Hanging upside down for any length of time is a pretty bad time, and as our hands on with Resident Evil Requiem begins and we see Grace Ashcroft struggling to free herself from a tilted gurney and remove the cannula from her arm, it’s pretty clear that she wasn’t having much fun there. What awaits in our first hands on demo is another exemplary slice of modern Resident Evil horror.
FBI agent Grace Ashcroft has found herself in dire straights after being sent to investigate a series of strange deaths at a hotel where her mother died almost a decade before. Just like Ethan in Resi 7, she’s a very different protagonist to series staples like Leon Kennedy or Chris Redfield, both having grown into being ultra-competent fighters of big bad monsters. Grace feels completely out of her depth, simply doing anything that she can to survive, using basic FBI desk jockey training and nous.
So what does face her? Well, a creepy, poorly lit hotel, it seems. Venturing out after quickly interacting with everything possible – the medical machine, the pool of blood Grace has left behind, the written note – and what immediately starts to stand out is this interplay between light and dark. While this first room is brightly lit, you can flick on and off the room light and a small table light, completely changing the tone of the room as you do so.
The hallway outside, meanwhile, is bathed in an eerie red glow and, making our way to what looks like a kitchen area and finding the light switch reveals just a portion of the space with a harsh flickering light. Exploring further down the hallway, there’s further pools of light and dark, adding greatly to the sense of foreboding.
What’s nice and fun through this are the little nods and winks to Resident Evil and the genre in general. A locked door needs a key, a locked gate has a missing fuse, and there’s things like empty typewriter tape cases and green herbs to find while interacting with everything possible. The main things we find of actual use are a couple empty bottles and a lighter that gives us independence from what the switches and working lights dictate.
This leads us to the big scary moment, the lighter letting us reach a door that was previously practically impossible to reach in the pitched darkness – Grace isn’t a Vin Diesel type with night vision – triggering the reveal of the huge monster that will stalk her through the game.
This is such a classic staple of the Resident Evil series, but it’s still such a thrill to have the monster revealed and endlessly hunt us down. After Lady Dimitrescu got everyone so freakin’ thirsty for taller ladies in Village, I’m not sure that Resident Evil Requiem will have quite the same effect, but I love just how large the monster is, barely able to fit through the doorways and rooms, and giving me a bit of a Little Nightmares feel for the dramatic size disparity.
All that Grace can do is hide, wait, try to be quiet while searching for a screwdriver – this needed us to move a trolley around to stand on, which could knock things off and make noise, but I was delighted to lure the monster to this room and have her smash the trolley around in a surprisingly helpful way – and then try to avoid the monster as she stomps after you. It’s clear that, especially through a close encounter, Grace is absolutely terrified by this, but this only truly becomes apparent when playing in third person as opposed to first person.
We’ve seen Capcom retrofit third person views into Resident Evil Village, but Requiem will have the option available to you from day one, and it’s clear that Capcom has put a lot of effort in to make them both feel as good as possible. There’s definitely a different tone to evading the monster when in first person, having the narrowed view of the world and tentatively holding a lighter in front of you for illumination, hiding under tables more cautiously approaching corners, and generally being wrapped up in the more claustrophobic nature of the view. Third person brings us more of an action horror tone, lightly diluting some of the terror, perhaps, but there’s so much nuance to the character animation this time around.
Should the monster burst through a wall or after a tense and fraught cutscene, Grace’s movements are much more frantic, she staggers and stumbles while hurrying away, adding a bit more depth to her characterisation that isn’t quite so feasible when playing in first person. I honestly can’t quite decide whether I’d prefer to play in first or third person at this point, but Requiem has a great shot at really catering to lovers of both styles or past Resi games.
Either way, though, there is that use of light and dark. The monster, it turns out, doesn’t really appreciate bright spaces, and you can use that to your advantage. If you’re unable to get past her through the corridors, you can draw her back to the starting room, switch the light off to bring her inside, and then skirt around the furniture to evade and escape her. It’s just one of a number of options, though. I saw others able to just tuck themselves deep into a dark corner and evade, but I guess I was a touch impatient!
Resident Evil Requiem promises another new beginning for the iconic horror franchise, but it’s still one that’s deeply tied to the series’ past. There’s plenty of tropes here, plenty of references back to the original games, and gameplay ideas that will be familiar, but from my brief hands on with the game, there’s still so, so much to be excited about.
Resident Evil Requiem is launching on 27th February 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, and we can’t wait to see more.
