19. Resident Evil Requiem (PS5)
Resident Evil Requiem (RE9) is really a tale of two games. On one hand, you gave some of the best survival horror gameplay and atmosphere the series has seen since RE7 and some of the classic RE titles. On the other hand, you have a balls to the wall horror action game that takes its cue's directly from some of the more over the top entries such as RE5, RE5, and dare I say, even a hint of RE6 (I mean that it the best way possible, honestly). The first half of the game absolutely leans way more into the unfiltered survival horror gameplay mentioned, while the second half is predominantly an action game first and foremost. For some, this is going to be fairly jarring, however the way it is implemented and how things play out in terms of RE9's settings and stories absolutely works. The end result is one of the best Resident Evil games ever made, and possibly the best modern RE game.
During the 10 hours it takes to beat RE9, you'll be transitioning between the two main characters of the game, Grace Ashcroft and series veteran, Leon Kennedy. Despite being an FBI agent (FBI analyst if you want to be more specific), Grace is a fairly fragile and relatable character. Aside from a few key parts, Grace definitely comes across as a fish out of water and is struggling to survive, much less just stay sane and calm in the insane situation she finds herself in throughout the game. She isn't a trained badass like Jill Valentine or a natural born badass like Claire Redfield; Grace is just a fairly ordinary first who is just trying to survive with the little personal and physical resources given to her. As you've probably already surmised, Grace's gameplay is pure survival horror where you'll be doing all you can to avoid conflict, which will always be the prescribed method of success given how little ammo, health items, and general resources are available to her.
On the complete flip side of this, Leon's gameplay is all action, stealth and avoidance be damned. The way forward with Leon is always through an endless wave of zombies and other BOW enemies, leaving in your wake a trail of blood, guts, gore, and destruction. RE9 supplies you with plenty of ammo and supplies to accomplish this, although I'd be lying if I said there aren't a few sections of the game where maybe you'd want to be more judicious about how much ammo you're using and how many enemies you engage. Luckily, there are a variety of more creative ways to slay your enemies such as traps and obstacles, almost taken right out of RE4. The bottom line is that you there is barely a dull, slow moment when Leon is behind the wheel.
RE9 starts you out in Rhodes Hill Care Center, a building that takes a lot of inspiration from the Spenser Mansion in terms of his design and aesthetics. Still, the care center offers enough of its own unique qualities where you won't just feel like Capcom reheated the main setting of RE1 and threw a new coat of paint on it, hoping no one would notice. No, Rhodes Hill is a genuinely interesting and fun survival horror sandbox where as Grace you'll be carefully backtracking to different areas of the complex, collecting keys, solving puzzles, and pretty much doing all the amazing survival horror tasks many old school fans of the franchise can never seem to get enough of. There are brief sections where RE9 switches you over to Leon and you'll go from carefully avoiding zombies to killing anything that moves, but the first half the of game is mostly a survival horror experience. Those action portions with Leon are simply an appetizer for the second half of the game.
While I won't spoil where the second half of the game takes place, let's just say it was featured in a lot of the trailers so it should hardly be a surprise to anyone. Within the dilapidated ruins of this new area, you'll be playing almost exclusively as Leon. While there are some light puzzles and areas that flirt with survival horror, make no mistake that the vast majority of RE9's second and final acts are action packed. For some, this may be disappointing, but given how well, both the action and survival horror aspects of RE9 are, it's hard to imagine anyone being disappointed with any portion of the game. Still, all things are not created equal between RE9's survival horror and action gameplay.
I felt like RE9 did a way better job being a survival horror game than an action game. That's not to say the action portions were bad, I just found them not as well designed, with some parts of Leon's trek through the second half of the game to be a chore at times rather than genuinely fun. As for the survival horror gameplay and experience, it wasn't perfect, but I almost always enjoyed these sections more, minus a few minor complaints. With all that said, I feel like there were several amazing and also not so amazing boss fights in Leon's portion of the game. In fact, two of these boss encounters and their respective reveals had be going, "HOLY SHIT!" when they happened. Again, I'm not going to spoil anything, but fans of RE2 especially are going to love some of the crazy shit that happens later on in the game whole playing as Leon.
My main complaints with Grace's survival horror gameplay is avoidance of enemies did not always feel consistent. You're given a variety of tools and techniques to avoid confrontation entirely, but I found these conflict free methods to be fairly inconsistent in terms of them working as intended. For example, you can throw empty bottles to distract enemies so you can try and slip by them. However, sometimes enemies would ignore these broken bottles or be distracted for a couple seconds, before quickly turning around and spotting me, forcing me into a situation where I can to fight to avoid taking damage. There are also a few sections, particularly in the Rhodes Hill Care Clinic that maybe should have been thought out a little longer given how restrained they can feel, forcing you to take action in them even if you're trying to avoid that. As mentioned before, these complaints are fairly minor and don't distract too much from what is otherwise an amazing survival horror experience while you're playing as Grace Ashcroft.
I have far more complaints when it comes to Leon's action oriented gameplay. I played the game on standard difficulty, and even when doing this, some standard enemies were unbelievable bullet sponges. The worst part is how inconsistent it all was. One zombie taken out with a headshot from a shotgun at close range, would go down with one shot, while another standard zombie would take three head shots. Speaking of zombies, there is a variant of the walking dead that appears fairly early on in the game that is a complete nuisance and I dreaded fighting them for all the wrong reasons. Aside form just straight up combat, this is one section with Leon you encounter at around the halfway mark that sort of outstays its welcome. By the time I moved on to the next areas, I was beyond done exploring that previous part of the game. Like my complaints with the survival horror parts of RE9, the issues I have with the action gameplay are relatively minor, but certainly more of a big deal to the overall enjoyment of RE9 than those in the aforementioned parts of the game.
When it comes to RE9's story, it's mostly pretty good, but certainly has some flaws and annoyances. While I played playing as her, I wasn't completely sold on Grace's character and at times even found her to be a bit on the annoying side. Sure, she was definitely a fairly relatable protagonist, but I feel like the voice actress almost overacts when it comes to expressing Grace's terror and anguish at several parts. I also don't buy that an FBI agent would be as woefully unprepared to deal with a situation like the one Grace find herself in. Still, the character has enough development throughout RE9 to where I mostly came out in the end liking her. Still, she'd no Jill, Claire, or Ada, that's for sure. As for Leon, he's the same Leon us RE fans have been in love with for almost 30 years.
In terms of the plot, RE9 almost feels like a direct sequel to RE2 rather than being the 9th entry in a long running franchise. I say this in the absolute best way I possibly can as I haven't enjoyed a new, non-remake RE game like this in a long time. There are some genuinely nostalgic moments in RE9 that will make any RE2 fan become overwhelmed with feels. It certainly had the impact on me. Still, despite how lovingly RE9 serves as an almost direct sequel to RE2, the writing isn't perfect. The main villain is fairly hokey and almost becomes an afterthought in the second half of the game. Some of the plot too can be a little silly and also disappointing, but overall, the story and plot of RE9 is definitely pretty good and worth playing the game just to experience it.
Visually, RE9 looks incredible. It's hard to believe the RE Engine is almost a decade old given how amazingly well it renders characters, backgrounds and other visuals elements. I'd say there are small indicators it may be showing its age just slightly, but it still holds its own in 2026, that's for damn sure. Rhodes Hill looks amazing, however there are some more bland looking areas later on in the game, which while it makes sense why they'd look the way they do, they're still a bit on the bland side, especially when how long you have to play through one of them in particular. There's also an impressive variety of enemy models in the game, and also a pretty good spread of enemy types. Bosses are all amazing looking as well, with a few being among the best looking bosses we've had in an RE game since the 90s and early 2000s.
Finally, RE9's audio is pretty good for the most part. Music is a mix of creepy, original music made specifically for RE9, however it also possess some arranged and remixed classic RE songs that go with specific parts of the game. One of these arranged classic tracks gave me goosebumps in combination of what was happening on the screen. Still, I didn't feel like the original songs or the arranged songs in RE9 were as good as some of the older entires in the series, but saying they're anything less than pretty damn good would be inaccurate. The sound effects are also top notch and never miss a beat in terms of portraying the impact of weapons or damage to enemies and environmental objects. Enemies all sound nice and creepy too.
The voice acting in RE9 is a bit of a mixed bag. I already talked about some of my grievances with Grace's voice actress, but one of the main bad guys is also guilty of hamming it up a bit too hard and even overacting. I don't know if this was deliberate in order to remind players of some of the cheesy voice acting of the old, PS1 era RE games, but it didn't sound self aware enough to make me think this was the case. Still, outside these relatively minor issues with the voice cast, all the other performances were excellent, with Leon's being the best by far.
I knew going into RE9 that I would almost assuredly like it, however I'm once again surprised by just how much it exceeded my expectation regardless. RE9 is one of the most phenomenal entries in the series and is bound for greatness in a series with some very strong competition. I'd even go as far as to say RE9 is the best new Resident Evil game we've had since the PS1 era. I can't think of a single RE game, save the remake of the first Resident Evil game that does it for me quite like RE9 does. If not for maybe a bit more refinement to the story, gameplay, and audio, this would undoubtedly be my favorite RE game ever made. But even at second place, this is an outstanding game that I cannot recommend highly enough. (3/1/26) [43/50]
