Resident Evil Requiem's Gameplay Showcase Highlights Grace And Leon's Gameplay Differences

The ninth mainline entry in the series, Resident Evil Requiem is a month away. Capcom held a special showcase, providing a breakdown from what to expect. A departure from the misadventures of Ethan Winters, the protagonist from Resident Evil: Biohazard RE: Village, Requiem features the return of Leon Kennedy. He partners with FBI agent Grace Ashcroft, as they continue to explore the conspiracies linking their history to the Raccoon City disaster and cover-up.

One of the notable changes is how Resident Evil Requiem opens up the option to switch between a first person and a third person perspective at will. And as aforementioned, Leon is back for the first time since Resident Evil 6, and he and Grace will have two different styles of play, with his path focusing more on high impact action reminiscent of RE4, while her path will be more a methodical pacing in the vein of the traditional survival horror roots the series sprouted from in the past. It appears to blend better than the array of play styles RE6 offered, which was certainly ambitious for its time, but led to a rather mixed result when it came to settling on tone.

Leon's route being more action oriented allowed Capcom to experiment more with the melee combat and the ability to parry attacks. Parrying was a fixture of the Resident Evil 2 Remake, the durability of knives had strong implications for how and when you wanted to dispatch zombies. Leon's hatchet plays a similar factor. But this time around he can grab weapons enemies drop, like the chainsaw, to use against them. It finally comes full circle for Mr. Kennedy.

Grace, however, battles with limited ammo caches, and it may not be as wise to attempt to plow through zombies and other monsters. She may not pack a lot of heavy firepower, but Capcom gave her a powerful handgun called "Requiem". It's got limited ammunition, but appears to clear foes out the way in a pinch. This potentially serves as RE: Requiem's Magnum, which also had scarce ammo in past Resident Evil games and usually reserved for boss fights or taking out the end villains in quick order.

Grace can also take advantage of the crafting system (broaden upon form the RE2 Remake). By drawing blood, she can take zombies out by creating Hemolytic Injectors, leading to gigantic blood baths. This gives more of a stealth vibe, and a contrast to evasion.

The difficulty modes provides either a more relaxed atmosphere where you can just enjoy the story and solve the puzzles through Casual mode, which also comes with an aim assist. In Classic mode, through Graces portions, you'll have to gather ink ribbons to save your game. Huh, using ink ribbons in a Resident Evil game to save your progress? What a novel concept.

Overall, the showcase may not have highlighted much of what we didn't know already, but Resident Evil Requiem is shaping up to be a quality entry in the series. Now, if only some mainline games will revisit former Bravo and Alpha Team members like Barry Burton or Rebecca Chambers more...

Resident Evil Requiem launches February 27th 2026 for the Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, the Epic Games Store, Steam, and GeForce Now