Resident Evil 9 - Requiem Review

Written: 14-03-2026

I finished my first playthrough of Resident Evil 9 - Requiem yesterday and I had a blast with it. The game combines the two aspects the series is known for, action and horror, close to perfectly and makes a game that benefits from the best parts of previous games. It is also a great conclusion to recent Resident Evil games and wraps up the series so far very well.

The game has two protagonists, Grace and Leon, Grace is played in first person and by default and her sections are more horror focused, while Leon is in third person and his sections are more action focused. This system allows for quick switches between action and horror without making either section feel forced. Leon is an established character in the series who is known for his prowess while Grace is a new character and it is her first encounter with the threats of the series. This allows the plot to make sense with the gameplay shifts.

The horror sections play like a mix of Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 7 - Biohazard. They are mostly in confined tight spaces, resource management is important. You are trying to solve puzzles in a medical centre full of zombies and other horrors for most of these sections. Capcom have done an incredible job of creating atmosphere here. You can rarely kill all the enemies in your path, so have to learn their placements to avoid them, but the zombies and other enemies will roam around keeping you on your toes. There are also a few section with unkillable or very hard to kill enemies that create these emergent chase scenes. Grace is a bit stuttery and scared and this is maybe a little too much compared to what she can actually do in gameplay but this is a minor nit-pick.

On the other hand, the action sections throw hoards of enemies at Leon who has an arsenal of weapons at his disposal to deal with these creatures. They could have just copied these weapons and monsters from the recent Resident Evil 4 Remake, but they have added new enemy types and weapons to spice this up a little. For the most part this section of the game does take most of its style and systems from the Resident Evil 4 Remake though which isn't a bad thing. These sections are well polished and have some fun set pieces. The Raccoon City section does have some slightly boring environments, but the gameplay and puzzles here are still fun and there are some nice callbacks to previous games in the series that aren't overdone.

Throughout the game it fades from mostly horror to mostly action creating a fun shift. This usually happens in the horror Resident Evil games, but the horror systems make these action sections the least fun parts of the games in my opinion, here we get different mechanics for the action which works perfectly. The story is solid, but still has the Resident Evil cheesiness which we all love. Leon continues to crack his incredible one liners after every encounter too.

An all around great Resident Evil game that will likely appeal to people who like both the horror and action aspects of Resident Evil. If you only like one part of the games you might feel that the other parts are a bit of a drag though. I wouldn't recommend this as a first game in the series though. I'd say at least play Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 4 Remake for some background on Leon first and Resident Evil 7 - Biohazard it also a good one to see if you like the horror side. I think, unlike most Resident Evil games, the plot of this game would be more fun if you have some experience with the series first. All around a great game that I highly recommend. I intend to do a few more playthroughs in the future.