Resident Evil: Requiem Review

Resident Evil Requiem is such a fascinating game in that considering how much success Capcom had with Village, you'd think they'd just do a variation on that or just make a more casual friendly RE like last time but no they chose to up their game and attempt something different...or at least aspects of Requiem can feel that way. That's the thing with RE Requiem, when it's good, it's great when it's bad, it can really be stupid. There's aspects of the game that are interesting and adds new spins on existing ideas but there are other parts that ride off the coat tails of nostalgia. It's been said many times that it's a tale of two REs but I'd argue it's that while also being a tale of two Capcoms. The storytellers and as game designers.

I'll start off with the story and to no surprise at all, it's terrible. I always found it amusing how much effort Capcom puts into the narrative of these games since the overarching plot of the series is convoluted fecal matter. I'll keep my critique to this just this game as much as I can. It turns out there's another surviving Umbrella researcher named Victor Gideon. Who isn't named until now among such other names like James Marcus, William and Anette Birkin, Albert Wesker, Ozwell Spencer and are Sergei Vladimir and the Red Queen canon anymore? I don't know. You got a new character through Grace Ashcroft whose mother from the Outbreak games suffers the same fate as Harry Mason in Silent Hill 3. Grace tries to be like Stanley Goodspeed from The Rock but isn't as likeable while asking people if they are lying or wanting to give her life to protect blind girl who is a grotesque monster but only knew her for a few hours.

Leon and Sherry got infected by some virus offscreen and he needs to remind everyone that there's still some connecting tissue to the franchise considering the Ethan Winters games were basically filler arcs. He goes through some CGI movie bike chases with some nostalgia pandering to the RPD while him dealing with both Victor and a Wesker wannabe known as Xeno. It all culminates with Ozwell Spencer being a very important character despite being dead since RE5 and the story won't really acknowledge this. Then the it ends with Leon's disease he got off screen being cured and contacts Chris for more episodes for this on going terrible TV show.

Alright, I did speak about the story in a more facetious manner than I normally do but trying to actually talk about it with it a straight face would be even harder to do.

Now the tale of two REs and Capcom as game designers. The game fares much better here or at least during the Care Center part and to a lesser extent the downtown Racoon City portions.

If we are talking about the Care Center where you play as Grace. It is some of the best survival horror gameplay the series has ever seen. There's so many new things added to breathe new life into the gameplay. You have the zombies with different characteristics, personalities and patrol patterns where their characteristics change the more of the map you unlock. There's zombies like the Chief and singing lady for example.

Not only this but you can either sneak past them by using stealth but if you get caught or you can stagger them with bullets and make a quick getaway or run and try to break line of sight.

The zombies also can't be killed unless if you use a hemo injector or the Requiem Bullets so it's best to pick and choose which zombies you want to get rid of especially on which routes you want to take. They turn into Blister heads and can be very damage spongey, it's better to not use bullets but to either have Requiem bullets or stun them and then use a hemo injector so the game heavily encourages to never fight them.

The Care Center itself is one of my favorite maps in the series up there with the likes of the Spencer Mansion and the RPD. It has enough shortcuts and twists and turns and it's just large enough to not be overwhelming. I still have the west and east wing connecting hall in my head.

This is however not all of Requiem. You got the action sections with Leon and they range from, "this is kind of cool but that was over fast" to "wished we had some longer levels" to "oh my this is terrible". There's the Blister Borne but you only fight him twice. The downtown Racoon City section was the best Leon part since it kind of has the same semi open world that Jacksville from TLOU2 had where there's an overarching objective but lots of secrets and side paths to find.

Then it's all downhill from there. You have a stupid Advent Children and CGI RE movie playable motorcycle chase. Then a REmake 2 RPD visit a series of weak bosses with Tyrant, Plant 42, and a TLOU style hitscanner battle horde fight that ends in killing Hunk.

It gets a better when you play as Grace and have to stealth past Lickers and get resources to use molotovs if caught and ends with a dumb boss against Victor. Who's Xeno again?

Overall, RE9 is some of the best RE but is messy too