Let me open with this – Resident Evil Requiem will assist you to play in first and third individual. For many video games, this is able to be a neat characteristic; however for a brand new, mainline Resident Evil entry, it feels nearer to a philosophical assertion.
The early third-person classics within the collection set the usual for survival horror – tense, knotty frighteners that mixed motion, useful resource administration, and byzantine puzzling. The newer first-person video games have been extra visceral affairs, hovering someplace between a video nasty and gung-ho motion cinema. And appropriately, Requiem goals to do each.
Positioned in a pitch-black room on the coronary heart of Summer time Recreation Fest, I used to be proven precisely how in a 30-minute demo that proved one factor above all others – Resident Evil Requiem needs to scare you as a lot because it presumably can.
On the coronary heart of all that is Requiem’s new fundamental character, Grace Ashcroft. As we noticed within the recreation’s reveal trailer, Grace is a technical analyst for the FBI despatched to a ruined Raccoon Metropolis to analyze a mysterious illness outbreak – and in contrast to most different heroes within the collection, she’s merely not geared up to cope with what she finds there. Grace has the vitality of a basic horror Remaining Woman – she’s not a fighter, merely somebody caught within the absolute worst place, on the absolute worst time, and that colours the whole lot concerning the recreation round her.
My demo begins with Grace strapped, upside-down, to a medical gurney, having her blood drained by somebody unknown for causes unknown. Getting herself unstrapped lower than gracefully, she finds herself in an deserted medical ward – the sport gives no goal markers, no acknowledged purpose, however the aim is abundantly clear. Discover a means out.
What adopted was half-hour of pure rigidity I’ve not often felt from a recreation demo. Requiem’s hyper-realistic seems to be – it is a subsequent step for Capcom’s already-beautiful RE Engine – play with gentle and darkness all through. I creep across the ward, looking the whole lot I can for clues. A basic Resident Evil puzzle shortly reveals itself – a locked gate, a damaged fuse field, an ornate door hiding secrets and techniques each mechanical and narrative.
It attracts on well-established concepts from throughout the collection, however locations them in a brand new context – I’m completely dreading each new hallway, and discovering out what’s behind each new door. It’s virtually humorous fairly how far this part of the sport pushes that acquainted feeling of ready for a leap scare to occur. Grace herself is part of this – she reacts with audible concern to every new location, and gasps when she hears one thing strolling across the hallways, unseen. It places you in a state of near-constant rigidity. The place earlier video games broke that rigidity with ambushes, or small-scale fights, Requiem merely helps you to stew within the concern.
Your option to play in first or third individual (and you’ll change at any time) may alter the way you view all this, however the outcomes are the identical. Capcom’s clearly put an enormous quantity of labor into making neither alternative really feel just like the “true” solution to play. Animations have been tweaked for each views to assist it really feel pure, by no means breaking the fearful spell it casts as you quietly choose your means by means of this actually ominous place.
And when that rigidity lastly, lastly breaks, issues solely get extra disagreeable. After discovering a lighter, I take advantage of it to creep down an inky black hallway to a nurse’s station, and get my first, full jump-out-your-skin second – a diseased physique tumbles out of the subsequent door I open. Grace screams – after which one thing else seems to feast. We noticed a glimpse of the Requiem demo’s fundamental menace on the finish of the reveal trailer, however I obtained a full look. It’s a monstrous, bug-eyed creature that may have as soon as been one of many nurses working on this ward – so tall that it must stoop by means of doorways to get round.
And from right here, the demo switches vibe. The closest analogue within the collection is clearly Mr. X – a stalking menace that may’t be killed, solely survived. You’ll want to make use of each location you’ve discovered to cover and confuse the creature, choosing your means rigorously round it to achieve your subsequent aim. However there are concepts being drawn from additional afield, too. The ward’s looping, terrifyingly humdrum presentation calls to thoughts Hideo Kojima’s traumatizing P.T., and there’s a touch of Alien: Isolation in the best way you’re by no means fairly certain how a lot this creature is aware of. It sniffs the air whereas trying to find you, smashes cowl you might need used to cover earlier than, and may yank itself into holes within the ceiling, leaving you terrified that it’d seem elsewhere fully as you discover.
There’s a way of malevolent intelligence behind it – at one level, I flee right into a aspect room, closing the door behind me, absolutely anticipating the creature to smash by means of. As an alternative, it does one thing to the lights and disappears, leaving one of many ward’s few secure areas abruptly as scary as all over the place else. “Significantly?”, Grace says, summing up my emotions completely.
My demo ends as I lastly discover the fuse I must get out – I handle to scare the creature by smashing a bottle in opposition to a wall (one other character trait the sport seemingly helps you to discover out all by yourself), and bolt up the hallway to the gate I must open. It’s a second of uncommon gaming triumph – or a minimum of it could have been if the creature didn’t seize Grace, and drag her again into the darkness. What occurs subsequent is anybody’s guess.
Capcom received’t be drawn on how this part ties into the broader recreation. Is that this a one-off section within the vein of Resident Evil Village’s Home Beneviento, or does it signify an overarching gameplay concept; that that is extra about powerlessness, and discovering methods to keep away from hazard reasonably than confront it? That’s a query we’ll must reply later, but it surely’s fairly the primary impression. It is likely to be combining concepts from the previous and current of Resident Evil, all wrapped in that alternative of perspective, however the final result is one thing that appears like a brand new future for the collection.
Resident Evil: Requiem involves Xbox Collection X|S on February 27, 2026.
