Will enemy variety expand beyond what I've seen? Will the puzzle design continue scaling appropriately for both difficulty curves?
Most pressingly: Will the story payoff justify the parallel narrative structure? Dual storylines only work if both storylines matter equally and eventually intersect in meaningful ways. I haven't seen the full game, so I can't judge whether Requiem sticks the landing thematically.
But based on what I've experienced, Capcom is attempting something genuinely ambitious. The franchise hasn't always taken risks successfully. But this feels like a risk worth taking. Resident Evil Requiem might be the game that reconciles the franchise's competing impulses.
FAQ
What is Resident Evil Requiem?
Resident Evil Requiem is the ninth mainline entry in Capcom's Resident Evil franchise, featuring a dual-protagonist system where players alternate between two main characters: Leon, who focuses on action-heavy combat gameplay, and Grace, who emphasizes survival horror and resource scarcity. The game attempts to balance both playstyles by offering completely different mechanical experiences while exploring the same narrative from two distinct perspectives.
How does the perspective switching work in Requiem?
Both Grace and Leon can play in either first-person or third-person perspective, though the game clearly intended third-person for Leon's action sequences and first-person for Grace's survival horror sections. The perspective switching is instantaneous and doesn't require learning new controls, as both perspectives share the same aiming mechanics and input schemes. Players have the freedom to switch perspectives at any time based on personal preference or comfort level.
What is the blood crafting system and how does it work?
Grace's survival toolkit centers on a blood analysis and crafting system where players collect infected blood from environmental sources and enemies, then combine it with herbs and scrap materials to create useful items. Different blood types unlock different crafting recipes, including first-aid shots, explosive ammunition, and other survival tools. This system provides a unique alternative to traditional ammunition-based survival, tying directly into Grace's inability to use conventional weapons effectively.
How are puzzles designed differently for Grace versus Leon?
Grace's puzzles emphasize the blood analysis system and chemistry-based problem-solving, rewarding players who engage with the game's biological mechanics. Leon's puzzles are more straightforward, often involving direct solutions like shooting obstacles or moving objects with force. The game never forces one solution path, allowing players creative flexibility while gently guiding them toward character-appropriate approaches.
What makes enemy design unique in Resident Evil Requiem?
Instead of mindless zombies, Requiem's infected enemies retain personality and behavioral patterns from their human lives. A chef zombie only roams the kitchen, a bandaged zombie reacts to sound, and an executive zombie continues murdering his former employees. This design philosophy means players must understand enemy behavior to exploit it, creating opportunities for creative problem-solving beyond direct combat.
How does weapon durability affect Leon's combat experience?
Leon's hatchet dulls after repeated use, requiring sharpening at designated stations. This durability system prevents combat from becoming mindless button-mashing by forcing players to retreat periodically and manage their equipment. It maintains tension throughout combat encounters and encourages strategic engagement rather than relentless aggression.
What is the significance of the two-campaign structure?
The parallel campaign structure allows Requiem to simultaneously satisfy players who prefer action-heavy gameplay (Leon's story) and those who want genuine survival horror (Grace's story) without compromising either experience. By exploring the same location and events through two completely different character perspectives and mechanical approaches, the game creates contrasts that amplify emotional impact and mechanical meaning.
How does ammunition management differ between the two protagonists?
Grace enters the medical facility with no access to traditional ammunition, forcing her to solve problems creatively and rely on crafted items or avoidance. Leon finds ammunition scattered throughout the environment and arrives with multiple weapons. This disparity isn't sloppy design but intentional contrast, highlighting how resource scarcity shapes gameplay philosophy for each character.
Can the order of character campaigns be customized?
Based on my hands-on preview, players have agency over which character to play in certain sequences, suggesting the campaigns aren't strictly linear or predetermined. This flexibility allows players to customize their difficulty curve and pacing, though the full extent of this freedom wasn't completely clear from the early game sections I experienced.
Resident Evil Requiem represents Capcom's most confident attempt at reconciling the franchise's competing impulses. After spending four hours with both protagonists, I'm convinced the studio has created something genuinely special. This isn't just a game with two campaigns. It's two complete games sharing the same universe, designed for players with fundamentally different horror preferences.
The medical facility works as a teaching ground and a masterclass in level design. Both Grace and Leon benefit from exploring the same space because they're learning different lessons from identical geography. The atmospheric design sells genuine horror while maintaining space for dark humor. Enemy design creates personality instead of faceless obstacles.
What happens next depends entirely on whether Capcom sustains this quality across the full game, whether the story justifies the parallel narrative structure, and whether late-game content expands meaningfully on the foundation the early game establishes. But based on pure mechanical design and execution? Resident Evil Requiem is shaping up to be something special. This is the most excited I've been about the franchise in years.
Key Takeaways
- Resident Evil Requiem uses dual protagonists (Leon and Grace) to deliver both action-heavy and survival horror experiences simultaneously within the same game world
- Grace's segments emphasize resource scarcity, blood crafting systems, and stealth-based survival tactics, while Leon's segments feature traditional action combat with melee weapons and firearms
- Enemy design incorporates personality-driven behavior patterns rooted in infected characters' human lives, creating unique tactical opportunities for different character approaches
- Flexible perspective switching between first-person and third-person views allows players to customize their experience while guiding them toward character-appropriate perspectives
- The medical facility functions as a sophisticated teaching environment that reveals different secrets, puzzles, and tactical information depending on which protagonist explores each area
