Let me open with this – Resident Evil Requiem will permit you to play in first and third individual. For many video games, this might 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 more moderen 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 season Recreation Fest, I used to be proven precisely how in a 30-minute demo that proved one factor above all others – Resident Evil Requiem desires to scare you as a lot because it presumably can.
On the coronary heart of all that is Requiem’s new essential 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 research a mysterious illness outbreak – and in contrast to most different heroes within the collection, she’s merely not geared up to take care of what she finds there. Grace has the vitality of a basic horror Closing Woman – she’s not a fighter, merely somebody caught within the absolute worst place, on the absolute worst time, and that colours every little thing 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 provides no goal markers, no said intention, however the aim is abundantly clear. Discover a method out.
What adopted was half-hour of pure rigidity I’ve hardly ever felt from a recreation demo. Requiem’s hyper-realistic appears – this can be a subsequent step for Capcom’s already-beautiful RE Engine – play with mild and darkness all through. I creep across the ward, looking out every little thing 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 bounce 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 permits you to stew within the concern.
Your option to play in first or third individual (and you may change at any time) would possibly 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” strategy 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 method by this actually ominous place.
And when that rigidity lastly, lastly breaks, issues solely get extra disagreeable. After discovering a lighter, I exploit 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 following door I open. Grace screams – and then one thing else seems to feast. We noticed a glimpse of the Requiem demo’s essential menace on the finish of the reveal trailer, however I received 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 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, selecting your method 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 may need used to cover earlier than, and can yank itself into holes within the ceiling, leaving you terrified that it would seem some place else completely as you discover.
There’s a way of malevolent intelligence behind it – at one level, I flee right into a facet room, closing the door behind me, absolutely anticipating the creature to smash by. As an alternative, it does one thing to the lights and disappears, leaving one of many ward’s few secure areas out of the blue as scary as in all places else. “Severely?”, Grace says, summing up my emotions completely.
My demo ends as I lastly discover the fuse I have to get out – I handle to scare the creature by smashing a bottle towards a wall (one other character trait the sport seemingly permits you to discover out all by yourself), and bolt up the hallway to the gate I have to open. It’s a second of uncommon gaming triumph – or at the least it will have been if the creature didn’t seize Grace, and drag her again into the darkness. What occurs subsequent is anybody’s guess.
Capcom gained’t be drawn on how this part ties into the broader recreation. Is that this a one-off phase within the vein of Resident Evil Village’s Home Beneviento, or does it symbolize an overarching gameplay thought; that that is extra about powerlessness, and discovering methods to keep away from hazard moderately than confront it? That’s a query we’ll should reply later, nevertheless it’s fairly the primary impression. It could be combining concepts from the previous and current of Resident Evil, all wrapped in that alternative of perspective, however the consequence is one thing that appears like a brand new future for the collection.
Resident Evil: Requiem involves Xbox Sequence X|S on February 27, 2026.