Halfway through 2025's Summer Game Fest, Resident Evil executive producer Jun Takeuchi popped on-screen to acknowledge the anticipation of Resident Evil 9's reveal. "Bear with us a little longer," he said. "Just a blink of an eye more, and it'll be ready." And he wasn't kidding. By the end of the show, RE9, or Requiem as we now know it, was revealed, pulling the rug from under our collective feet. The trailer had raised numerous questions: Is the new protagonist, Grace Ashcroft, the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft from Resident Evil Outbreak? Does it take place in a post-bombing, quarantined Raccoon City? And, most importantly, is it first- or third-person? In another surprise twist, I was able to get hands-on with the game for about 20 minutes, and while I got a few answers, I left with more questions.
Having now played a very small portion of the game, there's at least one question I can immediately answer: It's third- and first-person. At any point while playing, you can pause the game and switch from one perspective to another whenever you see fit, unlike Resident Evil Village, which added third-person post-launch and required you to start a separate save file to play it. Though I wish switching perspectives could have been done with the press of a button, this is still a marked improvement. Additionally, it's very clear that Capcom wanted Requiem to feel just as good in third-person as it does in its recent remakes of RE 2, 3, and 4. This is especially apparent in Requiem's cutscenes that are directed cinematically, seeing Grace interact within the scene, opposed to Biohazard and Village, which never broke that first-person perspective. That said, first-person is still recommended by the game.
Grace Ashcroft finding her way with only a lighter.
For this hands-on, I chose to play it in its recommended first-person perspective. Still, I took a moment to switch to third-person, and it felt very comfortable and comparable to the recent RE remakes. It's a far cry from Village's third-person mode, which did all it could to still obstruct protagonist Ethan Winters' face from ever being seen. Generally, I prefer third-person Resident Evil, but the section I played felt more appropriately suited for first (which I'll explain momentarily). Whether or not some sections later in the game will be better suited for one perspective over the other, we'll have to wait and see. If time had allowed it during my brief hands-on, I would have played the demo again entirely in third-person just to see. But alas.
The demo began with Grace Ashcroft, an FBI technical analyst and new protagonist to the franchise, strapped upside down to a gurney. With no context to what led to this moment, Grace was just as distressed and confused as I was, but eventually she uses all her might to break free. As Grace, I investigated the room, which appeared to be an upscale medical facility--one that felt a century old with ornate wooden furniture and tasteful wallpaper. It suggested to me that it wasn't a hospital, but maybe an in-house medical center, possibly one inside a mansion.
Is it a hospital? A private medial center? Who knows?
With no idea why I was there or where I was supposed to go, I was forced to move through pitch-black hallways, trying to find my way. I could interact with light switches and lamps (a level of interactivity rarely seen in previous entries and which I suspect will play a bigger role throughout the game), but a fuse had blown. Typical. I came to several dead ends that were masked in darkness and made it incapable of moving forward without light. This felt most effective in first-person, as experiencing the darkness up-close triggered a sense of claustrophobia and tension--a sensation I don't think would be as effective if I had played it all in third-person.
As to be expected, eventually I found a locked door, a key to open it, and then a lighter to see my way through the darkness. Oh, and a terrifying children's book about a woman with big eyes that watches you in the dark, of course. The lighter was an instrumental tool, a la Resident Evil Code: Veronica, acting as a key in and of itself for the once-inaccessible dark areas, allowing me to go scavenging for a fuse to fix the lights and get the hell out of there. That is until I came face-to-face with the big bad, bug-eyed lady. And trust me, this is no Lady Dimitrescu. Instead she’s a disturbing and grotesque display of a humanoid creature with giant arresting eyes who seeks to lift you in her mitts and literally gnaw on your skull. This appears to be Requiem's Mr. X, Jack Baker, or Lady D equivalent in this area. I snuck around the environment, making near-death maneuvers to inch around the small rooms to get a hold of a fuse.
Big bad, bug-eyed lady about to gnaw on Grace's skull.
While it induced controller-gripping stress, it all felt very familiar to me--a déjà vu effect bringing me back to Resident Evil Village's House of Beneviento. Like in the incredible moment from Village, I was stripped of weapons with no way to defend myself and forced to navigate dark, narrow hallways, while trying to outsmart a terrifying beast. This familiar feeling of I've-been-here-before felt like a contrast from how Capcom has been angling the game. During Summer Game Fest, host Geoff Keighley said the game "marks a bold shift for the franchise, both in tone and gameplay, and today's reveal isn't just about survival horror. Expect high-stakes cinematic action, too." None of that was displayed in my hands-on preview, however.
I understand that this is a sliver of the game and does not represent the full experience. But as a gameplay reveal, this brief hands-on left me neither surprised, nor underwhelmed, but rather unfazed. There wasn't enough there for me to have a clear idea of the bold new direction it's claimed to be heading in. Even with the new protagonist, Grace Ashcroft, there wasn't enough there to get a grasp on what kind of character she is. As an FBI technical analyst, it's unclear whether she has field training to defend herself with guns, potentially making this a more grounded, stealth-focused experience. That is, unless there are other playable protagonists. After all, that wouldn't be a first for game director Kōshi Nakanishi, who also helmed Resident Evil: Revelations, which saw you switching between protagonists throughout the game. Furthermore, there's a line in Requiem's trailer that sounds very much like Leon Kennedy, voiced by Nick Apostolides. But of course, this isn't confirmed. Time will tell.
Considering its very reveal at Summer Game Fest was a bait-and-switch, with Keighley setting it up to be from an all-new studio, only for it to reveal itself as RE9 over a minute in, could be emblematic of Requiem's tone, potentially toying with player expectations around every corner.
Resident Evil: Biohazard was a hard 180 from RE6, and while Village wasn't as stark a maneuver from RE7, it took Biohazard's core gameplay and thrust it into a horror-sized theme park. Biohazard may have returned the game to its slow and dread-inducing roots, but Village injected Resident Evil 4's survive-by-your-teeth action. And now having played Requiem for 20-25 minutes, there's still no telling what Capcom has planned for its next installment. All I can say is, even with the sense of déjà vu, I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for February 26, 2026, when the game is expected to launch on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
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Having now played a very small portion of the game, there's at least one question I can immediately answer: It's third- and first-person. At any point while playing, you can pause the game and switch from one perspective to another whenever you see fit, unlike Resident Evil Village, which added third-person post-launch and required you to start a separate save file to play it. Though I wish switching perspectives could have been done with the press of a button, this is still a marked improvement. Additionally, it's very clear that Capcom wanted Requiem to feel just as good in third-person as it does in its recent remakes of RE 2, 3, and 4. This is especially apparent in Requiem's cutscenes that are directed cinematically, seeing Grace interact within the scene, opposed to Biohazard and Village, which never broke that first-person perspective. That said, first-person is still recommended by the game.
Grace Ashcroft finding her way with only a lighter.
For this hands-on, I chose to play it in its recommended first-person perspective. Still, I took a moment to switch to third-person, and it felt very comfortable and comparable to the recent RE remakes. It's a far cry from Village's third-person mode, which did all it could to still obstruct protagonist Ethan Winters' face from ever being seen. Generally, I prefer third-person Resident Evil, but the section I played felt more appropriately suited for first (which I'll explain momentarily). Whether or not some sections later in the game will be better suited for one perspective over the other, we'll have to wait and see. If time had allowed it during my brief hands-on, I would have played the demo again entirely in third-person just to see. But alas.
The demo began with Grace Ashcroft, an FBI technical analyst and new protagonist to the franchise, strapped upside down to a gurney. With no context to what led to this moment, Grace was just as distressed and confused as I was, but eventually she uses all her might to break free. As Grace, I investigated the room, which appeared to be an upscale medical facility--one that felt a century old with ornate wooden furniture and tasteful wallpaper. It suggested to me that it wasn't a hospital, but maybe an in-house medical center, possibly one inside a mansion.
Is it a hospital? A private medial center? Who knows?
With no idea why I was there or where I was supposed to go, I was forced to move through pitch-black hallways, trying to find my way. I could interact with light switches and lamps (a level of interactivity rarely seen in previous entries and which I suspect will play a bigger role throughout the game), but a fuse had blown. Typical. I came to several dead ends that were masked in darkness and made it incapable of moving forward without light. This felt most effective in first-person, as experiencing the darkness up-close triggered a sense of claustrophobia and tension--a sensation I don't think would be as effective if I had played it all in third-person.
As to be expected, eventually I found a locked door, a key to open it, and then a lighter to see my way through the darkness. Oh, and a terrifying children's book about a woman with big eyes that watches you in the dark, of course. The lighter was an instrumental tool, a la Resident Evil Code: Veronica, acting as a key in and of itself for the once-inaccessible dark areas, allowing me to go scavenging for a fuse to fix the lights and get the hell out of there. That is until I came face-to-face with the big bad, bug-eyed lady. And trust me, this is no Lady Dimitrescu. Instead she’s a disturbing and grotesque display of a humanoid creature with giant arresting eyes who seeks to lift you in her mitts and literally gnaw on your skull. This appears to be Requiem's Mr. X, Jack Baker, or Lady D equivalent in this area. I snuck around the environment, making near-death maneuvers to inch around the small rooms to get a hold of a fuse.
Big bad, bug-eyed lady about to gnaw on Grace's skull.
While it induced controller-gripping stress, it all felt very familiar to me--a déjà vu effect bringing me back to Resident Evil Village's House of Beneviento. Like in the incredible moment from Village, I was stripped of weapons with no way to defend myself and forced to navigate dark, narrow hallways, while trying to outsmart a terrifying beast. This familiar feeling of I've-been-here-before felt like a contrast from how Capcom has been angling the game. During Summer Game Fest, host Geoff Keighley said the game "marks a bold shift for the franchise, both in tone and gameplay, and today's reveal isn't just about survival horror. Expect high-stakes cinematic action, too." None of that was displayed in my hands-on preview, however.
I understand that this is a sliver of the game and does not represent the full experience. But as a gameplay reveal, this brief hands-on left me neither surprised, nor underwhelmed, but rather unfazed. There wasn't enough there for me to have a clear idea of the bold new direction it's claimed to be heading in. Even with the new protagonist, Grace Ashcroft, there wasn't enough there to get a grasp on what kind of character she is. As an FBI technical analyst, it's unclear whether she has field training to defend herself with guns, potentially making this a more grounded, stealth-focused experience. That is, unless there are other playable protagonists. After all, that wouldn't be a first for game director Kōshi Nakanishi, who also helmed Resident Evil: Revelations, which saw you switching between protagonists throughout the game. Furthermore, there's a line in Requiem's trailer that sounds very much like Leon Kennedy, voiced by Nick Apostolides. But of course, this isn't confirmed. Time will tell.
Considering its very reveal at Summer Game Fest was a bait-and-switch, with Keighley setting it up to be from an all-new studio, only for it to reveal itself as RE9 over a minute in, could be emblematic of Requiem's tone, potentially toying with player expectations around every corner.
Resident Evil: Biohazard was a hard 180 from RE6, and while Village wasn't as stark a maneuver from RE7, it took Biohazard's core gameplay and thrust it into a horror-sized theme park. Biohazard may have returned the game to its slow and dread-inducing roots, but Village injected Resident Evil 4's survive-by-your-teeth action. And now having played Requiem for 20-25 minutes, there's still no telling what Capcom has planned for its next installment. All I can say is, even with the sense of déjà vu, I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for February 26, 2026, when the game is expected to launch on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
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