Capcom Showcase gives us an inside look at ‘Resident Evil: Requiem’
A few days ago, Capcom hosted one of their Resident Evil Showcases to discuss the highly-anticipated new game in the series. This ninth entry, titled Resident Evil: Requiem, was first announced back in June of last year with a release date of February 27th, 2026. The game’s marketing since then has been shrouded in secrecy; it wasn’t until last month when they revealed that the game would have a second protagonist, with fan-favorite character Leon Kennedy returning after Resident Evil 2 (1998, 2019), Resident Evil 4 (2005, 2023), and Resident Evil 6 (2012). So, when Capcom announced that they would be holding a showcase to go over Requiem’s gameplay in more detail, fans like me could hardly wait. Having watched the showcase for myself, I can safely say that it did not disappoint.
Resident Evil: Requiem has one story campaign, throughout which the player will switch between protagonists Grace Ashcroft and Leon Kennedy. It’s similar to what Resident Evil has done before in entries like Resident Evil 3 (1999, 2020) and Resident Evil: Code Veronica (2000), but there’s a twist here: both characters have distinct gameplay styles, each honing in on the two aspects that the series is most known for—Survival Horror and Action.
Grace’s gameplay sections will see the player going through a Survival Horror experience akin to that of Resident Evil 2 (2019) and Resident Evil: Biohazard (2017). Players can choose between sneaking past the monsters Grace comes across, or facing them head-on.
Zombies return as the base-monster that players will most commonly deal with, but they’re different from the ones we’ve seen before. Requiem’s director, Koshi Nakanishi (who previously directed Resident Evil: Revelations, 2012, and Resident Evil: Biohazard), describes how these zombies retain some characteristics of the humans they once were. But they’ve been twisted into something hardly recognizable, such as a zombified-custodian that bashes her head into a mirror as she continues to diligently clean the building’s facilities. Players will be able to observe the habits of these zombies in order to learn their patterns, and thus exploit them to get by undetected.
Players might not want to avoid all combat encounters as Grace though. Requiem introduces infected blood, a new crafting item that can only be obtained by killing monsters. With it, Grace can make specialized injectors used for stealth attacks that’ll instantly burst zombies like blood balloons. The injector’s in-game description also mentions that it “prevents corpses from mutating,” but this is not elaborated on. Perhaps it’s a similar system to burning zombie corpses in the remake of Resident Evil 1 (2000) so that they didn’t come back stronger as Crimson Heads.
Something else that is introduced in regards to Grace’s sections is the difficulty settings “Standard (Modern)” and “Standard (Classic).” Modern is what players have become accustomed to in the more recent Resident Evil games, whereas Classic gives longtime fans the option to play Grace’s sections the same way they played the original games. In this difficulty, players won’t be able to save their playthrough unless they use one of the finite ink ribbons they’ll find as they play, including the removal of auto-saves.
Contrasting with Grace’s focus on horror is Leon, whose sections take the action-packed gameplay from the recent remake of Resident Evil 4 and evolves it to new heights. Mechanics like weapon modifications as well as melee parrying, attacks, stealth kills, and durability are back, but gone are Leon’s combat knife and the merchant responsible for repairing and upgrading his kit. In their place are a hatchet, the ability to sharpen it mid-fight in order to restore its durability, and the return of customizable parts from previous games. Leon’s gunplay and melee have also been expanded upon, with clips showing him perform special finishing-moves on zombies with his guns or the environment
Requiem has similarly evolved the combat skills of its zombies, with their ability to wield weapons like bottles or chainsaws against the player making them the deadliest they’ve ever been. But players can take the weapons dropped by the zombies they’ve killed as Leon and use them for themselves, as seen in a clip of Leon picking up a chainsaw and immediately cutting a zombie in half with it.
An unusual part of Requiem’s marketing has been its focus on one of the game’s guns, a large revolver that both Leon and Grace have been shown to use. Nakinishi talks about why that is, revealing that it shares the game’s name and that it’s of symbolic importance to Requiem’s story. The Requiem, a large caliber assault revolver, is shown to be capable of blowing zombies to pieces with a single bullet. But it has limited ammo, so players should save it for when they’re in a pinch.
Lastly in terms of gameplay, they make a clarification on how Requiem’s camera settings work. It was already known that players will be able to switch the camera in Requiem between first and third-person on the fly, and here they show that both Grace and Leon have individual camera settings that players can customize.
Resident Evil: Requiem releases for PS5, XBox Series X|S, Steam, Nintendo Switch 2, Epic Games Store, and NVIDIA GeForce on February 27th, 2026. Both the standard and deluxe editions can be pre-ordered for $69.99 and $89.99 respectively.
Words and Photos by: Jack Jensen
