Resident Evil Village felt like a celebration of the franchise, an homage to the numerous kinds the collection has taken through the years. From exploring an enormous mansion to pumping a monster stuffed with lead in additional action-oriented firefights, Village had all of it. However its dollhouse part, which evoked the overwhelming dread and helplessness of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, stole the present. This particular course seemingly shapes Resident Evil Requiem, the ninth mainline sport within the collection, led by RE7 director Koshi Nakanishi. Extra crucially, Requiem additionally takes gamers again to one of many iconic places the place all the difficulty started: Raccoon Metropolis.
Throughout Summer time Recreation Fest Play Days in Los Angeles, I watched a particular hands-off presentation for the sport at Capcom’s sales space earlier than enjoying a behind-closed-doors 30-minute demo of the identical phase. As a long-time fan of the franchise, Requiem feels similar to the latest mainline entries. However after ready over 4 years since Village, Capcom’s potent survival horror components hasn’t proven indicators of waning.
Requiem stars Grace Ashcroft, a younger FBI technical analyst and the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, an investigative reporter who final appeared in 2003’s Resident Evil Outbreak. My gameplay demo begins instantly after the conclusion of the reveal trailer. Grace, who has been mysteriously captured, awakens the wrong way up, strapped to a mattress, and understandably scared out of her thoughts. She manages to flee, however she’s out of the frying pan and into the hearth. Capcom tells me Grace has little fight experience, and my session options zero motion. Which means counting on my wits to outlive the derelict Wrenwood Resort, the location of Grace’s mom’s homicide.
The sport defaults to the now-standard first-person perspective, however Requiem permits gamers to modify to third-person at any time by toggling an choice within the Pause menu. Followers have begged for the inclusion of a third-person mode within the mainline video games at launch for years, so I am joyful to see Capcom oblige. I performed the demo utilizing each modes, and though Capcom labels first-person view because the “really helpful” expertise (which means it is scarier, not that the gameplay is best), my time with Requiem proved terrifying no matter perspective.
Opening the primary door offers approach to an oppressively pitch-black hallway; it virtually feels mean-spirited to inform gamers that is what they have to stroll into proper off the bat. Creaks and bumps amplify the strain because it’s powerful to gauge what’s merely the sounds of a rickety previous constructing or an indication that Grace shouldn’t be alone. That is the place the sport feels most like RE7, as I bump round in the dead of night areas looking for open doorways, each step producing a heart-stopping creak as I worry alerting no matter could also be lurking. Regardless of being labeled a resort, Wrenhood appears extra like some form of clinic. A number of rooms have hospital beds, and I discover remnants of medical workers, corresponding to messages and, extra horrifying, the our bodies of docs. I do not know what function this place as soon as served, and the extra I discover, the extra I start to imagine the reply in all probability is not constructive.
The sport instantly slips into the basic RE components, as I discover a locked door bearing a cherub icon over the lock indicating the mandatory key. A lit hallway sits behind a gate powered by a fuse field lacking considered one of its fuses. I discover the fuse in a single room, however it’s locked behind a case. One other room has a notice stating the fuse field requires a screwdriver to open it, which must be positioned within the nurse’s workplace. As I start fixing this puzzle in reverse order, looking out drawers yields gadgets like a health-regenerating shot and a basic inexperienced herb. The closest factor I discover to a weapon is a bottle used to distract threats moderately than deter them. However what I want at first is the lighter, which I quickly find, permitting me to light up my shrouded environment, albeit simply barely.
After discovering the workplace, Grace opens a door that causes a useless physique to fall onto her in my first leap scare. The corpse, carrying a physician’s lab coat, clearly seems to be contaminated, although that doesn’t cease Grace from checking his pulse and asking if he’s useless in an unintentional humorous bit. Out of the blue, a big mutated arm emerges from the darkness to grab the physique, slowly lifting it in direction of a gray, bloodstained maw of seemingly once-human tooth that takes an enormous chunk. Grace can hardly communicate because the digital camera pans as much as reveal what I can greatest describe as a towering, humanoid hag-like creature sporting stringy gray hair, a bulbous eye, and a tattered rag masquerading as clothes.
Whether or not this creature is a former affected person or one thing else, it’s monumental, barely becoming within the room. I run for my life, and the beast pursues, squeezing its giant, mutated type down the slender corridors. At one level, it grabs me, lifting Grace to take a giant, debilitating chunk out of her, necessitating a fast heal. I retreat into a close-by room, closing the door behind me. Curiously, although, the monster would not observe. After ready a minute, I rigorously open the door and look as much as discover a gaping gap above the doorway. In order that’s how this factor is getting across the resort. Because the creature crawls contained in the ceiling, hanging lighting fixtures shake and creak to point the monster’s proximity.
Meet Requiem’s new persistent enemy, following within the terrifying footsteps of Mr. X and Girl Dimitrescu. The remainder of my demo is spent attempting to keep away from and evade this menace because it periodically resurfaces, at one level crashing by a wall to chop me off à la Jack Baker in RE7. This whole sequence jogs my memory of RE Village’s horrifying dollhouse part in the perfect and most unsettling methods. Sneaking silently helps me discover my fuse field, triggering a race to the gate with the creature in sizzling pursuit. Sadly, seeing how this chase ends should wait till the total launch.
My time with Resident Evil Requiem didn’t yield any revolutionary concepts or surprises; it feels acquainted and terrifying within the methods I’ve come to like since 1996. The massive questions are Grace’s position on this story, what new menace she’s going through, and when this occasion happens: are we within the decade-plus future when Resident Evil Village’s Shadows of Rose DLC befell, or a special interval? I can’t wait to reply these questions and extra when Resident Evil Requiem releases on February 27.