When you’re coming off a success like Resident Evil Requiem, it’s a given that there’s going to be more scrutiny. One of the highest-rated games of the year, seven million copies sold (and rising), making it the fastest-selling Resident Evil game ever. The biggest Resident Evil game on Steam by a wide margin and over twice the peak concurrent players as the next game. With all this success raining down, the anticipation for something, anything, is palpable.
And we finally got it with Leon Must Die Forever. Compared to the free Photo Mode, this is an actual mini-game – something for players to sink their teeth into. With all the rumors about the first story expansion focusing on Leon (and featuring Ada Wong in some form), it felt like the perfect way for players to pass the time. Besides, Mercenaries and Raid Mode are some of the most beloved extra modes from the developer. What’s not to love?
Well, Leon Must Die Forever isn’t exactly either of those modes, and arguably not as long-lasting, but we’ll get to that. The first thing to note is that there’s only one playable character – Leon S. Kennedy. It makes sense given the focus on him – the mode is named after him, for crying out loud – and for much of the action in Requiem’s campaign, he was the guy. The man with the most in terms of weapons, ammo, and fancy melee attacks to destroy anything in his way.
This worked extremely well with the dichotomy of having to control Grace, whose experience was more akin to the classic Resident Evil survival horror. I don’t doubt that Leon by himself could work in a Mercenaries-style mode, but structurally, this isn’t the same.
Leon Must Die Forever is a rogue-like, plain and simple. You load in, armed with a single firearm, and start shooting zombies in familiar stages from the campaign, like the first level as Leon, where he’s battling foes on the rainy street as civilians run away. Actually, it’s pretty much exactly like that, which is curious.
Slaying them doesn’t grant extra time – instead, you’ll need to shoot the glowing spiders crawling around for the same. They’ll drop ammo and other items, which can also be scavenged from nearby crates. You can also find special military-issued crates with weapons, gradually working your way up to a formidable arsenal. Much like the campaign, however, there’s limited space in the attache case, so you’ll need to prioritize keeping or dropping some weapons.
Once you’ve cleared out enough enemies, you can interact with a small sign and go to the next stage. Yes, just like that – there’s no cutscene or natural flow between stages. Just select the stage on the fancy flowchart, with Slay the Spire-style branching depending on the level of difficulty, and you load in with some text-on-screen.
Of course, there is a hook to all this, and it involves unlocking Enhancers for Leon. Every time he levels up, he can choose three options – kind of like those Survivors-style games – and choose to increase the damage of different weapon types. Occasionally, you’ll run into options which grant a damage boost based on the number of empty slots in your case, so ditching everything else and sticking with a single handgun while hoarding ammo becomes a viable strategy. Or, heck, go full melee, especially with enhancers like Proximity Boost, which increases your attack power against enemies within 10 feet by 60 percent but decreases it by 40 percent if you’re further away.
If you don’t like the options available, there’s a Shuffle option available. Some special zombies will pop up, requiring successful parries to deal damage. Rinse and repeat until you reach a boss, then eventually go up against the end boss (which is who you would expect).
And that’s pretty much it. You can unlock some cosmetics, like a goofy hat for Leon that’s essentially his Porsche. But if it weren’t obvious already, there are a lot of problems, starting with the fact that this isn’t Mercenaries. In fact, it feels more like a remixed version of the campaign with rogue-like elements, perhaps meant for those who want to experience similar levels and boss fights without actually having to replay the game.
The problem in both cases is that (a) it lacks some of the most memorable set pieces, like Grace desperately trying to fight out of a meat grinder scenario or Leon’s motorcycle shenanigans, and (b) it doesn’t even let you freely select the bosses. For the latter, a proper boss rush would have been far better.
The development team never promised Mercenaries, so fair play to them. But when this is what you’re offering instead, it’s a given that players will expect more. Also, trying to throw in a timer which doesn’t even extend by taking out zombies unless you unlock an upgrade makes this feel so much more blasé. It effectively removes any sense of tension, if the looping repetitive music didn’t already do that for you.
One could compare this to a lite version of the Raid Mode from Resident Evil Revelations, and that’s certainly one way to put it. That mode had multiple playable characters, each with unique abilities, passives and cosmetics. Even if the developer didn’t want to factor in Grace and “ruin” her survival horror fantasy in the campaign, there were plenty of other potential candidates. You could have had Sherry running around, or Xeno unleashing his abilities on the hordes. Maybe it’s because there wasn’t enough time to rig those animations or design enhancers that would make sense for their playstyles. After all, it would be weird if Sherry had a hatchet and Leon’s parrying prowess.
But that’s not all that makes this come across like some hastily put-together mode. Because many of Leon’s classic one-liners are in the cutscenes – and they’re clearly absent here – you’ll be hearing him say he’s “sick of this” a lot. Like a LOT. Non-cutscene story dialogue remains in certain places, which makes the final boss that much weirder and further reinforces the whole “remixed campaign” allegations. There are no new Achievements or Trophies.
Even if you’re approaching this as a pure rogue-like experience, there’s not a whole lot of variety. Layouts and enemy types are mostly the same throughout, and even the potential builds aren’t as extensive as you would think. Having multiple characters with different passives and maybe some unique weapons could have helped, but the basic foundation of Leon Must Die Forever just feels too simple.
Of course, if there’s one consolation, it’s that the tab says “Extra Games.” Maybe there are other such mini-games in the works, potentially to be added with the first story expansion. I still wouldn’t get my hopes up for some kind of Mercenaries or Raid Mode, but you never know.
For what it’s worth, Leon Must Die Forever is what it is – a free mini-game that’s fun for a few runs while you chase a high score. It’s perfect for those who want to get in and start blasting as Leon without thinking too much about the plot, any extraneous build-crafting or sense of flow. From that perspective, it’s well enough, but it could have been so much more, and at this point, you can’t really blame fans for expecting as much given the heights this genre is capable of.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.