Resident Evil Requiem

Survival horror has a structural problem it rarely admits: the more power a game gives its protagonist, the less its monsters frighten. Resident Evil Requiem, the ninth main entry in CAPCOM Co., Ltd.’s survival horror series, attacks that problem directly. It gives the power to only one of its two leads.

The game launched on February 26, 2026, on PC via Steam, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch 2. It is built on the RE Engine and runs two investigations in parallel. Grace Ashcroft, an FBI analyst, looks into a mysterious death at an abandoned hotel. Leon S. Kennedy, a veteran DSO agent, follows a series of deaths across the American Midwest. Both threads lead back to Raccoon City, where the government covered up a 1998 outbreak with a missile strike. That premise does a lot of work. A cover-up gives the investigation-driven design a reason to exist, and a city the authorities tried to erase is a destination with menace already built in.

The market positioning is clear. This is a major Capcom horror release, launched on PC and current console families. It targets two audiences at once: players who want the slow, resource-starved dread of classic survival horror, and players who want a seasoned agent with a gun. A camera that switches between first-person and third-person at any time widens the audience further. Perspective preference stops being a reason to skip the game.

The Deluxe Edition adds cosmetic extras (costumes, weapon skins, screen filters, charms and an audio pack) and leaves the campaign itself unchanged.

• Alternating protagonists: The campaign switches between Grace Ashcroft and Leon S. Kennedy. The two characters have deliberately different play styles; neither is a reskin of the other’s toolkit.
• Classic survival horror with Grace: Her sections are built on careful exploration, puzzles, scarce resources and the steady sense of being hunted.
• Combat-forward chapters with Leon: His half of the story is faster and leans harder into fighting, which makes it the game’s pressure valve.
• Anytime camera toggle: Players can switch between first-person and third-person views whenever they like, so perspective becomes a choice made scene by scene.
• Investigation and resource economy: Inventory and ammo management sit alongside investigative work and tense fights against disturbing enemies.
• Raccoon City’s return: Both storylines lead back to the site of a 1998 outbreak that a government missile strike covered up.
• Post-game mode: Leon Must Die Forever continues the game past the credits, but it does little to extend the campaign’s value.
• Deluxe Edition extras: Character costumes, weapon skins, screen filters, charms and an audio pack. All of it is cosmetic.

Structure: Alternation as Pacing

The split is the decision that defines Requiem. Horror runs on contrast. Terror sustained too long turns into numbness, and action sustained too long turns into noise. Requiem alternates Grace’s sections with Leon’s chapters, so its rhythm lives in the campaign structure rather than depending on individual set pieces to raise and lower tension. Grace’s stretches tighten the screw and Leon’s loosen it. Each return to Grace tightens it again, and the break in between makes that tightening hurt more.

This answers the horror-versus-action question better than picking a side would, and it gives the campaign a rhythm that neither half could sustain alone. The structure carries a risk. Leon’s competence could make the monsters look manageable, and that impression could leak into Grace’s sections and drain them of fear. Keeping the characters mechanically distinct contains the leak. Grace does not get a slightly weaker version of Leon’s arsenal; her sections run on a different and poorer economy. The player knows a trained agent can handle this world, and that knowledge does not help Grace.

Grace: Scarcity as the Engine of Fear

Grace’s half follows the classic survival-horror contract: careful exploration, puzzles, scarce resources and the feeling of being hunted. Each element supports the others:

• Scarcity makes exploration necessary, because supplies have to come from somewhere.
• Exploration makes the hunt dangerous, because every detour exposes the player.
• Puzzles keep the player in hostile space longer than instinct would allow.

The investigation framing fits. An FBI analyst reading a crime scene is a more natural vehicle for clue-driven, puzzle-heavy play than a soldier.

Inventory and ammo management decide whether this design works. In a scarcity-driven horror game, the inventory screen is where the real decisions happen. A slot spent on a key item is a slot that cannot hold ammunition. A bullet fired at a weak enemy is a bullet missing when a dangerous one appears. That budgeting turns fights into negotiations and makes avoidance a legitimate strategy. The concept is not new, and Requiem does not pretend it is. Its contribution is to place this classic loop next to a modern action counterpart, so each half makes the other’s character clearer.

Leon: Controlled Release

Leon’s chapters run faster and put combat first. On paper, this is the half most likely to feel generic: action horror with a famous face. Its value comes from placement. Stretched across a whole campaign, Leon’s pace would turn the game into a shooter with monsters in it. Rationed between Grace’s sections, it works as reward, relief and a change of texture. The emphasis on tense fights against disturbing enemies is the right counterweight. A combat-focused section needs opponents unsettling enough that the player’s firepower feels necessary rather than decorative.

Leon’s assignment also makes narrative sense. Deaths scattered across the Midwest give the game a wider geographic canvas than a single hotel could, and that breadth suits a faster pace.

The Camera Toggle and Its Hidden Cost

Letting players switch between first-person and third-person at any time is the most player-friendly decision in the package. Perspective shapes horror directly:

• First-person narrows the field of view, hides threats at the edge of the frame and puts the player inside Grace’s vulnerability.
• Third-person gives spatial awareness, makes groups of enemies easier to read and shows Leon’s movement clearly in combat.

The design invites an obvious pairing, first-person for Grace and third-person for Leon, while leaving the choice to the player.

The cost is structural. If the camera can change at any moment, every room, ambush and boss arena has to work from both viewpoints. A scare that depends on what sits just outside a first-person frame can lose its force when a third-person camera shows the corner. An arena spaced for an over-the-shoulder view can feel cramped in first person. A game designed for a single perspective can be ruthless in ways a dual-perspective game cannot. We consider the trade worth it, because the flexibility removes a real barrier for players with strong preferences or motion sensitivity. The toggle is still a compromise, not a free lunch.

Narrative Spine: Raccoon City

Two investigations converging on Raccoon City give the plot a strong engine. The structure turns the dual-protagonist format into a mystery device: each character approaches the same buried event from a different angle, and the alternation releases answers in measured portions. The 1998 outbreak and the missile strike that hid it supply the buried institutional guilt that investigation-led horror needs. The return to Raccoon City gives the plot a strong destination, and the reason is clear. A city the authorities tried to erase makes a better destination than a new monster lair because it comes loaded with history.

Length and the Post-Game

The campaign’s length is the main structural limitation, and it deserves a direct answer. A first playthrough is compact. For horror, that compactness protects the experience. Dread wears off with exposure, and long horror campaigns tend to pad themselves into tedium. Requiem, though, has to carry two full protagonists, and a split campaign of that size gives each half limited room to grow.

The post-game cannot fully fix this. Leon Must Die Forever is a thin foundation for replay value. The Deluxe Edition adds only cosmetics, so it does nothing for length. The game’s value depends on the buyer. It suits players who replay horror campaigns for mastery better than players who measure a purchase in hours.

The RE Engine visuals and atmosphere give the settings plenty to work with. The abandoned hotel, the American Midwest and Raccoon City offer three distinct visual registers:

• Decayed interiors built for claustrophobia.
• Wider exterior spaces that suit Leon’s pace.
• A ruined city weighed down by its own past.

Because each protagonist has their own spaces, the art direction has a built-in contrast to exploit. Horror depends as much on what an image withholds as on what it shows, and the two halves of this game ask for different kinds of withholding.

The interface matters more here than in most action games. In Grace’s sections, the inventory is a core mechanic, and its clarity decides whether scarcity reads as tension or as busywork. The screen filters in the Deluxe Edition treat visual presentation as something the player can adjust, which fits a game that already hands over control of the camera.

Performance expectations should follow the hardware. A PC release can scale with the machine running it. A Nintendo Switch 2 release works within a tighter budget than a high-end desktop. Players who care about resolution and effects quality should weigh that when choosing a platform.

• Steam (PC): Mouse aiming suits Leon’s combat-heavy chapters, while Grace’s deliberate pace demands less precision. Hardware headroom matters most to players who want the RE Engine at full strength.
• Nintendo Switch 2: Portability is the draw. A horror game built on scarce resources and a creeping sense of pursuit suits handheld play with headphones in a dark room. It suits short commuter sessions less, because tension needs time to build. Controller input fits Grace’s slower sections naturally. Expect visual compromises compared with a capable PC.
• Parity: The two protagonists, the camera toggle, and the investigation and inventory systems are the game itself. The differences that matter come down to hardware ceiling, input method and where the player wants to play. The Deluxe Edition is cosmetic only, so the base edition contains the full game on either platform.

Resident Evil Requiem handles a central tension of its genre by refusing to resolve it. Grace Ashcroft’s sections deliver hunted, resource-starved horror, and Leon S. Kennedy’s chapters deliver speed and firepower. Alternating between them makes each half stronger than it would be alone. The anytime camera toggle widens the audience at a modest cost to encounter design, and the Raccoon City cover-up gives both investigations a destination worth reaching.

The flaws concern quantity, not quality. Some buyers will find a compact first run thin for a major release, and a post-game mode that does little to extend it. The design points to a solid but uneven horror game with a clear sense of what it wants to be. We recommend it to players who want scarce-resource horror paired with measured action, and to Switch 2 owners who want this kind of dread in their hands.