Resident Evil Requiem: Grace Counts Bullets. Leon Checks the Hatchet.

The big picture

Resident Evil Requiem gives its leads very different ways to assess a threatening corridor. Grace Ashcroft has limited supplies and good reasons to wonder whether she needs to go down it at all. Leon S. Kennedy has more weapons and a hatchet, which changes the tone of the discussion. Capcom's ninth mainline Resident Evil puts restraint and escalation inside one survival-horror campaign, letting the same general category of nightmare create two rather different kinds of stress.

The game released February 27, 2026, for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC. FBI analyst Grace's investigation connects with Leon's return to Raccoon City's consequences, giving the pair different relationships to the mystery as well as different tools. The attraction is that changing characters changes your decisions. It is more substantial than finding out which protagonist gets the nicer coat while everything else carries on unchanged.

Grace has brought a very small margin for error

Limited carrying capacity and supplies make Grace's fights decisions with consequences. Enemy blood supports crafting ammunition, items and powerful injectors, as the official game details explain. A resource spent now may improve the next stretch or leave you poorly prepared later. An inventory full of items is reassuring only if they are the items the current disaster has chosen to require.

That gives route planning an active role. An enemy can matter because it stands in a corridor you need, rather than because the game is simply waiting for you to kill everything. Finding a way around, deciding what to carry or accepting an imperfect escape can all be useful progress. Grace has options, but they compete for space and materials. Her backpack is unlikely to applaud the argument that every object might become essential eventually.

The appeal is judgement rather than helplessness. Players who enjoy solving the situation around an enemy have a reason to think before attacking. Someone who finds limited inventories irritating may see the same decisions as interruptions. Take that preference seriously. Scarcity works best when deciding what to do without is part of the tension you came for.

The infected have retained some worrying habits

Some infected preserve fragments of their former routines. Xbox's gameplay report describes hospital workers repeating old duties and an enemy responding to a light switch, creating a route past it. Observation can therefore save resources. A creature with a habit gives you something to understand besides the approximate number of bullets it can absorb.

That is an effective use of the setting. Ordinary behaviour becomes unsettling in an unsafe body, while the environment provides a practical way to respond. The hospital remains recognisable enough for its wrongness to matter. It is bad enough to discover that the staff cannot help; discovering that parts of their old routine still continue makes the whole place feel distinctly less interested in your recovery.

Watch what an enemy reacts to before assuming direct confrontation is the only answer. Knowledge can create a route without consuming the supplies you may need later. That also gives looking closely a purpose, which is useful in a horror game where every instinct would prefer you looked briefly and left.

Leon still has to maintain the edge

Leon's hatchet can parry, but it dulls and requires sharpening; a blunt edge loses that defensive usefulness. His attaché-case inventory and weapon customisation support a broader combat toolkit, alongside firearms and close-range attacks. The Leon feature explains those systems. Being experienced does not exempt him from discovering that the tool he wants right now needed attention a moment ago.

The maintenance makes a reusable defence something to manage rather than a permanent exemption from danger. Leon can respond more aggressively, but choosing targets, exploiting openings and deciding what to upgrade still matter. His side suits players who enjoy taking a crowd apart through deliberate actions, not simply feeling reassured by the size of the available arsenal.

Placed beside Grace, that capability makes strength relative. One protagonist may see a threat as a route-planning problem; the other may see a combat opportunity. The contrast gives the campaign a useful rhythm, provided you enjoy changing the terms of the encounter instead of insisting every section support the same habits.

Choose how close you want to feel

Both leads support first-person and third-person views, and a casual difficulty mode includes assist options. Camera preference and appetite for challenge are separate choices. You can want demanding resource decisions without wanting every unpleasant face quite so close to your own. Equally, an over-the-shoulder camera does not make the person holding the controller morally tougher or weaker; it just changes the view.

Requiem's strongest audience wants vulnerability and the tools to answer it inside one story. Learn the habits of the hospital's residents, make peace with Grace's limited space and remember to sharpen Leon's hatchet. The nightmare offers enough surprises without your preferred defensive implement choosing that moment to behave like cutlery.