Resident Evil Requiem Review: A Love Letter to the Survival Horror Genre

I’ve been playing Resident Evil since that first game came out, so you can imagine how hyped I am to write a Resident Evil Requiem review. Resident Evil is easily the most recognizable survival horror game. This term was coined for the first game 30 long years ago in 1996, defining forever what generations of gamers would expect from this genre.

The game released with a record-breaking reception on both Steam and Metacritic, proving that the expectation for the return of one of the franchise’s most beloved characters to the franchise’s most iconic city was exactly what the series needed right now.

TL;DR – Resident Evil Requiem Review Overview

Resident Evil Requiem: A Franchise Reborn

I will start my Resident Evil Requiem review by saying that I’ve gone through all the mainline Resident Evil games before I jumped into this one. Requiem excels in bringing back all of the classical elements that make the Resident Evil franchise a success. A considerable challenge considering the drastic changes it had over the years. 

Over time, Resident Evil went from being a fixed-camera exploration and puzzle-focused horror game to the action-packed monster-hunting delight of Resident Evil 4, RE 5, and RE 6, before moving to the first-person nightmare-fueled instances of the pure horror of RE 7 and Resident Evil 8.

Fans often wondered if it was possible to combine the modern gameplay of Resident Evil 4, 5, and 6 with the classic style of the first three games. Capcom began answering that question in 2019 with the Resident Evil 2 Remake and the introduction of the newly developed RE Engine.

The result was an instant success, with innovative gameplay and stunning graphics that reached a new peak with the Resident Evil 4 Remake, leading up to what we see now.

Two Heroes, Two Tones

Resident Evil Requiem masterfully merged all aspects of its predecessors by introducing Grace Ashcroft, an FBI desk agent, daughter of the Resident Evil Outbreak reporter Alyssa.

Grace’s gameplay is nerve-wracking. She is young, inexperienced, and traumatized by a past experience, all of which, combined with a masterful performance by her voice actress Angela Sant’Albano, makes for some of the best horror sequences ever made.

Her trembling voice and shaky hands, the dark and heavy atmosphere, combined with the next-level graphics, made it so that I really felt afraid and chose to avoid combat whenever possible. Grace also brought back the essence of the first RE games, with lots of exploration, limited resources, and few inventory spaces to manage while solving the ever-present puzzles that allow her to navigate the Rhodes Hill Hospital she’s trapped in.

I couldn’t write a Resident Evil Requiem game review without mentioning Leon – arguably, the fan-favorite of the whole franchise. In this game, he’s investigating a mysterious illness that has already killed five survivors from Raccoon City and is also affecting him and others close to him.

Leon is older, sick, and running out of time to find a cure, and many fans, myself included, were worried that this might slow him down. We were wrong. Leon’s sequences are action-packed, full of classical enemies, explosions, motorcycle chases, and a guns-blazing monster-hunting badassery gameplay that puts Resident Evil Requiem among the best third-person shooters ever made!

Grace uses cunning, stealth, and smart crafting of resources. Leon uses superior firepower, well-timed parries, and brutal finishing moves. And both of them seamlessly mingle in a way that just makes perfect sense to me. 

Old Places. New Enemies. Familiar Fear

It wouldn’t be a Resident Evil Requiem review without highlighting the settings. This game is mainly set in two places that are both new and familiar to fans of the series – Rhodes Hill and the ruins of Raccoon City.

While exploring the Rhodes Hill Hospital, even though it’s the first time we see it in the franchise, I couldn’t help but feel it was familiar in many ways. A big old mansion-like building with two wings separated by a huge hall with staircases in the center, exactly like the beloved Spencer Mansion and the R.P.D. from the classic Resident Evil games.

Doors with stylized locks and keys, puzzle mechanisms to open secret passages that would certainly baffle the contractors who built the place, safe rooms with large chests and old typewriters. All of that screams Resident Evil so loud I could hear the intro in my mind. The atmosphere Rhodes Hill Hospital sets for the player is heavy and dark, as well as intriguing.

The ruins of Raccoon City are where the Resident Evil nostalgia gets cranked to eleven, taking us back to places that, when we first saw them, were already overrun, but are now completely in ruins from a tactical nuke and 30 years of exposure. Some of the most classic enemies in the series return to these streets to terrorize us, and Leon all over again.

This is where the RE Engine truly shines for me – everything in the ruined city feels right. Distances and perspectives are as my brain expects them to be. Buildings, cars, fences, and everything else come alive to make it one of the most believable cities I’ve ever seen in any game.

Replayability & Performance

Something I want to highlight in my Resident Evil Requiem game review is how the game’s fixed puzzle solutions, varied routes, and engaging combat encourage players to tackle it faster, take on harder difficulties, and complete challenges to unlock not only achievements but also in-game items, collectibles, and costumes.

For those who enjoy a good challenge, the insanity difficulty and the infamous Final Puzzle are guaranteed to keep you coming back for more action and challenge your wits for several hours after the regular 10-hour campaign ends.

I played the game through Steam on my Ryzen 7 5700x processor, with 32gb of RAM, and an RTX 5070 graphics card, and had different results throughout the gameplay.

At first, I was able to run with the graphics settings to the absolute maximum, with Path Tracing making for some unbelievably good graphics experience and steady 60 FPS. It all ran smoothly with these settings while in the Rhodes Hill section of the game, with no lag, stutters, or graphical anomalies.

That changed when I reached Raccoon City. The vastly open scenarios have proven too much for my setup to handle, and I had to reduce some of the settings to high to ensure the steady FPS rate. I also encountered some graphical anomalies (disappearing dark spots in the ground) and some funky physics in the form of flying, distorting zombies every now and then.

Once that was adjusted, it kept running well all the way through, still fantastic graphics, steady FPS, and negligible loading times.

That being said, I have seen clips of long loading screens on weaker setups that I didn’t even know were loading screens on my playthrough, so if you take something from my Resident Evil Requiem game review, it’s to fine-tune your settings on weaker hardware to ensure the best experience.

My Overall Verdict on Resident Evil Requiem – The Best of All Worlds

As you can gather from my Resident Evil Requiem review, the game proves to be one of the strongest entries in the modern era and a substantial addition to the best survival horror games of all time. It has every element that makes this genre so fun to play and to revisit over and over throughout the years.

The story, while not groundbreaking, is solid, closes some very old open threads, and keeps you engaged from start to finish. The attention to detail is remarkable, from the shaky voice of the traumatized main character to puzzles in familiar locations still solved with the same correct solution from decades ago, and even the physical sensation is carefully replicated, requiring the same precise movements to navigate certain scenarios.

Great for: The complete survival horror experience – mazes, puzzles, horror, and monster-hunting action.

Less ideal for: Players who don’t enjoy complex scenarios, resource management, or horror in general.