We finally got our hands on a demo of RE9 and, let me tell you, our Resident Evil Requiem first impressions have us nothing short of excited of what’s to come. Ever since the initial reveal not too long ago, we have seen snippets, clips, and videos that gave us a glimpse into the story of Grace Ashcroft (starting in a hotel with her mom, then later in some kind of experimental facility) and we have been dying to try this game out. Little did we know that experiencing the game for the first time would wow us this much.
Right off the bat, the graphics blew me away. The demo opens up with Grace upside down, tubes connected to her, clearly part of some sinister experiment and you could see the sweat dripping down and the panic that just was so well captured by her face. Once you gain control, you cut yourself free and you immediately get a sense of how Grace is very unlike your typical Resident Evil protagonist. You see, Grace isn’t Leon Kennedy or Chris Redfield. She’s an FBI intelligence analyst who is, yes, trained, but also not your typical field agent and, as such, she’s not the type who will do well from the get-go once you toss her into a a full-blown horror scenario. She stumbles, panics, and that human vulnerability immediately amplifies the fear. The difference is noticeable and it does really align with the vision of the dev team to not place someone like Leon and Chris who is amazingly capable and used to situations like these. Grace, who is new to all of this and isn’t exactly your textbook combatant, places you in the perfect scenario of feel this elevated kind of fear. One that amplifies the feeling of helplessness.
The demo also started me in the first-person perspective which, yes, I agree it heightens that horror aspect but I did switch to third-person fairly quickly. It wasn’t even because I wanted the game to be less scary, but the motion blur and first-person movement were a bit disorienting. I gotta give props to RE Requiem that it gives you the option to freely toggle between the modes views without restarting because at least that lets you “min-max” the fear as I can imagine that maybe there are some parts that you would rather just experience in first person. And while I didn’t really play around with it because of the limited time I had with the demo, I hope that they can adjust the first person bit to default with less “dizzying” settings… but to be fair, that’s just me and my own personal preference.
I then walked through the hallways of where Grace finds herself and I kinda felt that the environment felt eerily familiar. I could be 100% wrong with this this but I did feel like I was wandering through what felt like a section of the RE2 police station. It also had dark, oppressive hallways, rooms with just enough light to make your heart race. I liked the effect too how your eyes adjust to the darkness, like how you can’t see anything when you head into the dark then slowly a few things become visible as your eyes adjust.
Also worth noting that, in this demo, Grace starts with no weapons and you’re left to look around and just find a way to survive and escape. I then got an up close and personal interaction with the monster that will be stalking you in this game or at least in this particular segment.. and it looks diabolical. It’s hag-ish (if that makes any sense) in a way that it kind of looks like those that you’d see in a swamp in those fantasy D&D setups. I had to run away but given the closed and very tight nature of the corridors I was in, the only place I thought to go was the room I started in. Luckily, the hag hates light and will temporarily leave you as it disappears into the ceiling. She does come back though after a while and you have to run away from her again or hide from her. It’s here where I felt another layer of fear to the game. You see, Grace isn’t athletic. She panics and stumbles while running and, I swear to all things holy, that panic translates directly to the player. It definitely adds to the whole fear experience.
That said, the tail end of that 15–20 minute demo had me a bit more frustrated than afraid. I’d like to say that it’s not really because of the game itself, but because I was racing against the clock to see as much as I can before the timed demo ended. I reached a point where I had to find an item to progress and, for the life of me, I couldn’t find it. Maybe that’s skill issue on my end but it did make me a bit frustrated and did lose a tinge of that fear. I’d like to think that when you have the actual game and aren’t bound by a timer, this may not be the case.
Overall, our Resident Evil Requiem first impressions can be summarized as being amazingly impressed and excited for what’s to come. I can really see how the devs’ new approach to fear in this game has led to a refreshed experience and I hope it’s a title that sticks the landing. Color me hyped and I really can’t wait till this came comes out. Thankfully, that’s just in a few months.