Greetings Gamers and welcome to another trilling chapter in the absolute suck feast AAA gaming has brought around and this time, its Capcom serving up the slop. Now Gamers I normally try to sugar coat things a touch to find the silver linings to every cloud, well this cloud rained poo all over my house and I don’t have a snow shovel. So rather than regale you with wondrous descriptions of a caveman’s poetic scream, I will just jump into why Resident Evil: Requiem is an absolute bust.
Killing Me With Cut Scenes
I have said in past reviews that I enjoy a good cut scene and I enjoy games that focus on a story driven narrative that really balances player agency and to over-arching story narrative of the game. Requiem misses this by a mile off, with so many cut scenes that this game should have just been an animated film done by any number of studios. The cut scenes are also very lengthy and often only broken up by having the player waltz down an empty hallway to then begin another poorly written scene.
Out of Touch Writing That Would Make Disney Gag
Have you ever watched a movie where the main character was just a weak supporting role to glorify the aging fan favorite, well this is pretty much a video game version of that. The story follows Grace the FBI analyst that would not have been allowed into the field or investigate alone where she herself was an underage victim of a terror plot, it’s not long after Grace arrives at the decade old crime scene alone, she is greeted and choked out by one of the two main talking villains Victor. This is absolute hot toss garbage lacking any real foundation of how any government agency works, Hey! Crappy 51 year old Japanese man that never traveled anywhere longer than a week!? This is a bad starting narrative that only grows worse and worse by the increasingly shorting seconds of the games main story line, which becomes even worse as the midlife crisis Leon shows up sporting his favorite Emo haircut preforming shameless video game Car adverts for his personal ride. Now let’s add into the mix that Leon is wearing plot armor so strong it might as well be an outfit for him, which is glaringly clear in a boss featuring a giant spider, despite the spider being poorly designed and gripping Leon in its fang riddled mouth, our “Sad Boy Hero” avoids being consumed and dispatches the giant spider with his handy dandy 90’s design Bud Kay Gas Station Special Forces Tactical Hatchet. Between the overall horrid character designs that make the game narrative feel as if Mission Impossible 2, Devil May Cry, and any store brand zombies from an abandoned Spirit of Halloween store were fed into an AI generator. The only thing worse with this story line is slap dash attempt to inject parental level empathy into the narrative, which gives rise to the vomit spewing line delivered by Leon “I never hit any of her vitals, Emily can be cured.” overall the Character designs for the few characters in the game that it feels as if the player is forced into the role of a bad made for TV Film with a B list cast straight out of Rehab, making the whole game stunted and lacking in any enjoyable context.
Combat Styles of the 90’s Returns: It doesn’t really matter if the player is in Third Person or First Person, the combat mechanics of Requiem are clunky at best and laughably enraging at worst. Don’t expect any form of smooth transition between aiming fire and hip firing a weapon as there is no hip fire featured in the game unless you are playing as Grace, playing as Leon the player will swing the axe. Weapon damage is nerfed behind meaningless and overly tedious upgrades, so the player is forced into feeling scared or distressed. This not only removes any real enjoyment from the story line but is one of the key driving features that rob the player of agency as time goes and leaving combat to feel like a poorly designed puzzle. The weapons featured in the game also strongly detract from the overall experience of the game with sluggish rates of fire or recoils that would be no problem for a real experienced firearm user, but aging Leon forgot to take his grandpa multi vitamin and struggle to the point that the player should question if he is in fact weapons qualified. Capcom also thought it would be a real delight to not add in a dodge feature, forcing the player to bow legged slow walk out of the way of damage or parry an 800lbs tentacle with an aluminum hatchet, while making characters run like the only working toilet is miles away with a colon packed to the brim with jello.
The overall drive and concept of Requiem is stale, features little creative additions to the universe that could not have been explained in a free comic book given out at a convention. It is clear that the writer for the franchise have aged out of relevance and lack the creative drive that is need to keep it moving in an enjoyable progressive fashion as is required with all long lasting stories that want to maintain a space in the minds of an ever changing pool of players and a place on the shelves in the markets. As the game features elements to promote replay of the story line, those elements will only prove important to the ever-decreasing pool of hardcore Resident Evil fans, while leaving the broader spectrum gamers with the taste of a Call of Duty fashioned gimmick. All in all, I rate Resident Evil: Requiem 4 out of 10 and strongly suggest buying a used or on sale copy of this game, it’s not worth the $70+ price tag for it. Stay Classy and Stay Gaming! Hardcore fans of Resident Evil might like this game, but honestly if you want something fresh or unique then replay 7 or 8 which brought fresh horror elements to the franchise. And replaying 2 or even 4 would be a more enjoyable experience. The remakes of those games are a lot better than this game. Requiem is simply a bargain bin Resident Evil game that can’t decide it’s a horror game or an action game.
