Nice information: Resident Evil Requiem completely kicks ass. Whereas it was initially marketed as a survival horror automobile for brand new protagonist Grace Ashcroft, it seems Requiem is equally a reunion with the collection’ fan favourite hero, Leon S. Kennedy. Regardless of exhibiting up in a number of remakes not too long ago, Leon hasn’t had a genuinely new journey since Resident Evil 6. That was 14 years in the past! Requiem brings us a Leon who’s nonetheless that campy, quippy, tough-as-nails legend we’ve all the time liked, however now he’s older, wiser, and carrying a bit extra baggage with him. This type of return is fairly unusual in video video games, however check out the screenings at your native multiplex and also you’ll see it’s occurring on a regular basis now in motion pictures. Outdated heroes from previous franchises coming again to show that a number of further wrinkles can’t cease you from kicking ass. That’s precisely what Resident Evil Requiem has accomplished. It appears like a Hollywood blockbuster legacy sequel for one of many coolest online game characters of all time.
You possibly can simply make the argument that Resident Evil 4 is the best online game ever created, and diehard followers of Capcom’s sport changer have wished a reunion with Leon for many years. His quick half in Resident Evil 6 merely wasn’t sufficient, and whereas 2023’s Resident Evil 4 remake was unimaginable, it was finally a retelling of a narrative all of us knew extraordinarily nicely. For years, we’ve been left questioning if we’d ever get something like Leon’s gory Spanish trip once more. At the very least till now: Resident Evil Requiem is a worthy successor to Resident Evil 4. However greater than that, it offers us a recent tackle Leon that’s extra attention-grabbing than many sequels supply.
Regardless of being a medium that has been going robust for over fifty years now, video video games not often let their protagonists get older. Mascot characters like Tremendous Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog are mainly the identical age now as they had been once they had been first launched in ‘80s and ‘90s. There are a number of exceptions, in fact. Uncharted’s Nathan Drake had aged barely by the point we stated goodbye to him in 2016, and Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft has jumped round to numerous levels of her 20s all through her quite a few sequels and reboots. However most online game characters reside in an countless time loop, destined to remain encased in amber on the identical age perpetually, like Bart Simpson and his fellow classmates being caught in fourth grade for many years.
The Resident Evil franchise is totally different; it’s one of many few long-running online game collection that really permits its characters to expertise the passage of time, albeit with all types of foolish B-movie plot armor, continuity leaps, and different numerous nonsensical story beats to assist carry them alongside the best way. That’s why seeing a gruffer, extra weathered Leon S. Kennedy’s return in Resident Evil Requiem feels so particular – it’s one thing we don’t get to see fairly often in online game type. Video games are largely energy fantasies, in spite of everything, and seeing an older Tremendous Mario clutch his knees after a triple bounce, or a hunched over Sonic the Hedgehog gasp for breath in the course of a half pipe run, could be method much less cool and far more of a stark reminder of our weary, fragile lives than simply seeing these guys at their peak age perpetually.
Then again, Hollywood likes to carry again older variations of traditional film characters for a giant legacy sequel, partly as a result of it’s enjoyable to verify in on previous pals you haven’t seen shortly, however largely as a result of precise human actors – in contrast to online game characters – grow old as time passes. For instance, take into consideration Harrison Ford in Star Wars: The Power Awakens portraying an older, greyer Han Solo. Or Harrison Ford in The Dial of Future portraying an older, greyer Indiana Jones. Or Harrison Ford in Blade Runner 2049 portraying an older, greyer Rick Deckard. (I swear I’ve extra examples in addition to Harrison Ford.) Do all of those motion pictures must exist? Undoubtedly not. However when a legacy sequel works, they really feel like an ideal reunion with somebody we haven’t seen shortly, and typically, even an ideal remaining sendoff to a personality we’ve cherished our complete lives.
We could have technically caught up with Leon not too long ago, because of the wonderful Resident Evil 2 and 4 remakes, however these video games happen in 1998 and 2004, respectively. The Resident Evil timeline progresses in actual time, although, so in Requiem, set in 2026, Leon is definitely a lot older now, and he’s received the wrinkles and mannerisms to show it. He’s barely much less prone to crack a corny one liner or foolish pun after a giant, violent encounter (however don’t fear, the person nonetheless has some jokes right here and there.)
Requiem balances Leon’s dad jokes (or ought to that be “sizzling uncle” jokes?) with some grit and gravitas. He’s reminded of his regrets and previous failings as he revisits the horrors that unfolded in his early days as a cop in Raccoon Metropolis, with its present bombed-out streets, dilapidated police station, and gun store all trudging up the grief and regret from his first large missions. However whereas this affords a darker aspect to Leon’s story, we don’t actually get a deep look into his private life, which undoubtedly works in each the character’s and our favor. Going a long time with out seeing Han Solo, simply to search out out he ended up being a deadbeat dad who’d resorted to as soon as once more coping with low life gangsters and petty crimes in The Power Awakens was a fairly miserable get collectively in hindsight – like working in to the older child out of your city that you simply grew up idolizing and discovering out he nonetheless lives together with his mother and he largely simply sells cigarettes to youngsters behind a fuel station. We didn’t want that downer with Han and I’m glad we don’t get that with Leon, a personality who in Requiem is essentially targeted on a brand new task with practically the entire ardour, depth, and wit we count on from him. He’s struggling together with his reminiscences of Raccoon Metropolis as a result of he’s again in it, not lacking his daughter’s dance recital as a result of he’s pounding photographs on the bar.
What’s necessary, although, and an expertise distinctive to the online game medium, is that Requiem’s Leon nonetheless appears like he did in Resident Evil 4, regardless of being a lot older. Mechanically, he strikes and controls similar to he did in RE4’s 2023 remake, simply with a number of further tips up his sleeve because of the advantage of age and expertise. There have been so many little moments in Requiem the place I assumed to myself “I can’t imagine I’m getting extra Resident Evil 4 proper now.” It wasn’t that I assumed I’d by no means ever play something like that once more on this franchise, it’s simply that after RE7 and Village, I really had no concept the place issues would go subsequent. And whereas Requiem actually does construct on the survival horror parts of these video games, if you’re put answerable for Leon, it actually does really feel like a return to the character’s finest days.
So a lot of Leon’s sections in Requiem work as callbacks to issues I liked about Resident Evil 4, however he approaches them with the additional benefit of the knowledge and expertise that comes with getting older. Keep in mind the chainsaw wielding lunatics from the village? Properly, there’s new ones now, and this time you possibly can shoot these chainsaws out of their arms and use them to tear a room stuffed with zombies aside. Keep in mind the excessive pace jetski escape sequence? There’s a brand new one now that’s an infinitely cooler set piece and provides enemies to the combo.
Not all the pieces right here is an enchancment over Leon’s most iconic mission, in fact. Requiem doesn’t have a lovably bizarre service provider character, or shiny costume jewellery dangling from its hall ceilings or inexplicably hiding within the bellies of its creepiest basement creatures. Resident Evil 4 is, in spite of everything, a kind of as soon as in a lifetime video video games the place a staff of daring artistic geniuses got a number of years and a clean slate to create a sprawling, cinematic single participant sport that reinvented a beloved franchise. We’ll virtually actually by no means get something prefer it on that scale once more. However when Requiem comes near hitting a few of those self same highs, it’s a unbelievable feeling.
However the one factor a really nice legacy sequel acknowledges – and one which Requiem very a lot understands – is that our heroes don’t reside perpetually and, frankly, it’s egocentric of us to count on them to. The folks we glance as much as finally get previous and die, and go away us with simply reminiscences to recollect them by. Sure, even those that may somersault over zombies or dive roll by a second-story glass window and land on each ft unphased. However the biggest heroes don’t simply go away their legacy behind, they convey their knowledge and expertise on the subsequent era within the hope that they may develop to develop into as nice, and even higher, than they ever had been. That’s how legacy sequels carry collectively their authentic and new solid members, and we see that in motion with Leon and Grace, a skittish FBI agent who enters into Requiem’s immediately threatening story with concern and trepidation.
Grace begins her journey fairly actually stumbling round within the darkness, holding a crude knife in a shaky hand and struggling to outlive. However by teaming up with Leon whereas additionally confronting her personal previous traumas, she slowly turns into a robust, resilient, absolutely succesful star of her personal. She would possibly by no means go full blown motion hero like her mentor, and that’s okay, but it surely’s thrilling to suppose her story may be getting began. What we see between her and Leon is a torch passing ritual, a crucial chapter in any ongoing story the place characters are allowed to age naturally, attain the top of their story, and finally even die.
That’s to not say I’d flip down any extra adventures with our previous buddy Leon sooner or later, in fact. I like the man, and I believe there’s nonetheless loads of fuel left in his tank. I simply don’t know if I wish to play a online game the place he’s 80 years previous and I must improve his hip substitute each time he makes an attempt a spin kick. Then once more, for the entire methods Requiem handles an growing old legend gracefully, Resident Evil has lengthy been a franchise the place physique mutating mega viruses and tremendous serums enable once-human characters to return greater and stronger than ever, even after getting axed aside or blown to smithereens with nukes. So hey, possibly subsequent time Leon’s on the town he’ll be wanting rather less like a sizzling uncle.
However till they bounce that zombie shark (and this collection actually has a kind of, named Neptune) I’ll gladly take extra Grace and Leon video games sooner or later. And seeing how nicely Capcom dealt with an older Leon opens up all types of potentialities for different traditional Resident Evil characters to return with a number of extra gray hairs. In any case, Resident Evil Requiem by no means makes any point out of Claire Redfield (outdoors of a reference on a attraction) so right here’s hoping she exhibits up in some DLC and even will get to star within the subsequent mainline sport. Both method, it’s nice to see a collection I’ve liked for thus lengthy discover so many nice methods to remain alive and thriving whereas so many different traditional franchises shamble alongside gone their expiration dates, just like the rotting, festering zombies that Leon – and now Grace – are so nice at defeating.