TL;DR

PROS

• Later acts feature more open levels

• Lots of time playing as Leon in a more action-focused environment

• Combat feels amazing with more powerful weapons

• Ending that plays on your paranoia

• Decent length, so you’re getting plenty of game for your money

• Bonus game mode is a welcome addition

CONS

• SPIDERS. SPIDERS. SPIDERS.

• Zombified soldiers and human gunners are a chore to fight

• Villains aren’t that well developed

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This is part two of a review of Resident Evil: Requiem. Read part one here.

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Final score: 7/7 — Stop reading this and go play it.

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Reviewed on PlayStation 5; available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2

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Price: Rs22,000 (physical copy); $56.99 (Steam); $69.99 (Nintendo Store)

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When I started reviewing Resident Evil: Requiem, I was genuinely impressed: a superb-looking survival horror game with a thick atmosphere, a solid combat system and some very tense moments. In that review, I’d expressed hope that the action would ramp up and that there would be some variation in the level design.

In its later acts, Requiem continues to provide a tense experience that tests your nerve (and bladder) at every possible turn, be it through combat, stealth, or resource management. You, as a player, are also presented with fresh environments, which offer a change of pace.

It’s absolutely a welcome entry in the Resident Evil (RE) series and in your collection, despite one or two minor issues. Also, if you’re arachnophobic, consider this a warning. As a full package, I can see this being a sure-fire contender for Game of the Year come December.

If I had one major complaint, it’s something I brought up in part one of this review: searching for items to access the next area can get time-consuming and repetitive. Finding key items isn’t inherently a bad thing, but I personally found searching for multiple items to open arbitrary doors on three separate occasions a bit of a chore.

Down memory lane

One of Requiem’s later acts takes Leon (and the player) to the remains of Raccoon City — the site of the outbreak in RE2 and 3 and a location close to the hearts of RE fans.

Raccoon City presents a wider, more open map with multiple areas to explore, with a central base camp where you can save your progress and acquire new weapons and gear from a supply box.

But a more open level in broad daylight doesn’t take away from the atmosphere. Rather than dread and apprehension in cramped, grungy hallways, the city is more desolate and isolated, since Leon is the only living thing in the area and buildings are destroyed and/or abandoned.

Some of the locations in this latter section include the police station and orphanage from RE2, which will definitely flood veteran players with nostalgia. Or PTSD. Having played the RE2 remake, I recognised some of the areas in the police station, even though half of it had been blown up and it had been several years since I last played it.

It’s also a location with deep significance to Leon, since this is where he was tossed into RE’s world of bioweapons and zombies as a young man. In this entry, he’s over the hill and has seen just about everything, depicted beautifully by Nick Apostolides’ calm and deadpan performance. I’m glad this section is in the game; not only does it give Leon closure, but you have a lot more time to enjoy Requiem’s combat.

Armed and dangerous

As I said earlier, there’s a central base camp where you can buy new weapons, gear and ammo, which you’re going to need going up against the game’s new enemies. You earn currency by killing zombies.

Despite the city having been nuked off the face of the earth, there are (somehow) still zombies, although they’re decaying and falling to pieces. These are easy enough to take out, even in large groups, and behave like zombies from the game’s earlier section in the hospital. It’s the armoured zombie soldiers that can cause a bit of a problem.

Body shots don’t work, so you’ll need to aim for the head and be fast. Gunners will shoot at you and cause you to freeze in place while taking damage; the same problem exists with living soldiers.

I should mention that in Requiem, zombies infected with this particular strain of the virus retain some of their intelligence, so they follow normal routine and use equipment like guns, chainsaws and, annoyingly, mortars. Enemies who shoot back at you are a big complaint of mine, because when shot, you’re unable to move; it’s like being stuck in quicksand.

This gets very irritating when there’s a gunner among a group of zombies, or two of them in different directions. Despite this, they’re a good source of ammo, and Leon can also pick up and use chainsaws like the Doom Slayer, which is very satisfying indeed.

You also have a hatchet when playing as Leon, which can inexplicably parry strikes from zombies, chainsaws and an RPG (no, seriously), yet when I start whaling on a zombie, it’s like hitting it with a foam sword. It’s unbelievably underpowered, considering it can deflect a literal rocket.

Why did it have to be spiders?

But the worst encounter in the entire game — and admittedly this is a very subjective thing — is a boss fight against a giant spider, which chases you through an abandoned building.

If you’re arachnophobic like I am and you’re looking at buying this, this is your first and only warning.

I was scared, but not in a nice way: cold sweats, shaking hands and my eyes half shut for 15-20 minutes. I managed to finish the boss fight with my eyes half closed, an act which in and of itself warrants national honours. It’s a very simple boss fight: you have to pepper a weak spot on the spider’s back with bullets, but when playing through half-closed eyes, aiming becomes a bit tricky.

Easily the worst part of the game, but like I said, this is just a me thing. Maybe there’s someone out there reading this who’ll enjoy the fight. You maniac.

Part of the journey is the end

By the time I reached the end of the game, I, as a player, had been hardened into a zombie-killing machine and was confident in dealing with what came next, having gradually learned and acclimated to the game’s mechanics. I wasn’t prepared for how the ending would mess with my head, though.

Without spoiling anything, the game revolves around a new virus called Elpis, which the game’s villains, Zeno and Dr Victor Gideon, are after. I’ll get to these two as villains in a bit, but I want to touch on how this game played on my paranoia about viruses and bioweapons, inculcated and reinforced throughout my playthrough.

You’re given two choices, which determine whether you get a “good” or “bad” ending. Due to my preconceptions about viruses in RE, I made a choice that gave me the “bad” ending, which is extremely abrupt. The “good” ending, by contrast, shows the impact of the plot on multiple characters, as well as a little bit more gameplay in the form of a (pretty fun) boss fight.

I loved how my paranoia about viruses tricked me into picking the bad ending. It’s a sharp little twist and completely caught me off guard. Once you reach this point, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

However, I didn’t really like the villains. Zeno, despite resembling a previous protagonist in RE, Albert Wesker, is pretty one-dimensional and comes completely out of nowhere. I can’t recall any prior mention of him in other games, nor does he provide any backstory. If he weren’t a part of the story, it’d change nothing in my opinion.

Gideon was slightly better, although I felt his performance verged on mimicking Heath Ledger’s Joker at times. At least his motivation had a bit more depth.

Leon’s not dying today

While writing this review, Capcom released some downloadable bonus content in the form of the ‘Leon must die forever’ game mode. It’s (mostly) a roguelike mode where you replay Leon’s sections from the main campaign, but you earn weapons, gear and bonus abilities with each playthrough. Death or running out of time mean you have to start over.

I didn’t complete a full run during my testing, but what I did play was fun, and I kept coming back to it, trying to get further and further. It won’t sell the game, but that’s not what it’s for: it’s side content, and very good content at that.

Final verdict

Requiem is a truly superb game from start to finish. Visually, it’s among the best in the industry. Mechanically, it’s fun to play, despite some weapons being underpowered and occasionally clunky movement. Stealth is decent and the scares are executed very well. Grace is an excellent addition to the franchise’s lineup of protagonists. All of this is wrapped in a dense atmosphere that seeps out of the screen. Capcom has done superb work here.

It delivered on many of the criteria with which I review games, being visually and mechanically impressive, and also offering superb performances by the voice cast. It’s made me a fan of a series I’d previously avoided. In fact, the stuff I didn’t like about Requiem, in hindsight, feels like nitpicking — things so minute and subjective that they do not affect the overall package.

The game is absolutely worth the full price of admission, and this is coming from someone who hates playing horror games. Now, I want to go back and play older titles in the series to chase that rush and experience the lore firsthand. I love Requiem, and I’m sure you will too.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and hide under my bed.