Since its first game release in 1996—when Raccoon City’s S.T.A.R.S. agents navigated the zombie-infested Spencer mansion—the Resident Evil series has traveled a long and undead road. There have been some 11 core-story games in this survival horror franchise. And when you fold in remakes and spin-offs and other gaming add-ons, that number of console titles rises to right around 30 games.
So, can there possibly be anything new to reveal in this chronicle of mankind’s struggle against the Umbrella Corp’s humanity-mutating t-Virus? It seems so. And from a pure gamemaking perspective, Resident Evil Requiem has been declared one of the better titles in the series
This go ‘round, gamers tag team between two central characters.
The first is Grace Ashcroft, a nervous, awkward and generally not-made-for-this-sort-of-stuff FBI agent. She’s pulled from her desk job and sent in to analyze a series of murders at the derelict Wrenwood Hotel—the very place where she saw her own mother killed some eight years earlier.
Later, Division of Security Operations agent Leon Kennedy shows up at the Wrenwood as well. He’s essentially trying to hunt down Victor Gideon, a former Umbrella Corp researcher. Leon is infected with something called the “Raccoon City Syndrome,” a mutated strain of the t-Virus that’s affecting survivors of the Raccoon City bombing (which took place nearly three decades ago at the end of an earlier Resident Evil game).
Oh, and it just so happens that the creepy and powerful Victor Gideon is very eager to meet and get his hands on Grace. For though she is completely unaware of it, she is the key to a new plan of bioterrorism and evil power.
As mentioned, Requiem splits its gameplay between the two protagonists: Leon’s sections are action-oriented and focused on heavy-weaponry battles. As the story continues, he struggles with his worsening health as he takes on larger and larger mutations of festering flesh and muscle. Grace’s sections focus more on stealth, solving puzzles and the agony of facing intimate and suffocating horrors that want to consume her.
Resident Evil Requiem is a single-player survival horror game that does not offer a multiplayer option or local co-op. The PC version of the game currently requires a constant, active internet connection to play.
One of the main reasons that Grace doesn’t instantly run for the hills is her desire to protect a blind and vulnerable young girl on whom Victor Gideon seems to be experimenting. On the whole, Grace and Leon are both heroes who want to save humanity from a horrible, deadly threat.
As with most Resident Evil games, Requiem is packed with grime, rot and festering corruption at every turn. But the highly detailed, cinematic and immersive graphics of this entry make that corruption all the more realistically palpable.
That CGI detail carries over into the bloody gore and blister-bursting mess on hand as players hack away at slavering enemies. They use knives, hatchets and a chainsaw, and they pull the triggers on SMGs, handguns, machine pistols and shotguns. Rancid goop splashes the scenery routinely, and we see scattered body parts.
Soldiers’ heads get lopped off, and their entrails spilled. People get stabbed through the neck, have their throats slit and their limbs dismembered. A zombie gets stabbed in the eye. Bodies get ground into pulp.
One of the simple but impactful changes in Requiem is the fact that the shambling and decomposing humans infected by the t-Virus keep their memories this time. So, they’re festering monsters, but they’re also soldiers, policemen, doctors and nurses who retain a sliver of their former humanity. That makes their bloody and eviscerating destruction that much more tragic.
There are also gruesome, malformed horrors by the score here—some that are 15 feet tall—that grasp, slash and regularly vomit corrosive bile at gamers. And the game’s foul language spew includes f- and s-words.
Resident Evil Requiem is a well-balanced gamemaking composition filled with blistering horror, fast-paced action, interesting characters and bombastic terrors. But its flesh-rending and massive, vesicle-erupting gore make for a messy and disquieting concert.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
