With a month to go for Resident Evil Requiem’s release at the time of writing, it’s safe to say that survival horror fans all over the world are waiting with bated breath to dive into an adventure that might be the franchise’s best one yet.
Of course, the developer has kept that hype train going full speed in the run-up to its first big release of the year. The latest previews showcase a game that’s confident in the story it’s trying to tell, and in the sublime blend of the franchise’s best elements that it has concocted.
But just how much has changed since Ethan Winters’ attempt to save his daughter from Miranda’s clutches? Quite a lot, actually!
Join us as we dive into the most significant differences between Requiem and Village.
1. Two Protagonists, Twice the Fun
We can’t deny that Ethan was quite the hero, his desperate attempts to save his family blending well with the tension and fear that both Biohazard and Village brought to the table. But Grace Ashcroft and Leon taking the center stage is a great move for the franchise’s thirtieth anniversary, and Requiem might just be a party to remember, considering how distinctly unique each character feels.
Grace relies on stealth and a limited tool kit to survive the horrors she witnesses, while Leon is armed to the teeth and has the skills to use his arsenal to the fullest. That’s a step up from Ethan’s single-kit playstyle, allowing Requiem to bring us a dichotomy that could prove quite entertaining indeed.
2. A Better Combat Lane Split
Requiem has made no secret of the manner in which it has framed Grace and Leon’s distinct approaches to the threats they have to face down in their search for answers. Grace’s inexperience has her relying on evading enemies and using whatever scant resources she can find to get ahead. Leon, on the other hand, controls crowds with style and even a few quips, using his moves and weapons with devastating precision.
It’s quite a change from Village’s reliance on using the same character in different encounters, although Ethan was quite a capable hero in his adventures.
3. A More Dynamic Perspective
Among the many things we find exciting about Requiem, the ability to switch between a first-person and third-person camera on the fly is quite high on the list. While the game sets Grace’s segments to the first-person view and Leon’s to the third-person one, getting to switch between them is sure to be something many players will appreciate.
Village did quite well with its fixed first-person view at launch, and its Winters expansion did bring the third-person camera to the table, but it was nowhere close to the ambitious take on perspectives that Requiem is giving us.
4. Perspective-Specific Animations
Building on the ability to freely change your camera’s POV is the addition of third-person animations for Grace that showcase how her terror threatens to overwhelm her as she attempts to flee to safety. While her panic and the resulting errors she makes because of it aren’t as obvious when you play in the first-person perspective, switching things up has her slipping in pools of blood or tripping over the debris in her way as she tries to escape a rather gruesome end.
That’s quite a change from Village, where the third-person camera was just another viewpoint with no changes to how Ethan dispatched his foes.
5. A Cooler Way To Melee
Ethan’s knife was quite handy during his time in Village, and was a nifty way to get up close and personal with a few pesky enemies if the situation demanded it. But it wasn’t meant to be as potent as his guns, and that was okay in the context of that story.
But Requiem gives Leon a cool-looking hatchet that lets him parry enemy attacks and follow up with deadly counters of his own. It’s a great addition to an already wide range of abilities, and we’re all for this new addition.
6. Staying Sharp During Combat
The developer has been wise not to make things too easy for Leon, though. Yes, the hatchet is a very useful tool, but it does need to be sharpened quite regularly for it to be effective. That’s quite an interesting twist that Village didn’t have, with Ethan’s knife only being used for a bit of stabbing.
Plus, it’s always quite intimidating to watch a badass opponent whip out a sharpening tool in the middle of a fight, even if you are a mindless zombie. It’s a trick Village missed, and we’re glad it’s in the upcoming title.
7. Getting The Drop On The Zombies
While Grace relies on keeping a low profile in Requiem, which is no surprise given her lack of combat training, you might be taken aback to know that Leon can – and does – take a quiet approach pretty often too. He uses his hatchet to sneak up on unwitting zombies and deliver a merciful end to their wretched existence.
Village didn’t really have too many reasons to introduce comparable stealth mechanics to its gameplay loop, given its more action-oriented combat and narrative.
8. Turn Your Enemy’s Weapons Against Them
It was about time Leon got to use a chainsaw, given how many times he’s had to deal with one in the past. But it isn’t something he finds during his exploration. Instead, he grabs it right off an enemy, turning the tide in his favor for quite a while until it runs out of fuel. What’s more, knocking it out of an enemy’s hands makes the chainsaw a deadly obstacle as it spins and hacks the legs of a few unfortunate zombies.
Of course, Village didn’t have that particularly fun spin on combat, and we’re now wondering if it could have been even better if it did.
9. Brutality Baked Into The Gameplay
If you’ve been following Requiem’s pre-release coverage as enthusiastically as we have, you probably already know that Leon doesn’t pull any punches when he’s in a fight. We’ve seen him plant his handy hatchet into enemy skulls alongside roundhouse kicks to the head that smash zombie heads into walls with ruthless efficiency.
The man’s an absolute killing machine in Requiem, while Ethan relied more on his guns and the occasional counter to keep himself alive in Village.
10. A New Blood-Based Crafting System
If you’ve been thinking that Leon gets to have all the fun in Requiem, think again. Grace has a few tricks of her own, chief among them being the ability to craft some deadly items using blood collected from her enemies. The most memorable one is an injection that she uses to make an enemy explode, removing it from the board in one gory instant. There are also healing supplies to be made this way.
Village’s crafting followed a more traditional approach, with its crafting focused more on consumables and ammo.
11. Mutating Corpses
One of the more interesting enemy types in Requiem is the zombie that carries a sort of parasite that mutates it after it is downed in battle, leaving you to deal with an unpleasant surprise if you happen to backtrack to the area in which you defeated it. Grace does have ways to counter that particular twist with her injector, while Leon couldn’t care less, choosing to just blow the new mutated specimen to pieces once again.
However, that was missing in Village where you didn’t have to deal with such twists. That’s perhaps a great thing, thanks to the enemy density in that one, as having corpses that woke up for round two might not have been the best idea in that title.
12. Time to Cook
Requiem’s previews showcase a crafting system that needs you to find and use specific lab equipment to make useful items to use in the field. You’re also going to have to find recipes for those items and analyze them in a lab before they become available for crafting.
Village didn’t gatekeep your crafting abilities in this fashion. However, we think that having to do a complete analysis of the potentially devastating tools you gain access to in Requiem is a solid tactical layer that encourages exploration and diligence, and as such, it’s most welcome.
13. A More System-Driven Stalker
We’re not going to lie, Lady Dimitrescu had us taking breaks from our gameplay more often than we’d have liked, thanks to her ability to chase us down with unerring precision. But those chases were more traditional romps through controlled spaces once we got used to the idea of an aristocratic vampire out to get us.
Requiem’s Stalker takes things up a notch, being able to sniff out your trail, use the pipes and vents in the building to hunt you, and even smash through obstacles once it gets your scent. That’s quite the upgraded skill set, and the game is all the more immersive (and terrifying) as a result.
14. Keeping Things Tight
Requiem’s level design is a lot more claustrophobic than the open level design of Village. Escaping enemies in the latter was a tad easier thanks to the verticality of its environments, allowing you to scale buildings and other obstacles to get to safety or perhaps find a good vantage point from which you could chip away at your enemies.
The cramped hallways and controlled environments in Requiem offer no such solace, and you’re going to have to keep your wits about you as you make your way through its levels.
15. Smarter Enemies, More Chaos
While the Lycans and other enemies in Village were certainly terrifying, Requiem’s zombies come with one crucial challenge: they retain a semblance of who they were before they were infected. That allows for a lot of mechanics like enemies turning off the lights to prevent themselves from being stunned, or some of them being so obsessed with what they were doing before their infection that it’s quite easy to sneak past them as Grace.
There are even zombies that are singers, who use their vocal cords to call in reinforcements, or let off piercing screams that can stun you if you’re not careful. That’s quite the imaginative step up from the cannon fodder Village had to offer if we’re being honest.
Bonus: Bringing The Light
The new and improved RE Engine in Requiem isn’t just for show. Lighting plays an important part in the gameplay loop, a facet that’s quite evident with the Stalker. Village couldn’t make use of the light in such ways thanks to its more open designs and the reliance on darkness in more linear areas.
The lights are a major part of Requiem’s horror, or the temporary relief you can find from it if you manage to find a well-lit room. That’s something we’re thrilled to see and very eager to try out once we get our hands on it.
And that’s some of the differences we believe are going to elevate Requiem over Village. Now all that remains is to have patience and pass the month before we join Grace and Leon on a trip through the past that could very well define the franchise’s future.
