Believe it or not, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is a decade previous this time subsequent 12 months. An instalment that modified the recreation for Capcom’s survival horror sequence, it made first-person the normal for mainline titles and introduced correct terror again after the failings of Resident Evil 6.
It’s fascinating, then, that subsequent month’s Resident Evil Requiem is described greatest as a mix of the two extremes.
Returning favorite Leon and newcomer Grace lead a marketing campaign cut up in half, with the former bringing the motion and the latter all about basic stock administration and tense fight. It is a fruits of Capcom’s work in the style over the previous 10 years, as the gameplay strokes of Resident Evil Village and Resident Evil 4 meet below one roof.
Resident Evil Requiem, due to this fact, presents itself as the definitive franchise expertise and the final PS5 horror recreation total. Three hours of play on PS5 Pro in an early part of the title has us satisfied that is true.
Our play session marked the first time Leon has been playable throughout the buildup to the recreation’s launch, as he opens the preview having simply arrived at the Rhodes Hill care centre. It in a short time turns into clear there are zombies on the free inside, permitting us the first style of motion gameplay in Resident Evil Requiem and a few of its new options.
This is the fight of Resident Evil 6 dialled up, with judo throws, flashy takedown strikes, and a hard-nut Leon. At this level, the recreation defaults to the third-person perspective, letting you get a greater view of your environment as zombies pour into the tight assembly room and reception space.
Leon is all about blasting the undead with bullets after which getting up shut to complete them off with an elaborate melee transfer. He’ll throw them over his shoulder, pose for a headshot, and execute zombies in quick-time occasions. The sequence additionally allowed us to steal the weapons sure enemies dropped at the combat — a brand new function in Resident Evil Requiem — with a physician wielding a chainsaw.
Once you’ve got killed the zombie, the chainsaw will violently fling itself about on the floor, persevering with to deal harm to anybody (together with you) that comes into contact with it. Once it settles down, you’ll be able to take the chainsaw for your self and minimize down the undead. An further layer to this, although, is that if you do not get to the weapon in time, one other enemy can take it for themselves.
It looks like Capcom is purposefully flamboyant with Leon’s part, because it even takes the time to introduce the scene with massive, daring lettering over the total display screen prefer it’s a Remedy recreation. Everything about enjoying as the fan favorite is so over the high, and it faucets into the type of motion that made Resident Evil 4 an all-time nice.
Leon quickly meets Grace inside Rhodes Hill, at which level the perspective adjustments to the newcomer from a first-person digicam angle. Most of our palms on session was spent enjoying as Grace, who has the total goal of escaping the facility by discovering three hidden quartz.
With no ammo in anyway and a a lot tighter perspective, it initially feels such as you’re enjoying a wholly totally different recreation as you’re taking management of Grace. All she will do is run away and attempt to survive till you attain the principal corridor, the place you may begin to refill on bullets and inexperienced herbs.
Grace and the way she performs have been the focus for many of Resident Evil Requiem’s advertising and marketing cycle up so far, so you may already be aware of the way it subscribes to the tense, survival horror framing of the previous two mainline entries.
Conserving your ammo, well being, and punctiliously releasing up stock slots for brand new objects as you discover, it is whereas enjoying as Grace that you’re going to encounter the basic puzzles of the sequence. Jewels are used to open locked doorways, images should be references for symbols, and Antique Coins may be traded for upgrades — it is basic Resident Evil.
What this newest slice of gameplay reveals is a handful of latest options and mechanics to cope with. As you discover the constructing, you’ll be able to extract blood from zombies, which kinds a kind of forex you may use to craft objects. In addition, there are take a look at tubes and formulation hidden in the atmosphere you’ll be able to accumulate and analyse to get extra crafting recipes.
The zombies themselves have then been given a facelift, as some will replicate the actions of the jobs and habits they’d earlier than dying. We encountered a zombie chef persevering with to chop meat in a kitchen, a zombie cleaner in the rest room, and a zombie singer in a bar space whose scream will briefly stun you.
One different new mechanic we noticed proper at the very finish of our preview brings again the concept behind Crimson Heads. If sufficient time has handed, zombies can come again to life in a extra highly effective type, sporting considerably extra well being, velocity, and further harm. They have a fleshy progress protruding of their head to mark the enhanced model, and add an additional stress to backtracking by means of areas you’ve got already explored — there’s all the time potential for the zombies to come back again to life.
All these little updates and gameplay enhancements work to improve the survival horror components the new mainline titles have subscribed to for just a few entries now, permitting Resident Evil Requiem to nonetheless really feel contemporary when enjoying as Grace. When cut up up between Leon’s action-focused sections, the total expertise ought to have a pleasant tempo to it, as you spend just a few hours blasting zombies after which swap to puzzle-solving and survival.
It’s this that might make Resident Evil Requiem certainly one of the definitive PS5 horror video games. It’s acquired the motion, and it is acquired the survival horror — it is a two-in-one pack of the greatest horror gameplay round. With all the Resident Evil allure, lore, characters, environments, and design on high, Resident Evil Requiem is shaping as much as be one other landmark second for the sequence.
If it will get all the things else proper past what we have performed, then Resident Evil Requiem will belong proper alongside what is taken into account the franchise’s biggest instalments. This might be one other Resident Evil 2 or Resident Evil 4 second.
Resident Evil Requiem releases for PS5 on twenty seventh February 2026. Have you already been satisfied to choose the recreation up in a month’s time? Let us know in the feedback under.
