Finished Requiem yesterday.
I liked it okay, I don't think I liked it as much as 7 and 8. Personally, I feel like going for smaller side stories with stronger individual theming really did the series some good. Resi 7 had that whole southern gothic thing going on, Village had all that hammer horror stuff in Transylvania, what Requiem did was go back to what used to be the bread and butter of the series, Umbrella Corp, Raccoon City, large underground laboratories, Zombies... It's not that I have anything against any of these things and we were probably due for an installment like that, it just didn't feel quite as climactic as I think it should have.
I like the thing the game has going on with Grace and Leon as dual protagonists, respectively representing the Survival Horror and Action legacy of the series and they both play very well. There's also just something very satisfying to the entire idea of it, where after being put into an extended section of being disempowered, you are being in one where you are, if anything, overpowered and get to go ham on the enemies you had to hide from before. I think that's a very effective thing for a game with the tone of Resident Evil to do.
This series has been playing around with the action and horror dials for a pretty long time, I don't think ever quite managing to make everyone happy. I think people tend to prefer them more on the horror end, which I understand, but I think for a series that much into cheesy, over the top action movie conventions, I don't think that's necessarily the only way to go. People have their misgivings about 5 and 6 which are mostly justified but I don't think their tone and gameplay categorically doesn't work.
Requiem tries very hard to find some happy medium, which I think comes at the expense of not quite excelling at either. I think early on it is very strong but its middle third, set in Raccoon City, is... well, it's some of the most 2010 art direction and gameplay I've seen in a while. Which might be intentional but I don't think it quite works. That middle section of Leon in a bombed out Raccoon City hunting for a bunch of items is some of the most early PS3 stuff I've played in a hot minute, particularly because it's not like the story's moving forward much for how long that section is.
The story itself is also just kind of undercooked. It has all the individual bits and pieces of what you'd want from a Resident Evil story but... honestly, I think the main problem is just that the villains lack presence? It's a mad scientist named Dr. Gideon and a guy named Zeno who works for some secret organization and may or may not be a clone or something similar of Albert Wesker. They just don't have a whole lot of screentime and the latter doesn't even get to have a boss fight. Like, you'd think having a duo of villains would culminate in one having a fight with Grace and the other one with Leon at the climax but that never happens.
Now, I know there's probably some limits to how seriously the story in Resi is worth taking but honestly, I liked the more self contained stuff the last two numbered titles did, say what you want about Ethan but at least he had a pair of somewhat interesting stories in somewhat interesting setting with pretty interesting villain ensembles. And then there's the fact that, silly as the setup of the series is, now that, tragically, eugenics seems to be making a comeback, it's more relevant than it has been for a pretty long time. So it's not like now wouldn't be a good time to write stories about rich and powerful elites dabbling in genetic engineering and transhumanist evolution. Just saying.
Overall it was good. Not the best recent Resident Evil game but also not really a dissapointment. I want to see where the series goes from here. Wouldn't mind going back to Chris and having a more action heavy, militaristic setup in the next title again. Or maybe something more akin to an international spy thriller. Requiem was a appreciable effort to tie up the story of Umbrella in a way that's maybe not exactly neat but definitely satisfying enough.
