“Resident Evil 9: Requiem” Review – An Enjoyable Return to Form

Resident Evil 9 Requiem, the latest entry in the long-running video game series, has been released, allowing you to experience surviving a zombie outbreak in two drastically different ways.

With the promotional content for RE9 talking about how the narrative would take Leon Kennedy back to Raccoon City, I was quite excited to return to the iconic location while playing as a much older version of the lead in RE2. However, I soon realized that the much-anticipated return would be cut short because the storyline needed to flesh out a new character named Grace Ashcroft, as well as set up a bunch of things before directing the focus to the ruins of Raccoon City. While it didn’t sour my gameplay session, it did leave me wanting more from the Raccoon City sequences.

We jumped into the story by following Grace. Working as an FBI analyst, Grace was handed a case about investigating a series of mysterious deaths of Raccoon City survivors. The emotional weight came in the form of Grace needing to head to the same hotel where her mother, Alyssa Ashcroft (RE Outbreak), was murdered about 8 years ago.

The Resident Evil franchise has never been highly regarded when it came to well-written storytelling. The IP is over the top with a whole lot of camp that the fandom enjoys. Having said that, seeing Grace being sent to the abandoned Wrenwood Hotel without a partner (the FBI is supposed to have a buddy system), especially when she’s quite a nervous person, made no sense to me. With how the villains of RE9 were shown to have numerous political connections, I thought Grace’s presence at the hotel was planned.

But nopes. That particular storythread was not addressed, and frankly, it took me some time to accept such a level of plot convenience. I would have preferred Grace to be a school teacher or even some kind of mall cop that got entrapped by the villains for a night of unimaginable horrors, instead of how incompetent-ish she came across as an FBI Analyst.

I get that the creative team wanted the Grace-specific sequences to deliver on the survival horror aspect of the RE games by having Grace be a newbie to facing the undead. Still, seeing the game try to amp up the tension while you’re playing as a freaking FBI agent made me roll my eyes. After a time, it felt like Grace was acting all anxious and scared to make the players feel similar emotions instead of it being an organic reaction from, again, a freaking FBI agent in such circumstances, regardless of her being an analyst with not much field experience. Giving Grace some other profession would have worked better to sell her fear.

That particular hiccup aside, another gripe involved fan-favorite Alyssa Ashcroft being fridged for Grace’s emotional journey. Alyssa’s loss felt like a waste because I think the writing team didn’t do much to make her untimely death feel earned. It was clearly done to serve Grace’s storyline and to give such type of a new character some connection to Raccoon City instead of creating another Ethan Winters type of lead from RE7.

With about 30 minutes of the beginning of the game setting up the story as Grace walked through the hotel (in the past and the present), we finally got to interact with a deranged scientist named Dr. Victor Gideon. He’s been searching for Grace because she’s supposed to be the Chosen One. Again, the RE games have never been the pinnacle of storytelling. So, I was more than okay with going along with Victor’s speech.

After Grace was easily kidnapped, we jumped to a now 50-something Leon Kennedy, who was sent to investigate the same hotel. On his way there, he noticed Victor casually walking down the road with Grace on his shoulders. And that’s where we got to experience the more action-heavy gameplay. It was so much fun to control Leon again. He’s a zombie-killing pro, and he knows it, complete with campy quips. The game didn’t limit his skills and choice of weapons at his disposal. As you continued through the game, with the story leading Leon to Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center overseen by Victor, you even got the chance to use a chainsaw! So much fun!

While Leon’s busy making his way through the care center to apprehend Victor, Grace is also in the same building, trying to survive not only the undead but a creepy monster who likes the dark. Serving as Grace’s version of Mr. X, trying to walk through the care center while avoiding the creepy monster offered an enjoyable game mechanic. There was no way to shoot the monster down. That’s why you had to be quick with returning to spaces with the lights turned on for the monster to stop following you, while you tried to complete the puzzles.

As for the zombies, they retained some memories from when they were still human. For example, the butcher in the kitchen kept mumbling about finding the right ingredients to cook. The cleaners weren’t happy about the place being dirty. A zombie singer, you guessed it, kept singing near the piano. There was also a zombie who was adamant about turning the lights off. Seeing the undead stick to their human habits helped give them some personality as well as variety in gameplay, instead of making all of the foes into your run-of-the-mill zombies.

Playing as Grace, the main puzzle involved finding three cubes to unlock the door to the outside of the building. Ammunition for the handheld weapons was scarce, which helped with maintaining the horror aspect. Grace’s inventory was also smaller than Leon’s. You could expand it by collecting backpacks, but it would still remain smaller than Leon’s inventory space.

The Crafting System involved collecting and analyzing blood samples to unlock the ability to create bullets, healing items, and more. One of the best items, for me, was the Hemolytic Injector, which allowed you to essentially one-hit-kill an unsuspecting enemy. Another interesting gameplay mechanic was how, as Grace, you could avoid confronting certain enemies for Leon to handle later when the story switched to him.

Moving through the care center/research lab, Grace found a little girl named Emily. Having yet another little girl in the RE franchise felt like Reqium‘s way of tapping into RE2 nostalgia with Claire Redfield and Sherry Birkin. Emily’s existence was linked to Grace’s true identity and the ever-messy Umbrella Corporation wanting to replicate the “secret” within Grace. I could tell where Emily’s story was headed. However, I do have to say that having Emily survive in the way she did felt like a cop out. Like, what do you mean Leon deliberately avoided hitting her vitals? Ugh!

A major theme in RE9 was dealing with guilt over not being able to save others. Grace blamed herself for not being able to save her mother all those years ago. Leon blamed himself for not doing enough during the Raccoon City incident in RE2.

RE9 was supposed to give both Grace and Leon some closure and put things right for them. Grace helped Emily (even though it didn’t make sense to me) while Leon continued to save the world from bioterrorism and defeated the people behind Raccon City getting bombed.

The big twist in the story was the reason why Raccon City was blown up in the first place. It ended up being retcon glaore, but hey, again, RE games have always had the flimsiest of plots. Apparently, a very secret Umbrella facility, called ARK, existed beneath the Raccoon City Orphanage. It supposedly housed Oswell Spencer’s ultimate bioweapon, called Elpis (after the minor goddess of Hope), that allowed full control of the human mind without turning them into zombies. The Connections wanted Elpis and thought that Grace knew the password required to unleash it. I think even Grace was like “WTF?”, but then again, a video game being meta when it comes to the storytelling doesn’t make up for the fact that the storytelling was indeed meh!

Elpis, in question, ended up being a cure for the T-Virus, which Grace used to cure Leon and, soon enough, Sherry, who had been working with him during the investigation. And the finale inside of ARK had Leon defeat a mutated monster-like Victor. I was expecting Grace to play a role during the finale, but nopes. She’s only part of the gameplay when it’s time to be stealthy while being scared for your life.

As for the villainous Zeno, a member of The Connections, he was a pale imitation of Albert Wesker. I felt bad for him. Dude had nothing going in his favor.

While I might come across a bit harsh in my review of RE9, I have to say that I still enjoyed playing it. The visuals were impressive, including the blood and gore. I liked the drastic switch in the gameplay sessions specific to Grace and Leon, with the ability to seamlessly jump between first and third person perspectives. The puzzles were fun to do. There’s even a weapon upgrade system that you can actually see make a difference when attacking enemies.

In my opinion, Resident Evil 9 Requiem can be called a nice return to the OG titles after going down a completely different route in RE7 and RE8, which, to be frank, are the two chapters I’m not the biggest fan of compared to the other titles in the series. In my first draft of the review, I described RE9 as a novella or an RE8.5 that served as a tasty treat for longtime RE fans while the creative team took their time to determine what to do next in the actual “main” entry to the franchise. To me, RE9 was a spin-off in the same way certain fans consider RE3 as RE2.5 instead of an actual main chapter.

With everything said and done, I would recommend playing Resident Evil 9 Requiem. A majority of RE fans are bound to like it. Most should be able to complete it in around 8 hours if they aren’t already familiar with how to solve the puzzles.

Before I conclude my review, I have to talk about Ada Wong. Unfortunately, Ada doesn’t appear in RE9. However, there are moments where Leon basically says her dialogues from the previous games. Not only that, a weapon charm featuring a teddy bear can be obtained in-game. Not only that, but concept art for Leon shows him wearing a wedding ring. The cutscene with Leon and Grace being saved by Chris Redfield’s team of “Wolves” also showed Leon taking off his gloves to wear “something” on his finger, which many think is the wedding ring shown in the concept art. So, while Ada didn’t appear this time around to save Leon, there’s a good chance the two got married somewhere during the events of RE6 and RE9. Do with that information what you will.

Released on February 27, 2026, RE9 can be played on Windows/PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X/S.

Have you played Resident Evil 9 Requiem yet? What did you think of it?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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