Resident Evil 9: Requiem [Review]
I have a complicated history with Resident Evil. I remember seeing the original on PlayStation back in the day, being intrigued by the concept…but completely undone by the tension. Over the years the series became something I respected from a safe distance: you know, like the way you admire a neighbor's aggressive dog through a fence. Then Resident Evil 7 happened. Don’t ask me why, but that game grabbed me by the collar and dragged me in, and the RE4 Remake sealed it.
Then I tried Village. I got about a third of the way through before I quietly put the controller down and went to watch something cheerful. So when Resident Evil 9: Requiem was announced, I treated it as a chance at redemption.
I'm thrilled to report that Capcom came through.
Playing on the PS5 Pro, the first thing that hits you is how assured Requiem feels right out of the gate. This is a studio operating with full confidence in what it's built. The RE Engine, already one of the most impressive workhorses in modern game development, has been pushed further here, and the results show. Environments are dense and tactile, lighting does serious atmospheric work, and the dynamic gore system adds a grotesque layer of realism that is simultaneously disgusting and impressive. The PS5 Pro's updated PSSR upscaler makes its debut here, and the image stability is noticeably improved over earlier iterations of the technology. Requiem is a gorgeous, polished piece of software, full stop.
The aesthetics and visuals certainly deliver, but what makes Requiem sing is the structure of its dual-protagonist design. Grace Ashcroft, an FBI analyst pulled into a nightmare she has no business surviving, plays in tense, resource-scarce first-person horror that feels like a direct spiritual heir to RE7. Leon S. Kennedy, back in a mainline game for the first time since RE6, operates in the slick, kinetic third-person action mode that RE4 Remake perfected. The genius move is that the game lets you choose your perspective for each character. Want to dial back the dread with a third-person view as Grace? You can. Want to fully lean into Leon's world from behind the gun? That's there too. For a self-described coward working through a series-long courage deficit, this feature was genuinely meaningful. It gave me control over how much horror I was absorbing, and that's a smarter form of accessibility than most games think to offer.
The narrative moves quickly, which is very much by design. Requiem is not interested in dawdling. The story establishes Grace's stakes and personality within minutes, and it threads her inexperience and fear through the performance in ways that feel earned. Actress Angela Sant'Albano delivers lines with a believable, halting quality that makes Grace feel like a real person dropped into an impossible situation rather than a video game protagonist going through motions. Leon, for his part, is exactly as grizzled and one-liner-ready as long-term fans could hope for, now visibly older and carrying the weight of everything the series has put him through. The game acknowledges that weight thoughtfully, even if some reviewers have noted it occasionally gestures toward depth without fully committing. For my money, the balance lands. The corny sincerity that has always been part of this franchise's DNA is present, and I mean that as a compliment.
A word about length: Requiem runs roughly 10 to 12 hours for a first playthrough, and that is going to be a sticking point for some people. At full retail price, the campaign's runtime can feel lean. The lack of a Mercenaries mode, a fan-favorite addition in previous entries, compounds that feeling. But the counterargument, and it's a strong one, is that every single minute of those ten hours is doing work. There are no bloated fetch quests, no padding corridors, no sequences that exist purely to extend the runtime. The pacing is relentlessly purposeful, and that discipline results in a game that never sags. For those who want more, higher difficulties offer meaningfully different experiences, and the trophy list has genuine teeth. Requiem rewards mastery in a way that makes revisiting it feel like a genuine proposition rather than a chore.
One last thing worth celebrating: Requiem launched day and date on the Nintendo Switch 2 alongside PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. According to Video Games Chronicle, this marks the first time in 20 years that a mainline Resident Evil entry has released on Nintendo hardware simultaneously with other platforms, the last being the GameCube version of RE4. That is a significant moment for Nintendo's new platform, and Capcom deserves real credit for pulling it off. Digital Foundry's analysis confirmed that the Switch 2 version, powered by DLSS upscaling, produces image quality that actually surpasses the Xbox Series S in some scenarios, which is a remarkable technical achievement for a hybrid portable. Frame rate discipline is the remaining weakness and could use a patch, but as a statement of intent for the Switch 2's future as a legitimate day-one destination for major third-party releases, Requiem makes a compelling case.
Thirty years in, Resident Evil is not supposed to feel this vital. And yet here we are. Requiem is the best game I've played this year, and with nearly ten months left on the calendar, that's a high bar it set quickly. Whether you're a survival horror devotee, an action-game fan, a longtime Resident Evil faithful, or a coward like me who just needed the right entry point to come back, Requiem has something substantial to offer. Capcom has done it again.
