Let's start this off with a confession - Resident Evil scares the living daylights out of me. I'll be fair; a lot of things scare me, from Five Nights at Freddy's to having to find my way to the bathroom in the dark. Still, it's games that are as visceral and tense as almost all of those from Capcom's horror series that really get my heebies jeebied and my jeepers creeped. That said, the invitation to play Resident Evil Requiem before its Nintendo Switch 2 launch was too tempting to pass up, so I put my big-boy pants on, went along to Nintendo's offices alongside some other journalists, and picked up the controller.
The demo I played was a relatively short sequence featuring Requiem's protagonist, Grace Ashcroft. Grace wakes up in what looks like a doctor's office, strapped to a gurney upside down, while a catheter drains her blood into a jar. Essentially, you're right in at the deep end, and after she wriggles out of her bindings, the game throws the controls over to you.
As is often the case in Capcom's eerie horrors, there's nothing to hide from at first. Instead, you get a couple of minutes to acclimate yourself to your surroundings, a rundown hotel in dire need of a visit from an electrician. That last bit is important; as it turns out, lighting plays a pretty major role in deciding how you're going to escape. At first, though, you're just sort of wandering through dimly lit rooms and pitch-black corridors, eventually hunting for a second fuse to get you through a door and into the next section. Then, the thing happens. Or, should I say, the thing appears.
From out of the ceiling, the creature descends. Around ten feet tall and with hag-like features, this monstrous stalker is not your run-of-the-mill zombie. I might be your stereotypical scaredy-cat, but I can deal with a regular zombie. No, this thing is an abomination, and, surprise, surprise, it wants you dead.
The good news is that the developers over at Capcom are masters of their craft, and as soon as you see the stalker, your understanding of the environment tells you that the thing might not like being in the light. So, you backtrack a little to the room where you started, and you watch as the creature tries to follow you, only to withdraw once it feels the light of the sterile room burning its skin.
What follows is the meat of any Resident Evil game, and even for someone like me, who would just curl up and die if I found myself in Grace's shoes, it's riveting. The thing is, staying in the light might be safe, but it won't get you anywhere. No, you have to head back out to find a screwdriver, which, in turn, you can use to jimmy open a locked fuse box in one of the hotel rooms, giving you the fuse you need to get out. That sounds easy enough, but you're avoiding the stalker at all times, and Capcom's intelligent AI makes the monster intelligent enough to be able to go for the jugular if you're not completely out of its sight.
As for the rest, I'll leave it up to your imagination, as I don't want to spoil anything. What I will say is that, as someone who's only played a few Resident Evil games before, I think this game has the potential to deliver on all fronts. It feels like it embodies the classic, claustrophobic gameplay while also offering some of the more modern and unique monster designs that made Village such a hit.
Despite only playing for around twenty minutes, or thirty if you account for the time I spent retracing my steps after dying on my first attempt, I can confirm that Requiem is another in a long line of Resident Evil games with incredible sound design. The visuals are eerie, sure, that's a given, but they pale in comparison to the adrenaline that courses through your veins when you hear the clattering and thumping of the stalker trying to track you down.
In terms of Switch 2 performance, Requiem follows in the footsteps of Assassin's Creed Shadows and Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade by showing off just how capable the hybrid console is. At no point did I get that feeling, which I'd become accustomed to with the predecessor console, that I'm playing a defanged or scaled-down version of a game made for more powerful hardware. Requiem feels right at home on the Switch 2, at least in docked mode, which is how I played it.
Essentially, what I'm trying to say here is that if you're excited for Resident Evil Requiem on Nintendo Switch 2, then good, you should be. It's shaping up to be another stellar addition to the series, and one that isn't going to force you to go out and buy another console if, like me, you're a Nintendo evangelist. Oh, and it's a nightmare, but that's exactly what we're all hoping for, isn't it?
If you need a reminder, you'll be able to return to Raccoon City yourself before too long, with the Resident Evil Requiem release date arriving on February 27. To get up to speed with all the lore before you jump in, we've got a guide to all the Resident Evil games in order, detailing the long history of the series and its key characters. Or, you can check out our Resident Evil Requiem pre-order guide to secure a copy before the launch.