The next mainline Resident Evil game is bringing back one of the strongest aspects of 2017’s Resident Evil 7 biohazard, a major course correction for the franchise because it was steeped in creeping, unnerving terror. Resident Evil Requiem manages to capture that uncomfortable horror element of that game, while also feeling inherently Resident Evil, based on a small slice of the game I played recently.
And what I did play felt like a polished, ready-to-be released demo for Resident Evil Requiem that could drop at any moment, similar to the Kitchen and Maiden demos for RE7 and Resident Evil Village, respectively.
If you’re a Resident Evil fan, you’ve probably already seen a portion of the Requiem demo that’s playable at Gamescom this week. The demo starts with protagonist Grace Ashcroft strapped upside-down to a gurney, waking up in confusion and palpable fear at her predicament. But Grace quickly frees herself, gets a peek at her medical chart (no answers there), and starts to wander the dark, empty halls of the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center — a location that connects back to the Resident Evil Outbreak games.
Resident Evil Requiem looks just as good, if not better, than Capcom’s most recent entries in the franchise. But what really stands out here is the lighting. The rooms that Grace explores in the Rhodes Hill clinic are either pitch black, intensely lit by high-wattage bulbs, or bathed in dull red emergency lighting.
After exploring a bit, I found the typical batch of equipment and survival items that one finds in a Resident Evil game: a lighter to illuminate dark passageways; a screwdriver that unscrews an important screw; and a fuse to open a locked gate. Naturally, there are emergency healing items like green herbs scattered about.
A few minutes into the demo, Grace discovers a dead body as she searches for answers about why she’s there and how to escape. More terrifying, however, is the giant stalking monster that suddenly but quietly appears, leaning in over Grace’s shoulder to take a meaty chomp out of the corpse she’s just found.
This giant creature, which immediately made me think of the Mother from Zach Cregger’s Barbarian, is not your typical unkillable Resident Evil stalker. It screeches as it chases Grace, and it does have one weakness: light. Grace can take refuge in brightly lit rooms, and the monster will stop giving chase after a spell. It will then creep through ceilings and ducts to track her, signaling her position with thumps, falling plaster, and the occasional wail.
Naturally, this monster often stands in between the puzzle-solving device that Grace has in her inventory and the puzzle that needs to be solved. Grace needs to be quiet and careful to stay out of sight — a challenge when she needs to move a very loud medical cart over to a shelf to acquire an item. Of course, objects fall and clatter about, attracting the monster anytime Grace jostles something.
Grace herself is a relatable and believable horror protagonist throughout the demo. She cries out believably in fear and questions just-what-the-fuck-is-going-on like a young woman trapped in a creepy hospital and being stalked by an eight-foot-tall mommy monster realistically would. It may be just a small slice of the game, but I came away convinced that Grace’s voice actor is one of the best to ever do it in a Resident Evil game — faint praise for a series infamous for its choppy dialogue.
I ran through the Resident Evil Requiem demo twice, once in old-school third-person and once in first-person view. I was pleased that both options feel not just great, but terrifying in their own ways. Seeing Grace’s own shadows cast on walls in first-person spooked me at least twice, and getting to see just how close she was to becoming a monster snack in third-person unnerved me in its own way. Suffice it to say, the horror aspects of Resident Evil Requiem appear rock solid, and even if superhero action star Leon S. Kennedy does show up as a playable character, at least the Grace segments will offer the “addictive fear” that Capcom is promising with its new survival horror game.
Resident Evil Requiem is coming to PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on Feb. 27, 2026. Hopefully, you’ll get to play the same demo I did well before then.
