Synopsis

Decades after the catastrophe that destroyed Raccoon City, traces of the incident continue to haunt those who survived it and their descendants.

Grace Ashcroft, an FBI analyst with a remarkable talent for deduction, is assigned to investigate a mysterious death at an abandoned hotel. The case immediately becomes personal: her mother, Alyssa Ashcroft, a survivor of the Raccoon City incident, died several years earlier in the same building.

The investigation leads Grace into places where her methodical work is no longer enough. Faced with creatures, confined spaces and limited resources, she must learn to survive in a world for which her experience as an analyst never prepared her.

At the same time, Leon S. Kennedy is also investigating a series of suspicious deaths. The young police officer who arrived in Raccoon City in 1998 has become an experienced agent, capable of confronting situations directly that leave Grace in a far more vulnerable position.

Their paths gradually bring Resident Evil back to one of the places that defined the entire series. Requiem does not return to Raccoon City simply to replay the past: it is interested in what that catastrophe left behind.

Overview

Two protagonists, two ways to survive

Resident Evil Requiem builds its identity around a particularly clear contrast between Grace Ashcroft and Leon S. Kennedy.

Grace represents the more vulnerable side of survival horror. She must observe her surroundings, manage her resources, decide which enemies are worth confronting and sometimes understand that avoiding combat is the best solution.

Leon has a very different level of experience. Firearms, close-range moves, parries and a new hatchet allow him to respond to threats much more directly. Capcom deliberately presents the two characters as opposite sides of the experience: intense fear on one side, more aggressive action on the other.

The game therefore does not try to choose between the slow, oppressive Resident Evil of Resident Evil 7 and the more spectacular action of Resident Evil 4. It structures its campaign around moving between the two.

First or third person

Both protagonists can be played in first or third person, and the player can switch perspective during the game.

The first-person view brings threats closer, reduces spatial awareness and particularly strengthens the sequences in which Grace must proceed carefully. The third-person camera provides more information about the environment and naturally suits the more action-oriented sections.

This freedom matters more than a simple visual preference. The distance between the camera and the character directly changes how certain spaces are perceived and allows each player to adjust the level of immersion or comfort they prefer.

Raccoon City after the catastrophe

Requiem brings the series back to Raccoon City, destroyed after the 1998 outbreak. Ruins marked by the military operation and several locations connected to the city’s history directly reconnect this new adventure with the foundational events of Resident Evil.

Capcom does not simply reconstruct the city as it once appeared, however. The passage of time becomes part of the environment. Some places are abandoned, damaged or transformed by decades during which Raccoon City remained synonymous with a catastrophe the authorities had tried to bury.

The return therefore serves a narrative purpose as much as a nostalgic one: seeing what the city has become also raises questions about what the characters have done with its legacy.

Fighting, investigating and conserving resources

The core of Resident Evil remains recognizable: exploration, puzzles, items to find, inventory management and resources limited enough that combat is not automatically the best answer.

Grace embodies this logic particularly strongly. The game regularly asks her to assess a room before entering it, identify an escape route or preserve a resource that may become far more important a few minutes later.

Leon shifts the balance further toward combat. His close-range abilities and arsenal give encounters a more aggressive dimension without completely removing resource management.

Changing characters therefore alters the fundamental rules less than it changes the balance of power between the player and whatever stands in front of them.

RE ENGINE serving faces and fear

Resident Evil Requiem uses RE ENGINE, Capcom’s internal engine. The studio particularly highlighted its rendering of characters, skin, eyes, hair and lighting to increase the realism of facial expressions and close-up scenes.

These details become especially important in a game where the camera can move extremely close to characters and creatures.

The technology therefore serves not simply to display more detail, but to make certain reactions easier to read: fear, exhaustion, pain and tension become part of the staging.

Key takeaways

  • Resident Evil Requiem is the ninth mainline entry in the Resident Evil series.
  • Grace Ashcroft and Leon S. Kennedy are the two playable protagonists.
  • Grace is an FBI analyst, and her investigation is directly connected to her mother Alyssa Ashcroft and the history of Raccoon City.
  • Grace’s sections lean more heavily toward survival horror, while Leon has a much more aggressive combat style.
  • The player can switch at any time between first- and third-person perspectives.
  • The game combines exploration, combat, investigation, puzzles and resource management.
  • Raccoon City returns as a central location, several decades after its destruction.
  • Resident Evil Requiem uses RE ENGINE, Capcom’s proprietary engine.
  • The main experience is entirely single-player.
  • The game was released on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC, but Switch 2 is not included in the plateformes field because that value does not yet exist in the PANACHES CULTURE taxonomy.

PANACHES review

Two characters solving an old Resident Evil problem

Requiem finds an elegant solution to a tension Resident Evil has carried for a long time: how can fear and action coexist without one eventually consuming the other?

Instead of constantly searching for a compromise, Capcom distributes part of that tension between Grace and Leon. With Grace, an unfamiliar room can become a problem before an enemy even appears. With Leon, the same universe allows more confrontation and spectacle.

This alternation prevents the game from remaining in a single register for too long and, more importantly, allows both approaches to preserve their own personality.

Returning to Raccoon City without simply remaking Resident Evil 2

The return to Raccoon City could easily have become a succession of references designed to awaken memories of the series.

Requiem instead uses the city as a scar. Grace belongs to a generation marked by the consequences of the catastrophe, while Leon carries its memory directly.

That difference gives the return meaning: the past is not merely something the player recognizes; it is something the characters still have to live with.

A formula that now knows its strengths extremely well

After three decades, Resident Evil has become almost dangerously good at certain mechanics: corridors that gradually become familiar, resources that force decisions, returning to a previously inaccessible door, and stretches of calm long enough to make the player fear whatever will eventually break them.

Requiem does not revolutionize every one of these principles. It mainly uses them with the confidence of a series that now knows exactly when to take away the player’s sense of control and when to give it back.

The contrast between Grace and Leon therefore becomes its best idea: the horror changes less because the monsters are different than because the person standing in front of them does not always have the same means to respond.

Good to know

Release and platforms

  • Resident Evil Requiem was released worldwide on February 27, 2026.
  • The game was developed and published by Capcom.
  • It is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC.
  • Nintendo Switch 2 does not appear in the plateformes field for this entry because nintendo-switch-2 does not exist in the taxonomy currently provided by PANACHES CULTURE.
  • The game is the ninth mainline entry in Resident Evil.
  • Its release takes place during the 30th anniversary year of the series, whose first entry was released in 1996.

Grace Ashcroft and Leon S. Kennedy

  • Grace Ashcroft is an FBI analyst with particularly strong deductive abilities.
  • She is the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, a journalist and survivor of the Raccoon City incident.
  • Her investigation leads her to an abandoned establishment connected to her mother’s death.
  • Leon S. Kennedy is the second playable protagonist and investigates a series of suspicious deaths.
  • Capcom deliberately builds the two characters around different styles: survival horror and vulnerability for Grace, more direct action for Leon.

Perspectives and gameplay

  • The player can use first or third person with both protagonists.
  • It is possible to switch perspective during the game.
  • Several difficulty levels are available to adapt the experience to different types of players.
  • The game notably revolves around combat, exploration, puzzles and resource management.
  • Resident Evil Requiem uses RE ENGINE.

Leon Must Die Forever

  • A free update released on May 8, 2026 added the additional mode Leon Must Die Forever.
  • This Leon-focused mini-game unlocks after completing the main story.
  • It offers a challenge- and replayability-focused experience separate from the main campaign.

Sales and post-launch support

  • Resident Evil Requiem had surpassed 5 million copies only a few days after launch, then reached 6 million by March 16, 2026.
  • Capcom’s latest available financial results now indicate more than 8 million copies sold.
  • Capcom has confirmed plans for additional content and continued support for the game.
  • The entry nevertheless uses statut_parution: completed, because the main campaign is a completed work; updates and additional content belong to post-launch support.