Resident Evil Requiem | REVIEW | Nintendo Switch 2

''THE KING OF ONE LINERS RETURNS''

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Developed: Capcom

Published: Capcom

Genre: Action/Horror

Release Date: Feb 27th, 2026

Platforms: PS5/Xbox Series/STEAM/NSW 2

Review copy provided to me by Nintendo

Resident Evil Requiem or rather Resident Evil 9, is the latest heart stopping horror game in this long storied franchise and it is developed and published by Capcom. With the franchise building up for years, always hinting at a conclusion for our legacy characters, Capcom decided to lean into that even heavier by teasing much of the same for our heroes in this newest game. However, does the teasing and hype pay off? or was it a case of talking too much without delivering? Only one way to find out, so lets get spooky!

''ON THE ROAD TO VIRIDIAN CITY.... I MEAN RACCOON CITY!''

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GAMEPLAY:

I've been with this franchise since day one of its conception and its been a wild ride for the past 30 years. Yes that's right, 30 years. Oh man, the time has flown by way too quickly and now I'm starting to become the real life aging effect of Matt Damon in Saving Private Ryan. That's definitely how I feel at times, or even worse when I'm recalling a memory from ''10 years ago'' and suddenly remember, hang on, that took place TWENTY years ago, like what the heck? WHAT YEAR IS IT. Through these 30 years, Its been quite the journey I've went through personally as a kid, to a teenager and now to an adult, and while the overall consensus with my time with the franchise has been a positive one, there's also be a bit of trepidation too, which is not just tied to the side games released, but the main series as well. My experience varied from entry to entry with the original Resident Evil making me laugh at the god awful F.M.V. opening, even though it made no sense for me to since on my old ACER P.C, oh yeah, you know which I'm talking about, the good ol ACER Aspire, I used to love the cheesy as heck F.M.V. related games, especially Police Quest SWAT. ''Sounds like that fats in the fire, we need back up, lets go!''. Corny F.M.V. aside, Resident Evil was a true horror experience that kept my little heart pumping at the time, and yes, I DID laugh at the ''Jill Sandwich'' joke. Sue me, I was a wee baron, I didn't know any better. Ok never mind, its still funny, I don't care. But Resident Evil 2 is where I truly fell in love with the franchise by being introduced to Leon and Claire as they try to survive the horrors of Raccoon City. From the puzzles, to the enemies, the mutated bosses, the foreboding atmosphere, everything was a step and above anything in the horror genre that I had personally played before and even introduced me to the corny but ICONIC gun store owner scene, which I still quote word for word till this day, including the sound effects. Heck, I've even reinstalled the game on modern platforms just to see the scene again then shut it off. Yes I love it that much. ''FREEZE! WHO ARE YOU!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?''. Classic. Moving over now to Resident Evil 3 and Code Veronica, I started to see the shift in creative and horror with Resident Evil 3 having great moments with Jill and Nemesis, which still gives me P.T.S.D. till this day with his constant haunting yell of ''STARS'', and then my girl Claire making a comeback with Code Veronica on Dreamcast, well at least where I first played it. Ahh yes, good ol Dreamcast, how I love thee, but that's a story for another day. Neither game were bad, but there's a ''shifting'' feeling to me that I couldn't shake, and that was confirmed for me in the next entries of four, five and six. Resident Evil 4, while amazing, shifted more to taking the series to an action horror route with a less scary vibe and more butt whipping and legendary lines like ''GOT A GOOD SELECTION OF THINGS ON SALE, STRANGUH'', but.. with the ANNOYNG as heck Ashley who wouldn't shut up with her ''LEON! HELP! LEON, HELP'' that made me not even want to save her, Resident Evil 5 fully embracing the X-BOX Three Sixty era of pee filter making everything brown and yellow and washed out as co-op adventure was now the focus, and once again, action based horror with ridiculous boulder punching. Like seriously, of all things to do, WHO PUNCHES A BOULDER!?. Resident Evil 6 saw the issue and tried to balance the two between horror and action with multiple campaign switching between the two, and while I liked the game personally, it fell short of completing its goal. Then here came Resident 7 and 8 and Capcom finally just said screw it, were just going to go first person, and really leaned into the horror aspect, and it worked great, horror was finally back full fledged into the series, but, after 8, where do you go after such a crass camera and control scheme shift from the classic formula? simple, mix the two and make the next game a hybrid. Duh. They tried before with six, but here we are with the 9th installment with Requiem and... this time, it actually works pretty dang well. What sorcery is this!?.

Arriving at the 9th installment with Requiem, the game itself feels both like an old friend, but at the same time, its own complete thing due to Capcom going back to what works and embracing the more horror aspects that people fell in love with in the first place that allowed Resident Evil to become a powerhouse in the horror genre. Over the last 10 to even 15 years, many different horror games have come out that really have taken the shine away from Resident Evil and removed its stature as ''the king of survival horror'', many of these being indie titles, believe it or not. Because of this, Requiem almost comes off as a personal vendetta against the industry and more of a Michael Jordan P.R. speak of ''IM BACK'', but doing it in the most poetic way possible with deciding to up the quality and raise the bar for the horror genre that people have been wanting out of this franchise for a very long time, maybe even since the original two entries. Here in Requiem, much like narrative shifts of Resident Evil 2 and even Resident Evil 6, you take on the roles of Grace Ashcroft, who is an F.B.I. agent that doesn't really seem up the task on her job the moment you meet her, and then there's our man, king of the one liners himself, Leon Kennedy, who now works in the Division of Security Operations, an elite group under The President who's job is to combat bio-organic threats. Now due to the new threats that lurk and various other circumstances, they must team up to unravel even more mysteries that have been left unsolved in regards to the Umbrella Corporation, with new antagonist, Professor Moody, I mean, Victor Gideon, being the one that continues to set events of this title into motion. Unlike previous entries of the series where things are a little TOO over the top, hammy or just makes you question all reality in general, again, like freaking punching boulders, Requiem calms it down a tad bit, but only a tad, because make no mistake, this games story and gameplay still goes absolutely off the rails, just not to the extent that Square-Enix takes it with their shenanigans with the Final Fantasy Remake trilogy. Yes, rest easy, that means no force ghosts or force zombies are here in this game. I can finally be at peace. Unlike the past few entries, Requiem decides to go more story heavy with its narrative in an effort to reel in long time fans with easter eggs and call backs to older entries, as well as intrigue newer players into wanting to know even more about the lore that this franchise has built up over the last 30 years, and in the end, takes us back to the basics, with evil scientists, experiments, and corrupt corporations ruining the world. A little plain sounding at first? maybe, but definitely better than anything that has come out of the recent live action Resident Evil T.V. shows though at least.. Resident Evil? more like Resident cant write a proper story to retain an audience so I get canceled after one season, am I right guys?. Guys? Geez, where'd everyone go? Bingo?. The story as previously mentioned jumps back and forth between the narrative thats going on at the time with Grace and then goes right back to the narrative that's unfolding with Leon, all activating at key points in the story that make the switching of campaigns feel natural and not as cumbersome or out of place as it did previously in Resident Evil 6. But it might miff a few people that were expecting a huge chunk of the game to just be about Leon cause, no, the whole game isn't about him, and honestly, I preferred it this way.

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''GIRL SCOUTS WHEN YOU DONT BUY THEIR COOKIES''

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I love Leon, but he's kind of been overexposed to the franchise as the main character, being in multiple entries in the spotlight, the animated movies, his own game, remake, spinoffs where you can take him down in Operation Raccoon City, etc, Its too much to keep having him carry the series by his self, so here in Requiem, roughly the first half the game focuses on Grace, and around midway is when you start getting more of the Leon story bits. Think of it like disc switching in Resident Evil 2 for Leon and Claire's campaign and it's basically the same deal, just done in the modern era. As stated previously, for older fans of the franchise who love their survival horror fix, then Grace's campaign sections of the story will be where you want to be, and a section that puts you in the rightful place of ''survival'' as you have to mix and choose what to have and what not to have in your inventory at any given time, which means, everything you find, you better remember where it was or make use of it as is because it aint coming with you. The same can be said for the limited amount of ammo you will find and be able to use too, because in Grace's story side, the game is a tad bit unforgiven with how vicious some of the enemies are, even on Standard mode, with 3 to 4 hits basically pulling a ''You and your friends are dead. Game Over'' Friday The 13th game over screen on you as you die and rage out. This makes every shot you take a vital one because one shot might be all you got and you have to make sure that it counts, so make sure you have some Ink Ribbons handy for those saves, cause I guarantee you're going to need them. Huh? Oh the Ink Ribbons, oh yeah, they're back and in an even smaller quantity than before, but luckily, if you're playing on a Nintendo Switch 2, you can be a tad bit sneaky and just go into sleep mode and bypass needing to save before ending every session, thus keeping the amount of ribbons you have, as well as keeping your spot in the story at the same time. ''You cant do that''. Quiet Leon, yes I can and yes, I will. Luckily there are ways to gain the advantage with the lack of ammunition, and that's in the way of crafting. Veterans of the series are no stranger to getting their mix on like you're Walter White using different colored herbs to find the right combination that will fill your health more efficiently, and once again it makes its grand return. By finding and collecting blood samples, scrap material, herbs and more, you're able to use Grace's ability to craft to create injectors for yourself, more ammunition to either stack your stock or replenish what you can, and even create some steroids, so you can be just like Chris. What? I'm sorry, Chris will NEVER beat the allegations, bro was definitely juicing. The kicker in all this though however, to get said blood samples to help initiate crafting... yeah you gotta kill some enemies in order to obtain them, so if you see a bigger enemy than usual, just know that he's like the big blueberry girl in Willy Wonka, which means he's full of blood to be able to use, so just rush him and scream... No, not Leeroy Jankins, but instead let them know who you are, YOU ARE THE ONE WHO KNOCKS and proclaim ''You want STARS? I'll show you STARS'' and then proceed to leave them in a bloody heap, mission accomplished. But if you aren't fast enough, then it becomes a ying and yang situation, not taking their blood sample fast enough will make them spawn into an even more terrifying monster who is quicker and hits harder, and the only way to even stop them is to buy some injections and stab it into them, which will make them explode into a big bloody glob like Wesker in Resident Evil 5. But once more, you have a limited inventory, so you have to be careful what you craft and when you craft it, making each situation Grace is put in more intense and terrifying than the last one, which encourages you try out different strategies through multiple playthroughs.

But if the spooky survival horror was getting too much for you, luckily mid game roughly you get to move on to Leon's section of the campaign that is more of what you expect from modern Resident Evil from 4 to 6, with action being the main focus. Unlike Grace's campaign, finding ammo and pew pew'ing your enemies wont really be an issue due to the plentiful that you come across, alongside his inventory system thats similar to what you've previously gotten used to with Resident Evil Village, giving you WAY more space to play with and do activities in. After getting your heart rate up and being careful as you can in Grace's campaign, at this point, you just want to unleash all your frustrations out on the poor enemies with all your pent up rage, and luckily now you can with even more hoards and waves of zombies to take on in true Leon fashion with his signature round house kicks, melee weapons, throwing spears should you want to keep distance if you are on low health, or finally getting revenge after all these years and instead of being the one who gets their head sawed off with chainsaw like in Resident 4, now you too can take up the mantle as wannabe Texas Chainsaw Massacre by wielding a chainsaw too. Its about time, honestly, but while everyone else is acting like they're the iconic Leatherface, I just see himself Chainsaw Charlie from the movie Slashers. Dont know that one? well ''that's not very nice at all'', I encourage you to go look it up, its a REALLY REALLY BAD ''B'' movie... which means its great. Now that I think about it, maybe Requiem is just one big horror homage to begin with, I mean first we have a chainsaw to be Leatherface, then you can get a hatchet to fight against enemies in close combat or perform last second blocks like you're straight out of the horror themed character of Paul Bunyan. Wait? he's not a horror character? I dont know, growing up, he scared me, I mean who else is able to summon a giant blue demon Ox? that's right, a HORROR VILLAIN. But what happens if you run low on supplies since you'll be using a ton them during Leon's campaign? simple, you find a ''shop''. Now now before you get excited, there's no cool character like Resident Evil 4's merchant, instead its a little more tame and underwhelming with each shop just being random crates you can find that have armor, weapons, health items and to buy these items, you just have to kill enemies to get currency, much like blood samples with Grace when she kills a zombie, same thing, different process really. Honestly, that was a tad bit disappointing for me as I expected a little bit more, but hey, beggars cant be choosers, especially after going on an aggressive rampage in the game and collecting hundreds of currency in the process of doing so and feeling like Steve in Code Veronica, bad voice over and all. The balance between Grace's survival horror and Leon's action gameplay segments is actually quite astonishing because neither feels like they dont belong, they dont feel out of place, dont interrupt the pacing of the game, mechanics for both sections make sense, its what they tried and failed to do with Resident Evil 6, but now have borderline perfected in Requiem. It really makes me feel Jeff Goldblum with the ''that S.O.B. did it''. During scenes you'd be expecting things to go off the wall like Capcom usually likes to do, it doesnt do it and pulls its punches and stays grounded to the story and gameplay the game has put into place, leaving no room for eye rolling or breaking the immersion the experience wants you to have. Be it that I'm playing on a Switch 2, the visuals are honestly quite surprising as well, in a good way mind you. On first glance, the title on Switch 2 looks absolutely incredible and clean and you can't believe its running on hardware like Switch 2 because of the perception that only things that look like this can only run on Playstation 5 or an X-BOX, but Capcom, just like Square-Enix did with Final Fantasy 7 Intergrade, proved the ''haters'' wrong, and not only made this game a visual sight to be seen on Switch 2, but, gave it an extremely stable framerate, with it MOSTLY sticking at 60 F.P.S, even with all the action that takes place. Although there are obvious downsides to it as well with a bit of aliasing issues here and there or hair at times looking wonky, but I feel the hair thing is a nitpick personally. If you disagree with that, that's fine, I'll just have my buddy Nemesis turn you into a Jill Sandwich. GET THEM NEMESIS.

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''WHEN SOMEONE ASKS ME ''ARE YOU HUNGRY?...''

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OVERALL:

At the end of the day, Resident Evil Requiem was the Resident Evil entry I didn't know I needed, or rather, the entry I never thought I'd be getting. Even with the gushing I have over it, its not perfect, especially on Switch 2 with hair lower quality in some instances, frame rate slightly dipping during super over the talk action scenes, some visible edges on environments if looked at in the right angles, etc. Even so, with amazing return to form survivor horror of Grace's campaign, fast paced guns glazing gameplay of Leon, creepy and gorgeous looking environments, easter eggs scattered throughout the game that will make you pull the ''I understood that reference'' out of the bag, switching between first person and third person camera's as either Leon or Grace for whatever immersion you want to give yourself, and an overall story that at the end of the day when the credits rolled, helped the game become the Resident Evil game I've wanted since the original two games got embedded into my brain and it now easily ranks as one of my favorite Resident Evil games in the entire franchise, and I feel it will be the same for many other Resident Evil veterans as well. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says BUY NOW.

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