I may not be tall, but I have played

every Resident Evil game. Well, mostly.

I've played pretty much every unique

Resident Evil game. I played them all

back to back over the course of like a

month and a half for the sake of tier

listing every Resident Evil game in the

franchise, getting prepared for Resident

Evil Reququum, which I just now

finished. So, naturally, the question on

everyone's mind, Charles, how big can

you smile?

And now with that question answered,

next you're probably wondering, was the

game good? Yes. Yes, it was. And after

having played through nearly every

Resident Evil game ever made, I feel

like I can confidently say I know Ball.

I feel like I know Resident Evil like

Elon Musk knows Ketamine. So when I say

what I'm about to say here, just know

this means something, man. I think

Resident Evil Reququum is a top five

Resident Evil game. I'm saying it. I'm

putting it right there. I'm putting it

out there in the open. You can't take it

back. Can't put the toothpaste back in

the tube. It is an incredible game,

actually. And what I find extremely

impressive is that this franchise has

been around for nearly three decades and

yet they are still able to make new

games in this franchise that feel fresh

and fun. Like you would expect a

franchise that has this many games, like

30 something unique games and like a

hundred something like ports and [ __ ]

Zebo [ __ ] and whatever else they have

for Resident Evil, like Java games and

all that. You would expect by now it to

be beyond milked dry, just no meat left

on the bones, them titties, them melons,

vanquished, devoid of substance. Yet

somehow with Resident Evil, they are

still producing very high quality games.

They had a very bumpy road there for a

little while, like a rough patch around

Resident Evil 6. Good heavens, trust me,

I know they really stunk it up there for

a while, but once RE7 rolled around,

that was literally the [ __ ] cure to

the T- virus that was the Resident Evil

6 [ __ ] plague that basically ruined

the franchise there for a little while.

7 pioneered a new breath of life into

this franchise which was the first

person horror intense stakes and then

they've built upon it and Resident Evil

Reququum marries that gameplay with the

iconic timeless classic gameplay of the

actionoriented Resident Evil 4 formula.

It takes both of these elements, builds

upon them and makes something very

special here with Reququum. So, you play

as two characters, Grace Ashcraftoft,

who actually is the daughter of a

character from Resident Evil Outbreak,

which is super hype because Outbreak, I

think, was a very innovative title for

its time that is still very fun to play,

even though it's quite janky. And her

gameplay is Resident Evil 7 style. It's

very horror focused. It's slower paced.

You're not juiced to the gills with

ammo. You have to use stealth. You have

to struggle. it it's it's very intense.

Then you also play as Leyon in Reququum

and it's just like in RE4 where it is

cheesy over-the-top action and these two

flow back and forth. And for some people

it won't like flow seamlessly because

you do go from like survival horror over

here to action horror over here like

right back to back because you flip-flop

between the two of them. So, for some

people that might be jarring and not

super smooth and feel like tonal

whiplash, but for me, I loved it because

I love Resident Evil 7 and I love

Resident Evil 4. 7 is actually my second

favorite Resident Evil game. Resident

Evil 4 OG is my third favorite game. My

first favorite is OG Resident Evil 3.

There's not a whole lot of OG Resident

Evil 3 DNA in here uh outside of a

little something at the end of the game.

I won't spoil it, but uh anyway, I

really think the game is great. I think

the story is super strong, too. I've

seen some people criticize the writing,

and I do get it. In certain instances,

you could say like, uh, writing got a

little wacky here and there, but I

actually think it's really strong. And

it's one of those things that didn't

just rely on nostalgia baiting, like

here comes a beloved character from the

franchise riding in on a [ __ ] unicorn

to save the day out of nowhere. And

then, do you remember this? Well, good

news. It's back. And do you remember

that? Yeah, it's back, too. But what

about this? Do you remember this from

old Resident Evil? Also back and just

like shoehorning all these cameos in

there for the sake of fan service. It

doesn't do that. It stands on its own

two legs. And yes, there are some

returning characters and some things

from previous Resident Evil games in

here, but they flow really well into the

story that they create. The story

revolves around Grace. She is

investigating a very I'm actually

avoiding spoilers for this review which

is something I don't do often but I

really really enjoyed Reququum and I

want to show it some respect here

without just spoiling things and also

anyone that's watching this that wants

to know my thoughts on it without like

having everything ruined for him. Uh

this is me avoiding spoilers. It follows

Grace after an investigation, you know,

gets all cattywampus and she runs into a

real oddball named Victor Gideon. Victor

Gideon kidnaps her. Leon gets brought

into the fold and he finds himself

needing to make a journey all the way

back to Raccoon City where it all began

for Leon Kennedy. And also, why are they

so interested in Grace? Why did she get

kidnapped? What the [ __ ] is going on?

That's the broad strokes of it. Now,

Grace is a new character, and she's

actually a really good character. I I'm

happy to say. Also, huge shout out to

her voice actress. The voice actress

that played Grace did an unbelievable

job. The way she was able to convey

terror and panic in her performance for

this character was extremely realistic

and it really helped elevate things. So,

even though I I will admit there were

times where the writing got a a little

off the mark and felt a bit off, her

performance was still able to sell it to

the point where it wasn't like jarring

and make you go, "Ooh, yuck, that was

trash." It's just more like h that was a

little that felt a little weird, but you

know, the performance helped salvage

some of those moments. And that's across

the board. Pretty much everyone gives a

really good performance in this game,

and I think that really helps in that

regard. But like I said, I do think the

writing is solid. I think they do a good

job with Grace. I think she is a

well-written character. I think some

people might be annoyed by her because

she has like anxiety. So maybe some

people might find her to be like maybe a

little too timid or, you know, not

confident enough for a Resident Evil

game where you follow characters like

[ __ ] Leon Kennedy who's a a

superhuman hanging hog, blowing zombies

heads off, [ __ ] ripping their nipples

off and beating them to death with them.

She is very different as a protagonist

compared to them, but she's not like the

full protagonist cuz like I said, you

split evenly with Leon. It is like a

very even split with Grace gameplay and

Leon gameplay. It's very nice. You feel

like you get a ton of both. But anyway,

what I'm saying is I think Grace is a

good character. They do a good job with

her. Now, let's talk about the gameplay.

Uh, pretty much exactly what you're

expecting if you played Resident Evil 7,

Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 4 remake,

Resident Evil 2 remake. You get that

kind of gameplay. You get all of that in

one package here. So, when you're

playing Grace, you're going to be using

stealth. You're going to be needing to

be more mindful of what encounters you

take, you know, going loud using your

ammo versus which ones you use a little

stealth kill with, which aren't free, by

the way. You can't just stealth kill

things for free as grace. You have to

make something which is a little vial

that you stab into them and they blow up

like you just planted dynamite in their

body. So those cost resources and the

way that Grace crafts I thought was very

creative. You get a blood collector. You

collect blood from killed enemies or

even sometimes like blood from enemies

that had already previously been killed

or even buckets of blood in the world.

And you will fill up that blood uh you

know holder that apparatus. And then you

will combine that with, you know, an

herb if you want to make a med injector

for heals. Or you'll combine it with,

you know, some scrap if you want to make

ammo for your handgun or if you want to

make that, you know, one-time use

instakill stealth uh jab. So her

gameplay is very similar to Resident

Evil 7's gameplay, but you have even

less tools at your disposal to fight the

zombies with. You only have two guns.

You have a pistol and then you have

Reququum, the big iron, the [ __ ] big

tuna. Outside of that, that's it. That's

all you have to use to beat the enemies

around you, which is why you need to be

a little smarter about it and also be

slower about it. Now, Leon's gameplay is

exactly what you're expecting it to be

if you've played Resident Evil 4. It's

bombastic. It's over-the-top. It's high

octane. You're killing hundreds of

zombies. And there's a really cool

change they made to how you upgrade your

weapons with Lyon. So this time around,

they reward you for being aggressive. So

you get a tracker that when you kill a

zombie gives you credits on your tracker

that you then spend to get ammo or

upgrades for your weapons, that kind of

thing. So it incentivizes you to [ __ ]

annihilate everything that's around you.

leave no survivors. So, which is a

really fun thing to do. It gives you

plenty of resources to do it as well. It

gives you a lot of fun guns to play

with. Even though I do think the guns

are a little underwhelming, like they

don't have the same kind of character

that I feel they used to have. Like I I

remember playing through Resident Evil 4

OG. You'd have chat be like, "I'm

[ __ ] team Red Nine." No, no, no, no.

Red N's trash. And you'd you'd actually

have like a debate about what guns are

the most fun to use. here. Every gun

feels just very generic, very sy like

they don't have like a unique identity

to them or anything this time around. I

don't think there's going to be like

really passionate uh, you know, [ __ ]

W870 shotgun fans or something, right? I

could be wrong, but for me, it felt like

the guns were just very standard. I

guess I would have liked to see a little

bit more there, but it's not the biggest

deal in the world because they are still

fun to use and you get plenty of

opportunities to use them and kill

zombies. His gameplay, I think, is great

and I really like that new system they

did with tracking kills and rewarding

you for killing things. Like previously

in Resident Evil games, the optimal

strategy usually, well, not usually,

sometimes would boil down to

kneecapping, kicking, and then running

by to conserve ammo. Here it's like you

can do that. You can be a [ __ ] if you

want or you can kill all these zombies

and get yourself a lot of money and

basically max out your weapons really

easily, which I think is very cool. I

think it's very fun. Now, something else

that's been kind of core to the Resident

Evil identity is puzzles. Resident Evil

games have always had a lot of puzzles.

There's not usually like a ton of brain

busters or anything like that, but there

are puzzles in there. Resident Evil

Reququum doesn't really have that. It's

much more in line with like your

standard scavenger hunt style game where

go over here, grab this to take back to

something you passed at the very

beginning of the level to open that door

so you can go in there, grab that, and

put it over there. Which again is very

Resident Evil that's in every RE game

ever made. But there's never really like

any puzzles to this anymore now in

Reququum. There's only like

like three off the top of my head I can

think of that are even remotely puzzles,

but the solution is in a picture that's

in the same room. you just look at the

picture and you see it. I guess it's not

the biggest deal in the world. And maybe

there's some people that even view view

that as a positive thing because it

keeps the pacing like [ __ ] cutthroat.

Like you're constantly moving and you

never stop to have to solve a puzzle.

But I don't know. I I felt like the it

was kind of sad to not have to like

solve puzzles to accomplish things. It's

just literally going and [ __ ] fetch

questing [ __ ] and bringing it back and

forth. But not the biggest deal in the

world, but it is something that I think

people will notice is absent. Another

thing that I have like a small complaint

on is there are a couple sections I

think drag. The most notable one is a

flashback sequence where you're playing

as a child who's running and hiding from

a lot of bad stuff that's going on

around them. And it's like a cool

sequence when it starts, but it goes on

for quite a while. And there are times

where you literally hide in one spot for

like two straight minutes of nothing.

So, it feels like really slow, like

unnecessarily long and drawn out. And

there's a couple of moments like that,

like a couple of places you go that feel

like, okay, we've kind of been here long

enough. Do I really need to get this

many things in order to progress or wait

this long to progress? It does feel like

it does have moments that are there to

pat out time. And it's not that long of

a game. And I know this has actually

been a complaint from quite a few people

because the price tag is $70. It's an

expensive game. It has the big AAA uh

price tag on it and it's roughly like 12

hours long. It took me about 12 hours.

Total like active play time was 8 hours

and something minutes. I played through

on just standard modern. So, it was

pretty quick. I would also say this is

the easiest Resident Evil game I've ever

played. But again, it's about 12 hours

long. And that was with me exploring a

lot. I didn't just beline everything. I

read every [ __ ] note. I found every

single safe and opened every single one.

Even got the achievement for it. I went

out of my way to find pretty much every

charm and every bobblehead, but I guess

I missed a couple bobbleheads somewhere.

I don't know where. I spent a lot of

time exploring and because I got really

engrossed in the game, which speaks

volumes to just how much it was able to

draw me in. But it is about 12 hours for

$70. And a lot of people say that that's

way too short to justify that purchase.

And I can understand that because $70 is

expensive. That's a very expensive game,

but I think this is 12 very, very solid

hours. This does not have anything that

any huge blemishes. Like, it doesn't

fall off a cliff anywhere along the way.

Like, notably with Resident Evil 7, the

whole boat section everyone hates,

myself included. That section is by far

the weakest, unfortunately. But like, it

doesn't have anything like that. This is

12 extremely solid, extremely fun hours.

So, for me, the $70 felt worth it. That

felt fine to me. But for someone else,

maybe 12 hours just really isn't enough.

The replayability on this doesn't seem

to be super huge. It doesn't seem like

there's a ton of replay-ability outside

of going back and doing like insanity.

So, I I don't know how many hours you

can squeeze out of it for $70, but I

personally feel like it was 12 extremely

strong hours. It was a [ __ ] heater

from start to finish. So, I thought it

was a fine price tag for the experience

I got. And now, speaking of the

experience I got, apparently I got

something nobody else in the world did.

Uh, for some reason, I had a very weird

bug where occasionally

the game would stutter during a cutscene

and then the audio would desync. So, the

cut scene would stutter and then it

would play, but the audio would lag like

2 or 3 seconds behind. So, you would be

seeing the cut scene play out completely

silent until the audio caught up to it.

So everything was desynced from time to

time and the only way I could fix that

was by restarting the game. And even

when I like updated drivers, restarted

my computer and everything in between

streams, it still persisted. But

apparently it's a bug that didn't happen

to anybody else. And I can't even find

anyone talking about that bug. So it

seems like something that only happened

to me for some reason. I don't really

get why. So, I guess I can't hold it

against the game as like a bug that's

native to it, unless someone else out

there is reporting it happening to them.

So, I can only speak to my experience.

It was extremely annoying. That [ __ ]

like would ruin cutscenes. It happened

to me in the final cut scene and I

literally just restarted it, redid the

the boss fight and just took it from the

top because I wasn't going to let it

ruin the finale. It was a very annoying

bug. I I don't understand why it was

happening, but I couldn't fix it outside

of just restarting the game.

though I don't think it is a bug you'll

probably experience if you try the game.

It is something I wanted to make a

mention of because that is by far the

biggest headache I had when playing the

game and it looks like it might have

somehow been my fault. There is also one

other complaint I have but it's a big

spoiler. This is your big spoiler

warning. Big spoiler warning. All right.

Now, this is one of the things I would

talk about when it would come to being

like writing decisions that I think were

a little little whack. There is a very

cool new character they introduce in

here named Zeno. And he is a Wesker

clone. And he is super [ __ ] badass.

He is positioned for half the game as

like the big bad. Like this guy is

serious business. And when you get to

the end of the game, it's looking like

you're about to have a huge fight with

Zeno. And then he just gets one tapped

by Victor. Like just insta-killed by

Victor.

You don't fight Zeno. He just instantly

gets his cheeks clapped.

You can't fight Zeno. He He He's a

fraud. He's literally a fraud. And it

was so deflating cuz I was really

looking forward to seeing more of Zeno

and actually getting to fight with him.

But instead, he just gets bent over. It

was just disappointing. I like I don't

It didn't even feel like a good

subversion of your expectations or like

aha gotcha. He wasn't actually the big

bad. It was this guy the whole time. It

didn't even feel like that. It just felt

like that was kind of weak. Why Why

would you do that? You've You've really

hyped him up. You've shown some of his

powers. It was looking like a really

cool sequence that we just saw and what

we what we were expecting to get and now

it's just not there. It just felt

underwhelming to have him killed off

like that. That really let me down

actually. And that's just one of a

couple writing decisions that I do think

were a little odd for as like a path

that they chose to go. not the biggest

deal in the world because overall I do

still think the writing was extremely

strong and like I said I genuinely

believe this is a top five Resident Evil

game. So I am a huge fan of Resident

Evil Reququum. I think it is an

incredible game and uh yeah that's

really about it.