Resident Evil Requiem review - resident evil requiem: there’s plenty of life in the undead yet
resident evil requiem balances old-school fanservice with fresh leads and modern technical ambition. The game splits its focus between disempowered terror and cathartic action, centring on a new protagonist, FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft, and a returning Leon Kennedy.
Resident Evil Requiem split focus
Requiem opens as a celebration of the franchise’s recent and retro legacy, leaning into the trappings that have defined the series across a 30-year run. The story places FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft at its emotional centre: equal parts tenacious and nervous, she is more accustomed to desk work than field ops and is tasked with going over a crime scene at a gutted hotel that holds horrific memories for her. She heads off with little more than a flashlight and a pistol, and the text makes clear you will never find quite enough ammunition to feel safe.
By contrast, an ageing Leon Kennedy enters the ruins of the police station that marked the start of his journey from rookie cop to hardened veteran. Leon’s return trades Grace’s first-person camera for a default third-person view, though the game lets players choose either view for each character. Leon initially feels comically overpowered: his knack for finding fresh shotgun shells is matched by a capacity to drop vintage stilton one-liners on felled foes before the smoke clears. He is well suited to severing a zombie’s fingers with his hatchet or spearing a rebar through a bloodshot eye.
Two playable perspectives
The split works as a deliberate contrast. Leon’s sections lean into cathartic action, sending hordes of weak zombies to their deaths to underline his hardened talent, yet the game soon forces him into convincing danger with frantic, back-against-the-wall firefights where every shell counts. Grace’s sections deliver disempowered terror: she is stalked by terrifying creatures across a sprawling, stately care facility whose labyrinthine design recalls the series’ best locales and the sense of trying to survive and escape from a living puzzle box.
As Grace, players sweat over whether to burn through precious bullets to clear a corridor or risk sprinting through unharmed. Creatures sniff the air for your presence and emit shrill wails designed to provoke panic; sometimes spending those bullets is worth the nerves it buys. Voice actors for both Grace and Leon carry emotional weight in scenes that would otherwise fall apart if examined too closely. For all its Evil Dead camp — explicitly noted as a compliment — Requiem remains a tale with heart.
Performance on PlayStation 5
Technically, the game is ambitious. The engine used here traces lineage back to Resident Evil 7 and its “Reach for the Moon” engine, which followed the MT Framework, and the current build approaches full maturity. On PlayStation 5 the native resolution is similar to the base PS5 version, and the temporal upscaling solution can deliver imagery that looks close to native 4K despite pixel counts measuring just over 1080p. The PS5 Pro pushes that further: the RT mode mostly achieves a locked 60fps with only small exceptions, and the vision for the Pro was to deliver 30fps quality modes at 60fps performance levels.
Visuals on PC and PS5 Pro
The game is a showcase for the RE Engine, offering atmospheric environments, hyper-detailed characters, superb animation and accomplished effects work. Rain-soaked city streets are highlighted as a masterclass in detail, effects, lighting and ray-tracing features. Ray tracing brings transformative reflections and global illumination, though occasional low-resolution reflection noise and denoising artifacts are visible. The strand-based hair system first seen in the remade Resident Evil 4 returns here but without the severe performance drain; hair is lit correctly and integrates into scenes effectively.
The 120Hz mode on PS5 Pro disables ray tracing and the temporal upscaler, replacing it with a less impressive spatial scaler similar to FSR1; performance in 120Hz is consistently high but not perfect, and the game supports proper VRR so the presentation remains smooth on compatible displays.
Cross-platform comparisons
Across platforms, PS5 Pro is described as being in a class of its own. The Pro’s 120Hz mode is effectively the same as the standard model’s 60fps presentation, meaning RT reflections and global illumination are removed, though the hair strand system remains. Xbox Series X is characterised as effectively a carbon copy of PS5 with slightly higher than native 1080p and spatial upscaling. Xbox Series S uses FSR1-like scaling from a base that looks like 720p; image quality is reduced but performance is smooth, and the hair strand system is absent on Series S. The text also references PC and notes interesting comparisons to Nintendo Switch 2 that are earmarked for later discussion.
The reviewer concludes that, beyond technical excellence, they would rate the game as one of the best titles in the series. The game nods to franchise staples such as rocket launchers and typewriters while introducing new blood in Grace Ashcroft alongside veteran Leon Kennedy. The earlier analysis draws parallels with reflective, legacy-focused games like Dark Souls III and Metal Gear Solid 4 as context for how Requiem balances nostalgia and energy.
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Overall, the release combines tense survival moments, set-piece action, and platform-specific technical distinctions across PS5 Pro, PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox Series X, Series S and Nintendo Switch 2, while foregrounding Grace Ashcroft’s investigative vulnerability and Leon Kennedy’s veteran bravura.
