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2026 marks Resident Evil's 30th anniversary. What better way to celebrate than with the release of a blood-shiny new mainline entry? Resident Evil Requiem is so close now, we can practically smell the viscera and various icky juices. Better yet, three decades on, the series is still showing no signs of slowing down when it comes to trying new things.
One of those new things is FBI intelligence analyst Grace Ashcroft, who was still believed (or, more accurately, claimed) to be the sole protagonist at the time of our hands-on with the game. Sent to investigate a series of mysterious deaths – including, in a somewhat unfortunate coincidence, the scene of her mother's murder eight years prior – things soon become even more gruesome and horrific than expected. She may be an FBI agent, but she's totally unprepared for the undead monstrosity stalking her through our demo. As a result, she's something of a terrified mess, utterly defenseless and clumsy with fear.
Saving Grace
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"Our aim was to deliver a gaming experience that alternately immerses players in the most terrifying horror and the most thrilling action," producer Masato Kumazawa tells me, "therefore maximizing both the terror felt when transitioning from action to horror segments and the exhilaration experienced when shifting from horror to action segments. To this end, as Leon's counterpart, we introduced Grace, an easily frightened character who is experiencing a biohazard situation for the first time." We're also assured that the stalker enemy – and associated helplessness of the player character – is just one small part of the overall experience.
There are strong hints in the trailers that there's more to Grace than it may appear, with big bad Victor Gideon calling her 'the special one'. It's also worth noting that Kumazawa tells us that "she will fight, resist, and grow as the story progresses" and while that could just mean Grace overcoming her fear, might she do a Rose Winters and be revealed to have some useful powers?
Either way, she won't be alone, as it's since been officially confirmed that everybody's favorite floppy-haired hero Leon Kennedy will also be in Requiem (and you'll be pleased to hear that there's a chainsaw to be had). There'll be a strong difference between their sections, with Leon getting the bulk of the action and Grace leaning into tense survival horror – so much so, that director Akifumi Nakanishi described Requiem as "almost like having two games" in one.
Raccoon City also returns, albeit in thoroughly devastated form following the events of Resident Evil 3. Player feedback, Kumazawa explains, is at least in part to thank for this. "In Resident Evil 7 and Village, we explored different directions for the series. While we received many positive comments from players, we also received feedback expressing a desire to see the continuation of the main storyline of the series, so we considered a narrative centered around the Raccoon City incident [...] But it is not the entirety of the setting. For instance, the clinic playable in the event version is not actually in Raccoon City."
Resident Evil's history has fed into itself in recent years, with ground-up remakes of 2 and 3 incorporating and iterating on the perspective and controls introduced by Resident Evil 4 (which itself was then given a remake). Positive reactions to this gave the team confidence to build upon the latest action mechanics for Requiem. In addition, while recent entries went for a first-person perspective – and Village had third-person added post-launch via DLC – Requiem is the first game to allow you to switch between the two as standard. In many ways, it brings together the best elements the series has developed over the years while dumping what might not have aged so well.
Requiem is also the first Resident Evil game to be developed exclusively for current-gen hardware, allowing the team to push the RE Engine like never before. "This title supports the latest gaming hardware, including offering a first-ever ray tracing option for high-spec PCs," says Kumazawa. "This enables a more immersive experience than ever before, particularly in the creation of light and shadow effects – crucial for horror atmosphere – which have been produced to an even higher standard. [...] To ensure this title can be experienced by as many people as possible, it is highly scalable, supporting both the Nintendo Switch 2 and a wide range of PC specifications."
Does Capcom have any more playable characters hidden up its bloody sleeves? Will we get to swing that chainsaw around as much as we'd like? Will it find a way to somehow bring Wesker back again? We just don't know, but it's not long at all now until we'll have all the answers. Get ready to be both terrifier and terrified, folks; this is gonna be one hell of a ride.
