I’ll cop to having never given the Resident Evil games the proper time until 2017’s Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, but that game’s masterful command of a then-new first person perspective and distinct Southern Gothic horror feel absolutely hooked me in. The following Resident Evil Village carried a lot of that success into a much more eclectic experience that seemingly reeled in a number of influences from in and outside of the franchise, and while there were sections I loathed (cough Heisenberg’s factory and beyond) there were some I will never forget – House Beneviento, especially.
So going into the ninth mainline series entry, Resident Evil Requiem, thanks to a roughly 30 minute hands-on demo at Tokyo Game Show 2025, I had high hopes that a third go at this era of Resident Evil would see Capcom further hone what made the last two games great while continuing to keep things fresh. A single, short demo obviously isn’t going to validate or challenge those hopes, but if Capcom’s got more of what I just played cooking for the full game? We’re so back.
The segment of Requiem that’s on display at TGS is one that Capcom’s been showing off for a hot minute now, so you may already be familiar. Opening on a cutscene where the game’s fresh protagonist, Grace Ashcroft, frees herself from a medical table in all of the spectacularly rendered and animated fashion you’d expect from a modern Resi. On her feet, I gain control of Grace and start to poke around a seemingly-dilapidated care centre armed with nothing but a metal lighter and a glass bottle or two picked up along the way.
The atmosphere here is instantly reminiscent of my favourite bits of the series that I’ve played, encouraging you to explore and piece together your situation, but so painfully tense and uneasy as to make you think twice about each step. While things are safe for the first couple of rooms, there is of course a danger present here, and that quickly reveals itself to be a huge, humanoid monster with a tattered white dress and freaky bug eyes that stalks the halls of the cramped ward you’re in. Girl is horrifying.
It just wouldn’t be a contemporary Resident Evil game without some big, freaky bastard following you around, right? So with introductions out of the way, my mission is now to go hunting for a sequence of keys and fuses to somehow get myself off of this floor and out of the hunting grounds of nameless terror.
It’s wild to think about how compelling this decidedly done gameplay concept still is, and in other hands maybe I’d be less enthused. Capcom has mastered the art of careful curation and direction that make the chase feel dynamic, while it retains enough of an authoring hand to ensure you get the very best scares.
The big twist in your hopeful elision of the big guy, is its aversion to light. If you can somehow get yourself to a well-lit room, it generally won’t be able to follow you. Naturally though, the path to freedom ain’t so bright, so you’ll need to carefully sneak your way through, monitoring the creature’s movements and making very careful use of the light sources around you and in your possession. You’ve got your lighter, and most of the lamps and ceiling lights in the area can be toggled on or off, so your command of the environment feels extra important.
This interplay of light and dark is a really interesting idea that I hope informs, and defines, a great deal of Requiem in its fullness. There’s such a neat push and pull as you look to light for safety, but are just as easily betrayed by it as it reveals your position – or as a source of it fails at exactly the worst moment. And on the other side of the coin, it makes the dark feel all the more dreadful. I don’t think Capcom can help itself when it comes to an action-heavy crescendo as the game goes on, but if it can achieve the kind of palpable tension of this brief preview for at least a few hours I’ll be happy.
We’ll find out soon enough, when Resident Evil Requiem arrives on February 27, 2026 for PS5, Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
Kieron's been gaming ever since he could first speak the words "Blast Processing" and hasn't lost his love for platformers and JRPGs since. A connoisseur of avant-garde indie experiences and underground cult classics, Kieron is a devout worshipper at the churches of Double Fine and Annapurna Interactive, to drop just a couple of names.
