With Resident Evil’s ninth mainline entry, Capcom finds itself at something of a crossroads. In recent years, Resident Evil games have flitted between nail-biting horror and enjoyably explosive thrills, leaving fans split between wanting the all-out action of Resident Evil 4 and VII’s more unsettling brand of survival horror.
When I played Requiem last year, it seemed pretty clear to me which spooky path players were being led down. As junior FBI agent Grace Ashcroft was relentlessly pursued, scrambling to survive while defenseless and alone in a dark asylum, I assumed that Requiem would merely be re-treading the same PT-esque ground it did with Resident Evil VII. After spending another three engrossing hours with Requiem more recently, however, it turns out that I couldn’t have been more wrong. Capcom’s long-awaited sequel manages to channel both the action-packed thrills of Resident Evil 4 and the raw, disquieting tension that made Resident Evil VII so captivating. Where Resident Evil Village felt like an uneven compromise between action and horror, Capcom does not seem worried about Resident Evil Requiem being either too scary or too trigger-happy–it’s just giving players the best of both.
Requiem’s final preview kicks off by putting me in the dust-coated boots of the internet’s favourite Unc’, Leon Kennedy. After pulling into Rhodes Hill hospital in the dead of night, he’s met by a nurse who wearily answers the door before showing Leon around the dimly lit facility. As we roam the deathly quiet corridors, she explains that Rhodes Hill is a chronic pain treatment center under the control of one Dr. Gideon, a renowned surgeon who administers “experimental therapies” to patients. We can all guess where this is going. Sure enough, as I’m led up the eerily silent and half-illuminated halls moments later, I come face-to-face with a staff doctor–but he’s wielding a blood-soaked chainsaw.
