Resident Evil Requiem lands differently depending on who is holding the controller, and that split is the point. Nearly two months after finishing the game, the writer came away preferring Leon Kennedy’s side by a slim margin.
Grace Ashcroft, an FBI analyst, anchors the game’s first-person sections, while Leon Kennedy, one of the franchise’s best-known zombie killers, drives the third-person stretches. Grace’s chapters are the scarier ones. Leon’s are more action-packed, and the writer said he offers more ways to create carnage.
The contrast matters because Resident Evil Requiem is built around two tones that rarely sit this far apart in the same release. Grace is mostly stuck with a single pistol, which makes her sections feel tighter and more desperate. Leon, by contrast, has more weapons and more room to store things, giving his campaign a looser pace and more freedom to fight back.
That difference is sharpest in the way the game treats The Girl, described as its most terrifying villain. She cannot be defeated early on, which keeps pressure on Grace’s side long after the first scare fades. It also helps explain why the first-person material lands as the more frightening half of the experience, even if Leon’s campaign is the one that ends up supplying the bigger set-piece thrills.
Resident Evil Requiem was released at launch on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2, and the split between horror and action gives the game a broader reach than a single style would have managed. Capcom has spent 30 years building the Resident Evil name, and this entry leans into that history by letting one character carry the fear while another carries the fight.
For players deciding where the game leaves its strongest mark, the answer is not subtle. Grace delivers the scarier half, Leon delivers the more exciting one, and the writer’s slight preference for Leon points to the same conclusion: Resident Evil Requiem works best when it lets the franchise’s terror and spectacle compete instead of choosing only one.
