Resident Evil: Requiem opens about 30 years after the events of the original Resident Evil games. A series of murders has been occurring around the country, and they seem to exclusively target survivors of the Raccoon City disaster. FBI Analyst Grace Ashcroft, daughter of Resident Evil Outbreak survivor Alyssa Ashcroft, is sent to investigate one of the murders that occurred at an old hotel — the same place Alyssa was tragically murdered years before. Shortly after Grace arrives, she 's kidnapped by a man who believes she is the "key " to a great mystery. At the same time, Leon S. Kennedy is also investigating the murders, which seem to be connected to an illness he 's contracted. Both Grace and Leon 's paths are destined to return them to Raccoon City, where the greatest secret of the tragic destruction of the town still needs to be uncovered.

Requiem's story is a bit of a mess. It starts off strong but very quickly meanders into a morass of Resident Evil metaplot and self-references, most of which are poorly explained and may be incomprehensible to those who aren't deep into the Resident Evil lore. There are multiple characters where it's unclear if they are supposed to be a recognizable character from the franchise, and for a game that tries very hard to build RE2 nostalgia, it 's easy to notice the absence of other characters from the story. It also ends rather weakly, feeling almost Marvel-esque in its "tune in next time" promise of a further adventure.

Mostly, I think Resident Evil 9 feels like two games, and this will be a recurring theme in this review. One game tells the story of Grace Ashcroft; it's a compelling horror concept about a girl being stalked by horrific creatures outside of her control. The other game is about an in-the-know and entirely competent Leon dealing with franchise-long mysteries and a near-constant barrage of references. Neither is bad, but they inevitably end up in conflict, and Grace sometimes feels like she takes a backseat in her own plot. By the end, I felt that it would've been a lot better if there were a "Grace Ashcroft dealing with horror" game and a "Leon Kennedy returns to Raccoon City" game instead of them being combined.

This same two-in-one concept applies to the gameplay. Roughly the first half of the game has you (primarily) playing as Grace Ashcroft. Grace 's gameplay is intentionally designed to mimic Resident Evil 7 in many ways, with a heavier emphasis on horror mechanics, sneaking, avoiding dangerous stalkers, and more. There are a lot of familiar mechanics from RE7, including collecting antique coins to upgrade yourself, crafting bullets and items from limited supplies, and the general feeling of being helpless. The game even defaults to a first-person view, but you can choose the third-person view if you prefer.

Grace 's segment is perhaps the most interesting of the game. It is the first time in a very long time that zombies in Resident Evil have actually felt threatening. A big part of this is that Grace is fairly limited on options. She has a very weak handgun that can struggle to take down most zombies, a magnum with a handful of shots available, and no real ability to fight hand-to-hand except a weak and breakable knife. This means engaging every enemy and killing them isn 't really an option, and fighting multiple enemies at once can be deeply risky. This is especially true because in Resident Evil 1 Remake fashion, zombies won 't necessarily stay dead once downed, and killing them might leave you dealing with a bigger risk later.

That's why stealth is frequently the name of the game for Grace. She can sneak around easily, and the new and improved zombies actually have some weaknesses that their earlier versions didn 't. They still remember parts of their normal life, which leads to the disturbing trait of apologizing or begging for help even as they attack, and it means they are prone to responding to things in their environment. You can lure zombies to places by activating light switches or activating objects. Grace can also craft special items that allow her to instantly kill enemies from stealth, which also prevents mutations, but they require limited resources, so you'll need to use them cautiously.

The trailers for the game focus heavily on a mysterious creature that stalks Grace, but this is an incredibly small part of it. Think of it like how the Resident Evil 8 previews focused so much on Lady Dimitrescu, but perhaps even more so. It 's disappointing because these are some of the most engaging parts of the game. Having to constantly dodge between light and darkness and figure out how to avoid the lurking creature is very compelling, and I wish the game had more time to play around with that mechanic. There are a couple of other stalker enemies, but they 're less notable because they can be killed. They're mostly scary because of the need to spend a ton of ammo on them.

The other half of the game focuses on Leon Scott Kennedy in all his Resident Evil 4 Remake glory. In comparison to Grace, Leon is basically an unstoppable machine. He plays almost identically to how he does in Resident Evil 4 Remake but with a few notable changes. The first is that his breakable knife has been replaced by a hatchet. The hatchet is very strong and can still parry attacks, but rather than the hatchet breaking, Leon can spend a few seconds to "sharpen " it, which refills it to full power. It 's also way more potent than the knife, so it's easier to get in and brawl a lot. There were chunks of time I didn 't bother with my gun at all, going in with parries and slashes to wreck zombie faces.

The ability to perform melee attacks on vulnerable or stunned enemies has also been improved. You can now do "gun parries," so if you shoot at the right time, it causes Leon to avoid an attack and shoot the enemy at the same time in a cool John Wick move. His context-sensitive melee attacks are also upgraded. For example, performing one when an enemy is near a table gets Leon to smash their head into the table for extra damage, or performing a melee attack near a wall gets Leon to crush the enemy between the wall and his foot. This makes positioning far more important.

Another new, if relatively minor, feature is the ability to use enemy weapons. The new and improved zombies will frequently carry around pipes, spears, and even chainsaws. Once Leon has defeated or disarmed them, he can activate the weapon to perform an instant attack, which stuns or instantly kills most enemies. In the case of the chainsaw, he can even pick it up and use it as a weapon for a time, allowing him to instantly kill any enemies he hits, but certain strong enemies may be able to wrench it from his grasp and require him to defeat them to get it back.

This makes combat as Leon feel far more dynamic and exciting than ever before, and it feels like a great evolution of the Remake combat system. When you get into the groove, it feels easier than ever to move through swarms of baddies like an action movie character, and the combat feels fantastically cinematic. While the game doesn 't have a built-in Mercenaries mode, I rather wish it did because I 'd love to have more chances to play around with his toolkit. Even within the confines of the game, there 's a lot to play around with.

This is probably the best Leon has ever felt in terms of playing the game, but the issue is that his level design is focused on set pieces, and players hardly get to spend any time with the core gameplay. There 's one strong segment near the start, which is the best part of his campaign, but once you get past that, it meanders, feeling like you jump from boss fight to boss fight with hardly anything in between. In a way, it feels like Resident Evil 6, though notably better to play. Additionally, some of the set pieces feel too basic.

There 's also a tragic notable lack of enemy types in the game. While zombies come in a few different types, they 're pretty much the only enemy you 'll encounter for huge swaths of the game. To the game 's credit, they 're more akin to Ganado than standard zombies, but I would've liked to see more variety in the moment-to-moment monster encounters. There are a number of boss fights, but truthfully, none of them stood out. They 're all perfectly competent and avoid the tedium and frustration of some older Resident Evil fights, but a number felt more compelling for nostalgic value than anything else.

The best way I can describe the final Resident Evil: Requiem is that it 's an intentional mélange of every single previous Resident Evil game to date, borrowing things from Resident Evil 1 all the way to Resident Evil 4 Remake, and the result is perhaps too complex for its own good. I enjoyed a good chunk of Leon 's gameplay, but it feels like it's an entirely different genre than Grace 's gameplay. At the end of the day, I was more engaged with the creative and cool mechanics of Grace 's segment versus playing Resident Evil 4: Extra Nostalgia Edition with Leon. Either way, I would've preferred the game to pick a lane and stick with it.

That said, I had a lot of fun with the game from beginning to end, and the areas I wasn 't fond of didn 't last very long, so they rarely got in the way but felt more like a road bump. It was just a game that I felt extremely positive about for a while, and it ended weakly enough that it went from being an easy new favorite to one that I probably won 't rush to replay. I expect people to find different parts of the game that they strongly prefer, and it 's easy to imagine someone enjoying Grace 's segments and not Leon 's, or vice versa.

One area where I can 't fault Requiem is the graphics. It 's an absolutely gorgeous game from start to finish and makes excellent use of its environments. From the small clinic to the bombed-out ruins of Raccoon City, the scenery is dripping with atmosphere, and my only issue is that there are too many bland underground areas. The music and voice acting are both top-notch, and Grace 's actress in particular does an excellent job selling the character in a short time. Leon is excellent as always and has a myriad of new terrible quips to deploy at a moment 's notice.

Resident Evil: Requiem is a solid but very disjointed game. It feels like two extremely fun games that don 't necessarily mix well together. There 's a lot of clever mechanics, effective scenes, and excellent combat mechanics that make it a ton of fun to play, but it also has a meandering and borderline nonsensical plot, drawn-out set pieces, and a lack of focus. At the end of the day, it 's absolutely worth checking out if you 're a Resident Evil fan because when it is hitting its mark, it 's one of the best games in the franchise. Even at its worst, it 's a case of wishing that it could've been more.

Score: 8.5/10