Resident Evil: Requiem was my most anticipated game of the year, and while it delivered some truly exceptional gameplay and moments, a few too many missteps in the back half keeps it from being considered my favorite entry in the series.

Splitting the gameplay between Grace’s classic survival horror and Leon’s fast-paced action was a truly inspired choice that really turned this into a unique experience worth playing through. Also, shifting perspectives between both characters (as recommended) really helps enhance the two different styles.

After falling in love with RE 4 for the first time through the remake a few years ago, I came into this really pumped to play through his sections, but I really think this game shines the most when you’re put into Grace’s shoes. All of her sections are expertly crafted and the tension and dread you feel through the first person camera in these scenes is top-notch. While the start of Rhodes Hill had me worried that they went a bit too punishing with the survival horror elements, by the end of that section I felt well-equipped without feeling overpowered because I had gone out of my way to explore everything and collect every optional upgrade I could find. It really strikes that great balance you expect from modern Resident Evil games, and I think this is their most gratifying execution to date.

I really loved all of the enemies in the Care Center. Aside from The Girl and Chunk which obviously steal the show through their behaviors and designs, it was really cool seeing each unique zombie as I made my way through each area. Every one of them felt like a distinct character and I got really strong Luigi’s Mansion vibes as I saw all of the different staff members and patients. This was all really elevated by the habits you had to pick up on and exploit to effectively sneak around areas and conserve ammunition.

The puzzles were the perfect blend of involved but not too challenging, which is what I always look for in these kinds of survival horror games. Sure some of them felt very been there, done that, but that feeling really didn’t hamper my enjoyment of these sections at all.

Moving on to Leon, I think they nailed everything that makes his character great with this new redesign. The one liners are perfect, the stunts are fire, and he just looks rad as hell. Gameplay-wise I liked many of the liberties they took to make his sections feel as bombastic as possible. The executions peppered in every once in a while, whether it’s grabbing an enemy to blow their head off in spectacular fashion or stomping their brains in after throwing them against a wall, really helps sell the fact that Leon just kicks ass in a way that’s unparalleled, especially in the survival horror genre. The temporary weapons enemies drop are very useful for escaping sticky situations when you are surrounded.

The first act of this game is practically perfect. From the pacing to the narrative to the gameplay, everything’s directed in a way that’s fun, compelling, and very stress inducing (in a good way). I feel like the length of each section is perfectly tailored so that as soon as you’re losing a bit of steam with one character, it’ll swap you over to the other to keep things moving in a refreshing way. Leon’s sections felt like fun, bite-sized victory laps that I got to play through as a reward for making it through a dodgy and conservative encounter with Grace. I really wish they had stuck with this loop and pacing throughout the entire experience. The final sequence of Act 1 where you’re running around to turn on lights, blasting The Girl with Requiem bullets, and finally putting an end to this thing that’s been hunting you for hours was a really gratifying way to finish things off.

It’s when you finally leave the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center that the game starts to lose its footing a bit. In Act 1 when I finished up a Leon section, I was always left wanting more because they were so fun and bombastic. It kind of felt like a monkey’s paw situation when I got dropped into the ruins of Raccoon City where the focus turns solely to Leon action. This part of the game is by no means bad, it just doesn’t quite hit the highs of Act 1. Part of that has to do with the setting you’re fighting through. The ruins just aren’t all that interesting visually and it really feels like a level pulled from the 2010s, which is maybe what they were going for. Having this much Leon exposure also helped drive home that, while the gameplay still feels great, it just doesn’t feel quite as good as it did in the RE4 remake. There were definitely some memorable set pieces and combat encounters at play here, but the longer it went the more I missed the slower, more methodical gameplay of Grace’s sections.

The boss fights here were especially disappointing. They all felt like very run of the mill Resident Evil bosses. “There’s a guy in front of you so shoot him” is pretty much the mantra for all of them. Sure the parry helps make them a bit more tactical than just running around after getting in a few shots, but I was really hoping for something more interesting out of these.

Act 3 (everything from the Ark facility to credits) does get things back on the rails a bit, but neither Grace’s nor Leon’s sections really hold up to the highs of Act 1. Grace gets added back to the mix, and while her sections bring back that tense survival horror feeling, the area she plays through is super linear and puzzles and upgrades are practically thrown out the window. Leon’s sections are a bit more bitesize like they are in the first few hours of the game, but his combat by this point feels a bit too overplayed, leading to combat encounters that aren’t super memorable. The final boss fight was fine, but again I would have loved to have some over the top exchange rather than something we’ve seen in this franchise a hundred times before.

While I wish the back half of this game was as strong as the opening areas, this is definitely my favorite entry in modern first person titles (that being 7, 8, and 9). They took a big swing by including two very distinct styles of gameplay, but overall I thought the execution here was really solid. Looking forward to seeing what kind of DLC we get out of this one and what direction Capcom will decide to take the Resident Evil franchise in next.

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