Resident Evil Requiem [Review]

Sometimes there's a new movie on a franchise that "gets it", or a new comic in a series that finally "understands the characters". There were things that I liked in the previous two mainline releases, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil Village, but Resident Evil Requiem was the first time since Revelations 1 on the 3DS that I finished the game and instantly loved it.

This isn’t the first time the franchise has featured two protagonists or blended action, adventure, and horror in one game. For me, over the years, the franchise lost its footing because it started doing too much. It got bloated, and a reboot was needed to rekindle the core of Resident Evil.

Two games came after the "all you can eat" bloat of Resident Evil 6 that were basically a "soft" reboot for the franchise to find its heart again. RE7 delved into the horror elements only, while its sequel, RE Village, on the action-adventure side.

Although I find these two games good, they weren't "complete" RE game for me. The detached protagonist and how the franchise lore was more or less irrelevant to the events of these games, added to the narrower experience overall and forced first person perspectives, made me like them OK, but not as much as the remakes or older mainline titles that I've played.

Requiem reconnects all the aspects of the franchise and successfully makes something new out of it without being convoluted or bloated.

Grace Ashcroft is an FBI agent that is trying to unfold the mystery behind her deceased mother's legacy, leading her to a crime scene that precedes a series of horrific events that forces her to fight for her survival. She's a complete new character, and absurdly relatable. One of the bravest and most courageous characters in the franchise, Grace is insecure, but she always has a goal and is the main agent of her story. Her journey in the game is great, and seeing her realize her courage even facing so much horrible stuff was rewarding, low amount of ammo and all.

Leon S Kennedy, in the other hand, was always "behind" something. Finally, here, he leads: he's unfolding events that truly are meaningful to the franchise, and he advances its story to a new and interesting direction. Being a veteran, here's where the "action-adventure" gameplay is.

The great thing about the split narrative is how both of them had horror elements throughout. Of course that Grace's side is more survival horror than Leon's, but there were good scares on the latter as well. It is a single story, with two leads, and that's the jackpot for the game pace and feeling. Almost everything is on point and both characters are nice to follow.

There was stuff that I didn't like, though. The overall story of the main scenario is pretty, ahn, dumb, and the "so what now?" moment on the climax felt really silly and things don't make a lot of sense when scrutinized. Why would the bad guys wait 8 years to act? These and other questions were always around my head, but they didn't hinder the achievement of this game's story: it felt purposeful and it progresses the world in some meaningful ways, while developing characters in a satisfactory manner.

Other mild disappointment for me was on Leon's dialogues. I'm not really the biggest fan of his corny deliveries. Still, this was the game that I liked him the most, I even cried with the guy by the end. I like when he is considerate and sweet, I just really don't like the absurd amount of dad jokes that he throws around.

The combat is truly amazing in this game, with great timing to everything. I wish that Grace had more weapons at her disposal, and I'm not sure about the "point system" for Leon's weapons upgrades, but every encounter is nice, the enemies react properly and the action is good, even it sometimes a bit easy. There's a good amount of enemy variety, but by the end, they could've made some rooms more chaotic with different types of enemies at the same time. Some enemies felt underused.

As the game progresses, more and more of it made me speechless. The set pieces were amazing and very memorable, from the first sequence on the city streets to the very last one: the whole game felt complete and there were no compromises on their vision of a single story, two different points of view that complement each other and are connected by horror.

Resident Evil Requiem wasn't a simple return to horror, or just another action game. It is Survival Horror at its finest, and proof that making something new is worth it.

9/10