Resident Evil Requiem is, in my opinion, the best Resident Evil game ever made. As someone who has been a long time fan of the franchise since getting the ‘Claire Disc’ from my uncle back in 2002 for the Play Station 1 for Resident Evil 2, I can confidently say that this game beats the Two Remake and Four Remake hands down.

Both of those other games are phenomenal in their own right but this one just incredible. Capcom have never been too solid on their storytelling, but with this combined with Pragmata we could be seeing a much stronger era in narratives from the developers.

RE9 mostly puts us in the shoes of Grace Ashcroft, daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft (Who you might remember as the journalist -lockpicker- from the Resident Evil: Outbreak spin off series), who is thrust into a conspiracy in the shadow of Umbrella and needs to make it out alive.

You will be familiar with her gameplay if you’ve enjoyed Resident Evil 7 & 8 (Village), as her missions take place in a first person point of view where you have minimal means to defend yourself and the game is far more survival horror. Where it is better to dodge and stealth around enemies than to actually try and take them head on.

And what I would also like to note about Grace is her character. For me it is so refreshing to have a character who is actually scared and aware of the things that are going on around her. She is terrified for 99% of this game and it’s so nice to see, even during the gameplay you can hear her scared breathing and her hands shaking, not just in cutscenes and then it’s back to a stone-faced gameplay performance. Utterly brilliant.

Leon, on the other hand, his part of the game takes on the role of exactly what you’d expect from the Resident Evil Franchise from 4-6. It’s a much more run and gun action survival horror than Grace’s missions. Although it would be difficult to convince an audience that Leon would really be scared of anything.

Playing as Leon is great, a strong change of pace from Grace’s narrative and it is so much fun to play. It’s definitely on par with the Resident Evil 4 Remake in terms of gameplay and of course he’s still as sassy as ever.

Throughout the game you will also notice that there are staples from other games which have crept their way in, just little nods to previous entries; a design choice here, a bit of dialogue there. A long term fan of the franchise will be able to pick up on these little references no problem and a newcomer to the series will simply enjoy them for what they are regardless.

Overall, Resident Evil Requiem is the best entry into the franchise, made with love and care from the development team at Capcom and I honestly struggle to see how they can top this going forward, as they might just have peaked.

10/10 – I’m glad I chose to hold off on playing this to make it my 100th Review on Steam.

Recommended? Yes 👍

Resident Evil: Requiem is an absolute masterpiece. The developers completely knocked it out of the park with this entry, nailing the perfect balance between classic survival horror and pure action, all while delivering a level of performance that other recent releases can only dream of.

The absolute best part of the game is how the entire vibe changes depending on who you're playing as:

Grace (Pure Survival Horror): Playing as Grace forces you to play it safe and watch your step. It's not just about difficulty; the gameplay is explicitly designed to make you feel the weight of the past trauma she's reliving. The tension is suffocating, and every single corner keeps you on edge.

Leon (Brutal Action): On the flip side, you have Leon, who completely breaks the mold from previous games. This is a seasoned veteran who is thoroughly enjoying the brutal action he dishes out along the way. It’s fast, aggressive, and incredibly satisfying to play.

Nostalgia hits deep:
Having key parts of the story take place in iconic locations like Raccoon City is an amazing gift for long-time fans of the franchise. Revisiting those streets with this level of detail is mind-blowing.

Flawless technical performance:
Visually, the game is a total showstopper, but the real highlight is the insane optimization. It runs smooth as silk from day one, with zero stutters or weird frame drops. You can really tell the developers put massive effort and genuine care into polishing this engine; it’s refreshing to see a modern AAA game run this beautifully.

A flawless, well-rounded game. If you're a fan of the franchise, this is a must-buy.

Score: 10/10

NOW WITH TALKING (AND SINGING) ZOMBIES! AND MORE EXPLODING ENEMIES THAN EVER BEFORE!! (And after Capcom electing not to put GIANT SPIDERS in the likes of RE2make for being too jarring to their present "aesthetic"...even they seem to have somehow scuttered their welcome way back...)

Forget the Baker farmhouse, or the Village and its immediate surrounds: after the last two mainline RE games taking part in more rustic environs, this new chapter aptly brings us back to the more urban settings of RE2 and 3! Though we do begin in a place called Wrenwood, rather than Racoon City...
    
And we're initially, at least, playing a brand-new character in the franchise, a very green-seeming/previously-office-bound FBI agent named Grace...though I've a sneaking suspicion she may be related to someone from the I.P.'s past (like The Fast and the Furious movies, "family" is never far away in the RE universe)!

This said: the earliest portions of gameplay do feel quite a bit like RE7, and it's clear from the outset that our Grace won't be a fighter, first and foremost (cue more glorious, terrifying, Outlast / Amnesia: The Bunker-style stealth-horror than ever before; and do expect to leave more zombies "alive", and needing to be constantly avoided, than ever before)! Good thing franchise fave Leon will also be along for the rocky ride, soon enough. (Similarly, events will gradually move from the uber-spooky Wrenwood Hotel to a post-nuclear Racoon City - a brief visit to a super-dilapidated R.P.D. included, making this very much a homecoming/full circle proposition for Leon - by way of some other locations, of course, including classic horror mainstays like a hospital, a water treatment plant...and, yes, a small sewage facility, albeit one drained for once of all its water!!)

Character- and acting-wise - while it's still a long way from The Last of Us - we've come a long way since the days of "Watch out! It's a MONSTER!" and "Jill sandwiches". Grace is easily our most vulnerable-feeling RE protagonist ever: our first encounter with a freshly-transformed zombie being perhaps the most protracted and least action-hero-esque of the franchise (shy, perhaps, of our first meeting with Mia in RE7). So there's no doubt this one means to veer things seriously back in the horror-'n'-scares direction, after the thrilling-as-heck, yet far more action-oriented, Village...

Player perspective-wise is where things get especially interesting. Just like the Winters' Expansion for Village, you can switch between first- and third-person POVs at any time...but the default is first-person for the Grace bits, and third-person for the Leon bits. Which immediately sends the message home: as Grace, the scares definitely dominate - with much more limited resources to manage - while Leon's sections are going to be infinitely more mayhem-oriented! We're very much out to please all manner of RE players here...and almost all horror gamers, period...

Good thing it achieves these goals so well, then. Yup: after an in-my-opinion five-top-rate-mainline-games-in-a-row streak - yep, I'm one of "them" who champions even 3make - we're yet to take a single step down (sorry, RE6 fans: perhaps your shiz-slicked time will come again)! RE7, RE2make, RE3make, Village, RE4make...and now THIS! What ever did I do in a prior life to DESERVE ALL THIS GLORIOUSNESS?!

You can even, as Leon, seize the occasional chainsaw off a zombie and use it on them; and if you're extra well-behaved, you may even earn yourself a chainsaw-versus-chainsaw battle as a bonus! Consider me an extremely happy chappy, and let's officially make that a sixth 10/10 in a row (as long as you take out lazy, cheap-arsed side-crap like Resistance and Re:Verse...which I'm happy to utterly ignore the existence of)!!

Oh, and if I'm reading the figures right: the big Hollywood studios like Disney could easily afford, like, multiple Tyrants and a shedload of Lickers? BETTER WATCH YOUR BACK, MARKIPLIER...

Verdict: 10/10.

(PS If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my two Curator pages: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/9284586-ReviewsJustfortheHELLofit/
http://store.steampowered.com/curator/10868048-Truly-Horrible-Horror-Games/?appid=398210
Cheers!)