Resident Evil Requiem Is A Beautiful and Emotional Blaze of a Story

After much hype, teasing, trailers, and waiting, Resident Evil Requiem launched on Feb. 27, 2026, to the roar of gamers worldwide. Whether as a player or a viewer of let’s plays, Requiem captures the anticipation and energy we felt before release. From cinematic graphics to gameplay details, this game is a worthwhile experience.

Things Get Graphic in High Definition

The most obvious feature is the unavoidable graphics in your face. They are serene, with textures, lighting, and a color palette that feel real. Environmental design and detail are beautifully captured. The ruins look dusty; the labs are sleek; the blood is gooey and thick; the flesh almost smells repugnant.

The same can be said about the main and NP characters for Requiem. The devs mimicked life into every person, zombie, and monster, ensuring that all the features catered to the five basic senses. You can see Leon’s uneven facial hair, the reddening of Grace’s face when she’s held upside-down, the sweat from both characters after a zombie encounter, and, despite it being a zombie shooter, the controlled physics of the blood and gore when annihilating the monsters.

The Voice Work is Chef’s Kiss

Escorting the fine detail work of Resident Evil Requiem are the fantastic and talented individuals who breathed life into these beloved characters. The voice cast deserves a roaring round of applause, conveying the story’s tone.

• Angela Sant’Albano (Grace Ashcroft): Sant’Albano provides Grace with the right balance of fear, uncertainty, and strength. Her voice work isn’t too much or too little, resulting in a realistic depiction of a regular person experiencing this horrific journey.
• Nick Apostolides (Leon Kennedy): Returning to the franchise as Leon Kennedy once again, Apostolides implants the right amount of emotion and gruff expertise of a seasoned DSO agent who’s seen it all. Not too emotional like in the Resident Evil 2 and 4 Remakes, but it gives enough breathing room to sell that Leon hasn’t let this job overtake his personality (because those cheesy one-liners are still coming in hot).
• Antony Bryne (Victor Gideon): Playing as one of the main antagonists, Antony gives Victor the villainous aura that makes players cringe and feel uncomfortable. His deliveries – whispers and exclamations – are imposing and collected, regardless of the way he says his lines. It isn’t over-the-top or stiff, and it fits like a glove.

I also wanted to shout out the introduction to self-aware zombies. In the Rhodes Care Center, we get to experience that the zombie staff and patients retained some cognitive abilities. From picking up chainsaws to scrubbing the mirrors, each individual eerily speaks about what they were doing before they became infected. The maids would be trying to clean the bathroom, another would be flipping light switches, and a woman would be singing.

Story: A Hopefully Truth Comes To Light

Resident Evil Requiem stands out for its storyline due to the theme around the concept of closure and putting the demons to rest. Three individuals are on the path, hoping for some form of closure and redemption: Grace Ashcroft, Leon Kennedy, and Dr. Oswald Spencer. Grace is determined not only to find out why she’s involved with Elpis but also the reason her mother was killed. Leon seeks a second chance to finally put the T-Virus down once and to move on from Raccoon City’s past.

Spencer is the one who ties both Grace’s and Leon’s demons because he wanted to find a way to make amends for opening Pandora’s Box. With all the viruses that were unleashed, Spencer’s final creation, Elpis, turned out to be a failsafe. This was the hope that was instilled into Grace by her mother, who mirrored it from Spencer after her interview with him. The fact that Elpis cures all variants of the T-Virus is a game-changer for the franchise. It’s a path toward a universal cure, instead of isolated vaccines.

Knowing the true nature of Elpis has given us a new direction the Resident Evil franchise could be heading. This can lead to a preventive vaccine, reducing outbreaks and the emergence of mutated strains. It can also be the key to finding a way to transform the zombies back into regular human beings. It’s a stretch, but not completely unreasonable. Heck, the hemolytic serum can be utilized in future weaponry to eradicate infected locations. That, or send in The Silent Patient to one-shot them all.

A Few Irritating Things

It was difficult for me to find faults inside Requiem, but a few things irked some gamers. The first is that the game is just too short, leaving many to find the pace uneven. The dual character switch is an interesting touch, but it didn’t make up for the fact that there could have been more. For example, the Arkly laboratory didn’t feel like a place but more like a decorative nostalgia walkthrough. Minimal enemies lurking around the pristine halls, and a boss fight that feels last-minute didn’t sit well.

On the note, we were hyped about returning to Raccoon City, but that felt like a marketing strategy. We mostly get a blast-from-the-past stroll through the setting, but nothing else. Just like Zeno, Raccoon City was more of a reference to the previous games instead of an actual place to play the story. It felt like more of an adventure track to show that Leon’s still got it, which isn’t bad, but we wanted to see more of the ruins and other mutated creatures lurking around.

The main issue with the game is the fact that they took the dual switch too literally. When Leon and Grace finally meet and “team” up, they don’t do anything together at all. Even when Leon is practically leaning on death’s door, he’s somehow able to fend for himself while Grace is on the back burner. It would have been satisfying to see them work together since the whole structure of the game centers on their individual perspectives. I’m sure Grace wouldn’t have minded dragging Leon while he’s dying.

Requiem is Worth The Time and Money

Despite those pet peeves, Resident Evil Requiem is a great installment that has given more to the branching storyline. We got the old and new woven into to put the original “monster” to rest and allow a new threat to take the throne. The graphics are phenomenal, the voice acting is great, and there were plenty of exploding bloody heads we could ask for. Requiem may have a short game length, but it now has plenty of mods to use and collectibles to find in the rubble.