Resident Evil Requiem Second-Take Preview: RE9 is the Stealth-Action Game I’ve Sorely Needed

Listen, I’m ever going to person a Leon-sized spread that needs filling and from playing his portions successful the latest Resident Evil 9 Requiem demo, I’m beauteous definite I’ll beryllium taken attraction of (for the year, astatine least). The roundhouse kicks, the corny 1 liners, and the brutal blood-splattering finishers – things I loved from the caller Resident Evil 4 remake circular retired what’s different a terrifying endurance fearfulness experience. And the crux of that endurance fearfulness is stealth and having the due mechanics successful spot to marque that hostility tangible. So, not lone does Grace’s broadside of Requiem evoke a petrifying consciousness of dread atop the classical puzzle-solving of the series, it’s besides a fantastic look of the benignant of stealth-action gameplay I’ve been wanting for a while.

Our erstwhile Resident Evil 9 Requiem preview by my workfellow Dale Driver touched connected plentifulness of sentiments I share; astir notable for maine being the refreshing equilibrium betwixt the drastically antithetic playstyles of Grace and Leon arsenic dual protagonists. Grace being timid and having to trust connected moving dilatory and carefully, contrasting with Leon being the enactment leader who blasts done each zombie. But it’s the Grace sections wherever Capcom is doing thing truly peculiar with stealth gameplay that feels earthy and forward-thinking.

Capcom has made a large woody retired of zombie behaviour wherever their presumed personalities arsenic humans provender into however they determination and respond successful the crippled satellite arsenic zombies. One illustration being the zombie fixated connected airy switches successful a acheronian hallway you person to walk done arsenic Grace – alternatively of taking him head-on with your constricted resources, you tin gaffe by and deed a airy power down the hallway to distract him to wide the way to the different end. While this isn’t a analyzable concern connected its own, it’s a microcosm of however Requiem is challenging you arsenic Grace, wherever reflection and situation are conscionable arsenic important arsenic staying retired of sight. The crippled doesn’t outright archer you this, truthful reasoning extracurricular the container tin pb to much elegant solutions.

What’s much frightening is the butcher who roams the kitchen...“

This conception of watching retired for zombie behaviour is flipped astir astatine times, too. Like erstwhile walking done the eating country wherever zombies are conscionable feasting connected the dormant bodies connected the table, not giving a damn astir your beingness and leaving you alone. I wasn’t definite if they’d respond to maine poking astir picking up items, yet I inactive treaded cautiously and fto them bash their thing. Naturally figuring retired however these enemies respond to you and their surroundings is simply a fascinating mode to springiness assortment to navigating the labyrinthine halls, and a interaction of item that isn’t often seen.

What’s much frightening is the butcher who roams the kitchen. Early successful the preview, you person to gaffe done by pushing a cart to wide the way crossed the kitchen, and you person to bash this undetected, which requires you to wage attraction to his patrol pattern. It’s elemental enough, and making a mistake means he’ll pursuit you down and amusement you however terrifying helium is; 1 deed and you’re dead. But aboriginal successful the playthrough wherever you person to revisit that wide area, helium begins patrolling the hallways astir the kitchen, and here, his beingness is genuinely felt. Hearing his footsteps acceptable disconnected alarms successful my encephalon that helium began lurking, and the hostility that created changed however I navigated an country I already mapped out.

I would duck and peek retired from adjacent rooms to spot if helium was coming, and marque a huffy dash to wherever I needed to spell hoping for the champion and not looking back. One time, I was peeking from the parlor country reasoning I was retired of sight, but the butcher caught maine peeking conscionable a small excessively confidently and pulled up connected maine – I present had this cat-and-mouse chase, luring him successful 1 absorption earlier juking him to get retired of the room.

Probably the biggest drama of errors during my playtime came from dashing to the acold retention country wherever my adjacent nonsubjective was. I had a consecutive changeable from, like, 3 hallways down and I risked it each by booking it and letting destiny instrumentality the wheel. Just arsenic I got to the past stretch, determination was the butcher turning the country and ending up close successful beforehand of maine on his caller patrol pattern. I backpedaled successful a panic, pumped my 1 remaining changeable from the superpowered Requiem pistol and the remainder of my 9mm rounds, but it wasn’t enough; truthful I conscionable took the L and reloaded my save.

The archetypal clip I got deed with a leap scare was erstwhile Chunk burst retired into a hallway aft I picked up a quest item. It began chasing maine and it was casual capable to tally to a country for information since it couldn’t get done normal-sized doorway frames. But the remainder of the surrounding hallways were just game. And similar galore Resident Evils with puzzles, backtracking to this country aboriginal connected filled maine with dread. Thankfully, Chunk wasn’t arsenic overbearing, but it’d much often wholly artifact definite paths, forcing maine to either instrumentality the agelong mode astir oregon hold things retired until the seashore was clear. But connected my archetypal attempt, I wasn’t precisely definite what its behaviour signifier would be. And that’s a cardinal portion of making stealth gameplay absorbing and fearfulness enactment good – it’s that unpredictable quality of hostility.

These stalker-type enemies aren’t meant to beryllium killed (as Grace, astatine least), and they’re besides not rather similar the persistent threats of Mr. X from Resident Evil 2 oregon Nemesis successful Resident Evil 3. Each 1 seems to play antithetic roles and contiguous a antithetic benignant of dread passim Requiem, which I fishy volition pb to much variation. Even reasoning backmost to the precise archetypal Requiem preview I played past twelvemonth with the monstrous diligent roaming the halls of the diligent helping successful Grace’s opening section, that was person to a specifically scripted sequence. But it was a overmuch much close-quarters stealth situation wherever the windows of accidental to flight were tighter. So, already, that’s 3 unsocial enemies playing into a fearfulness acquisition successful their ain ways.

Requiem being chiefly a endurance fearfulness crippled means it’s going to beryllium a spot extracurricular of what I traditionally expect from stealth-action games; oregon alternatively the stealth mechanics you spot successful truthful galore enactment games. Hiding successful gangly grass, waiting for enemies to crook their backs, and getting a one-hit termination undetected is simply a bushed trope astatine this point. Grace does get craftable single-use items for stealth kills, and I anticipation we’re challenged by limiting quantities truthful we person to truly see erstwhile to usage them. But adjacent then, Requiem doesn’t conscionable woody successful patrol patterns oregon throwing an entity to origin a distraction, it besides deals successful vulnerability and the fearfulness of unpredictability for Grace’s chapters. It’s not conscionable the fearfulness of getting detected, but the consequences that travel with it.

Grace's information of Requiem was astir an hour-and-a-half to 2 hours of playtime. And aft that, I was beauteous exhausted from the tension. Don’t get maine wrong, I was exhausted successful a bully way. However, that’s what makes the interstitial Leon sections truthful important. They’re a reprieve and an outlet to get each that accent out, a palette cleanser to equilibrium things retired and look astatine immoderate of the aforesaid environments from a antithetic perspective. This besides offers a benignant of best-of-both-worlds for the series, the dilatory and deliberate pacing of Resident Evil 7 alongside the top-tier enactment from Resident Evil 4, arsenic examples.

After getting hands-on with a full of astir 4 hours of Resident Evil 9 Requiem astatine this point, and sharing that acquisition with colleagues, I’m much excited for the bid than I person been successful caller memory. It’s the aged mixed with the new, but each successful a modern bundle with 2 protagonists I already similar a lot. No shadiness to RE7 and RE Village, but Ethan Winters doesn’t comparison to Grace, and decidedly not my feline Leon. And with a thoughtful premix of enactment and stealth gameplay, February 27 can’t travel soon capable erstwhile Resident Evil 9 Requiem hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.