Resident Evil Requiem director Akifumi Nakanishi said the impending sequel is “almost evenly split” between the two main characters: stealth newcomer Grace and returning mass zombie killer Leon S. Kennedy. After a few hours of playing at Capcom HQ, a chapter that clearly follows the pure horror hag avoidance endured by Edwin, I hope it’s an imperfect translation – Leon’s gun-fu action brawls can mesh surprisingly well with Grace’s creepy “and” sneak sections, but those tension-breakers seem best deployed sparingly.
It’s not that I disliked Leon’s introduction. It was a brief but intense flurry of headshots and hatchet swings in a cramped infirmary that rapidly filled with charging undead. The twist on the token chainsaw-wielding villain also gave the fight an interesting focus, turning the series’ most prolific anti-Kennedy weapon into a frantic hot potato game. Its owner drops it, I pick it up, I drop it, someone else picks it up, they drop it, someone else picks it up, and so on. My most panicked shot ended up not at the enemy closest to my throat, but at the one who turned around to grab some discarded garden tools. That’s good action, isn’t it? Maybe it’s not really that scary. But it’s okay.
Image credit: Capcom
Still, it was only a few minutes before I was back in front of Grace, and I’m sure she never taekwondo-kicked the monster’s head into the filing cabinet hard enough to explode, making a big fuss. Even more than Resident Evil 7’s IT geek Ethan, Grace is out of her element here, and Requiem emphasizes that. Received a revolver by a passing Leon, she holds the heavy gun at an awkward angle and fires the only bullet, which recoils more violently than the deadly muzzle she has just been given.
The lighter, scavenged pistol gives her more speed, and there are moments when she needs to shoot down an attacker or two as she wanders the wings of an ornate hospital occupied by freshly zombified staff. But mostly Grace is playing a stealth game, crouching her way past murderous nurses and executives and rummaging through drawers for extra bullets when they aren’t looking. Staying hidden isn’t a new tactic for modern Resi games, but given the slower pace and more time spent observing your enemies, and the fact that many of those enemies still retain their habits and personalities from their pre-infection lives, this is the first time I’m reminded of some kind of twisted form of relationship building with non-boss mooks. Even if, as in the case of a tall man-eating chef, the brutality of the kitchen was a harrowing stealth-horror highlight, the relationship was one of horrifying disgust.
Both characters can switch between first and third person at will, but I used the defaults of FPP for Grace and TPP for Leon. Both actually make a lot of sense. |Image credit: Capcom
I’m not really into the Requiem-like take on crafting, which has Grace collect infected blood and build it…almost anything, really. This makes sense for certain crafting items, such as syringes that stick into the spines of unsuspecting enemies and deliver valuable (if bad) instant death. This is not the case with bullets, for example, and since the most common source of blood is killed zombies, you may spend ammo to refill phials to create ammo.
Fortunately, turning enemies into loot bags doesn’t discount the threat they pose to newcomer Grace. For the most part, he did a good job of maintaining a consistent, slow, suffocating sense of dread in the previews. However, the perspective eventually shifts back to Leon, who quickly gets busy with grenades and one-liners.
Image credit: Capcom
Can these two playstyles really coexist? That’s a fair question, especially for those who worked hard on Resident Evil 6, the series’ biggest and failed multi-protagonist endeavor. It was a bloated, bloated blockbuster with four disparate but separate campaigns spanning survival horror, military action, adventure adventure, and spy thriller, with only two or three short MCU-style crossover cameos in each story.
In some ways, Grace and Leon’s respective approaches stand out more than any of Resi 6’s approaches. But whereas that was, at least in part, a tongue-in-cheek target for the broader, more lucrative shooter audience, here it feels like the two halves are actively trying to balance each other out, especially as the lead stories seem more closely intertwined. Specifically, as the developers have openly explained, Leon is intended as a stress relief valve for playing as Grace. To that end, this second section with Big L quickly levels up the same monsters that were causing you suffering hours and minutes ago.
Image credit: Capcom
I’m not entirely sold on the rawness of this cathartic play, but I think that in short bursts, at least in this demo, Leon’s segments are, it’s effective. Manipulated or not, I still have a strong desire to take my new pump shot, walk around the corner where that chef was patrolling, and effortlessly blow him to smithereens with an unanswered shotgun volley. So I did, and it was great.
In that regard, it’s a smart idea to have Grace and Leon wander around the exact same playspace as both of them, rather than leading them down completely separate routes. Step by step, through the same rooms, the same hallways, and the same desks as Grace, I cringed backwards and now, as Leon, I was looking into a new dimension. The door is no longer an uneasy threshold into the unknown, but a clear target to break through and kick down. The cabinet has gone from being a sneaky hideout to a rich supply station that Leon can pry open with a hatchet (great irony here – poor Grace, the ammo was right there). And yes, the zombies who had their tongues waving in their heads as they chased Grace were finally able to turn the tables.
Image credit: Capcom
I don’t deny the satisfaction of Leon’s bit, but it does come with risks. The biggest cause is overuse. It’s good to vent your fears, but it can wear you out over the course of a match. Would the fear factor of Grace’s enemies (including the then-invincible boss types) be maintained if we raised the expectations of being able to throw Hollow Points at them after an hour?The solution might be to keep the transitions between protags inconsistent and unpredictable, but then you might end up playing Leon too little or too much. Again, I liked what I saw with him, but the thing that keeps you on your toes with Kung Fu’s wisdom is that it happens quickly. And if you stick with a more talented kicker for too long, it can be difficult to get the fear pressure back when you need it.
Still, as my grandfather used to say, you can only preview the game in front of you. And parts of this Requiem seemed impressively balanced. The full version is not far away. Release date is February 27th.
