BONUS LEVEL 3 - RESIDENT EVIL REQUIEM >MENU

chameleon

Resident Evil Requiem is the 9th mainline Resident Evil game, which is a dorkgamn lot of games. But how do you keep things fresh and interesting, when there have been so many other attempts to do the same thing? What type of Resident Evil game do you go for, do you make it a bespoke 1st person haunted house experience like 7? An action packed survival horror adventure like 4? A dual-narrative divergent story like 2? What if, my friendzoned friend (unless...?), you did everything? And it somehow all worked to make possibly the best Resident Evil game yet? But surely, this would require some sort of dark bargain with an ancient deer god?

Lets work backwards through my points above. So, the dual narratives. Like Resident Evil 2, Requiem features 2 protagonists - series veteran Leon Kennedy and newcomer Grace Ashcroft. These two share the role of protagonist differently than Leon and Claire do in RE2, rather than controlling one character for the entirety of a playthrough you switch between Leon and Grace at certain points in the story. Leon and Grace have their own sections, they overlap and meet during the course of the story but for the most part they are separate - especially at the beginning. In RE2 there are sections that are played as both Leon and Claire, this is not the case for Requiem. This is the right approach to take, as Leon and Grace's vastly different gameplay mean that the environments themselves need to be different to facilitate them. Speaking of gameplay...

Ever since Resident Evil 4, Leon has been synonymous with the action horror side of Resident Evil no matter how much Capcom try and make it Chris. Sorry Chris. Continuing this trend, Requiem's Leon sections are about making as many zombies stop moving as possible. He starts with an infinite (barring some sharpening every now and then) hatchet that allows him to kill downed enemies and becomes a walking arsenal over the course of the story. Pistols, shotguns, rifles, machine guns, grenades, a single friendly RPG. Players can use a variety of these weapons at their discretion, there are at least 2 varieties for each type of weapon each with their own strengths and weaknesses. At a certain point in the story, Leon also gets access to a supply crate that tracks his kills - granting him points that he can then use to upgrade various aspects of his guns. And buy some body armour, to protect his, uh, guns. The key to Resident Eviling is managing resources, in Leon's case this usually takes the form of staggering enemies with a few gunshots, then roundhouse kicking them into a wall before cleaving their head with his hatchet. Of course, this isn't going to work on every enemy - some types are far more resistant to being staggered and some aren't finished off with a hatchet attack. And when you're being swarmed by enemies, the lengthy process of shoot, stagger, slash isn't going to deal with a horde. The player has to make quick decisions as to what to use in the moment, whether it's the time to go all out or play it safe and conserve resources. It's an addictive gameplay loop, supported by the classic Resident Evil formula of item-based puzzles to add that little bit of extra stress to inventory management.

Some enemies encountered by Leon will carry melee weapons, which hurt more than regular attacks, ouchie. The realio dealio is that when these enemies are defeated or disarmed, Leon can pick up and throw these weapons at a nearby enemy. This is a small detail, but as a throwjitsu acolyte i had to mention it. There are also propane tanks that can be thrown at enemies and then shot to explode, nothing revolutionary but still very fun to do. Boom! Kaboom! Also funny is that Leon can craft the 'stacked grenade', which is two grenades sellotaped together and is delightful. A special mention needs to be made for Leon's section in Raccoon City, where he explores the now derelict Raccoon City Police Department. Obviously this is where a large part of Resident Evil 2 takes place, and is one of the most iconic locations in the series. There's a genuine sense of memory and nostalgia in this area, it's almost surreal seeing this previously familiar environment in this new state. Trippier is how there are certain details that call back to Leon's time in RE2, like the jack previously used to move the bookcase in the library still being present. Safes that once contained items are left opened, there's even a skeleton of a specific corpse in RE2 found in the exact same place. It's fanservice, with not a big jiggly boob in sight. It also stands out from other sections in the game, in that there is only a single enemy to be found here - one remaining police zombie. This leaves space for something uncommon in RE games, quiet reflection. It reminds you how far the game has come as a series, with all the steps and missteps (cough cough 6 cough) along the way. i don't cry because i'm a hyper masculine super straight (i almost did at the end of Deltarune chapter 5 haha can't get me), but there was many a twinge walking around the RCPD.

Maybe one of the best ways to compare Leon and Grace's gameplay is through a specific enemy, the Blister Heads. These are dangerous double-mutated zombies that can spawn from the corpses of previously killed zombies, and are faster, tankier and more aggressive. Within the first 45 minutes of Leon's gameplay he fights 4 of them at once, Grace maybe fights 4 over her entire playthrough. Leon has enough guns to arm a small country, Grace has 2. And they're both pistols. Granted, one is the extremely powerful Requiem revolver, but ammo for it is rarer than literate Reform voters. Instead, Grace's gameplay prioritises combat only when necessary, with a host of ways to avoid encounters. Firstly, the enemies Grace faces are different. They're still zombies, but they retain some memory of their unundead life. They'll shamble around repeating routine actions from their past, if Grace waits and observes it's possible to avoid them entirely. Certain enemies are fixated on lights and will turn them off whenever they're turned on, meaning Grace can lure them into different areas to get them out of the way. There's a particularly bulky chef enemy that stumbles around the kitchen bashing meat with a cleaver, it's entirely possible to creep around and take advantage of his pathing to avoid him. Particularly nasty are blind zombies who are incredibly sensitive to noise, who are harmless if they don't detect Grace but deal high damage and move erratically when disturbed. Grace can take advantage of this by throwing glass bottles at other zombies, the blind ones will then proceed to attack the unfortunate zombie believing them to be the source of the noise. Inevitably, Grace will have to kill some zombies during her sections. The best way forward is to stagger enemies with pistol shots to the head or legs, then shove them over and either run away or try and destroy the head. Because, zombies that still have their head have a chance of mutating into the horrifying Blister Heads described earlier. The best way to deal with these is either rare Requiem bullets, or the use of a hemolytic injector. These are single-use items that will cause an enemy to explode in a gloriously bloody shower. These are equally rare, but can also be used to stealthily kill enemies from behind and mean they don't leave behind a corpse - so they can't mutate into a Blister Head. Wise use of these will prevent inconvenient mutations, and critically save other resources for different situations. And they really make zombies burst into a lot of blood think the bed scene from Nightmare on Elm Street.

For reasons that should be becoming apparent from what i've already said, Grace's campaign is scarier than Leon's. Not only because of her more limited firepower, but because of how her gameplay sections are built. Firstly, the intended experience as Grace is in first-person, compared to Leon's third-person action sequences. Obviously, this puts the player directly in her shoes and makes them feel closer to the spookums. You've got to get right up close to a door to open it, leaving you vulnerable to all manner of spooky hombres waiting on the other side. This vulnerability is exploited by scripted jumpscares, which are much more effective the closer to the action you are. Like i said earlier i'm a hyper masculine super straight so i don't get scared but i could imagine someone else getting scared, especially in the basement. This is where Grace will have the most contact with The Girl - Requiem's stalker enemy.

Alright i've got to come clean i'm not a hyper masculine super straight i like to crochet small animals and am canonically ace but the basement reminds me SO MUCH of Amnesia: The Bunker that it's still terrifying even on repeat playthroughs where i know exactly what's going to happen and what to do. You've got to collect three electrical plugs to open the cell doors, you do this by using the one electrical plug you do have to open specific areas to retrieve the other two. The kicker is that power is only provided when the plug is inserted into the area's socket - when the plug isn't in the area is locked down in darkness. This is bad, because the whole time you're doing this you're being pursued by The Girl, who is terrifying, cannot be killed and the only thing that stops her is light. This makes a nerve-shredding dance of trying to progress while keeping The Girl at bay, made crueler by some lights having a chance to fail. There is one safe zone in constant light no enemies can enter, but this just provides a guaranteed space for you to curl up and have a breakdown. 10/10.

From now on when i can't think of a meaningful way to end a post i'm just going to ask you to imagine Wario saying 'OH MYY GOOOOOD'

cowabunga dude