The wait for Resident Evil Requiem is almost over, and if you’ve been obsessing over it as we have, you’re going to like this one. You see, we decided to try hunting down any potential story threads or details that could shed more light on Grace and Leon’s investigation of Epsis, and perhaps uncover more about Victor Gideon in the process.
But as we went along, we began to realize that RE2 Remake and RE1 Remake aren’t the only games that have inspired it. While all of the game’s promotional materials and the gameplay footage do callback to those two classics the most, there are subtle touches from so many other titles, and we began to see why this is a game that truly celebrates thirty years of the franchise.
How does a single game manage to cram nostalgia and inspired flourishes from an entire franchise into a single experience while managing to stand out on its own against some truly impressive predecessors? That’s exactly what we’re here to answer, and it’s going to be a fun trip through memory lane. Let’s get started!
A Touch Of The Unfamiliar
We begin with Resident Evil Zero, and we’re going to focus specifically on how events in the early game played out. Think about how the game presented the events on the Ecliptic Express, and the manner in which Rebecca and her team were attacked as they investigated murders in the area.
The game introduced disorientation and uncertainty right off the bat, making us wonder what went wrong as soon as we began that first playthrough. What the hell were those weird leech monsters? Who was the mysterious man who watched the chaos unfold from his perch on a faraway mountain? Was the rest of Rebecca’s team okay?
It was disconcerting, to say the least, and quite an opening for a title that sought to give us some continuity with the very first Resident Evil title. The game’s pacing was uneven enough to make us wonder just what was going to come next, a sentiment that permeated the entirety of its narrative.
Fast forward to Requiem and the way Grace’s adventure begins. We know that she’s an FBI analyst sent into a field investigation thanks to a personal connection with the Wrenwood Hotel. We know that the investigation hits an unforeseen turn when she’s abducted by Gideon. Once again, it’s an opening that immediately raises questions about what’s going on, and the reason for Grace being suspended upside down was definitely the most pressing one.
It was its own sort of disorientation, and it immediately made us wonder about who – or what – had any reason to kidnap an analyst with no combat training, and who clearly had no idea about the situation she was placed in. It sets the tone for her part of the story like Rebecca, as an operative suddenly placed in a predicament in which answers were going to be quite hard to come by.
Both Grace and Rebecca had very little to go on when their stories began, and the only choice was to go forward and hope that things turned out okay. That’s quite a callback, and it’s also a reminder of how the Resident Evil franchise has often chosen to tell its best stories.
But wait! There’s more.
Iconic Locations That Could Be Characters On Their Own
We now turn our attention to Resident Evil 1 Remake, and the Spencer Mansion in particular. We’re not going to focus on its significance to the overall narrative of the franchise, but on the way its levels are structured. Considering the events that led us there, a sense of dread haunted out every step as we made our way through its oppressive hallways, expecting danger to jump out at us nearly all the time.
Locked doors that needed detours before we could get them open meant that we needed to brave even more terrors before we could get them open. That led well into an exploration loop that we can only describe as a slow-burn, tension and mystery baked into every moment as we learned more about the T-Virus and wondered about who the traitor in our group was.
The Spencer Mansion’s very architecture supported all of these sentiments, often giving us a feeling of claustrophobia conveyed by the manner in which its dilapidation was a reminder of its former glory, and the horrors that had befallen it since then. It made the mansion feel like it was telling us the story of the game, and made it feel like it was a morbid narrator of sorts.
If you’re thinking that all of this could apply to the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center in Requiem, you’re absolutely right. Making your way through the facility as Grace and witnessing its devastation first hand gave us that same feeling of dread about what could be around the corner.
It was never as evident to us as the moment with the butcher in one of the previews. The sinister turn of its head and the pursuit that followed showcased a sense of tragedy mixed in with the confusion that Grace clearly felt about the entire situation, being separated from Leon and forced to find her way back to him.
Speaking of Leon, let’s not forget the reason why he was at the Rhodes facility in the first place: his investigation into Gideon and Elpsis for reasons of his own.
The Search For Answers
Both Leon and Grace are looking to find a hint of information that would explain their respective predicaments. And in typical Resident Evil fashion, they do that by exploring the facility that brings all of the horror that the franchise has been able to muster. However, horror is only one part of the franchise’s formula. There’s also a sense of intrigue that’s a major component of its efficacy.
We’re taking you back to where it all began for Leon, and Resident Evil 2 Remake is our destination. Specifically, exploring the RPD after so many years was familiar both in terms of route planning, but also in the apprehension we felt even as we went through familiar levels that we had often revisited over the years.
The Remake was a welcome burst of nostalgia peppered with the tension that only Resident Evil can do in such a unique fashion. We knew the places we were in, but it never felt safe. And yet, we continued to make our way through it, wondering what the Remake had changed and whether there was a new zombie waiting for us in a location that our memory felt should be devoid of them.
From a story perspective, investigating the unknown is among that game’s major draws, and that carries over to Requiem along with a potentially similar dose of nostalgia as we are assuming we’re going to revisit the RPD in some capacity according to trailers. The ruins of Raccoon City being featured in the trailer, and the fact that the story is taking us back to the original incident that served as a catalyst to Leon’s life trajectory all point to that being a possibility.
Dealing With A Stalker
We’re still quite sure that the Stalker in Requiem is somehow connected to Alyssa, but that’s not what we’re here to discuss. But we want to focus on how it appears so suddenly, and drastically changes the pace of Grace’s sections in a way that shifts your movements from careful and measured to outright panicked, and subsequently sloppy.
The developers were quite proud to show off how Grace’s animations took on a more clumsy moveset in the event that she was running from the Stalker (and probably any enemy considering her absolute terror). We’re going to go out on a limb and say that we’re going to be feeling the same, and play in the same sloppy and desperate style that she adopts. That’s a compliment to how Resident Evil designs its experiences.
Remember Nemesis from RE3? Well, we certainly did. And it’s for this very reason that we thought of that monstrosity when we saw how The Stalker in Requiem always burst on to the scene and created chaos until we could find a safe spot to regain our composure. Being pursued by Nemesis felt exactly the same, although we must admit that the Stalker feels a lot scarier thanks to its evolved hunting methods.
But once again, The Stalker does feel like a tribute to all of the other ones that have been a part of some of the franchise’s best experiences. This is just the final form of a presence that has long been a thorn in our side. And it brings us to our next area of intersection with past titles.
Leon’s Action-Packed Sequences
Of course, if we’re talking about nostalgia, Leon’s new skill set is a lovely callback to his story in RE2 Remake and the eventual evolution of his ability to deal with BOWs. His new moves mix in the best from his appearances in RE4 Remake and RE6 along with the action DNA from RE5, making him feel like a squad from those titles all on his own!
But of course, stealth is equally a part of things in Requiem, and there’s no better example of it than Grace’s time evading the Stalker.
The Struggle For Survival
There’s a constant nagging though that survival isn’t really a guarantee in Requiem, and that’s something it shares in common with a lot of past titles in the franchise. Although we’ve been assured that Grace and Leon share their screen time equally, that could just be a red herring and Gideon could take one of them out of the equation.
That thought has been nagging us ever since Leon’s reveal, and all the buzz around his incredible combat abilities could be a smokescreen for a premature end to his investigation. While Grace’s constant vulnerability is very much on display, Leon’s isn’t, and we can’t help but wonder if it’s his years of training or a subtle nod to how his story ends. But why did we even think of it that way?
You only have to look as far back as Resident Evil 7 Biohazard for the answer to that question. Ethan’s entire clash with The Bakers came with the underlying threat that we were constantly being hunted, making for nearly all of its spaces feeling unsafe and a tension that builds up way more than we were ever allowed to recover from in the game. Death always felt like it was just a moment away, and the story only elevated that sentiment to new heights. It didn’t help that Mia’s fate was in the balance right up to the very end and based it off your choice at a very crucial part of the narrative.
And then there was Village, where Ethan was in way over his head in the search for Rose, a fact made painfully clear to him in the early sections of the story. We were constantly thinking about how none of what he was forced to face was within his pay grade, especially when Chris and his Squad were a part of the story.
Grace is similarly out of her depth while a trained operative is out there doing his thing (although getting to play as Leon is a welcome change) in Requiem. Both Ethan and Grace survive through improvisation, finding creative ways to address seemingly impossible problems while Chris and Leon use a more conventional approach.
In both cases, there’s a feeling that you’re constantly on the run from something that’s out to brutally tear you apart. And that’s not to mention that there’s an eerily similar version of the baby from Village coming your way in Requiem.
An Anniversary Title Indeed
It’s so easy to see similarities between Requiem and its predecessors. But while they exist, the new game blends them all together so well that it stands out on its own while remaining a glowing tribute to the survival horror genre.
It takes the inspiration that the best of the genre’s games provide, and looks to bring an evolution to its formula that could be the start of a new chapter for Resident Evil. And that might be its biggest strength. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait too long to find out!
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
