Set for release just before the franchise's 30th anniversary, Resident Evil Requiem offers players a return to Raccoon City, 30 years after it was destroyed during the events of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. You'll play as Grace Ashcroft, a technical analyst for the FBI and the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, who we last saw in Resident Evil: Outbreak.

Although most of Requiem's story is still under wraps, we know that Grace is assigned to investigate mysterious deaths at the Wrenwood hotel, as seen in the announcement trailer. This hotel is the same place where Alyssa was killed in front of Grace, eight years prior. I'm guessing this isn't just a convenient story coincidence, as Alyssa makes an appearance in Requiem via a flashback sequence from Grace's point of view. Whether Alyssa truly died is a plot point that likely won't be confirmed until the actual game.

While we are likely to see references (and possibly cameos) of other Resident Evil characters, one person we aren't likely to see in Requiem is Rose Winters. Last seen at the end of Shadows of Rose in the Resident Evil Village - Winters' Expansion DLC, Rose's story was just getting started. That said, Rose's story was also set in 2037, so while we might see another Resident Evil game featuring Rose in the future, she would be a little kid during the events of Requiem.

The playable demo for Requiem starts off as Grace wakes up in a chronic care center. We don't know what's happened before this point, but she's been strapped to a table and is having her blood extracted. She's also been dosed with a drug called Dexifil, but the only thing on her mind is escape.

Looking around the immediate area, it is night, and many of the lights aren't working. The narrow hallways offer limited room for navigation, while the shadows and flickering lights set the spooky stage.

For the initial half of the demo, it's all about exploration. I quickly found the exit gate, but it was locked (of course it was), and the only way to open it was to find a missing fuse. This led to a chain of necessary items across a handful of rooms. First, I had to find a key to open a locked room. Inside that room, I found a lighter (yay, light!) and a fuse, but the fuse was behind a security plate that was screwed in.

Having the lighter allowed me to explore a kitchen area that was otherwise unlit, which revealed the big bad and essentially kicked off the second half of the demo. The nameless monster is a large, misshapen woman with a head and mouth big enough to envelop a victim's head and bite it off in one move. She's also stupidly fast and can move through the walls.

While the design was obviously meant to create a cat-and-mouse style tension, the monster's speed and the limited maneuvering room meant that survival was less about skill and more about identifying key hiding places.

For example, when I first entered the office area to look for the screwdriver, I only had a limited amount of time before the monster was heading back in. There is a single safe place to hide in the office. If you know where it is, you're golden. If not, you're going to die because there's no way to maneuver around the head-eating monster lady.

Given that this is a demo, I can overlook having limited options, but I do hope the full game offers players a larger tool set. I love puzzles in games, and I love tension in games, but when there are puzzles, I prefer to work them out versus trial-and-error followed by death.

Thankfully, once the screwdriver was obtained, monster lady broke through a second barricaded door in the office, which opened up a maneuvering loop. "Always have an exit" is good advice, and that's exactly what I had. With the second door open, I could listen for monster lady (if she isn't visible, you can hear her moving through the walls) and choose my direction.

With the screwdriver in hand, I was able to retrieve the fuse. After another ceiling-busting monster lady appearance, it was time to haul ass to the exit, slam the fuse into the wall, and open the gate. Success meant a final cut scene, but anything after that is a big question mark because that was the end of the demo.

If the demo is representative of the full Requiem experience, the game is going to end up feeling a lot more like the early titles than the action of Resident Evil Village. The developers are clearly going for tension and fear, with Grace having limited items and feeling out of her depth. Walking the line between tension and frustration will be a balancing act, but if the team can nail it, Requiem should be a fantastic experience.