Resident Evil: Requiem‘s first trailer tied it unambiguously to the broader Resiverse, with sweeping footage of a nuked and deserted Raccoon Metropolis, however the slice of zombie survival I noticed at this yr’s Summer Game Fest felt like a pocket horror experiment within the vein of P.T. and Amnesia: The Bunker. I hope it’s not a one-off. I hope the entire sport is like this.
FBI agent Grace Ashcroft regains consciousness tied the other way up to a gurney in some form of sanitarium, halfway by means of the method of being drained of blood. She frees herself with a bit of glass, and units out to research the inky sepulchral corridors past. In contrast to Resident Evil 7, and, pre-update, Resident Evil: Village, Requiem permits you to play in third-person by way of the settings, however I sense Capcom’s choice is that you simply peer by means of Grace’s eyes. All the higher to listen to her panicked, shuddering breaths, all the higher to see the lighter flame shivering in your fist, and all the higher to listen to the thunder of ogreish footsteps arising behind you.
The sanitarium space is residence to a monstrous hag, and the hag is, I feel, one in all Capcom’s greatest munsters thus far. A powerfully bastardly confection of traits, whose behaviour seems to be each scripted and dynamic. She’s bought Woman Dimitrescu’s stature, that means she’ll need to stoop to go by means of doorways, however she will additionally crawl round within the ceiling like a xenomorph. When she descends, face first, it’s a bit like Sadako flowing out of your telly.
The hag is a frightful spectacle up-close, her clumpy, gnashing enamel bulging from a face of pickled corpseflesh, however there’s a contact of the overgrown youngster right here, a horrible hint of “I simply need to play” communicated by the petulant hammering of her ft as you dash shrieking down the hallway to the realm’s obvious saferoom, the place the lamplight and hotter colors if not the shuttable door hold the entity at bay. The noise of the hag’s steps is masterfully calibrated in such a method you could’t fairly imagine she isn’t proper on prime of you, which suggests you’ll be able to’t fairly resist turning to look, which can in all probability get you slaughtered.
The parallel in Village is That Basement Part from Donna’s Doll Home, with the caveat that the hag will not homicide you immediately if she catches you. I don’t suppose fight is an possibility, no less than at this stage in Requiem – in our demo, Grace needed to discover a fuse for an elevator to make her escape. Naturally, the substitute fuse was locked inside a field that required a screwdriver, which was hidden in one other field someplace else, which meant that Grace needed to backtrack throughout the format, repeatedly passing the identical blind corners and ceiling holes. Within the phrases of each horror sport fanatic: dying to all janitors. I as soon as labored as a janitor, and also you’d greatest imagine I didn’t disguise primary instruments or seal away substitute components just like the Holy Grail.
Conspicuous all through the demo was Capcom’s mastery of sunshine and darkness. I’ve often tried to categorise the completely different species of darkness video video games are able to, which could sound just like the bullshit artistry of a author who nonetheless thinks a GPU is a few form of police automobile, however you then encounter a sport like Requiem, wherein some shadows completely swallow something outdoors of arm’s attain, forming unfavourable areas that appear as thick as obsidian.
The sanitarium consists of pale inexperienced wallpaper and pearlescent gentle fittings which, given barely brighter situations, often appear to be hovering skulls or eyewhites. While you discover the lighter, it’s a curse in disguise, as a result of now you get to shock your self each time you flick it on. Oh, I’m sorry, Madame Champyboots – I didn’t discover you gurning there. I’m simply going to go again to the saferoom for a spell.
The query is whether or not it is a quarantined Most Terror episode in a sport of frenzied Resi 4-style crowd management and upgradeable weapons. Our PR handler took care to mix the phrases “horror” and “motion” through the demo presentation, leaving the ratio unclear, however the advertising and marketing catchphrase “addicting concern” means that this is likely to be one of many spookier, much less trigger-happy Resis.
Whereas the trailer does recommend a tour of Raccoon Metropolis, it additionally cites one specific location, Remnant Lodge, as the main target of Grace’s story. In spite of everything, it was right here that her mom died. Which I suppose explains the hag, from a psychological baggage POV. I wouldn’t be shocked if the entire of Requiem have been unfold throughout the flooring of that resort. Fingers crossed.
