While a suspicious Playstation Store leak revealed Leon’s presence in Resident Evil: Requiem before the new trailer dropped during The Game Awards, it really wasn’t that much of a stretch to think the iconic character would be making a return for the latest chapter in the franchise.
Well, it’s now official. Leon’s back and now he can pick up chainsaws dropped by his enemies. Requiem is no longer a Grace Ashcroft experience. It’s a dual narrative that slows things down for survival horror gameplay when you step into Grace’s shoes while making things faster whenever control switches over to Leon. Question is, does Requiem need Leon?
The Game Awards trailer made things feel quite familiar with the inclusion of the fan favorite character. We already knew the game would take place in Raccoon City, and that the mansion Grace will be exploring is reminiscent of the Spencer Mansion from RE1. Fan service is strong in this one, though talk of a more flexible progression system and a larger scale narrative generate excitement.
That said, it’s never impossible to veer into well-trodden territory only to find disappointment. This is what happened with Resident Evil 6, a game that suffered from being overstuffed and unfocused to the point of it feeling like multiple small games wrapped into one. Leon was in it too, and while his sections were fun, they felt like they belonged in an entirely different game. RE6’s bigger sense of scope ultimately played against it, too. It sacrificed its signature fear factor for spectacle, losing sight of the things that made Resident Evil such a pillar of horror gaming in the first place.
As far as the trailers for Requiem are concerned, it’s looking like gamers are going to get a kind of “best of both worlds” type of game here. Grace’s gameplay is certainly more deliberately paced, favoring claustrophobic corridors and dark rooms over wider spaces tailor-made for shootouts. Leon’s segments are riding on the RE4 wavelength, heavy on the action horror.
While the setup is interesting, and even celebratory of the RE ecosystem as a whole, I hope that whatever comes after Requiem attempts another twist on the formula. The success of Resident Evil 7, for instance (2017), was owed to one of these twists. The shift to first person gameplay expanded upon the definitions of horror the franchise helped establish in the first place. The necessary connections to the previous games were there, but the vision was different. It recognized that to evolve was to remain relevant, and so it did.
The same applied to the landmark Resident Evil 4, which not only altered the trajectory of subsequent games but also influenced the entire industry. From RE4 onward, the over-the-shoulder perspective essentially became the standard for survival horror and third person shooters.
Going back to basics can be breath of fresh air in its own right, but Resident Evil has now set a kind of expectation regarding its future steps. As such, Requiem feels like it should be the last game before another big shift in the series. They’ve already proven it’s possible. With RE7 they put their money on a new character, new enemies, a new perspective, and a new setting. It worked. Let Requiem be Leon’s swan song. Allow for a new age of Resident Evil that respects the old while craving new blood.