The next mainline Resident Evil game is months away, and the hype among devoted fans is likely as contagious as a well-designed Umbrella Corp. bio-weapon. Requiem doesn’t just look the part of a dark and violent survival horror game; the developers have made it clear that Requiem really wants to scare you, unlike some previous RE titles that were more action-oriented. And with its return to the iconic series’ location of Raccoon City, Requiem is sure to make RE lore enthusiasts eager to sink their teeth into every new detail it reveals in the series’ larger canon.
Resident Evil has been with us since 1996. Since then, it’s become one of the most iconic and celebrated survival horror series out there, and deservedly so with its iconic cast of heroes and villains. Though some entries haven’t landed as well with hardcore fans, the series has arguably been riding high since 2017’s Resident Evil 7 Biohazard. And it didn’t stop there; a series of successful remakes of games from the series’ glory years in the ‘90s and 2000s have also served as reminders that when Resident Evil is firing on all cylinders, it’s a force to be reckoned with.
Resident Evil: Requiem, also known as Resident Evil 9, launches on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and Windows PCs on February 27, 2026. Officially announced and shown off during Summer Game Fest, the game will follow the story of Grace Ashcroft as she revisits the nightmares of her past in her official duties as a technical analyst for the FBI.
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Grace’s past isn’t something she’s keen to relive. Unlike many other RE protagonists, she’s hardly battle-hardened. But she’s certainly had her own experiences with the series’ legendary violent threats, so she’s not a total newbie. Still, Requiem is ambitious for its use of a new protagonist and a return to an iconic city. So, what can we expect when the game arrives in 2026? Let’s go over everything we’ve learned about this highly anticipated sequel.
Requiem will embrace both first- and third-person
Resident Evil 7 Biohazard was the first mainline RE game to pivot exclusively to a first-person perspective (though the series had had its share of first-person action in earlier spin-offs). Its follow-up, Village, started off in first-person but eventually introduced a third-person option. Requiem will allow you to switch between first- and third-person perspectives at launch.
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Biohazard made a compelling case for RE in first-person (even if it did feel like an answer to Hideo Kojima’s wildly popular Silent Hills demo that had everyone terrified at the time), so it feels appropriate for the series to carry on with it. But after three remakes (2, 3, and 4), it’s clear that surviving RE’s environments in third-person is also a treat. How then, could we possibly choose between them?
The gameplay sounds promising. Thanks to a playable demo available during Gamescom earlier this year, some folks got a taste of the action. It seems clear that first-person amplifies the fear, but third-person will still be a spooky good time.
The demo featured a flashback scene in which Grace is without a gun to wield and the experience to wield it. IGN’s Matt Kim described a chase sequence in which Grace has nothing but empty bottles to throw at one of RE’s most terrifying creatures yet.
Kotaku’s Kenneth Shepard described his time with the demo as featuring more “hide-and-seek horror” than the likes of the series’ eighth entry, Resident Evil Village. “It felt like the game had been stripped down to its core elements to leave you with a terrifying helplessness.”
Requiem is about ‘addictive fear’
In a special ‘Creators’ Message’ video from Capcom last June, Requiem’s director Koshi Nakanishi described the philosophy behind Requiem, and it’s all about establishing an emotional contour that fans of survival horror know very well:
Our core concept for this game was “addictive fear.” There’s something about the catharsis you get from overcoming your fears. It creates an addiction that makes you want to do more, to play more. That intense focus, while scary, makes for a really fun game. This served as our launching point for Requiem.
While RE has largely course-corrected itself back toward horror starting with Biohazard in 2017, this is still music to the ears of us survival horror fans. Of RE’s large cast of characters, many are exceedingly proficient with firearms and, by now, are well acquainted with surviving hordes of zombies and lumbering giants eager to stalk them. Grace, then, with her comparative lack of experience, enters as a way to allow players’ fears to synergize with the character’s emotional state.
Requiem wants to avoid just letting you shoot your way through zombies
Originally, Capcom thought to center series legend Leon Kennedy, the main character of RE4 and co-protagonist of RE2 and 6, in Requiem. But given how experienced (and likely PTSD-ridden) Kennedy is, it didn’t seem to be a good fit. In the “Creator’s Message” video from last summer, Nakanishi said of Leon Kennedy:
Making a horror game based around [Leon] is difficult. He wouldn’t jump at something like a bucket falling. No one wants to see Leon scared by every little thing. So he’s actually quite a bad match for horror.
That’s how we got our new girl, Grace, as our protagonist for Requiem. But though we have a fresh face ready to scream in terror, Requiem is hoping to avoid just building up to a shooting spree with every baddie. “Of course, there will be boss battles,” Nakashi told Automaton in a joint interview at Tokyo Game Show this year. He continued:
However, rather than defeating enemies in a flashy manner as you progress through the game, like in games that emphasize gun-shooting action, the style is more like Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2, where players expand their exploration area in a closed space and overcome obstacles using their wits.
Requiem sounds like a perfect excuse to go back and play every Resident Evil game
Requiem will arrive just before Resident Evil celebrates its 30th birthday. Director Nakanishi has stated that the title itself is intended “to mark a milestone in the series” with its return to Raccoon City, where everything in the game’s fictional universe started. The team sees the game as a “requiem, a eulogy to those who came before.”
So if there was ever a Resident Evil game to make you go back and play through the series to prepare, it sounds like Requiem, arriving just before the series’ third decade, is the game to do that with.
Hey, what about those rumors you’re seeing on the internet?
If you have a working internet connection and the ability to type Resident Evil: Requiem into a search bar, you’ve likely seen alleged leaks and speculation about the game. Video games are fertile ground for wild theories and some folks have gone a little overboard with such things. Requiem’s producer, Masata Kumazawa, is well aware of this.
In an interview with The Gamer, Kumazawa said the following:
I would like everyone to remember, let’s calm down a bit–what we’ve shown you so far is everything we can say. People get frustrated with us, because even though we didn’t promise things, the rumors and theories were such that they were widely believed.
So yeah, the game ain’t that far away. Let’s relax with the speculation.
Speaking for myself, I don’t think I’ve been this excited about a Resident Evil game since RE4. Hopefully the game lives up to that excitement when it arrives in February of 2026. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a few missing entries in the Resident Evil catalog to catch up on.
