RESIDENT EVIL REQUIEM

Capcom's fusion of survival horror and all-out action

- Wes Fenlon

Leon Kennedy has a chainsaw. Three minutes into Resident Evil Requiem, it's already shouting out its guiding principle: the stuff you love in old Resident Evil, plus the stuff you love in new Resident Evil, smashed together into one decadent sandwich. Hope you're OK with zombie guts, because the cafeteria’s all out of pastrami.

Requiem deftly tiptoes the line between fan service and light-touch reinvention. Last time we saw Leon, Capcom had given him the ability to parry a chainsaw-wielding zombie with his knife, and he's got the same move here—only now when the mad doctor drops his saw, it goes skittering down the hallway. Another zombie picks it up, which is when I realize maybe I could do the same.

For the first time since 2012's Resident Evil 6, Leon finally gets to do something completely new, but this time in a form that pairs much better with the tense, puzzley bits of the older games.