TL;DR

Pros

• Exceptional graphics and character detail

• Atmosphere so thick you can cut it with a knife

• Combat feels devastating when playing as Leon

• A relatable and enjoyable protagonist in Grace

Cons

• Movement feels clunky at times

• Leon’s gameplay segments feel too short early on

• Finding key items can get a bit repetitive

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Provisional score: 6/7 — I like it. I’m terrified, but I like it

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

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

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If you’re into horror games, you’ve definitely played Resident Evil. So you know what to expect: shooting zombies (sorry, infected), solving convoluted puzzles and getting the soul scared out of you. Resident Evil 9: Requiem, the latest entry in Capcom’s revolutionary survival-horror franchise, has all of this and then some.

Full disclosure: I don’t like horror games very much. While I am largely familiar with the lore of RE, I haven’t played all of the games and the ones I have played I’ve left unfinished. What I did play, I somewhat enjoyed, namely the combat and inventory management.

Requiem, so far, is a superb game in and of itself. Visually and in terms of gameplay, it’s one of the better games to come out so far this year.

Following two protagonists — newcomer Grace Ashcroft and series veteran Leon Kennedy — it’s a solid entry in the series and leaves me wanting to play more every time I turn off my PS5. In fact, it’s so good, I’m considering playing the older games in the series as well.

This place gives me the creeps

As I said, in terms of visuals, this is one of the best games to come out in 2026. Character models are highly detailed, with individual strands of hair being animated, environments having visible and palpable textures and superb animations, particularly during cutscenes.

Requiem is bleeding with atmosphere. And in some cases, literally bleeding — there’s blood splattered all over the floors and walls.

Interiors are narrow, dark and (mostly) dingy, with movement through the levels punctuated by random noises like creaking floors and the crunch of glass underfoot. Or the grunting of a shambling zombie nearby. Tiny, innocuous noises a distance away can put the fear of God into the player. The sound design here is superb.

From what I remember of the RE2 remake, this latest entry fits the rest of the series perfectly: you explore a tight, creepy environment like an abandoned hotel and a hospital, while searching for key cards and other items to unlock new areas.

Personally, this is my least favourite part of RE: while exploring the level is fun and can yield much-needed ammunition and other gear, having to find keys, keycards, or other means of progressing the level gets a smidge repetitive.

Early on, the game is set in an abandoned hospital filled with zombies. To unlock the exit, you need to find three reliefs that fit into a door. But finding these requires opening other doors and areas, for which you need to find items like keys, ID wristbands and other tools. It can be rather annoying, especially when contrasted with more action-focused parts of the game. There’s also a ton of backtracking, which I’m not a fan of.

While there are jump scares, I found that the game’s environments create a looming atmosphere of dread — you know something scary is going to happen and you’re constantly on edge. In my opinion, that’s where the horror truly succeeds.

During a mission in a hotel, where the atmosphere was very tense (and I had just started playing), I opened a closet and was greeted with a falling lamp. I actually fell backwards in my seat. Bravo!

Amazing Grace

One of the major standouts of the game is one of its two protagonists: Grace, an FBI agent investigating a series of murders where victims bear unusual bruising. However, one of the crime scenes has her returning to an old hotel in which her mother was murdered, with Grace exhibiting what appear to be symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

Angela Sant’Albano does a superb job with the voice-over, conveying Grace’s fear and anxiety, particularly during the flashback where her mother is murdered. Stuttering in her delivery also sells this.

I like Grace as a protagonist because she’s relatable: she’ll flinch at random noises, her breath is shaky as she moves through the levels, and when aiming a weapon, you can see her hands quivering. She’ll even trip over and fall while you’re running away from a large zombie, which, though annoying, sells the scary atmosphere and adds to the immersion.

She’s also a linchpin in the story, so I’m interested in seeing her true role as I play further.

While playing as Grace, Requiem plays a lot more like a stealth game, since you spend most of the game hiding and sneaking around, while trying to complete puzzles and find key items. This also amplifies the horror, because she is relatively underpowered and needs to avoid combat more than get knee deep in it. This is also linked to her character being someone who is utterly terrified of the situation she’s in.

I enjoy the stealth aspects; if you’ve read our game reviews, you know I’m a sucker for a good stealth game. Skulking around in the dark is fun, if absolutely nerve-shredding. I have found movement to be somewhat clunky, though.

When things go bump in the night…

Apart from scavenging gear and key items to progress, a key part of Requiem is combat. When going in, remember that this is not a typical shooter game: the fire rate of weapons (early on) is slow, and ammo is extremely scarce. An encounter with one or two zombies can drain your reserves, leaving you with only three rounds. It also goes without saying, but aim for the head.

When you do shoot a zombie, the effects are absolutely devastating and grotesque. Flesh, eyeballs, jaws and limbs will go flying off in a shower of blood, in truly gruesome fashion. The game also renders exposed muscle, brains and other organs in great detail and in real-time.

Moreover, you can craft syringes with a chemical which will literally cause a zombie to explode. Not only is this used for stealthy takedowns, broadening your arsenal and tactics, it’s also useful to prevent zombies you killed from mutating and coming back to life — after which they become an absolute pain to deal with, becoming faster, more aggressive and harder to target.

Other than guns, knives and Leon’s hatchet are also valuable tools in your arsenal. Staggering a zombie with a headshot or a shot to the legs opens a window for a melee attack, offering either a finishing move or an opportunity to run away.

… we bump back

Leon, on the other hand, has appeared in several RE entries, making him a fan favourite character with his gameplay, appearance and repertoire of one-liners.

While this is Grace’s first time dealing with an outbreak of the franchise’s many viruses, for Leon, it’s just another Tuesday. This is reflected by the fact that rather than stealth, his gameplay is much more action-focused.

He engages groups of multiple zombies at once, sometimes fighting five or more. The weaponry he uses — customised pistols and a .50 calibre revolver — are reflective of this, as is his relatively calm demeanour. Leon’s inventory capacity is also much larger than Grace’s, so he can carry more ammo, healing items, weapons and weapon attachments.

Leon’s gameplay is fun, but for a different reason than Grace’s: you feel more empowered and capable of fighting back. Between using high-powered pistols, a hatchet and more offensive equipment like grenades, it sometimes feels like he isn’t trapped with the zombies, but they’re trapped with him. It’s not a power fantasy, but it’s definitely a leg up from creeping around enemies and hoping they don’t see you.

My biggest complaint is that gameplay sections with Leon feel extremely short. Granted, I’m only a few hours in, but when compared to sections where you play as Grace, it feels like Leon’s sections only last a few minutes. In my opinion, it throws the game’s pacing a little off balance. I really hope these sections get longer later as the game progresses.

This is really good stuff

So far, I’ve enjoyed my time with Requiem. Alongside good graphics and solid gameplay, I’m really interested in seeing how the story moves forward and uncovering the mystery surrounding Grace.

I’m also looking forward to engaging with more of the game’s systems, particularly when playing as Leon, and, hopefully, exploring an environment that isn’t a dingy hospital.

As far as a contender for Game of the Year? I’m not too sure, but it definitely deserves a nomination for Best Sound Design.

As the kids say, Capcom “cooked with this one”, and I’m looking forward to getting back to playing. After I change into clean pants.