Resident Evil Requiem is Two Games in One (and a Lot of Enjoyable)

The long-running Resident Evil sequence comprises multitudes. At instances it’s been about quiet menace, rigorously weighing when to make use of every of the handful of bullets in your pocket as you attempt to discover and remedy puzzles whereas avoiding terrifying and sometimes unkillable monsters. At different instances it’s been about kicking ass, tearing by way of hordes of zombies with grenades and shotguns. Resident Evil Requiem, the ninth mainline entry, dares to ask: why not each?

Requiem pulls off this feat of being two video games in a single with twin protagonists: sequence newcomer FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft for the traditional survival horror and recurring lead and one-man military Leon Kennedy for the motion. I lately performed a demo that gave me a style of each — three hours from the start of the sport, with a prolonged Grace part bookended by bursts of Leon-fueled frenzy.

By default, you play in a first-person perspective with Grace and third-person with Leon. This properly displays the completely different ranges of situational consciousness between a timid desk analyst and a battle-hardened discipline operative, and helps Grace’s sections really feel appropriately scarier, however you’re free to toggle the angle for both character at any time from the menu, which is a pleasant accessibility contact (and, once more, a approach for Resident Evil’s builders to play with the sequence’ historical past of switching between the 2).

Both characters present up in Raccoon City’s creepy outdated hospital on their respective investigations and briefly meet earlier than being separated in numerous elements of the constructing to proceed alone.

Grace Under Pressure

Suffice it to say: Grace Ashcroft is having a extremely unhealthy time.

Amid all of the horrors on present, the factor that stood out to me probably the most about my time as Grace was her ragged respiratory. More a proxy for the participant than an influence fantasy, Grace is terrified to be within the hospital, and never certified for this. Even in her default first-person, Grace’s timid character is current always by way of her panicked respiratory and muttering.

In traditional Resident Evil trend, my time with Grace was spent looking by way of completely different wings of the hospital to resolve puzzles and acquire solar, moon, and star keys with a purpose to unlock the primary door out. Healing herbs, bullets, and limited-use melee weapons (in addition to stock slots) have been all scarce, so I needed to be aware of once I used them, lest I find yourself in a bind with no choices. She finally unlocked crafting, permitting me to be much more strategic with my finite assets.

The zombies shambling the halls weren’t absolutely senseless, with their areas and actions displaying that they nonetheless retained some imprint of their former lives, performing a hole pantomime of their duties as docs, nurses, janitors, and so forth. Some of them appeared delicate to gentle, creating a chance for me to activate a close-by gentle swap to attract one out of a slim hallway he’d been blocking to show it off, permitting me to sneak by.

There was additionally a hulking chef lumbering by way of the kitchen and surrounding hallways, on the lookout for meat. At worst, bullets appeared to only annoy him, so the one actual factor to do was keep out of his approach. Unlike earlier video games with unkillable threats like Mr. X or Nemesis being extra omnipresent all through the sport, Requiem appears to have a wide range of extra localized horrors. I first encountered — and needed to sneak previous — the chef in his personal kitchen, and as soon as I’d superior additional and opened a close-by shortcut, he was roaming a wider radius, however I by no means discovered him exterior the final neighborhood of the place he began.

My colleague Joe described a special, nurse-like monster in Summer Game Fest demo of one other part that I by no means noticed, after which throughout the foyer within the medical wing I encountered one more unkillable menace: a monstrously fats zombie with the proportions of an enormous child that jump-scared me by obliterating a door body proper subsequent to me as I picked up a key merchandise earlier than crawling after me, smashing by way of the constructing round it and cussing up a storm about how hungry it’s. It absolutely took up no matter hallway it was in, forcing me to reroute round it as I continued to navigate that wing.

In my time with Grace, the purpose was made very clear: method all of this with warning, as a result of brains will trump your restricted brawn. The situations once I tried to brute power my approach by way of an issue on this part — simply taking pictures or shoving my well beyond everybody — have been when my efforts have been most pissed off. It rewarded statement and punished impatience.

Leon, the Professional

Leon, alternatively, is right here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and so forth.

Resident Evil’s resident himbo is again, and the place Grace spends her time in frightened lurking, he’s all roundhouse kicks and quips. “I think I want a second opinion,” he says dryly after slaughtering a room filled with zombie medical workers that swarm him initially of my session. As if to emphasise the over-the-top tone, the physician had a chainsaw for some cause, which I naturally took and turned on them.

Leon’s sections function far more enemies, as a result of he’s far more able to dealing with them. In addition to extra plentiful weapons, bullets and highly effective kicks, Leon has a hatchet that, in contrast to Grace’s breakable knives, solely dulls with use, and he can resharpen it at any time. When exploring areas that I’d already been by way of as Grace, I may use that hatchet to pry open cupboards, which generally appeared to be filled with ammo.

Beyond simply reframing earlier areas by returning as Leon, what’s unkillable by Grace isn’t essentially past Leon’s capabilities. “Sorry, but I’m not on the menu,” he smugly instructed one beforehand impervious hungry monster, after blasting it to loss of life with a shotgun. It’s a typical trope to come across a boss earlier on in a sport and be unable to defeat them, however right here it’s properly used to distinction the characters’ capabilities, giving a way of cathartic revenge to Leon bullying one thing that had appeared so impossibly harmful to Grace.

Leon’s sections have been charmingly huge, loud, and dumb, and a relieving change of tempo from my tense exploration as Grace. The stability between two distinct tones and modes of play labored effectively within the restricted context of the demo, every enhancing the opposite against this, and I’m excited to see the way it pans out over the entire sport. The Resident Evil sequence has ranged broadly during the last 30 years, and Requiem’s builders have managed the spectacular feat of a sequel that embraces all of it.

Resident Evil Requiem shambles onto Xbox Series X|S on February 27.

Editor’s Note: Removed a reference to Resident Evil Requiem coming to Xbox on PC. We apologize for the error.