A sublime blend of masterful combat and hair-raising horror’ — why four hours with Resident Evil Requiem has sold me on its dual protagonist premise

With more than four hours of Resident Evil Requiem under my belt, I’m confident that it’s on track to be the finest entry in the long-running survival horror series so far.

I don’t say that lightly either, and I was skeptical that developer Capcom would be able to make everything work when it was revealed that fan-favorite hero Leon S. Kennedy would be returning as a playable character alongside newcomer Grace Ashcroft.

After all, how can you craft a compelling survival horror experience when you’re dealing with an action hero protagonist who is more capable than an army of marines? The answer is surprisingly simple: you don’t.

Playing as Leon in Resident Evil Requiem is like a New Game Plus run of the Resident Evil 4 remake on steroids: you’re an ultra-powerful killing machine that can mow down legions of the undead without even breaking a sweat.

It’s the Grace sections that are intended to deliver the serious scares. They're set in wonderfully intricate environments expertly built for tense exploration, desperate resource scavenging, and scrappy fights that always have you on the back foot.

The prospect of frequently switching between the two styles might sound jarring, but what I've experienced so far is so well-paced that it's nothing short of a sublime blend of masterful combat and hair-raising horror, all wedded together seamlessly.

Chainsaw hot potato

My hands-on picked up with an aged (and unapologetically DILF-y) Leon rolling up to the entrance to the suitably daunting Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center, a creepy medical facility inside a massive Victorian-style home. Parallels to the iconic Spencer Mansion from the original Resident Evil are apparent from the get-go, even down to this new building’s eerie facade.

Greeted by a nurse and led to a small waiting room, it all hits the fan in record time when a zombie doctor bursts in and promptly executes her in an unapologetic showcase of the game’s brutally realistic gore. Before you know it you’re weaving between oncoming chainsaw blows as even more zombies emerge from the surrounding rooms, setting the stage for an intense confrontation.

As Leon, the combat seems like a natural evolution of the already excellent systems established in the Resident Evil 4 remake. In the default third-person perspective (do note that you can change to first-person at any time), movement feels even smoother with slick shooting that staggers enemies to set up savage melee finishers. Enemies react realistically to the positioning of your shots too, dynamically falling if you go for the knees, for example, rewarding those who think tactically with valuable - but limited - time to reload.

The parrying from Resident Evil 4 is back, now in the form of a deadly combat axe that can block strikes before deftly lopping off your attacker’s head.

Of course, chainsaw wielding maniacs are hardly new territory for a Resident Evil game - but advanced new enemy interactions keep the whole encounter fresh. I was shocked when another zombie snatched the chainsaw from the body of his fallen comrade, hurtling itself across the floor towards me like a bloodied ragdoll as it revved uncontrollably in its hands.

Leon can wield the chainsaw too, cutting through infected limbs with ease, creating a frantic game of chainsaw hot potato as it’s picked up by successive zombies as you desperately try to get your hands on the deadly weapon.

Tread carefully

After that bloody fight, you’re seamlessly brought right to where the slice available to visitors at Gamescom 2025 (which I tried back in August) left off as Leon rescues Grace from the clutches of a terrifying, mutated woman. The pair are separated almost immediately by a hospital lockdown, but not before he can hand her a revolver - the ‘Requiem’. The perspective shifts as you're brought into first person to assume control of Grace, and the change in tone is palpable.

Where Leon embodies the more combat-focused design of entries like 3, 4, 5, and 6, Grace represents the slower, more considered pace of the original two Resident Evil games and, particularly, the excellent 7. Panicked breathing and shaking hands betray her fear as you explore, soaking in the incredible ambience of the sprawling facility.

First-person helps you really appreciate the level of detail in the models and textures, too. The Resident Evil games have always been graphical showcases, particularly in recent years, but Requiem takes the visuals to new heights with beautifully life-like lighting and plenty of objects to pick up and pore over.

Sure, my preview build was running on a PlayStation 5 Pro, and mainly confined to smaller areas, so it's hard to say whether every platform will look quite so excellent (I’m definitely interested in seeing how much is preserved in the Nintendo Switch 2 version) but given Capcom’s excellent track record of optimization I think it’s a pretty safe bet that we’re in for stunner.

Grace’s segment is classic Resident Evil with coded locks, little puzzles, and progression that’s tied to working out how all the items you hoover up as you go fit in with each other and the environment. There’s no impenetrable ‘adventure game logic’ here - it’s all brilliantly intuitive, and I never found myself at a loose end wondering what to do.

Special enemies litter the many hallways and chambers, introduced in a gradual manner to keep the suspense high. I managed to kill most of the ones that I encountered through a combination of sheer luck and being very careful with my resources, and was rewarded with liberal numbers of tokens to unlock special gear from automated cabinets - a system reminiscent of those bird cages you could buy gear from in 7.

Remember that revolver Leon gave you? Don’t get too excited, as he was incredibly stingy with the ammo, and you’re not going to get more than a couple shots out of it, max.

It is incredibly powerful, but takes up a lot of space in your very limited inventory, too, so you need to think very carefully about exactly when and where to bring it - and even more so about when to actually fire it.

I chose to hang on to it and its limited rounds, which came in clutch when all the zombies I had killed transformed into powerful red monstrosities a la the infamous Crimson Heads from the original Resident Evil remake.

Grace can prevent this terrifying transformation by stabbing a zombie with her Haemolytic Injector - a fancy syringe and one hit stealth kill. Charges are very limited, though, and require blood collected from the environment to craft, so, again, you risk putting yourself in sticky situations down the line if you use it too haphazardly.

Throw in some incredible set-piece scares, which I’m not going to spoil, and you have a delightfully dread-filled experience that left me shaken but desperate for more. I’ve always loved the Resident Evil series in all its disparate survival horror and action incarnations - and Requiem truly feels like the best of both worlds.

I already know that I’ll be there day one when it releases for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, PC, and Nintendo Switch on February 27 this year.

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