Five million copies sold in five days, making it the fastest-selling Resident Evil game in the series. Is the gameplay that groundbreaking, or is it just the Leon effect?
If you’re a hardcore fan of Resident Evil 9, you might wanna avert your eyes, because this might hurt y’all. I’m not here to rain on your parade, because I surely enjoyed it, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t have problems with it. Also, I won’t be covering its story or characters here. In case you want to read my two cents about the story and overall writing of RE 9 Requiem, here you go!
A small preview of my obsession with RE 4
The original Resident Evil 4 was the game that set my standards for men. When most of my 11 or 12-year-old friends had crushes on living, breathing actors, singers, and the cool-looking boys in the most popular boys' school in town, I was swooning over Leon. But when the remake was released, I was skeptical. I was thinking to myself, why remake an already perfect game? I didn’t like the new face model of Leon; I had resentment towards the studio’s decision to cut some content, Ada’s voice, and some other minor issues. However, when I started playing it, it grew on me day after day, and I enjoyed it too much. As of now, I may have beaten the game one too many times. The point? I wasn’t biased, I had problems with RE 4 Remake at the beginning, but it quickly proved me wrong. So much so, I couldn’t help but cover its end credits song “The Bullet or the Blade” right away. Wait, isn’t this supposed to be a RE 9 Gameplay Review? I’m getting there, I promise! All I’m trying to prove here is that, although I am obsessed with RE 4, it doesn’t mean that I didn’t see its downsides, so I would treat every other game the same way.
Alright, hold your horses! I am aware that it’s not fair to compare an action-packed video game that strayed too much away from its roots to a game that perfectly encapsulates the OG vibe of Resident Evil. On the other hand, since RE 4 Remake is the most recent video game we have at our disposal to compare both Leon’s character and game mechanics, it’s somewhat justified. Moreover, a fair warning. There’s gonna be a lot of “Buts” in this review.
After beating Requiem, I genuinely didn’t feel that feeling. The feeling of success, that dopamine rush, the euphoria, or the bittersweet taste that lingered in my brain after I finished a brilliant game. I was ruminating for a couple of days to understand the cause. “Why? Why?” I asked myself. Requiem is a good game, if not pretty damn excellent. So, what’s the problem? Well, I finally figured it out. It has nothing to do with the wrinkled Leon but has a lot more to do with the “Remember this, Remember that?” nostalgia overabundance. But, where does it all go wrong? Let’s dive in!
Gameplay - Grace Ashcroft (Stealth and true survival horror)
The Camera
For your reference, for I am a (drumroll) a true RE veteran; I have finished the game on my first playthrough on Standard (Classic), which is the third mode. That said, I ain’t a first-person shooter gamer, and I absolutely HATE not being able to see the protagonist’s body. Throughout my various gaming escapades, I only found a handful of first-person shooters to my liking, and hands down, RE 9 is at the top of that list.
This first-person experience is mind-blowing. It’s not clunky, it’s not broken, it’s responsive, and it gives you the extended immersive horror experience you’ve always wanted. Despite many saying that it’s zoomed in too much and there’s no Field of View (FOV) slider to adjust it, I preferred this claustrophobic effect. However, I noticed that when Grace is running, the first-person view gives you the minimal feeling of dread, and the running speed feels almost too slow. In the 3rd-person view, you see the fear, the shivers, the wobble, and they have also included a stumbling animation, perhaps to compensate for the lack of cramped-up effect, and if I’m not mistaken, Grace has a little bit more running speed in the 3rd-person view. If somebody needs to see the full nervous breakdown of Grace, they should stick to the 3rd-person perspective.
The Atmosphere and Setting
From the minute we arrive at the care center, the game bombards us with OG Resident Evil vibes (In a good way). The care center is the textbook example of Resident Evil. Especially if you’re a rookie (see what I did there?) playing RE for the first time, anyone would agree that the setting and the gameplay mechanics are exactly like the old RE games, specifically RE 1. They have captured the signature RE survive-here-with-minimum-stuff-while-finding-key-items spirit to the maximum.
The music and sound production are also top-notch, especially as they complement Grace's despair in this obscure setting. Not to mention, the quiet jumpscares triggered by small-scale audio cues are brilliant compared to the massive sound effects we usually see in other horror games.
When the Girl is present, the sound effects are created to make us feel like we’re trapped in a vacuum, followed by a subtle lullaby-type score.
The Inventory and Crafting System
We have the old-school inventory system, the storage box, and a Typewriter that actually requires Ink ribbons for saving in the Standard - Classic mode. Like the old games, Grace must find key items the old-fashioned way. It seems that Dr. Victor Gideon went out of his way to redesign the doors of the care center with ridiculously adorned key items. But the game itself is aware and makes fun of this just after Grace finds the Red Jewel key to open the parlor door by questioning, “Weird. How do people normally get in here?” It’s Resident Evil, everything is forgiven!
The crafting mechanism in RE 9 is impressive. Even though it also gave me the ick the first time I realized that I had to collect blood and use it to craft items. I could get on board with crafting Hemolytic Injectors with collected blood because it is somewhat credible, and the zombie combustion is terrific to witness in first-person view. Yet, the other items, for example, crafting bullets with collected blood with scrap? Really? But, being a RE fan for years itself means that we have been rendered credulous a long time ago. In Resident Evil, everything is possible, even if it doesn’t make sense at all. To be fair, Grace is an FBI analyst; she might have different skills we mortals wouldn’t understand.
There is a dearth of ink ribbons, but not the ink ribbon tins! So, if you’re not lazy with your blood-collecting game, you’ll be more than alright. The ability to increase the player’s maximum health with Steroids and to improve gun handling and firepower with Stabilizers is a nice touch, too.
What’s more, I like the fact that they have given us a makeshift knife, but prohibited the players from using it for stealth attacks, which would otherwise have made Grace’s gameplay even easier.
Zombie behavior and difficulty
I enjoy the idea of having to understand the routines of specific zombies and sneak past them. For example, there is a zombie with OCD who is cleaning obsessively (who would clean Grace’s face if caught by the way), a zombie that hates to see you waste electricity, one that doesn’t like noises, a singer, or a big-ass chef that used to cook God knows what with that giant cleaver. You also find causes for some of their respective behaviors in documents along the way, which is always a treat for RE lore buffs.
In terms of the game’s difficulty, however, it is largely imbalanced. The Standard (Classic) should make you sweat a little, but no. Even without having unlimited saves in this mode, the game is too easy. The only thing you have to do is memorize the zombie routines, sneak past them, or kill them with Hemolytic Injectors or with the generous amount of handgun ammo you have, and could craft; boom! You’re good to go. The Chunk and the Girl are quite simple to avoid, too. If you want to stop the Chunk from squeezing through hallways, you can end its misery with three Hemolytic Injectors or with just an empty bottle, triggering the zombie with the blood transfusion bag to kill it in one blow! Crazy right? So, imagine the gameplay WITH unlimited saves. It must be a walk in the park.
Despite the nostalgic setting and gameplay, it does get tedious. First, you have to collect three Quartz, then three plugs, then restart three power units, and so on. When we can predict the drill from early on, it takes away from the enjoyment. What’s more appalling is the child’s play, sub-par puzzles that you can solve even with your eyes closed. This time around, as well, RE does it with the unnecessary environmental guides in yellow. Whether you want to break a box or climb somewhere, you won’t miss the yellow color guidance. Remember back in the day when we were required to press the interactive button over and over to find clues? Yeah, good times. But, this time around, they have sort of toned it down and settled for planting small vases throughout the world for you to break without making them shiny beacons, which is an improvement.
A lot of players would disagree with me, BUT contrary to the popular belief, this game isn’t that scary. There, I said it! Once you’re acclimatized to the setting, learn the Girl’s or the Chunk’s routine; they don’t bother you at all. Recovery is extremely easy as well. For example, once you run away from a zombie, it resets, and you can try again. Sometimes they move to slightly different locations, but it doesn’t make a lot of difference. I am glad that this time around they didn’t resort to jumpscares as they did in RE 7, which is a breath of fresh air.
Remember, fear is always subjective, so you might be one of those who got really spooked; unfortunately, I wasn’t.
Gameplay - Leon S. Kennedy (Action and horror)
The Atmosphere and Setting
Despite seeing Leon in RE 4 Remake in 2023, Leon’s comeback in a brand new game after RE 6 is something that RE fans have been manifesting for years. As I mentioned in my RE Requiem story and characters review, Leon has aged like a fine wine, except with a little hunch, probably by carrying the franchise all these years.
The first part of Leon’s section is created with limited gameplay, mostly going through the care center, picking up items left by Grace, and opening up warped cupboards. Oh, and one more thing, aura farming! Leon's arrival at the Raccoon City police department is cathartic, especially with the old RE 2 soundtrack; the whole section manages to evoke so many emotions. Environmental storytelling has also peaked here to bring back old memories.
Nevertheless, something that I disliked a lot about Leon’s section is the music. It sounds too mechanical, and despite taking it up a notch at times, I think they could have done a better job. I just can’t stomach it. Let’s just leave it at that.
As with the Yellow color guides, my next problem falls under minor issues, but I have to point it out since one of the most unnatural things in any art form is spoonfeeding. For example, in the motorcycle section, we have to shoot giant dogs. But we’re incessantly getting reminded that we have to shoot. The on–screen guides are telling us to shoot the dogs, Victor, and the tanks to clear the path. For me, it translates into something like, “You’re dumb, so we must guide you.” This is not a good look for anything.
Collecting Keys and Inventory Management
Leon’s gameplay is solid with no surprises. We know what he is about and what he is capable of. With a fool-proof hatchet beside him, he’s truly unstoppable.
But the curse of the three keys haunts Leon’s gameplay sections as well. The very first thing he has to do is find three pieces (Surprise!) for a detonator. The nostalgia-evoking return to Raccoon City was cut short by this tedious section. Of course, they tried to differentiate the areas by placing some enemies with missiles or zombie soldiers. But it largely lacks enemy variety.
This time around, Leon isn’t saving with an old typewriter, but he uses the computers he finds along the way. Leon acquires a Tactical Tracker that records his kill count, which can be later converted to credits. He can now access BSAA supply boxes and upgrade his weapons, buy new items, tune up weapons, and repair his body armor. For he has to maintain his inventory, like in RE 4, he cannot store anything in the box. I do like this method, although I wish there was a strange merchant around the corner to lure him by saying, “Over here, stranger.” (Kidding!) Then again, Leon’s inventory management is just a joke. To be honest, there’s nothing to manage there. The inventory is huge to begin with, and you won’t have any tension as to what needs to be discarded, kept, or combined.
Boss Battles & Difficulty
When it comes to boss battles, RE 9 has mostly prioritized giving Leon a taste of his past. In a nutshell, most bosses are easy to beat; most of them are updated versions of the old bosses we’ve seen in RE 2 and other Resident Evil games. There are no inventive gameplay or mechanics to finish a boss. They are generic, and we have seen these boss battles a million times before. I feel like they haven’t even tried to do something new with the boss battles. Having the same type of enemy with slightly changed abilities is monotonous. They should have come up with more enemy types for both Grace’s and Leon’s sections. I ranted more than enough about RE writers’ and game designers’ audacious choice of recycling old bosses for Requiem on my RE Requiem Story review, so I won’t be repeating myself here.
As with Grace’s sections, the other hiccup in Leon’s gameplay is the difficulty. With the new addition of Leon’s relentless hatchet and its ability to parry anything and everything, he can easily sneak past enemies by ruthlessly finishing them with just one blow. Even the enemies that were deemed mercilessly intimidating in other games in the series.
All in all, the gameplay in both sections felt a bit repetitive and easy at times, which again deducts the overall gameplay quality.
The Insanity Mode
Something that I thoroughly enjoyed in both RE 4 OG and the remake was their difficulty levels. Assisted, Standard, Hardcore, and Professional modes were perfectly balanced with gradually increasing difficulties. For example, I finished RE 4 Remake for the first time with the Hardcore mode, which offered a good challenge. Then I needed to test my skills; therefore, I chose to finish the game in Professional mode, and I found it more challenging than Hardcore, but I still enjoyed it and had a lot, I mean A LOT, of fun. At the end, I felt the pure bliss of achievement.
In RE 9, there are initially three modes, as in the other games: Casual, Standard (Modern), and Standard (Classic). Naturally, I chose this third mode, the Standard (Classic), as a self-proclaimed Resident Evil veteran, and as I said before, playing on this mode was a piece of cake. But, Insanity unlocks as a post-game mode, which is LITERALLY insane. I was expecting a slightly challenging mode after my first playthrough, as they had in RE 4. Boy, was I tricked!
Long story short, there is no mode in between the Standard (Classic) and the Insanity modes. As a gamer who enjoys a challenging playthrough with the same weapons, upgrades, and skills, I was disappointed to witness that this Insanity mode was created for the players to buy infinite ammo and finish it mindlessly. It’s okay for fun, but as a conventional Resident Evil consumer, I would want a challenging and rewarding mode, I might add, after the Standard (Classic) over something I would only enjoy with a ridiculous amount of ammo. It also completely negates the Insanity mode’s point of existence. Why make an insanely harder difficulty if you have to buy infinite ammo? I could probably get on board with this difficulty if they had given me another difficulty after the Standard (Classic), like, I don’t know, a Hardcore (Classic) mode, before going insane? It took me ten or fifteen times to finally beat the chainsaw-wielding doctor in the beginning and escape from that room without buying anything.
This difficulty level imbalance, combined with tedious key-collecting tasks, makes this game, unfortunately, unreplayable for me.
Before I forget, what’s with placing the BSAA supply boxes at the very beginning of Leon’s gameplay on Insanity mode? Thanks for breaking the immersion, Capcom!
Gamers on the internet are debating over this, and the majority seems to be okay with having to play it with infinite ammo. Having said that, playing the Insanity mode made me a pro at parrying and triggering finisher animations with my shotgun or the Requiem, which is the silver lining, NGL. But I wish there were a mode in between and a ranking system.
The ending
Having multiple endings or two endings is not a novelty for Resident Evil games. The bad ending is not canon, and the good ending is, well, it is canon. I’m not going to rant about Leon not hitting the “you-know-whose vitals”, but for Wesker's sake, I’m pretty sure I shot her in her head and heart. Like what? Did Leon get dumber with age?
If you’ve been paying attention to its narrative, it is unlikely that you’ll end up with your head exploded. (Pun intended) After I got the good ending the first time, I loaded the game from the last save and dragged myself through the bad ending, and it devastated me, even if it didn’t matter. It is like a proper punishment Capcom has premeditated for the fools who didn’t follow along the story, or common sense, for that matter.
Final thoughts
RE 9 Requiem is a good game, especially the first section. In today’s standard of games, it’s more than enough. Its maps are carefully thought out, the zombie behaviors are great, and the crafting system is enjoyable. I do have to give props for the animations because they are satisfying, flawless, phenomenal, and not to mention gorier. I do not think that anyone would deny it, ever. Honestly, no one’s bothered about Leon’s aura farming either.
BUT it is not the series’s best and runs mostly on nostalgia bait. It goes without saying that they overdid it with paying homage to old games to the point I was done with the whole nostalgia dump thrown at my face. Do something new for once! It is at times tiresome, too easy, repetitive, its boss battles aren’t groundbreaking, it severely lacks enemy types, its puzzles are for five-year-olds to solve, and Leon’s battle music has left much to be desired. I need a difficulty level in between Standard (Classic) and Insanity Mode because I need a challenge, but at the same time, I don’t want to jump from a fairly easy mode to the hardest level possible. Where’s our challenge?
If someone is saying that it is the greatest video game that has ever existed, either they are a hardcore fan girl of Leon than me (excuse me), or they just adore the reminiscence of the past at the expense of discounting its every con, or they have never played other games in the series. Worse yet, if somebody’s saying that Requiem is better than RE 4 Remake or the OG, I will have whatever they are on. On the other hand, fourteen years later, people are so adamant on jumping on the bandwagon of hating RE 6 again, while applauding Leon literally flying off a building on a bike in Requiem. Come on!
My rating for Requiem is a 7/10, and I’m being generous. Neither do I have the mental capacity to sit through another playthrough of collecting keys in a slightly tense environment, nor do I have the courage to play some cliché boss fights with zero creativity.
It’s a one-and-done for me. But I would love to hear your counterarguments, so by all means.
