Resident Evil Requiem Hands-On – Survival Horror Vs. Action

Name: Resident Evil Requiem Hands-On – Survival Horror Vs. Action
Uploaded: 2026-08-12T18:04:53+00:00
Duration: 16 min 58 s
Channel: PC Gamer

00:00i got rid of the chainsaw guy and then i was like okay he's done that's fine and then someone

00:05else

00:05like lent down and picked it up and i went you're not allowed to do that that's not how this

00:08this

00:09works we recently went hands-on with a three-hour preview of resident evil requiem senior editor

00:16west fenlon and staff writer ellie gould shared their impressions of the demo including how

00:22frightening it felt the balance between survival and action elements the difference between first

00:28person and third person modes and much more all b-roll footage is provided by capcom

00:34as direct capture was not permitted

00:46survival versus action horror are we getting the best of both worlds i found the the intro to this

00:52game or at least the intro to the demo segment we played which feels like it's probably pretty

00:56close to the beginning of the game um it felt like a little bit of a statement uh to me

01:02on how

01:03they're approaching this idea of combining the kind of classical resident evil like puzzle solving survival

01:10horror with the more action i guess like branch that leon has taken in that immediately a zombie shows up

01:18with a chainsaw and kills somebody and then you have to fight them using leon's kind of like parry system

01:24uh from res evil 4 remake but then you get to pick up the chainsaw and use it yourself which

01:30felt like

01:30both a bit of catharsis and sort of like a surprise we're throwing some mechanics at you that you

01:35haven't had before um so yeah i thought that was a really clever touch on their part i enjoyed picking

01:41up the chainsaw i don't know how you felt about that oh my god it was amazing especially after you

01:46managed like when you knock one of the the zombies down with the chainsaw because they'll also pick it up

01:51i got rid of the chainsaw guy and then i was like okay he's done that's fine and then someone

01:56else

01:56like lent down and picked it up and i went you're not allowed to do that that's not how this

02:00this works

02:01but if you knock them down they they flail around like a fish as well with the chainsaw and you're

02:06having to dance around it they put some physics on it right yeah it felt like they they did quite

02:10a few

02:11new little things with an enemy that you know i guess we've i don't know that i've ever gotten

02:17calm around chainsaw enemies and resident evil but it's like this is something that i saw literally

02:2122 years ago at this point 21 years ago when resident evil 4 came out so i kind of like

02:25thought

02:26i knew what to expect in that moment and then it turns out i didn't then most of what we

02:30played

02:30was grace up until towards the very end of the demo this feels like this is going to be the

02:35the

02:36structure of the game is you're going to do these big kind of classic puzzly segments with grace and

02:41then kick over to leon for maybe equally length segments or maybe much shorter segments i'm not

02:47sure uh where you get to just go like all out with with the action so how do you feel

02:53about the more

02:54like limited inventory survival horror finding doors that need three like strange you know objects with

03:01like weird creepy emblems on them to to unlock i mean i'd be lying if i say i didn't like

03:07really love

03:07it because that's it's such a big part of resi that it would be kind of odd to to hate

03:12it i do prefer

03:14the action 4 is probably my favorite resi 2 is very close but resi 4 is definitely my favorite of

03:20the

03:20earlier games uh and overall because who doesn't love feeling like a badass just taking out like things

03:27left right and center but what i did like in what we got to see in the preview was how

03:33it felt like this

03:35mishmash of grace and leon like grace is very you know that traditional puzzle solving you have to

03:41kind of really manage what ammo you have what health you have and you have to like kind of

03:46you know figure out which enemies you need to kill when in what order and who's not worth it and

03:52who is

03:52and whatever and then you go over to leon and it leon's part almost feels like a reward for like

03:59doing

04:00that because yeah because then you can just go and just kill everyone i don't know if like remember

04:05the blister head enemies which are kind of like the souped up zombies and i sunk probably a 14 bullets

04:14into its head as grace because i was so frustrated and then i was even more frustrated because i've

04:20wasted so much ammo it didn't it didn't work or it just carried on walking towards me and i was

04:26like okay

04:26i can't do this and then you come back as leon and then you can just one shot how scary

04:32is it

04:34when i decided to go after one of the big enemies in the game which it feels like they're sort

04:40of

04:40taking the idea that they had with resident evil 2 remake as well as re8 was really big on on

04:47the kind

04:47of roaming you know mini bosses right who sort of like control a space and i think i actually spent

04:55too

04:55long as grace being scared of a couple of these enemies and not going after them there's this

05:02giant you know chef like of course there's a big chef with a butcher knife who's roaming the halls

05:07who kind of makes it so you have to take certain paths around him uh and then how would you

05:14describe

05:14the second one who pops out in in the west wing a giant flesh baby bang on giant flesh baby

05:23yeah that

05:23was really cathartic for me actually because i spent so long in that um dealing with that big baby

05:29you know the the fetus in resiake i actually watched someone normal played through that segment and it's

05:36apparently meant to take like 15 minutes not me 45 minutes because i had to kept pausing because it was

05:42just so awful and so seeing that again i was like this time i'm gonna i'm gonna be better but

05:47i don't know

05:48as soon as you kind of learn the rules to them they do become a lot less scary where they

05:53can go

05:53where they can't go because there are some places in this where they can't go and you are safe and

05:58how quick they move i actually found them quite forgiving once i started testing those boundaries

06:02they're definitely obstacles but they're not mr x who can show up anywhere like you were saying but

06:08also like he was unkillable until like specific a specific like event in re2 right whereas these enemies

06:16you actually can kill them you just need a lot of ammo basically to go up against them i think

06:21it's

06:22i don't know something that's meant to be it's again one another enemy that's meant to be a bigger

06:26issue for grace i feel like that's it that's grace's hurdle to overcome a mini boss isn't even like

06:32thankfully like leon didn't even care and you can kind of make pretty quick work i didn't even try and

06:38take him on his graves one other thing i found striking and felt like a flavor of re that maybe

06:46you get an re7 a bit but he's hurling obscenities at you the whole time in a way that felt

06:53more i

06:54don't know urban horror or sort of like it's a different flavor of sort of meanness that is like

07:00different than sort of the goofier sensibility that i feel like re horror often has which like that was the

07:06only thing in the game that really kind of set me on edge a little bit was like man this

07:11guy messed up

07:12yeah i've seen a lot of people actually in like the rezzy community talk about how haunting almost

07:18these zombies look some people have pointed out that if you look at some of them they've got like

07:23tears running down their face which is really awful considering we don't know for sure like what

07:29is really going on right and i'm sure that's something we'll figure out towards the end of the game

07:32but there is definitely an implication that a lot of people infected didn't have a say in it and also

07:38had no idea what was going to happen so there is a little bit more of like i don't know

07:43if it's sad

07:43for them i read this one like bit of i guess i think it was like from a diary or

07:48something that

07:48basically said that zombies or this strain of the t-virus will have zombies that kind of regain habits

07:54like they'll keep some of their habits which is why if you go into the kitchen see the chef he's

08:00like

08:00mumbling about keeping like a clean space and like what is for dinner and i was like oh what is

08:06for

08:07dinner i don't know nothing good whatever he's serving up you don't want it me because i do like

08:13the absurdity of the kind of wacky zombies that are just taken over and like do weird things first

08:20person versus third person tell us about both modes the um the default settings for the first person camera

08:27uh were quite slow in terms of like the analog stick movement we were playing on console uh and

08:34also there's like a lot of head wobble by default and thankfully both of those things you can tweak

08:39because when i switched to the first person i like was i was getting quite motion sick which is not

08:45something that happens for me in in games much uh so i was i was kind of like thrown i

08:50was like why do i

08:50feel queasy playing this in first person so i did third person for a while and then i was like

08:55okay i'll try

08:55again and i like tweaked the settings enough that i could move the camera a little faster and i think

09:01i was just feeling that sort of disconnect between like how my neck would move and how slow the analog

09:07stick was going so once i tweaked that then it started feeling okay and i did feel like i was

09:11getting

09:11a bit of benefit on aiming uh in in first person did you spend any time playing first person

09:23i spent like i spent all of i think probably 20 minutes of like after you kind of get through

09:28like the cutscenes of grace and you kind of actually get into the action and i actually

09:34turned to the pr and i was like i can't do this and then he was like well you do

09:40get some you know

09:41custom animations if you play in third person i went yes that's why i'm doing this to get the full

09:46experience but i think i think as you would go on in the game i think you could definitely like

09:52switch back to first person i think it would be better but there are certainly some segments that

09:57like and i like horror games i i really liked resi 7 but playing some of those bits in first

10:05person like

10:05i wouldn't want to play uh grace's the demo that we played with grace in first person in those dark

10:10corridors with that just too intense oh my goodness i don't think i would ever get out like i would

10:16just be

10:16like hiding under that table for the entire game and we can't do that so how big do we think

10:24the game

10:24what did you come away from the demo feeling was the scope of this game like are we going to

10:31be

10:31spending almost the entire game in this space or do you think this is just half the game like what

10:37what was your feeling uh from what we played it's really hard to place it in what bit of the

10:42game

10:43i don't know if they'll like incorporate flashbacks or they're gonna kind of do a bit of a like a

10:49non-linear like progression to it because they can't show images of a destroyed raccoon city and then

10:55not let leon go back there it's resi rules right where it's the whole place is a tardis and i'm

11:00sure

11:01there will be so much more to that place than like what we encountered i mean there was already it's

11:07huge

11:08and i was thinking like the square footage on this thing my god their profits must must be insane

11:14there's a basement another basement how many like sub rooms are there but i so i think there'd be like

11:19scope to like expand within that hospital and kind of create spaces that are different enough that you

11:26feel like you're getting something more but i do hope they at least let leon have some time outside of

11:33there and back in raccoon city yeah so i think all that we've seen of the game so far um

11:38that wasn't

11:39in our demo but from like previews that capcom has released and stuff have been like there's a scene in

11:44a um a hotel right with grace and her mother which is kind of like that doesn't seem like it's

11:49going to

11:49be much gameplay if any gameplay it's sort of introductory and then there is a demo nvidia put out

11:55about uh like showing off rtx lighting that shows grace walking through like an actual city environment with

12:02people on the streets looks really good but it's also unclear to me if that's going to be a

12:07play playable space at all it doesn't really seem like it would fit with this game in terms of you

12:13know like kind of actual core gameplay like puzzle solve-y stuff so that felt at most like it's going

12:19to be kind of an interactive cutscene-y bit um but yeah i'm really curious if there's going to be

12:24an

12:24actual segment would be on where you're getting to explore uh or both with both of them getting to

12:29explore raccoon city i'm not worried that it's going to be contained to this space because what

12:34we played seems really cool but it's yeah it's hard for me to judge like does this kind of have

12:40the

12:40like re1 structure of like we're just in this place and this is going to be the whole thing or

12:46are there

12:47some surprises waiting for us outside of it i do like the comfort of being in you know that kind

12:54of

12:54standard resi layout where it's like you've got a middle hall where you've got your safe room and

12:58you've got like you can go into like the areas tell us about the new crafting system

13:07one of the the last new things in the game we haven't talked about yet is there's a crafting

13:10system now which initially i was kind of like rolling my eyes at because i feel like

13:15just every triple a modern game has some sort of crafting system in it yeah but i felt like it

13:21actually worked pretty well in implementation here where resources are still pretty scarce you basically

13:27collect like the dead zombie like goo uh you like get their plasma and then you use that

13:32in combination with like scrap metal uh to like make bullets which is complete nonsense but a sort

13:39of nonsense that feels kind of fitting for a resident evil game uh so i crafted myself like

13:45six or eight magnum rounds for the magnum that leon gives grace at the beginning that like very

13:51pointedly only has one bullet in it when he gives it to you uh which is just a rude move

13:56on leon's

13:57part but like i was able to do that and then go up against him and i didn't actually finish

14:02grace's

14:03segment because i feel like i waited too long to like confront uh that enemy or like to get past

14:09him

14:09but once i finally crafted some magnum ammo went up to him uh i was able to blow him away

14:14and just like a few

14:15shots which was not what i was expecting but i thought was a cool twist on the way they've

14:22implemented these giant enemies in the past where they're either unkillable or like you know effectively

14:27like these bosses that are gaining your progress and i was like oh this guy wasn't actually gating

14:32my progress i just needed to handle it properly basically what's your overall thoughts on the demo

14:39yeah i think this is uh the the most excited i've been for a resi game in quite a while

14:45um

14:45i kind of wasn't interested in re4 remake not because i thought it would be bad i think it was

14:51it was great from like the bits of it i played and seven and eight were cool doing their own

14:55thing but

14:56i really like the idea of the the kind of the dichotomy of resident evil being in one game i

15:01hope

15:01that balance works as well in the full game as i felt like it did in this preview any any

15:04closing thoughts

15:05any predictions twists characters that might show up uh is leon gonna die in the end like

15:12oh i'm not listening i will not hear that i think the fan base would probably revolt you're probably

15:17you're probably safe joe valentine i think i don't know i feel like wherever leon is ada kind of tends

15:23to

15:23follow like i know i mean i love ada wong so again i would be i'd be happy to see

15:29any of them to be honest

15:30i don't know i stand by the fact that there are certainly some old um resi characters that

15:38probably should kick the bucket um chris being one of them that poor man put him out of his misery

15:46you know but i don't know i would be really sad to see leon go i don't i think it's

15:54weird me saying

15:55it's not his time because he's a fictional character but um i don't it would have to be a

16:01really good death and it would have to like be very meaningful for everything he's been through

16:06for him to die in some hospital surrounded by maybe one other person i would be like i'd be a

16:15bit niffed at

16:15that if anything i predict uh a fake out death where he like sacrifices himself to save grace in

16:24some big dramatic moment but then actually he's okay at the end of it um but but maybe uh like

16:29another classic re character will show up to save him uh at the last second for all things resident

16:35evil requiem and for pc gaming follow pc gamer

Resident Evil Requiem Hands-On – Survival Horror Vs. Action

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