T w e n t y S i d e d

This “review” will be spoiler free for Resident Evil Requiem.

I rarely preorder games anymore. I’ve learned to wait to see if a game turns out to be a disaster or if I lose interest. My backlog is big enough. I don’t need to add to it and waste money at the same time. On this particular release I deviated from that path for Resident Evil: Requiem because I’ve grown very attached to the series in the recent past. Also the few trailers I ended up seeing sold me on it. Now that I’ve gotten the game and gotten through to the end of it, I’m left conflicted. I enjoyed my time, but was the game actually good or do I just love the IP?

I’m a more recent fan of the franchise, if you can call 2017 recent. Resident Evil 7 is my favorite horror game of all time and it was my first true foray into the franchise. I had dabbled in the past, but never played through a full game until I had a wander through a house full of aggressively welcoming swampbillies. From there I was hooked. I’ve now played through and 100%d each main title in the franchise except RE3 because of a long burnout-related break and RE6 because that game is a mess. Basically what I’m saying is that I’ve taken in a lot of the IP in a short amount of time and I love the franchise now. That means Requiem had me hyped when I saw that my favorite emo-haired 40-something was back to kick ass. So I picked it up and took my time through things.

When I was starting the game I was met with a weird settings prompt. Which perspectives did I want for which characters? Odd. Even weirder is the suggestion that Grace’s sections be played in first person and set Leon’s sections to third person. That was my first indication that the devs took a chance on a somewhat weird approach. They were going to combine the horror-first focus of RE7’s design with the actiony gameplay focused design of RE4.

Now, in theory, there’s nothing wrong with that approach. Resident Evil: Requiem would hardly be the first game to have two very different types of gameplay woven together to tell one story. However I don’t think they stuck the landing on this one very well.

Grace’s sections have a true tension and nervous energy that I would expect for the type of horror that came out of Resident Evil 7’s school of design. I always felt like I never had quite enough resources and I was just a couple mistakes away from a nightmare of painful restarts or even a fresh playthrough. In short, they designed the Grace piece excellently in a vacuum. Then we switch to Leon and the game feels like RE4make. You’re a badass who is still vulnerable and has to think on your feet, but you’re never helpless unless you’ve backed yourself into a corner with mismanaged inventory and route decisions. In a vacuum Leon’s story feels great. Then the devs took these great separate games and stapled them together.

The two protagonist’s stories do complement each other and converge. It’s not as though the two parts are entirely disparate. I just feel that the tonal difference makes for an odd experience overall. One moment I’m running for my life down a corridor from a giant man with a weapon, the next I’m suplexing mooks while jogging down my path from point A to point B. The devs took a swing on combining the best of two worlds but it ends up feeling like parents keeping it together for the kids. It’d likely be best for everyone if you kept the two apart.

The story is great. I won’t go into details but it’s pretty much what you’d expect from a Resident Evil title. Very silly and dumb in the best way. Grace Ashcroft as the new protagonist is a welcome addition, though I did get tired of her forced-feeling stutter. The stutter is clearly there to make her seem unsure in scary situation, but it’s entirely too pronounced and predictable. It reminds me of people’s hate for the protag of RE7, Ethan’s whines and quips. It doesn’t take away from the experience but it irks me.

Graphically it’s a bit gray but the game is mostly urban and dystopian at times so gray makes sense. The enemy designs are pretty damn cool. It doesn’t feel like you’re just mowing down hordes of the same, lame shambling zombies.

Overall I just don’t know where I land on this one. I enjoyed my time with the game but I feel like the story telling may have benefited from a more RE2 approach where we are mostly experiencing the solo story of one protag before going through with someone else later on. Though it would need to be more than a varied route through the same building and enemies. Intermixing them felt messy. I applaud the attempt at something different and want it to be rewarded instead of letting the series stagnate into another Resident Evil 6. Keeping things weird is how progress is made. I want to keep Resident Evil weird even if once and a while that means a good game made a bit wonky by the execution.

Ethan Rodgers