In 1996, the first Resident Evil (1996)—originally titled “Biohazard” in Japan—crashed onto game consoles, forever altering the survival horror landscape and the horror genre. From there, the “Resident Evil” franchise has seen a fascinating, if not occasionally tumultuous, trajectory. What began as a series of games dedicated to tense, atmospheric horror and split-second decisions slowly began to dovetail into action-packed blockbusters. Granted, this isn’t necessarily bad. Resident Evil 4 (2005) maintains the frights of the series, while giving players the ability to eviscerate various monsters with all manner of weapons and most importantly, roundhouse kicking them to death. It’s a game that revolutionized the over-the-shoulder third person perspective, something still used in modern games today such as God of War (2018), The Last of Us (2013) series and countless more.  

After the release of Resident Evil 4, however, fans and critics felt the franchise veered into a too action-focused direction. This resulted in the fifth and sixth entries in the franchise, which trade in uneasy, survival-based gameplay for a man punching a boulder out of his way in a volcano. After the sixth entry, the franchise needed a reset and fast. “Resident Evil 7: Biohazard” took the franchise back to its horror roots, introducing a first-person experience focused again on atmosphere and sheer dread. This return to form has proven to be exactly what players crave, remaining a focus throughout the latest entries, including the recently released Resident Evil: Requiem (2026). With the release of Requiem, the franchise reckons with what it was, as well as what it’s become, blending those two concepts together to create a singular experience in survival horror. 

The story follows Grace Ashcroft and Leon Kennedy as they investigate an outbreak connecting all the way back to the first game set in Racoon City, the impetus of everything that’s happened in the franchise. By returning to the beginning, the game holds its own requiem, exploring what it means to be a Resident Evil game in 2026, and what it means to live with the franchise’s complicated legacy looming over you. Requiem seems to argue that to destroy the past, you must first face it. For these games to continue being created, they had to first acknowledge where they came from, and where they’ve changed. Leon Kennedy’s return to Racoon City, return to the RCPD he fought through in the second game, feels like returning home to a house you no longer remember. The sensation and memory linger, but you are not the same.  

Other factors that make the game truly incredible to play are its graphics and sound design. The game, which is available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, looks absolutely stunning. Combining near-photo realistic graphics with visceral zombie gore, the game creates a truly breathtaking visual experience. This is a game that feels like it was truly built to run on this generation of console hardware. In addition to this, the sound design creates a deeply immersive and truly terrifying experience. Every creak, every zombie’s guttural moan, makes each second of gameplay feel suffocating. Moments of agonizing silence can be broken up by a zombie’s wail, unprovoked and at random. It’s a feat of immersion, and ultimately what makes the game so memorable.    

The game features two main characters. The first is Grace Ashcroft, an FBI agent pulled into a hellish case. Grace is recommended to be played in first person (the player can toggle between first and third person for both characters), which accentuates the terror of the levels. Grace is not a field agent, and her gameplay reflects that. Her inventory space is extremely limited; with each new item she picks up needing to be weighed by its importance and potential benefit later in the game. Every enemy encounter feels herculean, with a single bullet being the only difference between life and death. Multiple moments would occur where, as ammo ran dry, there were very few options. You could try to run by a zombie, scour the levels for ammo, or try to find crafting materials. This gameplay loop becomes even harder when factoring in mutating zombies, unkillable flesh creatures towering at seven feet tall, and zombies with abilities. A new type of zombie in the game is ones who inherit traits from before they became infected; a woman who used to sing screams, unleashing a blood-curdling howl that disorients Grace; a chef who’s very, very fond of his knife. These moments create unknowable enemies and also engender empathy for these former people. There is a tiny speck of humanity still raging against the monster they’ve become.    

 Playing as Grace feels like balancing on a tightrope, remaining deeply conscious of every step you make, and just how close you are to certain death. Grace’s gameplay finds a return to the unease of the original and later games, an unbearable mashup of nerve-shredding anxiety and impactful resource management. Juxtaposing this gameplay style is the game’s second main character, Leon Kennedy. Leon has essentially become the mascot of the franchise since his debut. He’s a very beautiful, very good at roundhouse kicking, chainsaw parrying, secret agent man who spouts off perhaps the greatest one-liners in fiction (see “where’s everybody going, bingo?”). Here, Leon is a grizzled veteran to infections and outbreaks and supervillains. He’s still, if not MORE, beautiful than ever before, not-as-good-but-still-pretty-good at roundhouse kicking, still parries like nobody’s business, and by God he’s still the best secret agent man around.  

Playing as Leon feels like driving a sportscar at 400 MPH while mainlining sugar; it is a deliriously fun experience rivaling some of the best action gameplay in years. Leon is recommended to be played in third person where the player can experience the full extent of the delirious carnage. Leon is equipped with a pistol and a hatchet (in addition to his kicks of course). From there, zombies will try to swarm Leon as he massacres them, shooting them with outrageous accuracy and delivering finishing blows with his hatchet. Leon has the ability to parry chainsaws with his hatchet (he used to do this with a knife). One instance led to a dropped chainsaw that got picked up by another zombie only for it to be parried again and dropped and picked up by another zombie. Soon after, Leon picks it up, cutting through enemies instantly. Leon’s gameplay embodies the action and pulse-pounding violence of “Resident Evil 4,” while still retaining the scares of the older installments. This is one of the key ways the game acknowledges its own past, holding a reckoning with the two types of gameplay it pioneered over the series and weaving them together to create the premium Resident Evil experience, one built on fear and action. One cannot exist without the other. 

Requiem is predicated on the ways the games have changed over the console generations. From gameplay and graphics to the game acknowledging it has changed and forged a new path inside the skeleton of its predecessors, Requiem is a turning point and a reflection for the series. Besides being deeply fun to play, it examines the legacy of one of the greatest video game sagas of all time, and its place within it. This is the exhumation of Resident Evil, a requiem for what the series used to be. The old is dead, all that remains is the new. Long live Resident Evil.