A Requiem for an Evil Resident.

The floor creaked with a long, sad groan as Grace passed, moving slow both out of caution, as she told herself, but to calm her heart pounding its way straight through her chest. This 'Care Center' was dark, and full of so many rooms and twisting corridors that a new nightmare might be lurking around any corner. A new monstrosity waiting behind any door...

“Only five bullets left,” Grace gulped after checking her pistol's magazine. It was just a cheap little thing, she had to buy it with her first paycheck after all, but at least it was reliable. Her only other weapon was that monster of a revolver that strange hunky man gave her, but she'd already used the one bullet it came with; the recoil so strong it felt like it almost broke her wrist. So she left it back in that 'safe room,' if she could even call it that. Didn't need it weighing her down, because what were the chances she'd find magnum ammo in a hospital?

Pistol in one hand, and flashlight in the other, she continued on, using some oddball key to open an even odder door. Flashlight darting around the room, it all seemed clear, so she ventured on, until-

“Clean...floors....” The zombified husk of what used to be a janitor mumbled, still mopping back and forth. Even in his un-life, held firm by the death grip of his job. Grace aimed at him, but only for a second. Standing there, just...mopping. Forever. Not actually cleaning so much as pushing bloody water back and forth.

It was sad, more than anything else. So sad, Grace felt like she should put the poor guy out of his misery, hoping death would stick this time, but with only five bullets... It wasn't like he was in her way, after all...

While she contemplated this, she didn't hear the door open, or that hulking brute of a chef stumble in, until-

“Freeessssh meeeaaatt....” He groaned, machete raised as he lumbered toward her.

“Ahhh!” She cried, now drawing the janitor's attention. She backed up, gun darting back and forth between the two.

BANG!

One shot at the chef, hitting square on the forehead, but only slowing him down. So she turned to the janitor.

BANG! BANG-BANG-BANG!

Four shots, one missed, but the others hit, sending him reeling to the floor. Yet she didn't have time to breathe, the chef was almost on her, machete about to strike as she fumbled for her shoddy knife. She flinched, falling backward to the floor, eyes shut as she thought this was the end, when-

CLANG!

Grace opened her eyes, and before her was a wall of muscle, an absolute beefcake of a man. Arm and back muscles rippling beneath a shirt so tight she wasn't sure how it didn't rip itself. She bit her lip, in awe as he did his magic.

Machete parried with his hatchet, he didn't hesitate. With one swift motion he struck back, cleaving the chef's head off in a single blow. As the now properly dead collapsed, he turned around and held out a hand, to help Grace up.

“Th-thanks,” Grace stuttered once she was back on her feet.

“If you needed help,” Leon S. Kennedy held up his hatchet and smirked, crimson blood streaked across his grizzled face. “All you had to do was axe.”

Resident Evil Requiem! That was, of course, a dramatization, a bit of fan made fiction, if you will. That doesn't happen in the game, so it isn't a spoiler. I wasn't sure how to begin this, thus I employed a little creativity to summarize Requiem's vibe. The slow creeping fear that runs through Grace's part of the game, and the sillier quips from Leon. Although that one, that was all me. Unless Leon does say that, and I just missed it.

Yes, I realize I'm posting this a bit late relative to the game's release. No, it's not because I came to it late, partly due to fear of missing out, I was playing it right on that first weekend. Got through the game before any of my friends, though that's because one of them couldn't stop playing Dark Souls, of all things. I just didn't get around to writing until now, but here I am!

I'm glad I did, because in addition to them patching in a photo mode, that time let my feelings settle a bit. I think Requiem is really great overall, fantastic at its best, but definitely plays it a little too safe in some ways. And in the moment, a few parts fell a little flat for me. The boss fights in particular just felt a little...lacking? I know this series hasn't always had the best boss fights, but I feel like compared to REm4ke and VILLAGE, Requiem's just weren't that interesting mechanically. Forgive me if my memory is inflating how good some of those bosses were, or conflating ridiculousness with being actually good (Heisenberg in Village). At least not compared to the encounters with regular enemies, which felt like they worked to the game's strengths better, and had some more interesting (or funny) gimmicks.

But that's getting way ahead of myself. I'll say now, I'm not going to get into any real spoiler territory, or story specifics, outside of the basic setup. There's some broader stuff I want to touch on, mild spoilers there, but I'll get there when I get there.

Instead, let me start at the start. Requiem begins with a new protagonist, in fact the first new protagonist for the series since 2017's Resident Evil VII: BIOHAZARD. For a franchise known for changing up or swapping between leads, I hadn't actually realized it'd been so long since there was someone new until I sat down and started writing this. Been nothing but remakes and the odd direct sequel starring the same guy in that time. Until now!

The story begins with Grace, an analyst (not a field agent) at the FBI, being sent out on an assignment. Alone. To investigate a death that just happens to be at the scene where her own mother was brutally killed right before her own eyes. It goes about as well as it sounds like it would (I am a firm believer that the game's real villain is her boss who sent her out on this). Before she knows what's happening, Grace awakens at the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center, which is now overrun with zombies and the like. Being a Resident Evil location, this isn't just a normal hospital, it's a centuries old ornate building that feels right at home with the Spencer Mansion of RE1 (more so the REmake) and the museum turned police department of RE2.

The Care Center is in many ways the platonic ideal of a Resident Evil locale. It's fancy, just big enough to get lost in, interconnected, full of oddball nooks and crannies to explore, has weird doors with weirder keys, and some unsettling medical rooms tucked away as well. Now, that's not me saying it's better or even as good as the series' two most iconic settings, just that it's also a very good one. I had as much fun, and felt as much stress (complimentary) sneaking and creeping through this place as I have in any other in the series.

Grace's portion of the game is fantastic, this is what I want out of Resident Evil. She is so resource strapped that I was constantly juggling what little I had against what it was I needed to do. There's something tucked away in the corner of that lounge, but there's two regular zombies and a creepy (yet kind of sexy) singing zombie in between. What's the plan? Maybe I can try to sneak up and use one of my very limited instant kill Injectors? What if I mess up and draw all of their attention? There's always that magnum, appropriately named Requiem. A weapon so powerful Grace literally yelps in shock the first time she fires it. There's a Trophy for killing three enemies with a single Requiem shot, and I got it by accident!

Despite being known as a zombie franchise, the series has branched out from time to time with what its enemies are. RE4 introduced the parasitic Las Plagas, which for my money are still the best collection of enemies in the franchise. They're just more interesting to fight, and more varied in what they do. VII and Village had a much odder assortment of mold monsters and wolfmen, of all things, but otherwise most of the enemies are either typical zombies, or horrific creatures (sometimes mutant, and sometimes merely enlarged).

Requiem, while returning to capital Z Zombies, has done something a little more interesting with them. Here, when a person becomes a zombie, they still remember, and fixate on the last thing they were doing. So, a janitor mopping up the floor keeps trying to clean the floor, or a butler zombie is obsessed with flipping light switches off. I'm not joking, not only is flipping lights on and off a mechanic in this game, but one zombie type can be manipulated around with it.

Some of it is silly, which I appreciate because I love the camp of it, but it's creepy! Yes, the enemies in the non-zombie games could still talk, but in those cases they were communicating with each other. The intent being to create the illusion that the enemies are coordinating against the player, which certainly felt fresh and exciting back in RE4. Hearing the cries of the singing zombies echo throughout the Care Center is unsettling, having the undead mumble with just enough coherency to understand is creepy. At least one will even apologize as they attack, like there's some part of the person still in there, still witness to their un-life, but unable to act.

I will say there's not quite as much in the way of other creatures as I had hoped. There is at least one classic RE monster late in the game that I won't spoil, but in terms of new monsters, there's not many. The regular zombies can mutate into a more powerful form, the mechanics of which I won't spoil, but I will say they can chain react and lead to some bad situations! There are also a couple of larger more powerful types of zombies, like the Chunk. I don't really like the Chunks much, they lean on Capcom's worst tendencies in terms of grotesquely fat designs. At least there's only two of them in the game.

Although, I should clarify and say I don't like their design, or their speech being so focused on wanting food to eat, because dealing with one of them led to one of my favorite moments of resource scarcity in the game. These things are enormous, and when Leon fights one, it definitely takes a lot of shots, and specific axe moves to take down. But the first one you encounter is with Grace, and there's a Trophy for taking it down as her (not that I knew this in the moment).

So, what was the plan? I didn't really have the ammo to even consider shooting it, unless I wanted to use my precious few magnum rounds. Well, that's where the Hemolytic Injectors come in. Grace can craft these handy little gadgets, and use them for one hit kills against regular zombies. Not only are they one hit kills, but they also prevent the enemies from mutating, or re-rising from the dead.

Of course something that powerful has to have a catch, and it's that she can't use them if the zombie is actively attacking her. So, aside from “dead” enemies lying on the ground, that means either as stealth kills, or after stunning them with enough damage. In other words, they're extremely powerful, but require a bit of strategy to use effectively.

So, I decided to try sneaking up behind the Chunk that patrols part of the Care Center, and see if I got the stealth inject prompt. I did, so I hit it, and... One wasn't enough. So, I ran, losing my pursuer, and decided to go at it again. I had one more Injector, surely two would be enough, right?

To my dismay, no, it was not. Here is where I reached an impasse. I could either give up on this idea, living with my choice to waste resources (or take the cowards' way: save scumming to get those Injectors back), or keep sinking more cost because there was no way it'd need four, right? The problem being I didn't have another Injector, nor enough blood (more on that later) or scrap to craft a new one. BUT, I had an idea.

I had an almost broken knife I could dismantle for the scrap, which honestly was a better use than just breaking the knife and losing it entirely. That still left the blood, though. And this point I had already slurped up every bucket of blood I found, so I was at the mercy of whatever the zombies would drop. So, I found one, killed it, and whether by luck or the good grace of Capcom's dynamic difficulty, I got exactly the amount I needed to craft one more Injector.

Thankfully, after all this, the third Injector was the last I needed, and I popped that Chunk like a balloon. Some of the sweetest relief I'd felt in a game for quite a long time.

This is survival horror. This is what I want! No, Grace is not the over the top hunky action power fantasy of Leon, but hers is a different sort of fantasy. Being the underdog, under prepared, under equipped, yet still able to persevere, and prevail not because of strength, but because of her wits. And a healthy amount of luck to be sure, but that's video games! Capcom has long been one of the best with their dynamic difficulty secretly adjusting things behind the scenes, and while I don't know the specifics, I'm sure some form of it was at play here. Hey, so long as it keeps things interesting, I'm all for it.

Speaking of difficulty, I was playing on the highest default, Standard (Classic), which meant I also had to use ink ribbons to save! On top of everything else, not only is the saving limited, but most of the time I wasn't even finding full ink ribbons, just the cases so I could craft them instead. Crafted with blood, of course. The deranged (complimentary) people at Capcom decided that infected blood was the obvious resource Grace should use for most of her crafting.

As an aside, I'm still kind of baffled by these difficulty options. Why are they called “Standard (Modern)” and “Standard (Classic)?” That naming, along with the only concrete thing mentioned in their descriptions makes it feel like the only difference is the ink ribbons (which only applies to Grace). But the rest of the Standard (Classic) description makes it sound like the overall difficulty is higher, it just doesn't say how. When I look this stuff up online, what I find says the only difference is the ribbons, but talking about it with a friend, we both feel like Standard (Classic) is ramped up in other ways.

So, which is it? I still don't know! I feel like if there were meaningful differences they would have just named them Classic and Modern, but I...don't have a concrete answer. I will say I briefly tried a new game on Insanity, but did not try it for very long. This game doesn't have a proper New Game Plus, but instead has a spend points from in game challenges to unlock stuff system (which isn't new to the series). So Insanity feels like a ridiculous difficulty balanced around first completing other challenge runs to unlock secret weapons and infinite ammo, which is just...

That's not really what I'm looking for out of Resident Evil. What I want is a tense challenge while playing the game normally, not to speedrun it, or try to beat the whole game without healing items. I'm also a little baffled by the fact that files remain found and readable even if you start a new game. If this was NG+ where I also brought in my upgraded inventory, and weapons, I'd be fine with that, but this is starting a “new game” from the main menu, and all that other stuff resetting. Is there a way to reset the files? What happens in a few years when I want to replay Requiem before the next new RE, is it possible for me to have a completely fresh save without using a different system level profile, or just completely deleting my saves (again, at a system level)? This feels like a bizarre middle ground that doesn't do either of the things I want!

When Capcom won't let me drive the forklift.

Aside over, back to Standard (Classic), and ink ribbons. The added stress that death means going back to the last time I manually saved, it is exactly the right kind of good stress that I want out of survival horror. I've written before about how I came to Resident Evil “late,” by which I mean the original RE4 (now over two decades ago), drawn in by the allure of it being an action game, rather than survival horror. Even now, a part of me still feels like I'm not quite a “true” fan even though I know that's nonsense.

This modern era (VII onward) has turned me from a fair-weather fan to a diehard that is excited for these games by default. I'm at the point where I care enough about the story and characters that I want to see what happens in each new installment. It (and The Evil Within 2, to be fair) have turned me from someone who shied away from these games to someone who craves them. Then the RE4 remake rewrote my brain to want to play them on hard! Even as of a decade ago when I was playing the (PS4 remaster of the) GameCube remake of RE1, I played that on easy because I was worried the resource management wouldn't be fun. How much I've changed in that time, as has RE itself.

Grace, according to how Capcom promoted this game prior to release, is the face of the series going forward. Credit where it's due, she feels different from any other RE protagonist I can think of. Even Ethan Winters from VII and Village, who famously, “most resembles an actual human being” to paraphrase my friend, felt more confident and assured of himself than Grace does. Grace is a walking anxiety attack waiting to happen, she literally has a stutter that overtakes her speech when she's stressed out. Which is a lot of the time!

Of course she isn't overcome with fear the entire game, and I enjoyed her arc, but that's all I will say on that. Because, and this ties into my biggest issue with the game (though not what you think I'm getting at), Grace is not the only protagonist here. Of course everyone's favorite rookie cop twink turned hunky federal agent DILF Leon is back again, buffer and more smoldering than ever.

Genuinely, I'm not the sort of person to typically swoon over video game characters (or even real people), but there's just something about him in this game that got me. More than anything else, it's the way his shirt clings to him that just...I dunno how to put it into words without this turning into smut, and that would probably get me in trouble with the mods! All I'll say is that while I'm usually upset that Leon always loses his cool jackets early in these games, I didn't mind this time.

Leon, having starred in three previous mainline games (five if we count the remakes of 2 and 4 separately, likely even more with spinoffs) approaches this with a confidence, and an air of “been there done that” which only comes with age, and experience. While he might not be as quick or agile as he was back in his “needless back-flip” RE 4 era, he's got the raw strength from carrying this franchise on his back for decades to make up for it.

If Grace is the continuation of the survival horror part of Resident Evil, then Leon is the action, with his play style an evolution of RE 4 remake. Yes, that means he's a parrying machine again, and even more so than before. In RE 4, Leon's knife could break, and only be repaired at the Merchant. If it did, he had to supplement it with disposable (and even more fragile) knives he found along the way. Or more accurate to how I played, I would typically use the disposable knives and save the good one for more important stuff.

In Requiem, Leon has finally left the knife behind and upgraded to a hatchet. He still uses it for parries, and regular attacks, but now also for a slew of different finisher moves. Some of these feel ripped straight out of God of War 2018; it is absolutely WILD to see Leon doing stuff like this in a Resident Evil. Like knives, the hatchet also has limited durability, but now Leon has a trick up his sleeve.

He brought a whetstone with him. Yes, he sharpens his axe in the midst of battle, but it's quick enough that it's effectively the same as a gun reload. I also, and correct me if I'm wrong here, but I'm pretty sure in the animation he's “sharpening” the side of the axe, and not the actual blade. Anyway, the point being that while the durability can deplete pretty quickly (especially after parrying a chainsaw), it's also refilled so fast that the game heavily encourages actually using the hatchet. Whether to go on the offensive, or defensive with parries, that thing is a vital part of Leon's arsenal, and a really fun one too!

You don't have to be the sharpest tool in the- Wait, no, don't leave! I'm not done yet!

I swear Leon has about ten different kicks as poses in photo mode.

Ahem. The axe is even useful for stealth kills, for anyone who might think Leon is all action. I mean, he's almost all action, but there's some variety in there. I don't want to spoil some of the gimmicks during his parts of the game, but there's some really good creativity in terms of using the environments against the enemies, or the game using them against the player. In particular, I'm thinking of one area with a lot of glass, people who played will know what I mean.

Leon's core game play is as fun as ever, and I think the “zombies who fixate on the last thing they were doing” make for some really fun (and silly) scenarios. The issue I have, however, is with the area he spends most of his time in. Again, maybe this is a spoiler, but considering it was in the announcement trailer and the game is marketed as, “Return to Raccoon City,” I really don't think so, but Leon spends the bulk of his time in the bombed out ruins of Raccoon City.

And I'm mixed on this. I think when it's going for nostalgia, and returning to iconic places that I remember from the other games, it works. When it's just wandering around in post apocalyptic city streets and alleyways, it feels a little generic. Part of the aesthetic appeal of Resident Evil is the juxtaposition of horror with what was once beautiful, and ornate. Yes, I know the “real horror” of RE has always been the evil corporation and the rich running it, so I could get into a philosophical debate of if a mansion as a symbol of obscene wealth was ever really “beautiful,” but that's beside the point.

I mean the intricately detailed and beautifully crafted art of places like the Spencer Mansion or the RPD are what makes Resident Evil visually striking. Or even the castles of RE 4 and Village, or the swampy estate of VII. Seeing these once ornate places decayed, ripped apart, and oozing with evil is Resident Evil. So, I guess in a way I'm glad they did something a little different for his part of Requiem, but I'd be lying if I said in the moment I didn't think a lot of it just felt like a more detailed version of Fallout.

Now to be clear, I'm only talking about the visual styling, not the actual level layouts. Leon's part of the game is still a lot of fun, and these are good combat/stealth scenarios. There's hidden goodies to be found, and a healthy amount of challenge. I actually ended up dying quite a bit more with Leon than Grace, though since he doesn't have to worry about ink ribbons, and actually has auto-saves, I was being a lot more cavalier. I'm much more willing to run up and try to John Wick my way through a fight when I know death will just put me back at the start of this encounter, rather than twenty or thirty minutes ago at a typewriter.

Speaking of, when I say John Wick, I mean it. Sometimes if Leon deals a killing blow at close enough range, he'll do a special animation with the gun, like putting it right up into the enemy's mouth before shooting, or side-stepping around and doing a stylish shot from behind. I wasn't getting these all that often so I'm not really sure how many different animations there are, but they sure were rad when I did!

Conversely, I never managed to do a suplex, and I'm still not sure if that's here or not. Be a bit of a let down if it's not, considering it's one of his iconic moves from 4.

Leon finally gets to use a chainsaw, at least.

Unlike Grace, I don't really have a fun story about my time with Leon, because his part of the game is a lot more straightforward. It's open ended and allows for exploration, but I was never forced into a particular situation because of resource management. And that's fine, he plays differently, which is good! Requiem is the smartest, and best melding of the two different play styles of Resident Evil yet.

Ever since RE reinvented itself with 4, there's been a rift between action and survival. They're both still horror themed, but the games either fell on one side or the other, or clumsily tried to juggle both. Okay, clumsily is a bit harsh, I mean more that they start very horrific, then slowly give the player so many resources that by the end it can devolve into an action shooter. Village is probably the one that most exemplifies this, especially since VII had previously re-reinvented the series by refocusing on the horror (not that there wasn't also action there too).

Using the classic dual-protagonist concept from the original games, but making them play wildly different from each other is a brilliant idea. Grace can be resource strapped, better off avoiding fights when she can, and Leon can be the over the top silly action. My only critique being I might have liked a little more of Grace in the back half of the game, but on the whole I think this split works really well.

But it does bring me back to my biggest criticism. As I said earlier, originally Capcom was promoting Grace as the new face of the franchise, but they were saying this while it leaked that Leon was going to take up half the game. This is a game that allows the player to choose which perspective each character is played in, though the devs recommend Grace in first person to enhance the horror, and Leon in third for a clearer view of his ripped bod, I mean the action. It's a game that wants to be both nail biting horror and silly quip a minute action.

It kind of can't really commit to some of these things. Like the perspective thing. It defaults to, and recommends Grace in first person, like I said. And yet, unlike RE VII and Village which were truly committed to presenting from Ethan's perspective, even set to first person it frequently shifts to third person. Most (but not all) of her cutscenes are in third person. Not that unusual, plenty of first person games do this, but VII and Village didn't. Other than maybe one or two times per game, those games stuck to Ethan's perspective (or Chris' during that one sequence). It became a running joke that no one knew what Ethan actually looked like because no one ever saw his face. Even in the marketing, he would always be obscured, and it wasn't until they had to render his face for the third person mode patched into Village that anyone ever saw him.

More jarringly, any time she's grabbed by an enemy, the game moves to third person during the animation, then back into first when the player regains control. Is this for some sort of motion sickness reason? Maybe, but VII and Village didn't feel the need to do this. Having a creepy (but again, kind of sexy) vampire bug lady take up the entire screen as she grabbed Ethan was, I think, a lot more effective horror than having the game change perspective to give a wider view of what was happening. Thus ruining any “immersion” gained from being in first person.

So, while I did try a bit of Grace in first person, I ended up sticking with third. If they really thought first person was the better way to experience her part of the game, I think they should have committed to it like they did in the previous two games. Player choice is cool, I don't fault them for wanting to cater to a wider audience, and frankly I usually prefer third person in most games anyway. To me, Resident Evil is an over the shoulder view of someone holding a pistol up, but that's because the first one I played was 4.

And if they were going to do both perspectives, I get that doing alternate versions of every grab, and especially every cutscene would never be feasible. Compromises always need to be made, and these were probably the right decisions when making a huge budget, mass market game. It sold like five million copies over the first weekend, and physical copies sold out, so clearly they did something right!

But also, as much as I praise it for using two protagonists for their action/horror split, the need to trot Leon back one more time instead of letting someone new carry it feels a little...not quite desperate, but certainly safe. I know, I'm being hypocritical here, I love Leon as much as everyone else. He's the fan favorite for a reason, and I love his goofy quips! He's fun to embody! He's SEXY.

As sexy as he is, he does have bad posture.

Yet I can't help but find myself hoping that whatever is next for the series doesn't play it quite as safe as this. I would love if it was another reinvention, like VII or 4, but I'm not holding my breath. These days I'm just happy Capcom is doing well enough that they can keep making these games, and I hope they continue to fair better than where the majority of the games industry seems to be headed. Though I obviously also hope the industry at large gets to a better place!

And if they do feel the need to trot out an older character to be the action one next time, it'd be nice if they brought Jill or Claire back instead of going to the big muscle men (Leon or Chris) yet again. Or Sheva! Give her a game that's less...problematic. A real disappointment in Requiem was that despite there being a lot of RE 2 nostalgia here, other than a collectible weapon charm, there's not hide nor hair of Claire anywhere in this game. She was as much of the protagonist of that game as Leon, after all. Even a quip from Leon like, “Where's Claire when you need her,” would have been nice.

I'm sure there's also plenty that could be said about the “gender politics” around making the action character the big strong guy, and the frightened horror character a meek, and noticeably short woman (whose motherly instincts kick in around a young child), but I don't have it in me. This franchise has had strong women before (like Jill and Claire!), and I'm sure it will again. Eventually.

Yes, I know we're going to see more of those two, Capcom always leaks like a sieve, after all. I'm talking about the next new entry, not more remakes. I know Code Veronica is next, and apparently a remake of RE 1 after that. As ridiculous as it sounds to say they should remake a remake, that REmake is over twenty years old now, and I've been saying they should do RE 1 in the modern style ever since the RE 2 remake, so again, I know I'm hypocritical. Especially as I get older, it's hard not to feel torn between that desire for new experiences, but also stuff that makes me feel nostalgic.

I had only just entered high school (if that) when I first played Resident Evil 4, and I'm in my mid thirties now. Not as old as Leon, but that “been there, done that” feeling isn't going to go away if they keep remaking and rehashing ideas in these games. Conversely, if you made me pick which game in the franchise was my favorite, there's a good chance I'd say the RE 4 remake, so I'm as guilty as seeking nostalgia as anyone else!

“Well, if you want something new, what's your idea, Moosey?” Call it Resident Evil X, or REX for short, and use it as an opportunity to introduce Dino Crisis into the lore. Zombie dinos! Parasite infected dinos! It practically writes itself! Capcom's not doing anything with Dino Crisis on its own, so here's an idea! As a more reasonable idea, I'd love if in the time since Requiem Grace became more confident and assured of herself, and she now became the action character, while someone else filled in as the scaredy-cat horror character.

Enough about that, I should probably wrap this up. Few other odd thoughts I couldn't fit anywhere else first, though. I wish the game had a bit more in the way of puzzles to solve. It's got plenty of key items, and files hidden around, but it's all either bring the key to the lock, or what you need to do is spelled out exactly in the file (thus why I don't like that they stay found on starting a new game). Maybe I'm not remembering right, but I feel like games like RE2 remake, or VII made you actually solve the occasional puzzle after bringing the item to the right place.

I kinda touched on this earlier, but I wish there were more in the way of monsters, or giant creatures as basic enemies throughout the game. Rather than one off scenarios, or boss fights. The zombies are fun, but I really thought there would be more critters. Raccoon City should have been overrun with big creatures!

I won't get into story specifics, but I do think the ending is pretty sappy. I know the series has always had a cheesy/campy charm to it, but I would have written the ending differently. There's also some aspects that left me with more questions than answers, but that's not always a bad thing. As long as Resident Evil remains Capcom's biggest flagship franchise, we're going to keep getting more, so good to keep some mysteries going.

Though I do wonder after all these remakes, what games are actually canon anymore. Did they stealth reboot the franchise along the way? Who can say!

Okay, that's it for this one. Again, great game overall, and it was especially fun to talk about with friends after the fact. Some real, “this game is made by sickos, for sickos” moments. A lot of very goofy, fun moments as Leon, and a lot of really tense horror with Grace. Not a perfect game, but a great one.

As always, thank you for reading, and stay safe out there!