I do not get genuinely excited for many games anymore. Interested, sure. Mildly optimistic, sometimes. But properly, stomach-drop excited? That’s rare.
Resident Evil Requiem has done that to me.
Not because it looks flashy. Not because it’s got a big name attached. But because, for the first time in a long while, it feels like Resident Evil is comfortable sitting in silence again. Comfortable letting tension do the talking instead of explosions, quips, or overdesigned mechanics screaming for attention.
And then there’s Leon.
And the bite.
And suddenly everything gets very interesting.
Requiem Feels Like Capcom Trusting Horror Again
What immediately stands out about Requiem is restraint. The environments we’ve seen so far feel oppressive rather than cinematic. Narrow spaces. Heavy shadows. A sense that you’re somewhere you shouldn’t be, rather than somewhere designed to impress you.
This is the version of Resident Evil that works for me.
Ever since Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Capcom has clearly remembered that fear comes from limitation. Limited space. Limited information. Limited control. Requiem looks like it’s doubling down on that idea instead of diluting it.
There’s a gothic weight to everything shown so far. Not in a silly, cosplay way, but in a decaying, rotten, lived-in sense. The kind of place where the walls feel like they remember things you don’t want to know.
That tone matters more than any feature list ever could.
Leon Returning Actually Means Something This Time
Leon coming back should feel like fan service. On paper, it’s an easy win. But it doesn’t feel hollow here.
Leon S. Kennedy has always been an interesting character because he carries damage quietly. He’s not the loud action hero he briefly became. At his best, Leon is tired, observant, and deeply aware that surviving doesn’t mean escaping untouched.
Requiem looks like it understands that.
This doesn’t feel like Leon dropping in to save the day. It feels like Leon being dragged back into something he thought he’d buried. The posture, the tone, the way he’s framed in what we’ve seen so far all suggest someone worn thin rather than emboldened.
Which brings us neatly to the bite.
So… What the Hell Is Leon’s Bite?
Let’s address the thing everyone clocked immediately.
Leon is bitten.
Resident Evil does not do accidental details. A bite on a main character is never just visual flavour. It is deliberate. And worrying.
Historically, bites mean infection. Infection means ticking clocks. And ticking clocks mean pressure. Not just narratively, but mechanically.
What’s fascinating is that Leon has always been the “clean survivor”. He’s walked through hell and come out scarred mentally, not biologically. A bite changes that balance completely.
There are a few possibilities, and all of them are interesting.
Possibility One: A Slow, Controlled Infection
The most obvious option is some form of delayed or contained infection. Not an instant transformation, but something that worsens over time. This would allow Requiem to reintroduce survival horror tension in a very personal way.
Imagine managing Leon’s condition alongside your resources. Subtle debuffs. Hallucinations. Audio distortions. Visual tells that something is wrong long before the game explicitly says it.
That kind of design would fit Requiem’s slower, more oppressive tone perfectly.
Possibility Two: Leon as an Unreliable Perspective
This is the option that really excites me.
If Leon is compromised, even partially, then what he sees might not always be the truth. Resident Evil has flirted with this idea before, but never fully committed to it with a legacy character.
A bitten Leon opens the door to psychological horror. Shifting environments. Enemies that may or may not be real. Moments where you question whether the danger is external or internal.
That would be a bold move, and one that finally pushes the series into genuinely unsettling territory again.
Possibility Three: The Bite Is the Point
The most radical option is that the bite isn’t something to be cured at all.
What if Requiem isn’t about stopping the infection, but living with it? What if the horror comes from knowing that Leon is fundamentally changed, and survival is about control rather than purity?
Resident Evil has always danced around transformation. Requiem feels like it might finally be ready to stare it in the face.
Why This Feels Different to Past Hype
I’ve been burned before. We all have.
But Requiem doesn’t feel like a marketing-first game. It feels like a tone-first game. Everything shown so far prioritises mood over mechanics, implication over explanation.
There’s confidence in that. Confidence to let players sit with discomfort. Confidence to not explain everything immediately. Confidence to trust that Resident Evil can still be scary without shouting.
And honestly, that’s all I want.