Spending three hours with Resident Evil Requiem, I wasn’t surprised to find that Capcom’s big 30th anniversary tentpole game feels like a Greatest Hits album for the long-running horror series. Between its two main characters’ shifting perspectives and the genre shakeups that come with them, Requiem has a little bit of something for everyone.
No matter what era of Resident Evil you have the most attachment to, odds are you’ll get at least a fleeting glimpse of what first drew you to Spencer Mansion, Raccoon City, or anywhere else Capcom has sent Chris, Jill, Leon, and all these other poor saps who keep facing these zombie outbreaks with nothing but a handgun and a dream.
You’d think that in an effort to please the folks who were drawn to the original game’s claustrophobic, isolating atmosphere, and the action aficionados who want to watch Leon do sick roundhouse kicks, Requiem would feel like a discombobulated mismatch of disparate eras, but Capcom has put such a hard divide between Leon’s over-the-top, campy action and newcomer Grace’s methodical horror that swapping between them feels less like an interruption and more like enjoying the contrasting peanut butter and jelly in a Jill Sandwich.
© CapcomI had already played a bit of Grace’s side of the game, so I was particularly eager to get back in Leon’s combat boots. Leon’s third-person shooter segments are a stark contrast to Grace’s stealthy survival ones. Though Leon’s aim retains a bit of its shakiness from Resident Evil 6’, to the point where I found it useful to force myself to stop and shoot, Resident Evil 4 style, to line up my shots better, the man is an absolute tank, even in his old age. His action movie camp comes through not only in his cheesy one-liners but in just how silly and over the top his combat segments can get.
The first Leon segment I played had the ex-Raccoon City cop arriving at the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center just as an outbreak of some unknown virus began spreading through the hospital. The hotel’s staff was rapidly turned into zombies, including one that swings a chainsaw around with reckless abandon. It was a close call, and I had to parry away the chainsaw with the hatchet I had on me a few times, but I managed to take him out with my handgun and the chainsaw fell to the floor…only for another zombie to pick it right back up and chase me around the arena’s corridors. This happened a few times before it finally hit me that I could pick up the chainsaw myself, and once I did that I made quick work of the remains of the horde.
Even when Leon is running low on ammo (an irregular occurrence in my time playing), dude just powers through zombies, almost like he’s done this before. The hatchet, which you can sharpen mid scrap, means you’re never without some tool at your disposal to take on even the biggest, most grotesque monstrosities in the hospital. Then, if you stun them with a well-placed gunshot or two, you can kick groups of zombies away to make space while you reload, run to a more fortified area, or pull out the whetstone. Or, if you’re lucky, you get an opening for one of Leon’s cunty-ass takedowns where he does some violent stunt that usually ends with a zombie losing its head and him doing a hair flip. Whether his back is against a wall or he’s tied up in a chair being interrogated, Leon always feels like he’s in control, and, in comparison, Grace’s sections are filled with long stretches of time in which you’re barely scraping by.
I played one of Grace’s early segments last year and came away feeling like her sections were evocative of hide-and-seek games like Capcom’s 2005 hidden gem Haunting Ground. Now, having played about two hours as her, I can say that comparison was pretty apt. When I switched from Leon to Grace, the ex-cop gave a handgun to Grace in case she needed it, but while a gun in Leon’s hands is a weapon of mass destruction, in Grace’s, it’s…maybe more of a flyswatter?
Requiem clearly wants you to view Leon and Grace as characters with different skillsets, but even so, it’s surprising just how differently the two play, even when using a similar tool. Grace’s segments are characterized by sneaking, puzzle-solving, and a dearth of bullets for the handgun. Using a full clip to try and kill a zombie is wasteful, and you’re better off firing a few warning shots into their head until they’re stunned enough for you to shove them to the ground and run past them. Grace does get some upgrades to her firepower and strength, but I’m doubtful she’ll reach the “walking tank” status of Leon by the end.
The Grace section I played involved a lot of backtracking through the same area of the hospital for two hours, and I think I maybe actually killed only a handful of enemies in that time. Not from lack of trying, mind you. Bullets just don’t seem to hit as hard when they’re coming from Grace’s untrained hand. Navigating these spaces as Requiem’s new heroine was more about remembering what threats were around each corner, and hoping I would be able to take advantage of the zombies’ one-track minds to get through unscathed.
© CapcomCapcom says the dichotomy between Grace and Leon’s playstyles is meant to give the game a cadence of hours of tense atmosphere punctuated by flashes of violent catharsis, and that was most evident when I swapped back to Leon and walked through the same area I’d spent a long time sneaking around as Grace with a newfound confidence radiating from the shotgun in my hands. When playing as Grace, I kept finding cabinets that were “warped” beyond opening, and wondered why Capcom let me interact with them if they were all just going to be distractions, only to find that, when I returned here as Leon, they opened when I used my hatchet on them. These were never meant for her, and were instead a reminder that I would walk through these halls in a different context much later.
Will these contrasting playstyles work over the course of a dozen hours, or will it make Requiem one of the more uneven entries in a series already full of those? We’ll know when the game launches on February 27, but for now, I can get on board with a game that recognizes Resident Evil has been a lot of things over the past 30 years and wants to pay tribute to eras old and new.
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