Resident Evil Requiem’s Rhodes Hill Is the Ultimate RPD Remake

This text contains delicate spoilers for the Rhodes Hill Continual Care Middle part of Resident Evil Requiem.

With Resident Evil turning 30 this yr, it’s no shock that Requiem leans into nostalgia. Leon S. Kennedy is again in a starring position, and the recreation’s trailers function ominous photographs of a crumbling Raccoon Metropolis police station – the labyrinthine haunted home that our floppy-haired hero needed to combat by way of again in 1998. However whereas this newest version of Resident Evil options its fair proportion of direct nods to the previous, it’s Requiem’s new concepts that truly really feel the most nostalgic.

The story’s early sections, wherein you play fresh-faced protagonist Grace Ashcroft, are the place Requiem most efficiently evokes the earliest days of Resident Evil. Regardless of utilizing the sequence’ fashionable first-person perspective by default, it’s basic ‘90s survival horror in the truest sense, proper right down to the ink ribbons, must you want. The constructing that Grace explores, the model new Rhodes Hill Continual Care Middle, is a next-generation echo of Resident Evil 2’s Raccoon Metropolis Police Division, full with a puzzle-locked exit and lethal stalker prowling the halls. As a lot because it depends on the triumphs of the previous, although, this RPD tribute demonstrates the timeless qualities of Resident Evil, and the way the outdated hits will be made to really feel like fashionable breakthroughs.

Inside only a few steps, it’s clear that Rhodes Hill takes all of its foundational cues from the RPD. The primary locked door you encounter yields solely to an ornate key. Round the nook, a steel shutter prevents entry to the wider facility, the close by empty fusebox signalling that you just’ll have to discover a alternative element to progress. Past awaits a reception desk flanked by sweeping stairs, the very mannequin of Raccoon Metropolis’s extravagant fundamental precinct. And, like Resident Evil 2’s basic location, Rhodes Hill is break up into two halves, the west and east wings, by way of which you should scour eerie chambers – lots of which should first be unlocked utilizing a steadily mounting assortment of keycards – searching for a method of escape.

Requiem, if it’s not clear by now, is much less reverential to Resident Evil 2, extra indebted to it. That’s fortunately not an excessive amount of of an issue when developer Capcom owns the unique financial institution of concepts, nevertheless it does stroll the knife-edge between remake and reimagining just a bit too dangerously at instances. As an example, the heart’s ultimate exit is unlocked utilizing a trio of quartz cubes, every distributed by ornate machines upon fixing a three-symbol puzzle. Sure, it’s the RPD medallion puzzle in an ill-fitting masks.

And but this method by no means seems like artistic chapter, nor does it really feel like cynical nostalgia. That’s partly as a result of Capcom’s unique survival horror formulation having endured the take a look at of time – Resident Evil 2’s fundamentals felt as recent in the 2019 remake as they did twenty years prior – however largely as a result of Rhodes Hill is arguably the strongest model of this atmosphere format that the sequence has provided up since we visited the RPD. Extra expansive than each the Baker Property and Fort Dimitrescu, and possessing a myriad of fascinating loop routes and shortcuts, navigating its corridors is a totally partaking expertise, no matter whether or not you recognise the tough define of Raccoon Metropolis’s police station or not.

The ability’s format and the approach you have interaction with it are undoubtedly basic Resident Evil, however Capcom isn’t afraid to deliver some refined modernity to the proceedings. Requiem pulls a trick I’ve by no means seen in a Resident Evil earlier than: lots of the heart’s zombies are real characters, fairly than generic enemy fodder. There’s the broad, burly chef whose methodical chores have you ever second-guessing your route by way of the kitchen. Out in the adjoining hall, there’s the man I do know as “Flick”, who obsessively turns the lights on and off. Elsewhere, a rotting maid continues to clean the flooring, transferring from room to room to wash up all the blood I’ve spilt. And above the eating room, a would-be opera star warbles from the balcony – a shrill sound that sends one in every of the centre’s noise-sensitive sufferers right into a murderous frenzy.

Such distinct personalities are made doable because of Requiem’s emphasis on old-school survival horror. Regardless of the Resident Evil 2 homages, enjoying as Grace feels extra akin to exploring the Spencer Mansion in Capcom’s daring 1996 unique. This can be a brutal atmosphere the place avoiding confrontation is the a lot smarter play (particularly since, in a nod to the 2002 remake, defeated zombies can return to life as rather more aggressive “Blister Heads”). However the place the comparatively easy unique Resident Evil usually noticed you fleeing threats and operating previous zombies, the extra superior enemy AI techniques of at the moment imply Requiem adopts a extra stealthy method, encouraging you to cautiously tiptoe round foes – one thing horror video games on the whole have adopted over the previous decade or so.

By shifting the engagement fashion away from cautious capturing gallery to tense stealth, the atmosphere requires far fewer enemies, thus permitting the improvement staff the time and sources to make every zombie really feel distinctive. And, since your duties have you ever looping and backtracking by way of the constructing, you repeatedly sneak by the similar zombies, contributing to the sense that you just share the house with very actual (albeit additionally very lifeless) folks, fairly than a bus load of replicated online game belongings.

This method lends Rhodes Hill a really totally different environment from another Resident Evil location, together with people who await in the second half of Requiem. Whereas there’s admittedly a comedic factor to those creatures retaining components of their residing personalities, it’s additionally unnerving, and the thought of contending with a individual fairly than a faceless enemy is inherently extra scary – that’s a part of what makes the sequence’ stalker characters, like Jack Baker and Mr. X, so scary. He could put on that humorous little hat, however you’d by no means dare to cease and chortle at it. Requiem’s retooling of the environment right here is proof that honing that iconic survival gameplay is as a lot in the immaterial as it’s in the bodily stuff you do.

In fact, Capcom is aware of that characterful enemies are not any alternative for terrifying stalkers, and so Rhodes Hill has a few its personal. First up is “The Woman”, a towering, gangly, bug-eyed hag that ensures your first impression of the Continual Care Middle is suitably horrifying. Later, you’ll must cope with the east wing’s guardian, “Chunk” – a colossal, baby-faced, hallway-filling mound of flesh that strikes quicker than his weight ought to logically permit. Each function in the basic stalker vogue of prowling the corridors and dynamically impeding your progress. There are fascinating alterations to the formulation, with The Woman utilizing Alien: Isolation-style hidden pathways to take you unexpectedly in a way Mr. X may solely dream of, however these enemies are undeniably adhering to the horror playbook initially written for 1999’s Resident Evil 3 and its relentless Nemesis.

In contrast to Nemesis and his extra fashionable family, although, one in every of Requiem’s stalkers isn’t an invincible impediment. In opposition to all odds, the gargantuan Chunk will be killed, eradicating this terrifying chess piece from the board. Such a feat is a tall problem… properly, for Grace not less than. Leon is a lot better geared up to take down not simply Chunk, however all of Rhodes Hill’s zombies, and his arrival on the scene following Grace’s prolonged expedition makes for an enchanting spin on one in every of Resident Evil’s most beloved basic options: the twin playthrough.

The sequence’ early video games put loads of emphasis on enjoying by way of the story twice, seeing the similar atmosphere from two totally different views. Exploring the first recreation’s Spencer Mansion is a notably totally different expertise relying on whether or not you play as Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield. Capcom would remix this method for Resident Evil 2, utilizing the “A/B” playthrough system to make sure Leon and Claire’s runs by way of the RPD had fascinating variations. Whereas Requiem doesn’t undertake this concept wholesale, you possibly can see the form of it when Leon arrives on the scene. After tiptoeing round Rhodes Hill as Grace, rigorously selecting your battles and conserving ammunition, you get to discover the space once more as the virtually superheroic Leon. With a brand new transfer set seemingly modelled after John Wick, Agent Kennedy can blast, kick, and hack his approach by way of all the zombies that beforehand noticed you fleeing for the security of the well-lit protected room.