Resident Evil Requiem gives you its best gun first, smartly making the urge to horde magnum bullets vital for the whole game

Resident Evil has always been a dangerous series – and Resident Evil Requiem has certainly gotten the hastily scribbled itchy-tasty memo. Even Capcom's classic games back on the PS1 have you wrangle tank controls with limited ammo to safely navigate an infestation of zombies. Unsure exactly when you'll need to bring out the big guns, and limited by inventory space, every Resident Evil fan understands the dilemma of trying to decide what to bring with you through a horror expedition, and the feeling of hoarding magnum bullets just in case you need them (then finishing with loads of them unused).

Resident Evil Requiem doesn't just understand how vital this feeling is to crafting the best survival horror games, but actually leans into the idea that you may want to be careful with your bullets from early on. In a genius twist, you actually start Resident Evil Requiem proper with the most powerful gun in the game in your inventory, and rarely don't have it as an option. The real question is – when will you choose to pull the trigger?

Bring out your dead

The absolutely huge Requiem revolver shares a name with the game. The best way to move on, after all, may be to simply kill the past. On normal difficulty, a single shot from the Requiem will explode zombies into chunks, and will be enough to stun even a deadlier special infected so you can shove them and run past.

Ammo can be scarce in Resident Evil Requiem in general, and especially when it comes to bullets for the Requiem – including when playing as the much more trigger-happy Leon Kennedy. They're often found as single bullets – two if you're lucky – and when you eventually unlock the ability to craft ammo it requires a large amount of resources and rare, specific materials.

Using the Requiem follows a similar design principle to Resident Evil's history of fragile knives (which return here too). Except with those knives, you can break glass to use them when you're grabbed. The Requiem inverts the proposition, dangling the possibility of breaking off an encounter even before it happens, a gut-wrenching blast of the revolver letting you avoid a grab animation or being shoved into a corner. But, when the dust settles – will you feel like you wasted the shot, or that you'd have been better off saving it for an upcoming boss?

Playing as Grace Ashcroft, who undoubtedly benefits the most from the revolver thanks to her lack of mobility and much weaker firearm power, you can feel the power of the Requiem before she even uses it. Almost filling the middle part of the screen as you try to aim down sights, Grace's arms swaying as she struggles to even lift it let alone hit true, you know it's going to pack a wallop.

And it does. In one particularly tense encounter when I'd foolishly left the Requiem back in the item box, I wasted handgun clip after clip on a Blister Head bearing down on me, unable to take it out. Managing to duck back to the item box I returned – splattering its insides to the, well, outside with just one blast.

Leon packs a lot more firepower in general, but in the streets of the ruined Raccoon City he faces down lots of strong zombies that benefit from having something a little more turbo-charged to hand. Whether that's undead military still wearing body armor, or to carve a space through a huge mass of zombies collecting in a narrow corridor, it can give Leon the room he needs to stay on the move. Sure, the rifle can be powered up to be almost as effective, but that requires spending a lot of tuning resources each run, and can't match the bowling-ball-like power of the Requiem to cleave through a tangled group of bodies.

Resident Evil Requiem giving you the Requiem revolver from early on is such a smart way of subverting expectations while playing into the ammo hoarding trend of the classic Resident Evil games. Now, instead of having to track down an early shotgun unlock or the magnum itself to feel powerful, Capcom has ensured it's always within reach from the off. But, by doing so, the horror developer has extended the resource dilemma of when to use each precious bullet to become a game-long question. It brings the classic survival horror vibes full circle, and boy does it pack a punch.

Take a look at our Resident Evil Requiem review for more, where we called it "a soaring piece of survival horror theater". Want more? We've got our best Resident Evil ranking to help you decide which to play next!