Resident Evil Requiem had me drenched with terror like the series never has before

If you've been thrilled by Resident Evil's leaning more into its horror element compared to its more actiony iterations, then I think you're going to love Resident Evil Requiem based on the terrifying demo I got to play at Gamescom 2025.

Leaving behind the faceless and not especially sympathetic Ethan Winters from the last two games, this new instalment has you playing as FBI agent Grace Ashcroft, who finds herself waking up to a nightmarish scenario, tied up and hanging upside down in a creepy hospital while left in the middle of some sort of twisted experiment.

The immediate difference from the previous first-person game is that you can feel her terror as you see it on her face (see our guide to the best game consoles if you want a new machine in time for the game's release).

It's been eight years since Capcom began using its proprietary RE Engine, built to achieve more photorealistic visuals in the previous generation. But while admittedly it's becoming quite easy to identify the engine just from how it renders certain characters, in particular female ones with blonde hair (just check out Diana in the developer's other Gamescom highlight, Pragmata), rather than feeling aged, it's just gone from strength to strength with every title.

With Resident Evil Requiem, what's most visually striking is how you see the sweat dripping down Grace's face. Given that detail, the other key change here is that it's presented with a third-person camera.

Still, it's not actually a return to the behind-the-shoulder third-person perspective pioneered by Resident Evil 4, seeing as once you're in control of Grace, the camera returns to first-person. How it actually works this time is that you have the choice from the outset to change between first or third-person perspectives.

It does require the rather inelegant way of going into the menus to toggle rather than an instant button press, but you can think of this as a way of controlling your fear threshold, first-person being the more frighteningly intensive option while third-person at least gives you some distance.

Given this demo had me walking around narrow and pitch-black corridors (at least until finding a lighter) where I soon found myself pursued by a dreaded monster that's up there with the baby in House Beneviento, I must admit I appreciated the option to dial things back a wee bit.

In fact, the moment I had to walk down a long dimly lit corridor where I could see a statue of a horse posed standing on its hind legs at the end, the sort of thing you can't help imagining it's going to move once you reach it, I gladly made the camera switch just to take the edge off.

Capcom nonetheless reserves some authorial control over its cutscenes, which can play out in either perspective and you can get a sense of real intent behind this. For instance, the demo's bookended cutscenes play out in third-person so that you really get to see Grace running the gamut of emotions from fear to determination to helplessness.

But then in the middle, a cutscene is presented in first-person very much to elicit the biggest jumpscares, though it's also punctuated by some perhaps unintentional humour as Grace touches a pretty obvious corpse before uttering the bleeding obvious, "He's dead."

Yet I do wonder how Requiem will progress from here. This is after all also a return to the iconic Raccoon City, reduced to ruins after the government's decision to launch a missile to eradicate the virus. I'm not sure I really want to spend the whole game in a game of hide-and-seek against OP enemies you have to just run and hide from, which is pretty much what this demo boils down to alongside some familiar puzzles involving keys marked with special emblems and finding a missing fuse.

But there's not a hint of any combat, and quite honestly, I'm not sure we should expect her to suddenly become a tooled up gun-toting soldier by the time her ordeal is over.

That's why I'm almost certain it's going to transpire that there's a second playable character, and while many fans have crossed their fingers on Leon Kennedy, I'm very much hoping for Claire Redfield, still the best Redfield sibling who hasn't had nearly enough time in the spotlight (Code Veronica remake, make it happen!).

It's at least reaching into the series' history, based on the latest trailer that gives more backstory to Grace's mother, Alyssa Ashcroft, an investigative reporter and formerly a playable character in the largely forgotten PS2 spin-off Resident Evil Outbreak.

Given that Requiem will be launching next year, coinciding with the series' 30th anniversary, I still think the best way to honour that would be to introduce the ability to experience the latest game in a classic fixed camera perspective (or an 'objective camera', as it was referred to in an exhibit I saw at a Capcom exhibition in Osaka earlier this year). Either way, I wouldn't be surprised if there were more surprises up its sleeve.

Resident Evil Requiem releases for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on 27 February 2026. You can wishlist it on Steam.

For more of the week's gaming news, see the announcement about Nvidia RTX Hair in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. For more on game engines, see our guide to the best game development software.