Going hands-on with Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil Requiem turned me into a skull-popping pro, and I can't wait to play more

"That's my cardio for the week." One hand pauses Resident Evil Requiem while the other flies to my notebook, and I just about stop myself from whooping out loud. Surrounded by the blood splatter mush of four Crimson Heads, the line is simply too good not to jot down. Moreover, it proves that playing as Leon is a far cry from the anxiety that haunted me during my first hands-on.

40 minutes is all it took to convince me that the rookie cop-turned-badass Division of Special Operations official has never been more lethal or more prone to dry one-liners. If words could kill, Dr Victor Gideon would already be dead – but Leon's hatchet does the talking just fine on its own.

Where's everyone going? Hell?

Like all franchise superfans, I've had high hopes for Resident Evil Requiem from the beginning. But when I sat down to play three hours of it for a hands-on preview session, I kept my list short. Make it good. Make it fun. Make it like the best Resident Evil games combined.

My session begins with Leon arriving at Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Facility, following in Grace Ashcroft's footsteps. Clad in yet another fur-collared jacket we'll all be lusting after, he strides into the palatial building – with its central staircase and branching upper landings affording it more than a passing resemblance to the original Resident Evil's Spencer Mansion – like he owns the place. His swagger says it all; three-day stubble and a smattering of fine lines aside, this is the same Leon Kennedy we know and love.

Kept waiting in the hall by Dr Victor Gideon, an evacuation alarm begins to blare and a chainsaw-wielding orderly with a curious black infection stumbles toward Leon menachingly. Nasty blighters like this are still one-hit kills, as I accidentally learn for myself, and the death animations are grisly yet perhaps overly-long delights. I could start blasting, sure, but Leon's trusty hatchet isn't just his new melee weapon-of-choice – it turns him into a hack and slash master as I whack the infected to mulch, cutting down any who try to pick up the chainsaw as it falls to the ground.

This is undoubtedly the goriest Resident Evil game yet. Leon needn't stick to just the hatchet, able to wield that chainsaw for himself this time around. It's incredibly satisfying to swing it into the grabby hordes, slicing and dicing as buckets of black-red viscera erupt from their ruined corpses. He heads over to a bolt-locked door to cut through the metal, chainsaw in hand, and I walk out into a corridor just in time to see where my last preview left off: with Grace in the perilous grip of her hulking pursuer, whom Kennedy promptly deals with.

The two protagonists exchange hurried introductions, but suddenly, Leon gets knocked out by a surprise vision of Dr Gideon. Now, I have a moment to catch my breath and take stock.

The sight of Leon speaking through a metal grate at his female co-star brings back memories of Resident Evil 2 Remake, with FBI forensic analyst Grace Ashcroft standing in for Claire Redfield. It's at this moment where my preview session splits off into Grace's first-person perspective for a couple of hours as she tries desperately to find a way out of the facility, but more on that in my fellow Senior Staff Writer's own Resident Evil Requiem preview of Grace's segments.

No more mister Nice Cop

Despite the clobbering he's taken, Leon's in the right place to visit a doctor next time we cross paths. What’s more, the lengthy cutscene could shine a little light on Elpis, supposedly the reason for Leon’s journey to Rhodes Hill in the first place.

That shadowy black mark you might’ve already glimpsed on his throat? “Umbrella’s curse,” Dr. Gideon calls it, tracing Leon's neck with uncomfortable tenderness as the DSO agent wakes up, hands tied behind him, just in time for a villain monologue. This is where the doc administers his "treatments," Gideon says. Leon glances up at him through impossibly perfect hair: "The silent treatment, I hope." Leon's too action hero to be tied down for long, breaking free and firing his handgun as the doctor scurries away.

After two hours spent solving puzzles, stealthing around impossibly strong enemies, and bemoaning a total lack of parry or dodge mechanics as Grace, taking the reins as Leon again feels like a huge reward. The power differences between the two characters are pronounced; I'm playing on Standard difficulty, yet Leon has a wealth of ammo already waiting for me in his inventory. I also find a shotgun nearby that is sure to be extremely handy very, very soon.

Conversely, I’d just clawed my way through half an hour of Grace content with zero ammo or health items, swaying about the place at the lowest health state because I kept hitting the quick heal button by accident in an effort to melee. Don’t get me wrong, that’s an experience in itself — but my god, it feels good to be a badass for a change.

While Grace's peril nods to Resident Evil 7's opening hours, Leon's flashy kills to Resident Evil 4 remake, and the whole set-up is Resident Evil 2 through and through, there was almost something missing – Resident Evil Village's sheer weirdness. But not for long. Rounding a sharp corner in the attics, I'm met with a grotesque giant baby-like creature – or maybe it's just engorged? – chowing down on a corpse. As soon as it sees me, it launches itself my way.

This mini-boss section feels blissfully reminiscent of fighting William Birkin for the first time in his lab below the Raccoon City Police Department. The monster is slow yet deals immense damage, stopping and starting in its path as it chases Leon through the cramped space, destroying walls as it goes. Muscle memory kicks in; what can't a shotgun to the face fix, after all? I bait it into a corner, get some distance, and fire quick shots into its fleshy maw.

After a few bait-and-shoots, the creature is stunned, leaving it vulnerable to one of Leon's hatchet-to-the-head finisher moves – of which, he has plenty. It takes about three of these reps before the monsters shrivels up like a drained juice box and dramatically implodes in a rain of gooey confetti.

But that was merely a warm-up. After getting past the giant swollen baby monster, Leon is finally back in the mansion proper. And the first thing he sees? A screamer, one of the new infected types in Resident Evil Requiem, warbling her tuneless melody with her back towards me. She yells if she sees you, much like The Witch in Left 4 Dead, and draws the attention of every zombie in the area – as well as inflicting damage and making you dizzy for a short while, unable to aim your gun properly.

It feels like there aren't enough bullets in the game to take one down as Grace. But Leon simply walks up behind the screamer, punches her in the lower back, drags her to the ground by her hair, and plunges a hatchet right between the eyes.

This one moment is Leon's Requiem in a nutshell. Picture the fancy moves and footwork of Resident Evil 4's suplex finishers and roundhouse kicks, add in some Resident Evil 6 combo flavor, and you have a one-man battering ram capable of demolishing any enemy you'd left standing as Grace. I've never felt as powerful in a Resident Evil game as I do as Leon, especially when the dreaded Crimson Head zombies make an appearance – the mutated infected you might recall from the first Resident Evil's terrifying remake.

The infamously hard-to-kill beasties are back and just as lethal, but don't worry about setting fire to them or any other infected. Leon can down the suckers with a shotgun shell or two to the brain, followed by another head-smash attack with that trusty hatchet to finish them off for good.

I've come away from my first taster of Resident Evil Requiem's Leon with the sweet taste of blood on my tongue. I was worried that Leon might feel too powerful next to Grace, and the fact that this preview session featured a projected 40 minutes of Leon next to two hours of Grace made me wonder if the classic hero would only feature in a handful of scenes.

Instead, Resident Evil Requiem presents their stories alongside each other as separate but overlapping entities: Leon is after Gideon on the trail of Elpis, while Gideon is intercepting Grace's investigation into her mother's death.

Think of the classic A and B playthroughs circa Resident Evil 1 and 2, only it seems like you're handed back and forth between them. Leon's narrative simply moves at a faster pace thanks to his combat chops, while Grace needs to move stealthily and strategically. The two complement one another perfectly – at least, they seemed to in my preview session – to the point where one never feels ubiquitously "better" than the other.

Even before I knew Leon would co-star in it – though l feel incredibly vindicated right now as a grassroots truther who's been insisting he would be since day one – it's safe to say that a lot rides on Resident Evil Requiem as Capcom's celebration of its 30-year legacy. I've spoken in the past of my firm conviction that all a good survival horror game has to do is not deviate too much from tradition, and I couldn't be more thrilled to report that Capcom is off to a very good start when it comes to hitting that mark.

Need more frights? Check out our best horror games ranking for more! Resident Evil Requiem releases February 27, 2026 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2.