Tech: Resident Evil Requiem (Switch 2 review)

Many Resident Evil games have multiple playable protagonists (with some even allowing you to swap between them at will), but the latest and ninth entry in the main series, Resident Evil Requiem, takes that to a new extreme:

Requiem is effectively two games in one.  As Grace Ashcroft, a rookie FBI analyst, you're a nervous Nellie who has trouble holding a handgun steady.  As Leon S. Kennedy, grizzled veteran of multiple Resident Evil games, you're a zombie-killing one-man army who tosses out one-liners. Grace's sections are focused on stealthy first-person exploration (similar to Resident Evil 7 and 8), while Leon's gameplay is bombastic third-person action with big bosses and setpiece battles (much like the fourth, fifth, and sixth games in the franchise).

It's a great mix, because Grace and Leon's sections are palette cleansers for each other.  Just when the anxiety of running from your Nth zombie as Grace reaches its zenith, along comes Leon to open up a can of whoop-ass. And just as you start getting bored of decapitating zombies as Leon, the game turns to Grace and makes you vulnerable again.  As such, about the only major criticism I have of Requiem is its middle third, where the game abandons this dichotomy and makes you spend several somewhat-tedious hours as Leon in a ruined Raccoon City.

I played Resident Evil Requiem on the Nintendo Switch 2, and Capcom did a fantastic job in squeezing the title into the hybrid console.  Through the scalability of the RE Engine and the magic of DLSS, the Switch 2 version looks comparable to those on much more powerful machines, albeit with choppier framerates and worse graphical effects (Grace's hair is a noticeable victim).  Still, it's a minor miracle the game looks as good as it does, and if the Switch 2 is the only system you have, or if you care at all about playing the game away from a TV or computer, then it's a great option.

Rating: 90/100