Resident Evil Requiem's RE2 cameo almost made me quit the game

Capcom… why?

I have a high bullshit tolerance threshold when it comes to video games, which is pretty much a necessity if you want to enjoy them. Oh, you ate a mushroom and got big, huh? You cured the incurable zombie disease by eating leaves, and the cure only works for you? Sure, bud. Accepting the ludicrous and moving on just comes with the territory. Resident Evil Requiem has plenty of bullshit (complimentary) moments, like the entire premise behind that motorcycle sequence.But there was one bullshit (derogatory) moment that went way beyond my threshold limit and almost soured me on the game for good.

[Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for the second half of Resident Evil Requiem.]

The general consensus about Resident Evil Requiem's nostalgia seems to be split. Some hate it as cheap, empty fanservice, a sign that Capcom is stuck in the past and too afraid to do something new. Yearnslop, if you will. Others think it's natural to have so much nostalgia in a game designed to bring nearly every other Resident Evil to a close. I'm firmly in the latter camp and think Requiem handles Leon's return to the Raccoon City Police Department in a quiet and almost sensitive way. Not much happens, save for a random zombie stumbling around for no apparent reason where you first encountered one in Resident Evil 2 (bullshit: complimentary). It's mostly a chance for Leon to reflect on the past and for us to see just how firm a grip it retains on his soul.

I started to have doubts about this bit of nostalgia, however, in the east office of the Raccoon City Police Department when a tyrant that looks exactly like Mr. X drops through the ceiling on Zeno's command. Those doubts deepened when I had to fight the tyrant outside the gun shop in one of the game's most rote and poorly animated boss battles.

Initially, I thought the whole thing was ridiculous. What, Zeno just happens to be walking around the ruins of Raccoon City with a pet tyrant in his back pocket? After reading files in the ARK research lab later, I realized it wasn't a random tyrant or Mr. X. It was just a mass-produced tyrant, one of many spun up in that cradle of unholy progeneration and shipped around the world for nefarious reasons. Which made me even more irritated with the scene.

It meant this tyrant's existence and subsequent defeat carry no meaning for Leon or the player. 30 years after running away from Mr. X, Leon, now a walking arsenal of military-grade quips and weapons, can defeat a different tyrant in completely unrelated and less frightening circumstances? Where, I wondered, is the victory in that? Even Zeno makes no reference to Mr X and the past! It's an excuse to drag something recognizable out and have Leon make a silly joke. It's just there for you to point at and move on.

The baffling thing is that Capcom could've handled this bit of nostalgia more appropriately in so many other ways. Imagine Leon has flashbacks about the first time Mr. X ran into him in the RPD and is afraid of going to that part of the station, then braves up, sees no Mr. X, and has a moment realizing the ghosts are in his head, not in reality. Just something to really drive home Leon's emotional trauma at the point when it's starting to become more apparent — and more important to the story.

The more thoughtful, forward-looking ARK lab segment and Requiem's endings changed my tune back to where I was happy to replay the game after the credits rolled. But I'll always despise the Surprise Tyrant.