Leon Kennedy has a chainsaw. I am three minutes into Resident Evil Requiem, and my first struggle with a crowded hospital corridor filled with zombies is already shouting what appears to be the sport’s guideline: the stuff you’re keen on in previous Resident Evil, plus the stuff you’re keen on in new Resident Evil, smashed collectively into one decadent Resident Evil sandwich. Hope you are okay with zombie guts, as a result of the cafeteria’s all out of pastrami.
The three hours of Requiem I performed, swapping between a grizzled-but-still-got-it Leon and extra fragile newcomer Grace, deftly tiptoed the road between fan service and lightweight contact reinvention. Final time we noticed Leon in Resident Evil 4 Remake, Capcom had given him the flexibility to parry a chainsaw-wielding zombie along with his knife, and he is acquired the identical transfer right here with a hatchet—solely now when the mad physician drops his whirring noticed it goes skittering down the hallway, blade bouncing off the tile flooring. One other zombie picks it up, which is after I understand perhaps I can do the identical.
There’s a sublime marriage of character and fight on this brief part that introduces Leon: He instantly cracks a corny joke, is totally unfazed by an orderly being chainsawed in half, then makes use of the strikes honed in his final starring position to wrench away what was once his enemy’s deadliest weapon to slay half a dozen contaminated shamblers in seconds.
When Grace and Leon meet, he makes use of a magnum to pop the cranium of a monster that she’d been avoiding in a recreation of cat and mouse as a result of it might rip her to items. Simply one other Tuesday for Leon.
Capcom has declared Leon is simply too cool and assured to return to being petrified of zombies, so he brings with him RE 4 Remake’s wonderful parry, spacious attaché case stock, and a hearty well being bar. For the primary time since 2012’s Resident Evil 6, motion star Leon lastly will get to do one thing new, however this time in a type that pairs a lot better with the tense, puzzley bits of the older video games.
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The following two hours I performed as Grace unfolded in that extra classical Resident Evil vogue. The hospital—suppose “film insane asylum,” not sterile trendy facility—has the identical twisting lock-and-key format of Raccoon Metropolis’s police division or the unique Spencer Mansion, with the decor to match. The foyer, a welcome secure zone, is flanked by gleaming marble staircases main as much as the second story. Upstairs the halls are lined with quaint wooden paneling, whereas downstairs has a extra industrial really feel with a kitchen annnnnnd yep that is a large chef with a large butcher knife roaming round searching for meat.
Requiem brings again the latest RE video games’ monstrous “impediment” enemies to maintain the stress up as you wind Grace by means of tight hallways searching for doorways to unlock; the primary time I made a mad sprint previous the chef I stored working by means of a eating room the place three or 4 zombies have been feasting on what was left of the dinner crowd, then breathed a sigh of reduction when an upstairs hallway let me circle again to the foyer with out retracing my steps, low on ammo.
An much more hideous creature waited for me within the east wing, barely capable of squeeze his Tetsuo’d to hell mass of flesh by means of the broad halls as he lumbered round muttering fuck you. The tone leans extra in the direction of RE7 grit than RE4 goof when Leon is not on display screen dropping dad jokes.
A lot of Grace’s part feels acquainted, however in welcome methods:
- In fact there is a door that have to be unlocked by inserting three arcane objects into expectant indentations
- In fact there are tiers of key playing cards gating entry to additional progress
- Duh, the restricted stock retains you consistently on edge about working out of ammo or grabbing a therapeutic herb which may get in the best way while you discover a key merchandise.
The construction would not really feel stale as a result of Requiem peppers in simply sufficient of the brand new and the sudden. Crafting returns, expanded, from RE4 Remake, and I initially stifled a groan after I noticed it within the menu—my kingdom for a contemporary triple-A videogame with out a rattling crafting system—however then, uh, I preferred it. Grace can use a high-tech syringe to slurp up the blood from killed enemies and mix it with pretty uncommon bits of scrap materials to make ammo and different assets.
Does it make sense that zombie guts will be transmogrified into bullets? No! However to me the crafting feels prefer it’s working on the identical illogical wavelength as Resident Evil’s winkingly absurd puzzles, the place evil scientists have gone out of their strategy to seal the doorways to their workplaces with emeralds they cover together safes unlocked by particular sequences of astral runes.
There are simply sufficient new touches in Requiem that these previous bits land as cozy construction fairly than antiquated design. Grace can crouch to cover, which I discovered way more tense than the previous tank management weaving round shambling zombies. First individual (which you’ll be able to swap to at any time) makes touchdown headshots with treasured bullets simpler, however the lack of peripheral imaginative and prescient instantly spikes my nervousness. One of many new craftable objects, an instakill injector, can be utilized to safeguard towards zombies who mutate right into a extra aggressive type after being “killed”—I coveted these, detest to waste one on a daily enemy.
Once I lastly swapped from Grace again to Leon, it was cathartic to introduce the zombies I might been tiptoeing round to his shotgun. I hope that throughout the complete recreation, this back-and-forth construction serves to stability out the standard videogame energy curve. Greater than a decade since RE6’s bold multi-campaign story, it is a good time to strive once more. Resident Evil 6 was an motion recreation carrying a horror pores and skin, however Capcom’s previous few years of experimenting with first-person {hardware} and redesigning Resident Evil 4’s motion sans Fast Time Occasions make me suppose all of the items are in place to actually make survival horror and motion sing in concord.
It is exhausting to be scared while you’re loaded for bear with late-game stockpiles of ammo and therapeutic provides, but when Leon’s sections are primarily punctuation for longer stretches of scrabbling survival, Requiem could actually pull off the trick of marrying two very completely different branches of the sequence.
