Resident Evil Requiem offers fans of the series the best of both action and survival horror

The ninth main Resident Evil tries to split the difference between the series’ heavy entry and the more stressful hide-and-seek episodes. During a four-hour playthrough of some early episodes of Resident Evil Requiem, I spent time with both main characters, Grace and series mainstay Leon. They offer distinctly different play styles, talents, strengths, and weaknesses. While it’s not entirely new to the survival horror series (for one, playing as Chris Redfield offered more of a challenge than playing as Jill Valentine) this has never been announced.

I started playing as Leon, entering the medical center that he seemed to have been invited to. With the cavernous main hall, it feels like another iconic Resident Evil location, immediately reminding me of Raccoon City’s Police Precinct and even the original cave house. Wings to explore? Check it out. A suspiciously quiet and empty middle ground that will almost be eaten by zombies at some point? Maybe.

Both Grace’s and Leon’s parts can be played in third-person or first-person, although Leon’s parts seem better suited to third-person, as there is more shooting. Grace’s parts were intense and demanded my full attention, very much the same Disadvantages of sitting 7. During this first part of the game, there is a lot of hiding, a lot of character saving and a lot of learning from dumb mistakes. Parts of the game I played with Leon reminded me a lot Resident Evil 4 (or 5 or 6 – but let’s gloss over that).

Once in control, Leon is quickly attacked and must protect doctors, nurses and around 15 infected patients. It’s an important change of tone from Grace skulking around the place, hiding behind plants and sometimes hoping for the best.

Leon, fortunately, comes with several weapons, including a new melee option, the hatchet. Using this, he can attack the target to sever limbs and aim for the head to deliver massive damage. At least for these basic zombies, I’ve found constant slashing to be more effective than more targeted efforts – I’m sure future enemies will want more… stealthy methods. The latter enemy must be decapitated to kill him.

After a set number of throws, you’ll need to step back and sharpen the blade, which puts you in danger while not disrupting the chaos. The hatchet can even be used to slow down attacks – if you slow down.

Leon even uses a chainsaw during this first encounter, but only after claiming it from one active zombie who appears to have found it inside the hospital. It was important that they both take out this zombie and grab the chainsaw before another corpse turns it. However, just because the chainsaw falls doesn’t mean it’s turned off. I was seriously injured when I repeatedly rushed into a spinning power tool.

Zombies are average The Requiem they are also very small compared to previous games – if the zombie can be nuanced. While almost all zombies will attack you when you see them, they can be distracted or delayed based on who they were before they turned. For example, the chef zombie (a tougher, bigger zombie than the ones you’ve met up to that point) will only chase you from his kitchen. Exit the corridor and he will leave you alone. Elsewhere, a zombie (attached to an IV, good) has his eyes bandaged and will react violently to any sound. I used this to my advantage, throwing an empty bottle at another zombie standing nearby. The zombie zombie killed him immediately. At one point, a changed CEO fires his employee… killing him, muttering “You’re fired” as we do so. This little vignette gave me enough time to dim the lights and hide when he left his office.

In The Requiemplayers are expected to use each zombie’s behavior to overcome them. And a welcome dose of humor in a survival horror series, it reminds me a few times of camp Resurrection of the Deadanother zombie-centric Capcom series.

Leon doesn’t have to strategize too much, he comes up with a very powerful gun, the Requirement, which he eventually passes on to Grace. This can stop most (but not all) of the enemies you encounter, though it only comes with one bullet at first, so you have to make it count.

In the midst of a battle with a former patient who was bloated, I received a diagnosis The RequiemAwesome controls for action under pressure. Leon gets the gun and has to look away (and run away) from his “hungry” attacker. The environment in the building blocks is designed so it is easy to find out where you need to go and how to stop the big zombie from cornering you. Ammo, at least during this fight, dissipated, which was a relief after struggling to find ammo during Grace’s part.

Despite the lack of traditional weapons, Grace eventually receives an injection of blood (and the accompanying blood analysis system). These turn into Requiem’s construction plan. Powered by realistic buckets and pools of blood (you have to remove infected blood from certain parts of the environment and enemies), samples that can be combined with relics, herbs and more to create a super-powered first aid gun, explosive blood for injection, bullets and many other things. Analyzing different blood types (and solving simple puzzles) adds some creative options.

During the preview, the infected blood injection was only for Grace’s use. It will be interesting if only one character benefits from the art system, although Capcom is teasing custom weapons for Leon, which would better suit his play style. Grace may also be disabled by the mechanical save system popular in the first few RE games. This would mean that he would only be able to save if he had an ink ribbon, the most stressful part of inventory management at the beginning of the series – he can’t really catch a break. However, it seems to be adjustable in the difficulty settings.

According to Capcom’s Resident Evil trailer last week, infected blood will apparently play a major role The Requieminvolving both Leon’s past (apparently suffering from a mysterious illness) and the circumstances surrounding Grace’s mother’s death. And it wouldn’t be a Resident Evil game with mystery, buckets of blood, and a pulpy villain. Capcom has started with another interesting pirate The RequiemDr. Gideon, a former Umbrella doctor who seemed like he was written for the actor to play a full camp baddie – if the doctor’s coat with snake hoods wasn’t a giveaway.

Resident Evil Requiem will be released on February 27, 2026 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.