I’ll introduce myself as your average RE fan. RE1R is my favorite game of the franchise and my personal top 5 of all time. I’m also a huge fan of RE2 and RE4R.

I went into this game without hype because I didn’t watch trailers or leaks because I was busy with work/studying and completing 100% achievments of previous RE titles. So I waited patiently and open minded. First I want to point what it does great.

1.What the Game Does Well

My first impression was very positive.

The hotel opening is excellent. Grace’s VA delivers an amazing performance, especially during the police zombie scene. It felt tense and well executed. Leon’s first horde segment in the city was also fantastic and his journey through R.C PTSD felt beautifully delivered and not nostalgia bait.

The sound design is arguably the best in the franchise. Weapon sounds finally feels powerful. The way gunshots reverberate differently in the medic care halls, echo in R.C., or sound dry and deafening in the basement is genuinely impressive (probably the best videogame that does it atm).

Models and animations are top tier. The zombies are probably the best they’ve ever been visually,mechanically and animated. Leon’s gameplay has a very high skill ceiling and is TENSE, which I loved. Now with the problems...

2. Structural Problems and Replayability

RE is famous for replayability, speedrun optimization, route planning, and meaningful NG+ rewards. Requiem is extremely scripted and linear. All RE games are scripted, but this one takes it much further.

There’s very little route optimization possible, the maps even the care facility are WAY to linear, the game is basically just halls after halls. Grace’s sections are heavily scripted, in specific anything that involves the Mutated Clone. Leon’s sections are also linear but at least RC gave a feeling of freedom.

The extra content system is unengaging. Infinite ammo can be universally unlocked at any time with just points. There’s no strong incentive like doing S+ runs in RE2, 3 or 4, or no weapon upgrade unlocks like in RE8. It feels closer to RE7 in replayability, linear and with bad NG+ (i know NG+ allows for more gun upgrading but it feels stale).

Grace’s segments especially hurts replay value because they are so extremelly linear around the clone encounters.

3. Map & Level Design

The care center is visually bland and fails as a “map-as-puzzle” design. RE traditionally makes the map the puzzle. Progressing through numerous keys and shortcuts.

Here, once you unlock east and west wings early in the game, most of the map is already open. The remaining locked doors are mostly loot rooms. It lacks layered progression.

Compared that to RE1’s Spencer Mansion, RE0’s testing facility, RE2/3’s RPD, RE4 & 8’s castles, this is one of the most forgettable "mansion like" maps.

The basement, care center's underground mini lab, R.C. section (which feels very TLOU-inspired), and ARK are also linear and exploration-light, giving a weird feeling, but definetly not a Resident Evil feeling.

4. Nightmare Mode and Balance

Nightmare difficulty was not playtested.

Early care center balance is awful. Leon’s first chainsaw (Ill talk solely about this later) encounter without ammo feels unfair due to how the dmg works. Grace having one bullet in the requiem while facing high-density zombies before accessing two weak pistol options is questionable design.

I love hard games, might say is mostly what I play. But compare this start where basically you cant do more than 1 route and 1 strategy, to RE2 B scenario, which is arguably one of the toughest starts in the franchise, but very doable with multiple strats before triggering MrX (this is great design) .

In Nightmare Zombies tank 9–10 shots, one-shot the player, move as fast, and are way harder to stun.

I need to stop and talk about zombie decapitation, because in this game they can either reanimate or mutate, decapitation is the only counterplay and feels almost impossible to achieve and barely a mechanic, i have no clue how the crit system was made in this game. There’s definetly no consistent critical system like RE2’s, where any zombie could be decapitated with a bit of luck. Infected in Requiem feel like unstoppable sponges that only one shot no matter your HP.

Also as a side note, Grace is unironically stronger than Leon (I can explain this if you want).

5. The Chainsaw Mechanic

Possibly the worst mechanic in the game.

It feels out of place, especially in R.C., and the gameplay loop around is broken.

When zombies grab it:

• They become tankier and unstunnable even when reaching for it (they can flinch but u cant kick them).
• They can one-shot Leon.
• They can throw it (and one shot).
• They have priority to grab it over Leon because unlike him they don’t need to wait for it to stop spinning.

When Leon uses it:

• 3–4 hits per zombie.
• No parry, which means you take unscaled damage while attacking. Only defensive use it has is as a grab counter, which still dmgs Leon.

Using it is literally worse strat than not using it, bordeline not a viable strat in Nightmare. And since it’s required for progression in multiple segments, zombies can repeatedly weaponize it and loop this awful mechanic.

6. Chasers and Horror

The chasers are heavily scripted and limited.

The fat giant zombie is confined to small specific routes. The butcher alwaus spawns/resets in fixed locations. The mutated Grace clone appears only in scripted events and doesnt really have much of a mechanic.

Compared to Mr. X or Nemesis, who created dynamic pressure, Requiem feel artificial.

Im surprised when people say this is one of the scariest if not the scariest Resident evils when horror itself relies almost entirely on jumpscares. The only moment that genuinely made me jump me was the tofu Easter egg. The game lacks real dread.

Compare it to RE7 (scripted but masterfully done horror) and REVillage Fetus (scripted and not a real threat but the first impression is pure horror and doesnt rely on jumpscares, just the tension and atmosphere)

7. Grace’s Stuttering

I liked Grace at the beginning. Her fear and stuttering felt natural. But even after becoming stronger post-Emily's death, she continues stuttering constantly, even in calm situations (with Leon or Zeno). Personally she becomes annoying, because in her calmest moments only thing coming out from her mouts are stuttering which i dont understand .

8. Lore and Retcons (correct me if i'm wrong)

The retcon direction is one of my biggest issues.

We now have yet another underground lab (ARK, it seems it never stops), (NOW) supposedly the real core operation behind Raccoon City. It reframes the bombing and outbreak as evidence erasure rather than virus containment.

Originally:

• Birkin caused the outbreak as a distraction to escape with the virus.
• Bombing aimed to contain the virus.
• Nemesis was sent to eliminate S.T.A.R.S, the living proof of what was going on with Umbrella and Spencer after the Mansion, because they were the only plausible survivors for the Outbreak in Racoon City.

Now we’re told pre-T-virus experiments involved super-powered children (1990) that are barely explored among other plots.

The game introduces major lore elements and never explores them:

• Victor, his background, apart from the basics, also how umbrella evolved Tyrants to be functional and completely inteligent since he is a Nemesis Tyrant. (This is so huge for the Lore and they dont explain anything).
• Zeno (Uroboros connection, possibly explain in a upcoming RE5R?).
• Experimented children (Where are they?).
• T-virus stage implications for legacy characters, if Leon is on the line of dying what happened with Chris,Jill,Claire,Rebecca,Ada,Carlos (At Hunks corpse you can see his wrist, he was also on the later stages of the T-Virus infection).
• Will they reproduce the Cure or is it not possible?

But none of this core lore plots are properly developed. The game covers too much and deepens nothing. Most of the Lore is focused on Grace. In four hours there is not much to develop, the story feels rushed and underexplained.

It should have been split into two campaigns like RE2 so they could have focused more on each perspective and what has really happening.

9. Nostalgia bait.

Leon returning to R.C. for trauma resolution was actually well executed.

However, elements like the Mr. X boss fight feel nostalgia-bait rather than narratively necessary. If Tyrants evolved into intelligent variants like Victor, why Zeno (Uroboros infected, arguably stronger than any Tyrant) needs a (upgraded?) classic Mr. X Tyrant bodyguard, if these Tyrants were barebones? Leon already killed one in 2 and it was shown they were impossible to kill unless blasted in half by a strong explosive and here we kill him with bullets and a axe?

Same with Lickers. Umbrella historically aimed to improve B.O.W. intelligence and capabilities, yet we still fight basic versions from 1998 that hadnt been fed for almost 30 years?.

10. Boss Fights

This is one of the weakest boss lineups in modern RE.

• Fat zombie: loop and shoot.
• Spider: forgettable, boring and out of place.
• Mutated clone: open the roof and shoot her 2 times.
• Mutated Emily: stationary target to shoot until cinematic.
• Mr. X: bullet sponge.
• No Zeno boss fight.
• Plant: ...
• Hunk: parry three times.
• Victor/Nemesis: shoot glowing weak points and parry his only two moves from a distance.

Compared to RE2, 4, or Village which were more dinamic, these fights lack creativity, fluidity and they all feel the same.

11. Over the Top Scenes

The Bike chase with on-rails segments and jumping massive buildings. These feel closer to RE6 than the genral REquiem tone. Even if this is post-RE6 Leon, it felt out of place among the other uncharted like scenes at the lab.

12. Final Thoughts

The gameplay foundation is excellent. Leon’s combat skill celling is awesome. Zombies are fantastic. Sound design is phenomenal.

But the story structure is messy. The maps are weak. The bosses are underwhelming. Replayability is poor. Lore is shallow.

It doesn’t fully feel like a Resident Evil if i had to make an unpopular opinion. We got a cliff hanger with nothing explained.

That’s why I finished it feeling something wasn’t quite right.

Edit: Something i forgot to add is the progression, there is 0 feeling of progression, i never really felt the difference between stimmed and non stimmed grace, also leon can get his weapons fully upgraded after the second piece of the detonator.

Edit 2: I realised in my nightmare playthrough that decapitations are completely scripted for some zombies (unless you kill with the requiem). You can check yourself. The 2 stairs zombies that goes directly to the lvl 1 bracelet, the female zombie will always get decapitated. Also one of the suited zombies in the dinning hall. And the black zombie in the second floor that is always inside the archives room.

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