Resident Evil: Requiem – An Early Overview!

No one ever truly doubted that Capcom was working on a brand-spanking-new Resident Evil game, of course. Though the company does often experiment with its IPs and gameplay systems, you can rest assured that a new Resident Evil is always being worked on somewhere in the background, much as is the case with Monster Hunter.

With that in mind, Resident Evil: Requiem did still come with a few striking surprises. From its unexpected setting to its (main?) protagonist, there's a whole lot of stuff to take in about the game already, and with the early previews having already poured in, we've got a bunch of information to parse through.

Down below, we've prepared a short and to-the-point, but comprehensive overview of all the info we have on RE: Requiem so far. Believe you us: if you enjoyed the scariest parts of Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village, you'll be right at home in Requiem, too.

What is RE: Requiem?

For all intents and purposes, Resident Evil: Requiem is Resident Evil 9. It's a direct chronological continuation of the events of RE: Village (Resident Evil 8), although it seems to unravel well before the events of Village's Shadows of Rose mini-campaign, which is set in 2037. Rolling the timeline back about half a dozen years, Requiem instead takes place around 2030, with an all-new protagonist exploring an all-new... wait, nope, that's not right. Requiem's location isn't new at all. More on that in a bit!

Circling back to the topic of gameplay, RE: Requiem is particularly interesting specifically because it's both a first-person and a third-person game. As a concept, novel this ain't. Even from the perspective of the Resident Evil franchise, at that, since Village received the third-person switcheroo as part of its post-launch DLC lineup.

However, whereas Village's optional third-person mode always felt like a bit of an afterthought (or a mod, but don't tell Capcom that), this won't be the case in Requiem. Both viewpoints are entirely valid and supported from the bottom-up, with the game allowing players to switch between the two willy-nilly. Requiem does still recommend playing in first-person, as per GameSpot's preview, but that's only fair.

Now, where were just a few paragraphs back?

Where does RE: Requiem take place?

The location of a Resident Evil has always been the key defining feature of the entire experience. From the early Resident Evil games' Racoon City to, say, Resident Evil 7's Louisiana bayou, the setting paints the key picture and it is, indeed, as much of a protagonist as the actual protagonists are.

It may come as a bit of a surprise, then, that Resident Evil Requiem completes the circle and goes back to Racoon City! Yep, the bombed-out Chernobyl-esque hellscape of what was once a thriving semi-metropolitan area. Promotional material has prominently shown off some key locations from the old RE titles, such as the Racoon Police Department building - as shown in the screenshot above - and so the obvious expectation is that we'll be revisiting many of them in a post-apocalyptic setup.

In fact, as part of the recent preview push from Capcom, where select media got to play a short, curated section of Requiem, there's a huge number of throwbacks to speak of. Not the least of them is the presence of a strange, mutated woman stalking the halls of a dilapidated hospital-type location. Polygon reports that this chain-laden creature seems like an even more horrific version of Alien: Isolation's infamous Xenomorph, and it sounds to us like this may in fact be the radiation-affected Lisa Trevor, proving yet again just how unkillable she truly is.

Who is the main character?

As for the protagonist, we're going to walk the walk as a rookie FBI technical analyst tasked with investigating the Wrenwood Hotel. Agent Grace Ashcroft, whose name is probably going to ring a bell or five, does have combat training but isn't much of a combatant. We're basically looking at a repeat of RE7's Ethan before BSAA properly prepared him for the fights ahead, and that's telling as far as the vibe of RE: Requiem is concerned.

The really curious bit is whether the rumors of Leon Kennedy's grand return are true. The looming focus on the RPD building, specifically, definitely suggest that this may be a bit of a homecoming for the beloved Resident Evil character, and so it wouldn't be too surprising if he was to be a secondary playable character working alongside Grace in some sense. Heck, even having him around to the same extent as we had Chris in Village would be a joy to behold, and we've got no doubt that Capcom is planning to do something similarly exciting in the end.

During RE: Requiem's Summer Game Fest reveal, the host Geoff Keighley said that the game "marks a bold shift for the franchise, both in tone and gameplay, and today's reveal isn't just about survival horror. Expect high-stakes cinematic action, too." From what we've seen of Requiem so far, Grace Ashcroft is unlikely to be the driving force behind anything of the type, and Capcom would definitely be wise to set up a massive discrepancy between Grace's stealth-heavy gameplay and Leon's no-holds-barred close-quarters action setpieces.

Stay tuned for more!

In broader promotional material, Capcom states that "A new era of survival horror begins in 2026. Technological advancements combined with the development team’s depth of experience combine in a story with rich characters and gameplay that’s more immersive than ever before."

RE: Requiem is thus poised to make real waves when it launches in 2026. We know for a fact that it's going to be the first full-on current-gen Resident Evil to-date, too, slated to release on PC, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5 platforms on day one. A Switch 2 release seems all but guaranteed, too, but more on that later on.

Nostalgia is assuredly going to be a key driving force behind a game that not only takes us back to the very beginning of the Resident Evil franchise, but also takes into account the often overlooked events of Code: Veronica and beyond. What this all means for RE we don't know yet, but following the absolute tour de force that was Village and the 4 Remake, we're all for it. Stay tuned for more info on RE: Requiem - right here at 2Game!