“There was a test screening for Resident Evil. I hear it’s great,” he wrote on social media platform X. While this may come as welcome news for some, others have taken to social media to discuss how this could also potentially mean that, while it’s a good movie on its own, it might not be a faithful adaptation. However, just about everyone involved with the project has been tight-lipped about it, so no real details about its characters or plot have been revealed, at least for now.

Cregger had spoken in the past about how his Resident Evil movie would remain faithful to the core tenets of the franchise while still telling an original story. He also wants to make sure that the movie ends up being a love letter to the storied gaming franchise.

“Let me say this: this is not breaking the rules of the games,” Cregger said. “I am the biggest worshiper of the games, so I’m telling a story that is a love letter to the games and follows the rules of the games. It is obedient to the lore of the games, it’s just a different story. I’m not going to tell Leon’s story, because Leon’s story is told in the games. [Fans] already have that.”

He acknowledged that there might be some Resident Evil fans who want to see a faithful adaptation of one of the games’ stories. To them, however, he said, “They can play the game.” This might indicate that we might not get to see iconic characters like Leon S. Kennedy or Jill Valentine grace the big screen in the film, unfortunately.

As for the freedom Cregger has with the movie’s plot, the CEO of Resident Evil film rights holder Constantin Film, Oliver Berben, had spoken about it back in February.

“With Resident Evil, we have had an incredible journey with one of the most successful international IPs of more than a billion dollars in box office for many years and now we are creating something new, not just a new story idea, but to allow a new generation to take the IP into their own hands and form something different,” said Berben. To achieve this, Cregger has been given “the carte blanche to do whatever he wanted to do with that IP,” he explained.

The Resident Evil movie is being produced by PlayStation Productions alongside Constantin Film. The story is being co-written by Shay Hatten of John Wick: Chapter 4 and Army of the Dead fame, along with Zach Cregger, known for Barbarian, who is also the film’s director. Rather than being a new entry in the long-running Resident Evil movie franchise, however, Cregger’s film will be a reboot.

The first Resident Evil is a banger, putting you in control of Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield as they try to make sense of a nasty situation that leaves their STARS team decimated. Resident Evil 2 marks the debut of Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield in Raccoon City in an adventure with implications that have stayed with him all his life, coming to a head in Requiem as he learns the truth about Raccoon City’s bombing. Resident Evil 3 Nemesis brings it all back to Jill, and her desperate effort to escape the city as the effects of Umbrella’s underhanded dealings unfold on its streets.

They’re quite impressive titles, even prompting a couple of remakes that were quite successful in their own right. However, we can tell you that the OG versions hit different, and at this price, they’re a steal. You could choose to pick one over the others if you’re interested in a specific story. Either way, it’s nice to go back to where it all began, a sentiment that Requiem made good use of in its main narrative.

And if those don’t suit your taste, then there’s Breath of Fire 4, one of the best role-playing games ever made. Unfortunately, all four titles come with the Enigma Protector DRM. It isn’t present in the GOG releases and seems to have broken performance on Steam Deck, so keep that in mind when diving in.

But aside from the people behind great titles like Monster Hunter Wilds, Resident Evil Requiem, Dragon’s Dogma 2, and so many more, there’s an unsung hero that has worked behind the scenes to ensure that each game has brought the vision behind it to life with both substance and style. And it’s managed to do that across varying design philosophies, achieving differing goals each time without requiring a rebuild of the studio’s pipeline with each one.

How has it managed to do so? That’s what we’re here to explore, as we dive into how it has powered some of modern gaming’s best titles in ways that matter.

The Beating Heart Of Some of the Best Titles

It’s a good idea to define the engine itself at this point, and the best way to do that is to look at it as more than just a graphics filter that produces incredible visuals (although it’s gotten quite good at that over the years). It’s a production ecosystem that brings shared tools, talents, and better iteration of key gameplay elements across different teams.

When you look at it as a toolset that builds assets, materials, lighting, animations, and physics while handling streaming all of those elements in real-time as you play any game it powers, you begin to see its potential, and why it deserves its time in the spotlight. What’s more, it scales those systems according to very different performance targets, with each game that it powers bringing different design pillars to the table.

For instance, Resident Evil Biohazard’s focus on setting a very claustrophobic mood via tight spaces and high-fidelity graphics was quite different from the need to showcase scale and run complex systems in games like Monster Hunter Wilds and Dragon’s Dogma 2. Alternatively, Street Fighter 6 needed a more performance-focused approach thanks to the need for slick, responsive gameplay.

It can be tricky for a single engine to sustain a high level of quality across such vastly different experiences, but that’s just what the RE Engine has done, time and time again. But how has it managed to do so over the many years it’s been around?

A Story As Interesting As The Games It Has Powered

Looking at the different phases of how the RE Engine evolved over the years is an interesting look at how it managed to evolve with each title. From 2017 up to 2019, it was utilized in Biohazard, where it operated in controlled spaces with high material fidelity and worked to create lighting control in the environments we explored as Ethan. It did well, but that was simply the beginning of its evolution into what it is today.

2021’s Resident Evil Village expanded its capabilities to include wider environments and differing camera styles whilst sustaining the level of quality it had brought to Ethan’s previous outing. Simultaneously, it also got woven into 2023’s Street Fighter 6, a title in which animations and tight gameplay would become a standard part of the RE Engine’s toolkit. It was quite the level up, and the engine proved more than capable of handling the extra demands being placed on it.

And then came Dragon’s Dogma 2 (2024) and Monster Hunter Wilds (2025). While it had previously handled open environments, the engine would need to power an entire world this time around, while also handling the added load of complex systems that were constantly interacting with each other to present a more dynamic map for its players. That might have been a challenge, but the RE Engine sailed through with flying colors.

Which brings us to Resident Evil Requiem, where the results of its evolution over the years are there for all to see. It has brought a very extensive lighting system in that one, and some very fine details on its characters and environments to bring an almost ethereal layer of cinematic quality to the whole thing, making Grace and Leon’s adventure feel more real than any of the titles in the franchise’s illustrious history.

But how does it manage to achieve all of this with so much style? We’re glad you asked.

Bringing The Magic To Life

Any tool is only as good as the input you feed into it, and the RE Engine is no different. Its excellence begins with providing real-world references of the materials and environments it’s meant to reproduce, a process that involves capturing textures, programming photogrammetry, and accurately representing imperfections on surfaces. That might seem like a lot of effort, but giving the engine believable inputs helps it create similarly realistic outputs.

The next step is to create assets with a suitably high level of detail. High-poly sculpts, lots of compressing high-resolution meshes into lower polygon models with their geometry still intact, integrating UVs, and baking, which is pre-computing complex details like lighting and shadows in order to reduce the load on streaming in real-time. All of these help the engine make efficient use of available resources while sustaining the best possible level of quality across the board. There are also details like collisions and streaming splits to consider, all of which run in the background while you interact with your game. Great examples of this phase in action are the open worlds in Wilds and DD2, where long drawn distances with a lot of dynamically interacting objects make having an effective strategy toward the level of detail on display paramount. But it’s equally important in experiences like Biohazard, where there are fewer objects, but the closer camera perspective puts more scrutiny on each one.

The next step is where realism is born, as Physically Based Rendering (PBR) is done on assets to ensure that they interact with light and present a realistic simulation of how each object would behave in the real world. It’s where objects are programmed to interact with light based on physical traits such as roughness, metallic surfaces, dirt, wetness, decals, and other crucial parameters.

Look at the streets in Requiem, for instance. It’s quite easy to see how a street in normal weather looks and feels different from the same one once it’s had a bit of rain to add a layer of moisture to the environment, with light glancing off wet surfaces to present a more realistic reflection on not just roads, but cars and windows. It’s a sort of emphasis on microdetails and realistic reproductions of real-world scenarios.

Next, the environments make way for animations, with rigging, blending, and motion capture being crucial in presenting readability of player and enemy movements, camera behaviour in intense situations, and hit reactions across the board. This is a crucial step in games like SF6 and Monster Hunter Rise, where smooth framerates, frame clarity, effect discipline, and animation timing readability all play a role in giving players smooth, responsive combat systems that allow a game to feel as immersive and engaging as it can be.

Lighting and rendering are another big step, with direct and indirect light having to work in tandem to give scenes a proper mood while accurate shadows keep it grounded. There are also volumetrics and fog to consider, and they are important factors in crafting the right atmosphere for any given in-game event, while reflections via ray tracing make it all come together. A great example of this would be Village, where there were a ton of different environments, each with complex setups, similar to Requiem, where lighting paths were an important part of the experience.

Next, there are details like exposure, tone mapping, Lookup Tables (LUTs), which act as a sort of automated translator that applies color schemes to scenes, bloom, depth of field, and motion blur, which must all be woven in to give games that cinematic feel without taking things too far. Restraint is an important sentiment in this step, as overdoing it ruins all of the engine’s hard work. Village, for instance, handled this very well with varying scenarios exhibiting an excellently consistent cinematic quality.

All of these steps help the RE Engine achieve the results it managed in the titles it has powered. Its ability to optimize and scale according to a game’s needs as opposed to the game being needed to be molded to fit within its framework is a superpower of sorts, allowing it to be a versatile tool that has handled a bunch of varying requirements. It was able to handle different hardware targets in Rise, while also handling the systemic load from Wilds and the CPU-heavy world simulation in DD2.

Versatility Across Genres

This is our favorite part, as we get to see just how the RE Engine has managed to make itself a crucial part of the success its games have enjoyed, and the reason it has managed to be an engine that works across genres.

Resident Evil has been a great showcase of how it can present tight, high-fidelity environments with aplomb, with very realistic close-ups of differing materials, nuanced lighting, and very moody atmospheres that sell the fear and tension that the franchise is known for very well. Once again, looking at even a few minutes of Requiem’s gameplay or cutscenes is enough to prove its chops.

When it comes to massive worlds with a lot going on in them, the engine has once again risen to the occasion. It handles the worlds in Monster Hunter and DD2 with style, balancing a multitude of factors like streaming assets, sustaining LODs and traversal speed, simulating systems, and handling memory pressure across platforms with a fairly consistent experience across the board for all players.

In SF6, where a performance-first approach dictated the entirety of its gameplay loop, the engine maintained stable framerates while allowing for excellent animation and effect clarity, factors that were tantamount to presenting the explosive action that the game needed to stand out.

Heck, it also proved quite good for remasters, with Dead Rising Deluxe and Ghost Trick being fine examples of how it can bring older games to life. But Requiem is probably its magnum opus, with an astounding sharpness to its microdetails that stay intact even in motion-intensive situations, stable lighting responses across surfaces, excellent geometry and hair physics, and clean reflections with accurate shadows that really sell the scenes where they operate.

It can be easy to just say it’s insanely good at powering the best of what the developer offers, but that would be doing it an injustice.

What Does The RE Engine Mean For Modern Gaming?

Aside from what it manages to do in-game, it’s also what it manages to do behind the scenes that makes this one so relevant to a generation of games that are constantly getting more ambitious.

As an engine built from the ground up, its assets, tools, technical know-how, optimizations, and workflows allow for both consistency and compounding benefits to the studio with every successive release. It isn’t an engine that just puts out pretty graphics easily, but is now a benchmark in game production.

As the worlds in our games get bigger and lighting gets more ambitious, engines that scale well become the competitive edge. And the RE Engine is one that’s doing a hell of a good job on that front. We can’t wait to see where it shows up next, but you can bet that we’re going to be diving in with a smile on our faces, secure in the knowledge that this is an engine that’s capable of making great games even better.

From early experiments to genre-defining designs, here are Resident Evil’s most notable pursuers, ranked from least to most effective.

9. Lisa Trevor — Resident Evil (2002)

Unlike Resident Evil’s usual stalkers, Lisa Trevor is more of a psychological intrusion. Unable to be killed by conventional means, instead she forces your retreat across numerous locations within the Arklay Mountains and Spencer Mansion catacombs in Resident Evil Remake. Her 2002 debut expands the original RE’s story with gut-wrenching tragedy, positioning her, unusually in RE stalker lore, as a victim more than a villain. See, after decades of experimentation, Lisa is left feral and heartbroken, your final meeting being less a boss encounter and more a mercy mission. She’ll appear again for Albert Wesker in Resident Evil Chronicles where her death is played out, although outsider theories suggest Resident Evil Requiem’s wall-scrambling shambler is none-other than Lisa herself.

8. Morpheus — Resident Evil: Dead Aim

While not as mechanically sophisticated as the RE pursuers that come chronologically earlier, Morpheus in Resident Evil: Dead Aim was an early example of the series’ willingness to embrace theatricality and flamboyance, particularly in its antagonists. The stalker in this lightgun-gimmicked spin-off is made all-the-more memorable by their narcissistic pursuit of physical perfection, staving death by injecting the experimental T+G-Virus – transforming into the towering, electro-magnetic powered Tyrant who proved impossible to kill via conventional weaponry during select segments. In these pursuer phases, they actively hunt you through interconnected ship compartments, creating a sense of sustained pressure which later entries would iterate on.

7. Axe Man / Tyrant R — Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2

Outbreak File #2’s “scenario-based” structure birthed a handful of persistent, yet unkillable threats. For one, the zoo-based “Wild Things” scenario challenges you to outfox a leaping zombie lion that is impervious to gunfire. But, elsewhere, Axe Man is much more persistent; the pursuer of the “Flashback” scenario chases you throughout the hospital section. He can’t be killed outright, but you can retaliate just enough for him to back off before reappearing. Then, appearing in “The End of The Road” scenario to roundhouse kick you is Tyrant R – the final form of the mass-produced, “Mr X”-type Tyrant. Tyrant R produces the game’s biggest stress, swinging its talons and jagged edges, bringing your escape from Raccoon City’s annihilation down to the wire.

6. Thanatos / Thanatos-R — Resident Evil Outbreak

Thanatos – and, after having one arm blown off and the other mutilated, Thanatos-R – is a unique specimen among the battery of Tyrants that Umbrella released into Raccoon City the night of its downfall. Bioengineered by rogue scientist Greg Mueller, Thanatos never turns on its creator (insubordination problems were typical of the other Tyrants), but goes rampaging on his order. Again, your bullets will bounce, but this guy can at least be incapacitated by electric cables. The final showdown with Thanatos-R is a tighter, seemingly inescapable arena. Just as well there’s a crashed army supplies truck with a rocket launcher in the corner. It’s a predictable outcome for what – in another Resident Evil game – would have been a stellar pursuer.

5. Lady Dimitrescu — Resident Evil Village 

What were we saying about theatricality and flamboyance? Few Resident Evil villains cultivate a following quite like Lady D. Her operatic silhouette, her bellowing command, her claws; she’s simply unforgettable. Yet, as a stalker-type presence ranked within the gamut of RE’s stalker-type presences, she’s middling. Sure, Village’s Castle Dimitrescu section is exquisitely designed and paced, and for brief moments the Lady’s presence punches with unstoppable force, but mechanically her patrols, speed, and logic become predictable. Alas, somewhere along the way Lady Dimitrescu loses her intensity, making the fear she instilled an aesthetic memory rather than being the truly disruptive, hostile encounter we expected at her intro.

4. Verdugo – Resident Evil 4 Remake (2023)

While not a traditional, Resident Evil stalker-type, before entering into a direct fight Verdugo patiently shadows you, emerging from vents, swiping its tail, and resisting any damage you throw at it. This segment is brief, but it’s masterfully executed; distilling stalker design to its purest form, showing that sustaining pressure in tight spaces while denying safe escape truly is the most effective way to hair-raising tension.

3. Ustanak — Resident Evil 6

Arguably the most aggressive pursuer throughout the entire franchise, Ustanak tracks Jake and Sherry across multiple timezones in Resident Evil 6’s explosive campaign. His encounters make for a rare bright spot in the uneven sixth entry, from the warehouse ambush to the relentless subterranean cave pursuit, all via a mid-air, chopper-to-chopper gunshow – one thing you can’t accuse Ustanak of is dropping momentum. Even through some of the game design’s more repetitive segments – the one-after-another valve doors, for instance – there’s palpable tension, with Ustanak pounding behind every slammed door. In a Resident Evil game which struggles to maintain a sense of foreboding, Ustanak briefly restores it through his predatory intent.

Jack Baker — Resident Evil 7

Jack Baker is terrifying in a different way – he feels like someone you could know. He’s crude, vulgar, and violent, yes, but he doesn’t feel like a monster. His presence is all-the-more disturbing by his gleefulness, like he takes pleasure in hounding intruders with a shovel. His sequences are masterful representations of that thing Resident Evil does so well – you know, the caustic cut between tension and relief. You think you’ve given him the slip: BOOM, he charges through a plasterboard wall. There’s genuine unpredictability here which, given RE7 preceded RE2 Remake’s Mr X by two years, many players weren’t used to or didn’t know how to react with free-roaming stalker behaviour. If only Jack was in the game more.

2. Nemesis — Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

The original Nemesis was a watershed moment for survival horror. Now there was a threat that could appear at any moment, pursue you across multiple areas, even follow you between rooms. Crucially, while the key RE ingredients outlined earlier – the dim lights, scarce resources, tiptoeing exploration – still provide an illusion of safety; even just a modicum, especially when assessed with footsteps or whatever other sounds are scratching in the dark, none of this exists with Nemesis. The illusion is shattered. Nemesis re-wrote the survival rulebook, his sudden entrances forced meaningful split-second decision-making that weaponised itself in-game and across multiple titles that followed. True, compared to modern standards his sequences are probably best remembered than relived, but for historical significance the original Nemesis is hard to beat.

1. Mr. X (T-00) — Resident Evil 2 (2019)

Mr. X is the definitive Resident Evil pursuer, ticking all the boxes we outlined already, and then some. He takes the blueprint Nemesis established twenty-years earlier, and evolves it to terrifying effect: he forces you to rethink navigation, to question which route you’re going to take; he demands you manage your resources, identify safe rooms, check the volume of your footsteps and door closes. His RCPD arrival is less about being a new enemy to evade, and more an omnipotent presence that has taken over. You can hear his ominous footsteps echoing throughout the station as he marauds from door-to-door, searching for you, Leon, Claire, anyone and any survivor; relentlessly, ruthlessly, unstoppable.

While he didn’t go into too many details, Berben noted that the previous success of the Resident Evil franchise has opened up the doors to allow a new generation to bring their own voice to the IP, even beyond it simply being a brand new story.

“With Resident Evil, we have had an incredible journey with one of the most successful international IPs of more than a billion dollars in box office for many years and now we are creating something new, not just a new story idea, but to allow a new generation to take the IP into their own hands and form something different,” said Berben. He went on to note that, to achieve this, Cregger has been given “the carte blanche to do whatever he wanted to do with that IP.”

How far this carte blanche will affect the story of the movie is currently unknown. However, back in August 2025, Cregger had said that the new story being told will remain faithful to the rules of the Resident Evil universe. Being a self-professed fan of the games, he went on to refer to the story as a “love letter to the games” that “follows the rules of the games.”

“Let me say this: this is not breaking the rules of the games,” Cregger said. “I am the biggest worshiper of the games, so I’m telling a story that is a love letter to the games and follows the rules of the games. It is obedient to the lore of the games, it’s just a different story. I’m not going to tell Leon’s story, because Leon’s story is told in the games. [Fans] already have that.”

He also acknowledged Resident Evil fans that may have wanted a story closer to what we see in the games by noting that, “They can play the game.”

It is worth noting that Cregger has quite a bit of experience with the horror genre, having previously worked on Barbarian and Weapons as director and writer. Both films take place in urban settings, and focus on ever-increasing tension that gets released gradually over the course of the story.

Cregger had previously also spoken about the Resident Evil games, and how the movie will draw on them for inspiration. He brings up high-tension moments like being low and health while walking down a dark hallway, being afraid of something around the corner that might kill you.

“There’s a moment that comes in almost every Resident Evil game where you find yourself in a dark passageway, your health is almost zero and there’s no way around,” he said. “You have to go through but you know there’s something awful for you in the darkness.”

“That is a thrill that the Resident Evil games have perfected. My movie will be built in the spirit of those games and follows one central protagonist from point A to point B, as they descend deeper into hell.”

The Resident Evil movie is slated to hit theatres on September 18th. Fans of the franchise have plenty to look forward to before that, however, since February 27th will see the release of Resident Evil Requiem on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

But what made Raccoon City such a legendary location in the franchise’s long history? The obvious answer would be that the majority of the franchise’s events have taken place in its dark alleyways, dilapidated buildings, and its streets. But that would be relegating the city to the background when it is, in fact, so much more.

Raccoon City is the very crux on which the Resident Evil franchise was built, and we’re here to argue that it’s almost as important as the iconic characters that were a crucial part of the events that preceded its destruction. It’s a place where so much of the franchise’s story comes together, and is also the point from which so many of its characters have gone their separate ways as they hunted down the T-Virus’s trail across the world. Still not convinced? That’s all right.

Join us as we take a fond look at a place that gave us so many unforgettable moments, and more than a few things to think about as we witnessed its destruction and the desperation of the people trying to save it.

A City Unlike Any Other

Before the Resident Evil franchise could kick off, you might have been forgiven for thinking that Raccoon City was a mid-sized American town like so many others that dotted the continent’s landscape. It was a commercial hub, arguably brought to life by the Umbrella Corporation.

Its citizens may not have actively been involved in the organization’s shady dealings and its research into creating Bio-Organic Weapons, but were certainly the ones who suffered the fallout of that doomed mission. But before they were turned into the zombies that gave us so many hours of anxiety and tension, they were folks going about their normal lives.

But Umbrella’s influence would pervade its very core, the corporation being a quiet presence that created jobs and allowed the people of the city to build a life there. The corporation provided funding, a sense of belonging, and, of course, a sort of quiet control as it operated from the city’s shadows to build a legacy that continues to inform the franchise’s meta-narrative.

Umbrella was the main reason behind Racoon City’s infamy, planting the seed for the emergence of so many terrors that we encountered and fought over the years. Its efforts to build an interconnected network of labs and facilities using the city’s very infrastructure are probably what allowed the T-Virus to spread as fast as it did.

If we were to comment on Umbrella’s influence in Raccoon City, its actions bring a sense of inevitability to the fore. Raccoon City’s fate was inevitable, its unwary reliance on the Umbrella Corporation’s benevolence being the reason it came crumbling down to become a place of chaos, despair, and a hotbed of activity for Resident Evil’s best heroes.

Resident Evil’s many horrors are made all the more egregious thanks to the knowledge that they were all man-made. Raccoon City’s role in bringing those horrors to light cannot be understated, and the city’s desolation in every game that takes us to it makes it more than just a stage for its many actors to play their part. It’s a vehicle for the franchise’s horrors to stand tall among the genre’s finest.

But other places in the franchise have worked just as well to showcase that, Resident Evil Village being a great example. However, there’s more to the iconic city than its role in bringing the franchise’s signature style to life. It’s the fact that the city itself feels alive.

The City That Couldn’t Sleep

Indulge us for a moment. We did say that Raccoon City was more than just a stage for the events of several Resident Evil games. But that doesn’t mean that it hasn’t served as a very good one for the most part. Its streets and alleys have been places where some of the franchise’s most memorable – and horrifying – moments have taken place.

It’s a city that comes with layers, its interconnected streets forming routes to several key locations and, by extension, crucial events in the story that unfolds within them. In our recent list of the scariest locations in the franchise, Racoon City’s orphanage, police department headquarters, secret labs tied to the Umbrella Corporation, and its sewers were pretty high-ranking places that had us shuddering at the memories they had us recalling. And how can we forget the first appearance of the RPD Hall and Kendo Gun Shop? Or, the absolute mayhem during our battle with the Nemesis in the subway and at the clock tower? Or, the creepy Raccoon City Zoo and the Dead Factory?

And while those many locations might have been far easier to access in a time when the T-Virus hadn’t made its presence felt aboard the Ecliptic Express, the Raccoon City incident’s aftermath meant that the city itself was an obstacle to those desperately trying to escape its destruction, and to the many heroes who were trying to avert its almost inevitable destruction.

But with the zombification of its populace and the presence of more sinister threats prowling its confines, Raccoon City’s very atmosphere was charged with the sense of dread and an anticipation of danger around every corner that underlined every Resident Evil game ever made. The rain pattering on its cobblestones was a natural occurrence that contrasted sharply with the evidence of destruction by unnatural horrors, its burned cars, fires, smoke sirens, and boarded windows showcasing a world where everyday life had collapsed into chaos.

Raccoon City was no haunted castle like Dimitrescu’s home in Resident Evil Village. It was a place that was grounded in reality despite its fictionality. It was a city as real as the ones we live in, and as such, was an excellent vehicle for the franchise’s horror to come to life. It was also where so much of the story was presented to us in a way that wasn’t just engaging. It was relatable.

Inspiring The Best and Worst of Resident Evil

The many unforgettable moments that have peppered our time in Raccoon City could be considered a major factor in why it feels that way. That pivotal moment where.

The RCPD’s eventual transformation from a safe haven for survivors to a place from which those very survivors would desperately try to escape is another. And the streets going from a bustling hub of commercial and personal activity to a literal battlefield in which humanity was at a distinct disadvantage is another.

The many enemies prowling its streets are all the more horrifying when you think that they were once ordinary people with hopes and dreams that were now sacrificed on the altar of corporate greed, the need to take them out of the equation clashing with the thought that their lives might have been different if they hadn’t called the city home.

Facing the Stalkers, Lickers, Hunters, and so many more deadly threats within the confines of narrow corridors, alleys, or streets cordoned off by raging fires made the city feel like it was working against its own heroes, almost as if it was forced to. And the manner in which every area brought new horrors to the table demonstrates just how deadly the outbreak really was to its people.

Raccoon City was a showcase of how man-made disasters affect people on a granular level, the desperation of people who had been lucky enough to survive the outbreak being reflected in its many environments and in the few NPCs you got to encounter along the way. Its people banded together, displaying a bravery they clearly didn’t feel in a frenetic bid to make it out in one piece. It was normal folks trying to escape the worst of what humanity had to offer.

And yet, in the midst of all the chaos, Raccoon City is also the place where legends were born. Its destructive path to desolation provided an opportunity for some of our favorite heroes in modern gaming to rise above the flames that engulfed it, their voices beacons of hope amid the screams of its denizens.

Leon’s brave attempts to assist his fellow citizens blended well with Claire’s desperate search for Chris Redfield, a formidable character all on his own. Alyssa’s efforts to uncover the truth behind the outbreak continue to influence the franchise to this day, her daughter now poised to become a hero worth talking about all on her own.

Jill Valentine’s desperate efforts to outrun nemesis and Claire, Leon saving their lives from Mr. X, is another great showcase of how the city could bring the best and worst of humanity to the stage, its crisis a catalyst for their respective agendas to come into conflict against more noble intentions. A sense of desperation was a constant undercurrent, the emotion manifesting itself through varying courses of action among the few people equipped to try and effect change.

Raccoon City might have easily become a sort of receptacle for the franchise’s lore if it weren’t handled well by the teams behind the experiences that called it home. But it’s horror lands because it presents it through the lens of very real emotions, and reasonable, if questionable, decisions by the people who lived through its nightmare. It was the burning coals that were lit up by the spark that the T-Virus brought to its borders.

A Homecoming of Sorts

In a way, Requiem revisiting the Raccoon City incident feels like coming back home for the holidays. Revisiting the events that led to the city’s eventual destruction is sure to shed new light on events that might have us looking back and thinking about just how bad things were, or perhaps even finding them worse, hindsight and all.

But it could also be an opportunity for the franchise to do what it does best in a playground it’s quite familiar with. We sincerely hope that’s the case, and that we get to go back to a place that holds so much significance for most of the franchise’s heavy hitters, and its new protagonist too.

Thankfully, we won’t have to wait too long to find out. Raccoon City, here we come!

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.

But some of the places we’ve been to along the way have managed to stay with us long after we rolled the credits on the game that hosted them. Be it the environments, the general anticipation of another horror waiting around a corner, or a multitude of vicious creatures waiting to rip us to shreds, there are locations in several Resident Evil games that come to mind when we think of how scary titles in the franchise could be.

We’ve put together a list of some of them, and you might want to brace yourself before you get to them if you’re currently playing through your favorites in preparation for Resident Evil Requiem. Let’s jump in!

15. Heisenberg’s Factory (Resident Evil Village)

Let’s set aside Heisenberg’s sinister plan to overthrow Mother Miranda with Rose being his ace in the hole for a second, although that entire idea did have us feeling goosebumps at the sheer callousness of it all. Let’s forget that the man wanted Ethan to be a willing participant in his own daughter’s destruction.

But exploring the underground facility and watching so many villagers being processed into cybernetically-enhanced BOWs was a sight that gives us the creeps even today! The Haulers and Soldats may not have been too tricky to take on, thanks to Ethan’s skill set at the game’s later stages, but watching our bullets bounce off the Strum filled us with dread from the minute we were thrown down the hole.

Of course, Heisenberg’s mutated form was as grotesque and horrifying as we expected. This one was definitely a place we’re loath to revisit.

14. Raccoon City Streets (RE3)

The tension is almost a part of this title’s very DNA, with Jill being forced to try and find a way out of Racoon City whilst dodging the relentless Nemesis in the process. That desperate race to safety is impeded by Racoon City’s very residents, who have been transformed into mindless zombies by the T-Virus.

The factors work very well to make the streets of Racoon City quite unsafe for any normal person, and with Jill losing companions left, right, and center, the city’s streets look and feel very unsafe to navigate. Evidence of the T-Virus devastation is on display, with overturned vehicles, destroyed barricades, and, of course, a ton of corpses to underline the dire straits she is in at every turn.

It almost made the city feel like the most ominous threat all on its own, and the threat of an air strike hanging over our heads didn’t help matters in the slightest!

13. Castle Dimitrescu (Resident Evil Village)

Taking on Dimitrescu and her daughters requires a trek through a castle whose Gothic architecture and Baroque-style minimalism can make your time in it quite oppressive. With the only light coming from lit candles and chandeliers, and the windows shut tight and thick curtains over them make exploring its hallways feels like you’re shut off from the outside world.

Of course, the castle’s grim history, its inhabitants are a major part of why this one makes our list. Of course, there’s no need to mention the ladies of the castle and the constant expectation that one of them was going to pop around a corner and take us out of the equation entirely.

This is definitely among the more well-designed and scary places we’ve been to during our time with the franchise.

12. NEST (Umbrella Lab) (RE2 Remake)

Leon’s search for the G-Virus leads him to take a solitary trip through NEST, an underground lab where the pristine halls are now splattered with blood, and the threat of zombies lingers as you make your way through it. Learning about the horrific events that transpired there, along with the fact that you have to leave Ada behind for this leg of the mission, adds to the tension.

That isn’t helped by the presence of zombies that are more than willing to come at you with everything they have, forcing you to think fast and act faster if you’re going to survive. The desolation of the lab spreads across all of its levels, and can wear down even the most seasoned franchise veteran, a facet of the experience made even better by the remake’s visual and graphical upgrades.

11. Ecliptic Express (Resident Evil 0)

As the staging ground for the early hours of this prequel to the events of the franchise, exploring the Ecliptic Express as Rebecca and Billy is a great way to introduce the horrors that await them as a result of the T-Virus being combined with leech DNA. The game’s camera angles work well to limit your view, while the pouring rain outside makes you feel trapped within the narrow confines of the train.

Of course, it’s the dead passengers who are the star of the show, as you never know which one of them is going to wake up and try to deliver a fate worse than death to your doorstep. It’s just creepy and gets under your skin the more time you spend on the train. We’re not going to forget how a zombie’s low growl, made out of our view, made us jump out of our skin as we were looking for more information and a means to make our way forward.

This one was definitely among the most frightening areas of a Resident Evil title, made worse by the horrors we witnessed in the opening cutscene.

10. Queen Zenobia (Resident Evil Revelations 1)

If a ghost ship that acts as a staging ground for a large-scale attack using the T-Virus sounds like the perfect stage for a Resident Evil game to you, we agree. The Zenobia’s cramped hallways and terrifying atmosphere make it a crucial part of the gameplay loop on offer in Revelations.

Enemies moan and growl as you make your way around the ship, often forcing you to pivot and take them on before they get to you. There’s a sense of tense anticipation around every corner of this vessel, and it only grows with every minute you spend without encountering an enemy to take down. Their sea creature motif makes enemies in this game stand out from the usual zombies you take on, and their designs are truly grotesque and memorable.

As far as the scariest locations in the franchise go, Queen Zenobia is definitely up there with the worst of the lot!

9. Raccoon City Sewers (RE2 Remake)

Any sewer system is bound to feel dark, dank, and oppressive, and Racoon City is no different. Where it does differ from your traditional sewer, though, is the presence of a massive, T-Virus-mutated alligator that’s quite the threat, its maggot-infested maw making you worry about a very unsavoury death at every turn.

While we’re quite glad we weren’t subjected to an undoubtedly bad smell that we’re sure was a part of the trek through infested waters, we’d be remiss to comment on how the remake did a great job at bringing the sewers to life in comparison to the original experience, the atmosphere feeling way more suffocating right off the bat while the creatures we encountered being all the more imposing in the process.

Raccoon City’s underbelly is a place even the most grizzled warrior would be wise not to take lightly.

8. Orphanage (RE2 Remake)

While the Orphanage’s tragic history as a front for the Umbrella Corporation’s illegal experiments is reason enough to approach it with apprehension, the fact that you’re put into the shoes of Sherry Birkin as you wait for Claire to get there is another reason why this one was as scary as it was.

Guiding Sherry through its desolate hallways, signs of innocence tainted by the events that transpired within its walls, while expecting Chief Irons to make an appearance at any minute, was a harrowing experience we’d not like to repeat anytime soon. Combined with the game’s penchant for creating tension through silence, the remake’s visuals made the Orphanage a location that continues to give us goosebumps whenever we think about it.

And that’s quite often, given its morbid history.

7. Derelict Ship (Resident Evil 7)

Uncovering Mia’s memories and exploring the ship without weapons of any sort, with the Molded being a constant threat and Ethan’s fate unknown, was a memorable time, albeit one that had us feeling quite bleak about the prospects of our survival. It was Resident Evil at its finest, with the possibility of a grisly death constantly wearing us down while the story did well to underline just how dangerous the situation was.

Of course, Mia’s tragic end served to punctuate just how horrifying the entire ordeal was while also providing us with the motivation to keep moving forward as Ethan. Our time on the ship had us wondering about what was yet to come, and the Molded were quite terrifying, considering we were thrust into this location with only a mysterious bottle at our disposal.

The Derelict Ship earns its place on this list and doesn’t rank higher simply because the remaining places we’re taking you back to were even worse.

6. Rockfort Island Prison (Code Veronica)

The chaos of a T-Virus outbreak, combined with the obviously grim setting of a prison meant to house those the Umbrella Corporation deemed a threat, is certainly a great place for some good old-fashioned Resident Evil action. The Rockfort prison certainly doesn’t disappoint on that front, and Ashford’s dual personalities are a feather in its cap.

Claire’s time in the facility as an inmate was punctuated by imminent danger and a foreboding sense of impending doom with almost every step she took through its hallways, the constant expectation that a zombified denizen was going to spring at us, making us quite careful as we made our way to our next objective.

5. The Underground Mansion (Resident Evil Revelations 2)

Barry and Natalia’s trek through this secret underground Umbrella research facility in the bowels of the Spencer Mansion is quite memorable, thanks to how it had us checking around corners in our own homes after we were done exploring its confines. It’s one of those places that stays with you even after you power down your consoles, the discoveries about Wesker and the results of the horrible experiments creating memories we sometimes wish we didn’t have.

The Revenants, Glasps, and Afflicted each play their part in creating a blend of tense, painstaking exploration as you constantly expect threats to come from every turn. The revelations you discover as you make your way through the area do well to underline the magnitude of Wesker’s actions, serving to add another layer of absolute horror to the entire thing.

We’re not keen to go back to this one, no matter how interesting the story and gameplay were the first time around, and with good reason!

4. Raccoon City Police Station (RE2 Remake)

An eerie silence broken only by the sounds of Racoon City’s finest, now zombified and out for blood, works well with the RCPD’s environments that showcase a tragic end to a valiant effort to defend against the T-Virus outbreak.

Being forced to take on police officers who were once the protectors of the weak is bad enough, but not knowing which of the corpses you pass is going to wake up to try and bring you to a less than savoury end ups the tension by quite a few notches. Once again, the remake’s improved visuals do very well to bring the enemy designs to life, while the lighting does you no favors if you’re a weak-hearted player whose curiosity has led them to explore the RCPD’s headquarters.

Tragedy and tension work very well to make this one rank high among the franchise’s scariest places to visit.

3. Spencer Mansion (REmake)

As the home of the founder of the Umbrella Corporation, this is one of the most iconic haunted houses we’ve explored in a game. The mansion’s very design seems tailored to have you going around in circles, your own panic distorting your sense of direction. It’s almost as if the environment you’re placed in wants you to fail, while the cleverly-placed enemies try to accelerate that failure to a large extent.

The remake did an excellent job of implementing lighting and shadows that made the whole thing feel even creepier, with moving shadows and decidedly darker lighting making the mansion’s oppressive atmosphere come to life in a way that made it even more frightening to explore.

The Spencer Mansion is a great showcase of what Resident Evil can do, and is proof of why it has managed to be a mainstay of the survival horror genre over the years.

2. Baker House (RE7 Main House + Basement)

The home of the Bakers, made all the more terrifying by the results of Eveline’s infection, is certainly right up there with the most horrifying places that Resident Evil has taken us to over the years. It almost made us wonder at how anyone could face down its threats and the general sense of entropy and decay that permeates its very halls.

Grotesque monstrosities and the threat of encountering even deadlier enemies adds tension to a gameplay loop made even more intense by the events that precede your time in it, while the foreboding nature of the mansion and the Baker family’s history work very well together to make this a place that’s going to have you on edge no matter how many times you make your way through its confines.

1. House Beneviento (Resident Evil Village)

The only thing we can say about this one after we shudder at the thought of making our way through its hallways is wow. From the foggy ravine that you need to make your way across to get to it, complete with hanging dolls, to the hallucinations that Ethan needs to endure thanks to the lady of the house and her insecurities, this one takes the top spot on this list by a very long mile.

There’s something about creepy dolls in a horror setting that makes our skin crawl, and Village did very well to take that apprehension to new heights as it forced us into a confrontation with Donna and Angie. Oh, and let’s not forget the mutated creature that reminded us of the Botchling from The Witcher 3 (we couldn’t even if we tried, to be frank).

It’s all so masterfully put together that we can’t help but grudgingly admire the developers for crafting a place that’s so memorable and yet so discouraging to explore, the possibility of finding yet another thing to be worried about being a part of the very air Ethan breathes. This one is a haunted house for the ages.

And that’s a wrap on our top picks for the scariest locations in the Resident Evil franchise. We can only wonder about what Requiem has in store for us next month, but you can be sure that we’re going to brave it all to bring you insightful takes on its many threats, twists, and turns when it finally makes its way into our hands.

Clair Obscur: Expedition

While traditional role-playing games never disappeared, they did become quite rare for a few years. The release of Clair Obscur: Expedition has managed to remind many people why that style of combat was so beloved. Along with an excellent setting that revolves around serious themes like loss and grief, Expedition also has a solid take on turn-based combat, with every single character in your party having their own bespoke mechanics, be it Maeve’s stance system, how Lune handles elements, or even Gustave’s Overcharge mechanics. Pair this with rewarding high-level gameplay with parries and dodging, and you get one of the best RPGs out there.

Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 finally managed to hit mainstream success, thanks in large part to its strong setting and ambitious design. Baldur’s Gate 3 adapts rules from the 5th edition of tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons, and features some of the most interesting and likeable characters that have been featured in games in quite some time. Along with this, it also has an expansive story that kicks things off with a great premise: figure out how to get rid of a parasite in your brain before you end up being turned into a mindflayer. What follows is an epic adventure that carries you through different cities and planes, where countless stories and challenges await.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition

What can we say about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that hasn’t been said already? An entire decade since its original release, the open-world RPG has continued to be awesome thanks to constant support from CD Projekt RED, not only through the release of excellent expansions—but also through updating the title to make use of more modern hardware with enhanced visuals. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt continues to have an excellent story, with plenty of wonderfully-written sidequests. All of this, paired with a great combat system leads to a generally fun way to spend hundreds of hours.

Elden Ring + Shadow of the Erdtree

In many ways, both Elden Ring as well as its expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, represents the culmination of everything developer FromSoftware has learned in developing titles since 2009’s Demon’s Souls. Along with the slow-paced but heavy combat that the studio is known for, Elden Ring and its expansion also feature a great open world to explore, some of the best boss fights it has ever design, and some incredibly dense lore available for players who would care enough to pore through the dozens of item descriptions and conversations needed to uncover it all. Pair this with tools that provide plenty of options for players that might want an easier time through the game, and Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree simply prove themselves to be the best that FromSoftware has to offer.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Developer Rockstar has had many great games under its belt, essentially changing the entire concept of open-world games with the release of Grand Theft Auto 3 and its host of follow-ups, but none of them have been as jaw-dropping or awe-inspiring as 2018’s Red Dead Redemption 2. Acting as a prequel to the original Red Dead Redemption, the title puts you into the shoes of Arthur Morgan as he experiences the age of the cowboy coming to an end as a member of the Van der Linde gang. Along with some excellent character-writing and fun missions, Red Dead Redemption 2 also offers dense gameplay, taking on a simulationist approach to even side activities like hunting or train robbing, giving players hundreds of hours worth of things to do in its massive and lush open world.

Days Gone Remastered

While Days Gone was originally a PS4 game that came out to a middling reception, its release on PC has been a glow-up for the open-world zombie title, with modern gaming PCs being more than capable of handling the hordes of zombies that get thrown at you. Sure, the main narrative may not be particularly noteworthy. However, the side-activities, as well as the general gameplay loop encouraged by the fact that upgrading your motorbike is important, make the overall idea of setting out to scavenge from long-abandoned medical facilities or even rival gang camps an enticing idea.

Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition

While its initial release may have been a bit of a mess, in the years since, Cyberpunk 2077 has proven itself to be an excellent open-world action RPG. Taking on the role of V in the year 2077, you set out to become a legend in Night City. However, one of the jobs you take alongside your best friend Jackie goes horribly wrong, and now you’re slowly dying and the ghost of Johnny Silverhand lives in your head. Cyberpunk 2077, along with its expansion Phantom Liberty, tells an excellent story that takes you across Night City’s various districts and social strata as you try and figure out the evil machinations of the megacorporation Arasaka that led to the development of the thing that has been slowly killing you. Along with an excellent main story, Cyberpunk 2077 also features several well-written and fun side-quests that can range from getting into a rivalry with a Japanese pop group to discussing the nature of sentience with an AI taxi service.

Disco Elysium – The Final Cut

Quite easily one of the most interesting takes on the RPG genre that has been attempted, Disco Elysium – The Final Cut puts you in the shoes of a detective. You explore the city of Revachol, which is seemingly in the midst of a cultural upheaval in some parts, alongside your partner Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi. Disco Elysium focuses more on conversation than it does action, and one of its most unique aspects is the fact that each aspect of the protagonist’s mind and body has a personality of its own. Through these conversations, you learn more about yourself, about Revachol, and about the world at large.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Mass Effect is one of those rare video game trilogies that deserves its “legendary” moniker. The three titles tell the story of a galaxy’s fight against a cosmic, existential threat, and puts players in the shoes of human Commander Shepard who must assemble a rag-tag crew of allies from the various species from across the galaxy as they try to figure out the mysteries behind the forces known only as the Reapers. Along the way, in true RPG fashion, there are also plenty of choices that players have to make, with many of these choices having far-reaching consequences for the galaxy as a whole. While the ending of Mass Effect 3 might be regrettable, the rest of the journey still holds up even today as one worth experiencing.

Prey (2017)

While it may not have anything to do with its 2006 namesake, Prey (2017) is an immersive sim that puts players in the shoes of Morgan Yu. Working for the TranStar Corporation on ethically-dubious experiments, you eventually start serving on the Talos I space station. However, these experiments eventually start going wrong, and the space station comes under attack by an alien threat known as the Typhon. The twist is that these aliens can shapeshift, which adds an extra layer of tension to the gameplay. Even when you’re just exploring an office room, one of the mugs might end up being a Mimic-type Typhon that can attack you at any time, after all. What makes Prey especially interesting is the freedom it gives the player in how they choose to tackle any situation, be it stealth, combat, or even something more creative, like building platforms out of nearby furniture and your Goo Gun to avoid any dangers.

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Special Edition

Skyrim is still – at the time of publishing – the latest game in The Elder Scrolls franchise, and there’s a good reason that it has been the best-selling one so far. Taking place in the eponymous region of Skyrim, the game puts players in the shoes of whatever character they might like to be and, after a short opening quest, sets them free in the world. What makes Skyrim fun is that it has hundreds of hours worth of content, not only through its main story, but through several side quests as well. Along with this, the game also has an excellent modding community that has constantly worked on adding more content to the game, as well as improving what’s already there. Generally speaking, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is the closest thing we have to a game we can play forever.

Fallout 3

What Skyrim does for the fantasy genre, Fallout 3 does for players that might prefer a post-apocalyptic setting. Taking place in and around a post-nuclear fallout Washington DC – referred to in-game as the Capitol Wasteland – Fallout 3 sets you loose in an open world with a single goal: find your father. More interesting than the main story, however, is the sheer amount of side-content that is available right from the get-go. The first-person RPG will have you cover the entire length and breadth of the wasteland as you try and do as many side-quests as possible thanks to the excellent writing. While we’re at it, the gameplay isn’t bad either; it might be dated by modern standards, but the RPG systems in the game allow for plenty of player choice in terms of how you want to define your play style.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

After years of memes making the rounds on the Internet, Hollow Knight: Silksong is finally out. Putting players in the shoes of new protagonist Hornet, Hollow Knight: Silksong features an entirely new world to explore, and tons of challenging boss fights to tackle. Along the way, there are also plenty of new gameplay systems to explore, including the new healing mechanics, as well as the ability to change up Hornet’s entire moveset if you so desire. Much like the original Hollow Knight, Silksong has an easy claim to the crown at the top of the genre.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

While Marvel’s Spider-Man was already a fantastic return of the webslinger to the gaming medium, Insomniac Games has taken everything about the open-world action game and turned it up to eleven with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Not only does it feature an even more epic storyline featuring plenty of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery, it also features two whole Spider-Men taking on the threats to New York City – Peter Parker and Miles Morales. Throw on top a fun plot about both of our heroes growing together, as well as the unique personal issues affecting both of them, as well as the threat of the Symbiote over the whole plot, and you get a great time.

Little Nightmares 2

Little Nightmares 2 is an interesting game since, while it might appear like a cutesy platformer from the outside, underneath its adorable exterior lies a dark game filled with a surprising amount of horror. The title revolves around a boy, Mono, who finds a girl, Six, trapped in the basement of a dark and terrible house, and the two must work together to make it out alive.Along the way, they will have to deal with many terrifying enemies and other dark secrets of the main setting of the game – the Pale City – and the title makes heavy use of some psychedelic visuals to hammer home the point that the city is not a welcoming place for wayward children.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

While most open-world RPGs tend to make use of fantasy settings, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 instantly sets itself apart from its contemporaries by instead making use of real-world place, complete with accurate depictions of historical events. Taking place in the lands of Bohemia, protagonist Henry finds himself and his friend, Sir Hans, the victims of a bandit attack on their way to deliver a message to Trosky. What follows is Henry’s attempts to complete his mission, and along the way, grow as a person. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 takes a simulationist approach to its gameplay, with armours and weapons feeling appropriately hard to find and maintain, and crafting systems that will have you reading instructions from books before you go about mixing potions or forging a sword. The title offers hundreds of hours worth of gameplay, along with some of the best sword-fighting mechanics ever executed in a first-person game.

Alan Wake 2

Alan Wake was a masterclass in horror, but its sequel takes things a step further. In Alan Wake 2, players control multiple characters as they explore genuinely creepy locations, face terrifying creatures, and experience it all with an amazing score and exceptional gameplay. This is what horror games should strive to be, and it leaves us eager to see what Remedy has in store for the inevitable Alan Wake 3.

Death Stranding Director’s Cut

Hideo Kojima’s first major project after his departure from Konami, Death Stranding is a game that is quite difficult to explain. Essentially, you are a courier in a world where a global catastrophe has made humanity spread out far and wide, with little to keep them connected to each other. The core gameplay revolves around you taking on delivery jobs and then figuring out how to cross the terrain to get to your objective. What makes this interesting is that Death Stranding is one of those rare games where terrain is quite important, and you can’t just climb any surface you see. This means that you will have to figure out the best route to take that doesn’t risk too much damage to the cargo you’re carrying. Throw on top a bonkers plot that revolves around the concepts of death, the soul and the body, as well as the general creepiness that the ghost-like BTs exhibit, and you have a fantastic time experience, while long, is well worth it.

The Witness

From the developer behind Braid, The Witness is a strange puzzle game that takes a single mechanic – being able to draw lines – and turns it into the entire game. While most of the title will have you finding screens to then solve logical puzzles with your line drawing powers, the whole game essentially blows open at a certain point when you start to discover that the entire world around you is also a puzzle that can then be manipulated and solved in different ways. Along the way, the game also features narration that explores the nature of the island you’re exploring, and what its true purpose might be. All of this is paired with some wonderful art direction and a vibrant colour palette that makes sure that nothing in The Witness ever looks boring.

Ghost of Tsushima

Ghost of Tsushima is an open-world game where the protagonist – a samurai named Jin Kasai – survives an initial battle against an invading Mongol force, and must rally the citizens and soldiers of Tsushima island to mount a resistance against the invaders. Over the course of the fantastic open-world game, Sakai must also come to terms with meanings behind words like honour, and the caste system that Japan was living under at the time. Ghost of Tsushima features simple-but-excellent combat gameplay, as well as quite a few tools for the player should they decide to sneak around instead, as they go around Tsushima liberating settlements from the Mongols and ultimately figure out a way to get at the primary antagonist – Khotun Khan, cousin of Kubali Khan.

The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered

While the original The Last of Us was a great game with a fantastic story anchored by wonderfully-written characters, The Last of Us Part 2 goes a step further, giving us a darker tale that focuses on two distinct characters and their quest for vengeance and redemption. Along with the larger overall scale of gameplay, The Last of Us Part 2 also tells a grander story, and features some of the most fun boss fights to have been put into a title where the gameplay is otherwise quite realistic. On top of all of this, the Remastered release on PC also has a host of extra content in the form of the roguelike survival mode No Return, where you get to take on combat challenges as the character of your choice in a variety of different levels.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

FromSoftware might be largely known for its slow-paced action RPGs in the Souls series and Elden Ring, but with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the studio instead decided to take on a much faster style of gameplay where being on the defensive was punished. Rather than hiding behind a shield, in Sekiro, you are instead forced to learn the timings of various enemy attacks so that you can instead parry them, eventually breaking your foes’ posture to then finish them off with a glorious killing blow. The title still maintains much of the FromSoftware DNA, however, including how death works and the emphasis on smaller-scaled levels that are more dense and intertwining, encouraging plenty of exploration. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, despite its differences from the studio’s other games, can easily be considered one of its best outings yet.

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection

A collection featuring two games – Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: Lost Legacy – Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection tells two excellent stories. While one tries to wrap up the ongoing plot of Nathan Drake trying to forge a legacy for himself, the other instead features two supporting characters from preceding Uncharted games in the roles of dual protagonists as they set off on an adventure of their own. Where Uncharted 4 offers a polished take on everything the series has had to offer so far, Lost Legacy instead goes for more experimental game design. All in all, both titles are well worth playing, even if you haven’t been able to play the first three games in the series.

Frostpunk 2

The original Frostpunk was a fresh take on the city-builder genre with a unique setting where you have to build and manage a city around sources of heat, since the planet has essentially frozen over. Its sequel pulls the camera back a bit, and instead of having you put down individual buildings, you’re now laying out entire districts with a single click. Despite this more zoomed out take on the gameplay, however, Frostpunk 2 still makes the player choose between two horrifying choices for the survival of their city, much like its predecessor, and the general progression of the title has been taken in interesting directions, such as how trade routes are managed and how districts can boost or bring down one another, depending on proximity. All of this is paired with some wonderful visuals and excellent sound design that perfectly manage to bring your cities to life.

A Plague Tale: Requiem

A Plague Tale: Requiem is a direct sequel to A Plague Tale: Innocence, and revolves around the two siblings once more having to travel together again. This time around, Amicia and Hugo de Rune have to travel south in order to try and look for a cure for Hugo’s affliction. On the gameplay side of things, it offers more of a refinement over its predecessor rather than any radical changes. Players take on the role of Amicia while Hugo helps out from time to time. However, both characters also have plenty of new abilities to play around with in combat encounters. A Plague Tale: Requiem also acts as an absolute feast for the eyes considering its incredible level of visual fidelity and strong art direction.

The Rogue Prince of Persia

After having spent several months in Early Access, The Rogue Prince of Persia was finally out a few weeks ago, and the fact that developer Evil Empire took player feedback quite seriously is evident. The title features incredibly-polished side-scrolling and platforming with smooth animations and a great visual style that still manages to work well with the randomly-generated levels. Throw on top some fast-paced combat that rewards quick timing, as well as a large variety of weapons, and you’re going to have a great time as you figure out the time-bending story of the Prince who is trying to save his people after previously having been the unwitting instigator of this doom to begin with.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War

Middle-earth: Shadow of War builds on everything its predecessor did in expansive ways. It brings back the much-beloved Nemesis system, which allows protagonist Talion to face down various kinds of Orc enemies, each with their own unique personalities and fighting styles. On top of this, the Orcs winning the fight also means that they’ll get stronger, making the subsequent rematch even harder. The Nemesis system alone makes Shadow of War worth your time, but if that’s not enough, it also has a fun story exploring an alternate timeline of the Lord of the Rings books where a giant war was waged against the forces of Mordor well before the events of the books take place. The gameplay also serves as an excellent evolution of the classical style of open-world action gameplay we saw over the last couple of console generations.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara Croft embarks once again on a perilous hunt for a precious treasure. However, in her carelessness, Croft accidentally sets off a chain of events that threatens the world, and now she must find a way to stop the destruction. On the gameplay side of things, it offers fast and responsive gunplay as well as plenty of options for some stealth, including the ability for Croft to cover herself in mud to blend in with her surroundings better. The star of the game is undoubtedly the platforming, and with plenty of tombs for Croft to raid, Shadow of the Tomb Raider offers just about everything you could ask for.

Black Myth: Wukong

Black Myth: Wukong is an interesting take on a classic setting. The game features excellent boss fights, along with some gorgeous visuals. These aspects are further bolstered by the fact that the combat system is incredible and responsive. Even the encounter design deserves some praise, since Black Myth: Wukong has been designed around the idea of making the player use just about every tool they have at their disposal. There isn’t really much else to say that hasn’t already been said plenty of times already. It did, after all, manage to hold on to its concurrent player count records at launch when compared to any game out there on PC.

Mafia: The Definitive Edition

While the Mafia series has seen a newfound level of success thanks to the recent release of Mafia: The Old Country, the original Mafia is still worth revisiting, especially in its Definitive Edition form, since it now features modernised gameplay and combat systems, as well as a massive upgrade in visual quality. The story revolves around humble taxi driver Thomas Angelo in the city of Lost Haven, who finds himself embroiled with the local mob thanks to a recent car chase against a rival mob. Things slowly escalate as Angelo climbs up the ranks of the Salieri family. Interestingly, the story is told in the form of Angelo confessing to his crimes to a detective, with liberal use of flashbacks as the main storytelling device. The title also features a fun open world to drive through, especially since few games ever use the Great Depression as their setting.

Mad Max

Having come out at a time where many players and critics alike were suffering from open-world fatigue, Mad Max was quite overlooked. However, in the decade since, the title has been vindicated thanks to its excellent open world design and strong gameplay. Mad Max is a unique open world game where the player’s vehicle, the Magnum Opus, is an important form of progression. Much of the game will be spent with you, as Max, trying to find parts and blueprints to upgrade the car. Along with this, there is also an emphasis on vehicular combat, as well as good ol’ fisticuffs and some ranged weapons thrown in for good measure.

Hogwarts Legacy

Hogwarts Legacy is an open-world game that perfectly manages to tap into the world of the Harry Potter books. The title takes place a hundred years before the events of the books, and puts players in the shoes of a budding young wizard joining the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As they live out their student life, players will also eventually discover a bubbling goblin uprising, as well as criminal wizards. Hogwarts Legacy is one of those games that any fan of the Harry Potter series owes themselves to play because of just how well it captures the magical feelings of the books.

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

While Skyrim might offer a fun take on a fantasy open-world RPG, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon takes a darker turn. The game takes on the classic tales of Arthurian legend, albeit with its own unique interpretations. Along with its vast open world, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon also features quite a bit of emphasis on first-person combat, be it with swords or at range with a bow and some arrows. There are also plenty of other things to do while you’re out and about, from gathering crafting materials to simply taking a break by sketching some scenery or fishing by a lake.

Star Wars Outlaws

Star Wars Outlaws stands as a redemption story of its own, overcoming early skepticism to win players over. While the game was a mess when it first came out, the developers have taken quite a bit of player feedback to then introduce a host of fixes to the game, from gameplay aspects like improving how stealth works, to the addition of plenty of story content through the release of two expansions. Star Wars Outlaws is a great way to experience the Star Wars universe without the baggage of having to play as a Jedi.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Assassin’s Creed Shadows represents something of a new leaf for the franchise. While many had found the last two releases—Valhalla and Odyssey—a bit too bloated, Shadows pulls its filler and padding back a bit, instead focusing on delivering a few core activities that are actually fun and make the world a joy to explore. It also finally takes the franchise to Japan, and introduces a pair of new protagonists: the stealthy Naoe and the fearsome Yasuke. The two have to work together to figure out the secrets behind Oda Nobunaga’s death, while also dealing with the machinations of an early form of the Templars.

The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered

While Skyrim might serve as a fantastic open-world RPG in its own right, its predecessor, Oblivion, was also a downright excellent game. And now, with the Remastered release, we can once more explore the lands of Cyrodiil as we take on the opening of the Oblivion Gates and a Daedric invasion. Along with this, there are also plenty of side-quests to take on, including a host of factions to join, from the fighter’s guild to the Dark Brotherhood. You can even simply become an arena fighter if that’s all you really want to do, it’s ultimately all up to you.

Atomfall

While Rebellion might be known for its excellent shooter series Sniper Elite, the studio decided to try something different with Atomfall. Rather than taking on Nazi soldiers on covert missions during World War 2, Atomfall instead has you scavenging for resources in a strange world where it is up to you to figure out the game’s story through your own skills of investigation and deduction. While there are plenty of fights you can still get into, you’ll want to be a lot more careful about the kinds of enemies you decide to take on, since you’re a lot more fragile and not as well-armed as you might be in a Sniper Elite game.

Sniper Elite: Resistance

While Rebellion has been experimenting with Atomfall, it still hasn’t left its Sniper Elite series behind. We also recently got the release of Sniper Elite: Resistance, where players take on the role of a brand new protagonist, SOE Agent Harry Hawker, who is taking on missions that run parallel to the events of Sniper Elite 5. Since it is ultimately a spin-off, Sniper Elite: Resistance features primarily the same gameplay as its predecessors, but with quite a bit more refinements in various things, from second-to-second gameplay all the way up to how its missions are structured.

Firewatch

Firewatch is a narrative adventure game where the goal is quite simple; on his first day at Firewatch tower Two Forks, protagonist Henry gets some interesting calls on his radio, which is otherwise only used to contact his supervisor who is based at the Thorofare tower. Things quickly start getting dark, and Henry must figure out who is calling him on the radio, and what exactly is up with his supervisor who he is yet to physically meet. Firewatch doesn’t really feature any combat. Rather, there is a focus on exploration and environmental storytelling, and it’s largely up to the player to figure out where to go and how to get there.

Dying Light

While there have been a couple of sequels out so far, the original Dying Light is still a game well worth playing thanks to its fantastic melee combat systems and parkour mechanics that make travelling through the streets and rooftops of the zombie-infected city of Haran. The story itself is also quite interesting, with protagonist Kyle Crane having been infected with the zombie virus and needing to find a way to curtail its symptoms before he ultimately turns. The title also features an interesting twist on the day-night cycle, with day time being safe for exploration but night time offering far greater rewards at the risk of the player having to deal with incredibly dangerous and more powerful zombies dubbed Volatiles. All of this combined with a fun crafting system that rewards creativity in your weapon choices make Dying Light often feel like it’s still the best game in the series so far.

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown

Until the release of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, the Ace Combat franchise felt like one of the worst-kept secrets in terms of how insane it can be both in terms of quality of gameplay and story. Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown tells a brand new story in the world of Strangereal, with the plot primarily revolving around a massive war between the Kingdom of Erusea and the Osean Foundation. The title features excellent arcade-style dogfighting combat with a host of fighter jets from the real world, as well as quite a few fictional jets for some added fun.

Half-Life 2

Quite an easy contender for one of the greatest games ever made, Half-Life 2 has a sprawling campaign that holds up even to this day thanks to the sheer amount of variety it presents to players, both in the form of different weapons and enemies, as well as the mechanics of various levels. The title was also important in introducing the physics engine that is part of Valve’s own Source engine, and the feature was on incredible display thanks to a weapon like the gravity gun. Throw on top an impressive story that is told in an incredibly minimalistic way without ever cutting to a cutscene, and it’s easy to see why Half-Life 2 is so widely regarded as being such a great game, even in 2025.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

While PC as a platform is no stranger to first-person shooters, it is hard to argue that the Halo franchise isn’t one of the best that the genre has seen. Thankfully, thanks to Halo: The Master Chief Collection, players can experience almost the entirety of the Halo storyline, starting from the original Halo: Combat Evolved, its sequels Halo 2, Halo 3 and spin-offs ODST, Halo Reach, and even the start of 343 Industries’ (now Halo Studios) run with the franchise, Halo 4. The collection also offers a way to play all of the various games’ levels in remixed orders, following distinct themes like levels that focus on vehicles, for example, to focusing more on certain subplots. Halo: The Master Chief Collection is essentially the best way to experience a seminal shooter series, warts and all.

Monster Hunter Wilds

Quite possibly the most refined gameplay offered so far in the Monster Hunter franchise, Monster Hunter Wilds represents the pinnacle of the series, if not in its smaller roster of monsters when compared to its predecessors, then at least in its gameplay systems and massive, beautiful worlds. Monster Hunter Wilds features a short, fun story that takes you across the Forbidden Lands as you try to get young child Nata back to his family. Along the way you’ll get to take on several monsters, both new to the series as well as returning favourites, using the weapons of your choice out of 14 distinct options. Monster Hunter Wilds features plenty of gameplay refinements as well, including a mount system, as well as the ability to carry around two weapons that you can switch between mid-fight, which is great since each weapon feels like you’re playing a new game altogether.

Returnal

One of the rare instances of a AAA roguelite game, Returnal is an intense third-person shooter that puts players in the shoes of space pilot Selene Vassos who finds herself having crashed on an alien planet named Atropos. What follows is a psychedelic adventure as she tries to find the source of a mysterious signal called the White Shadow, but the twist is that Selene seems to be stuck in some kind of time loop where, every time she dies, she finds herself waking up at the moment of her ship’s crash. The title is filled with fast-paced and tense combat that has you dodging massive projectiles shot by strange creatures, and occasionally also getting your hands on upgrades for your weapons. The story itself is also quite interesting, pulling in plenty of allusions from myths as she tries to make it off Atropos alive.

Sleeping Dogs

Born from the ashes of the long-dead True Crime series of games, Sleeping Dogs is the closest we’ve ever gotten to having a Hong Kong action movie in video game form. The plot revolves around the adventures of undercover cop Wei Shen who must infiltrate a triad gang in order to take it down from the inside. When it comes to gameplay, Sleeping Dogs is an open-world game with several inter-mingling systems, from driving and vehicular combat, to melee combat with slick martial arts moves, and the occasional bouts of ranged combat when you can get your hands on a gun. The game wonderfully realises its setting of Hong Kong, often showing the stark contrasts between the cleaner commercial areas of the city and the but bright and colourful entertainment districts.

Metro Exodus

Whereas the first two games in the Metro series were more focused on offering linear experiences, Metro Exodus broadened its scope by a considerable amount by opting to set players free in more open environments. While far from an open-world game, Metro Exodus still provides quite a bit of freedom to players in terms of how they want to approach any situation. Along with this, the title also encourages plenty of exploration since, in keeping with series tradition, resources are scarce in Metro Exodus. Exploring is also a great way to get your hands on valuable upgrade materials to improve the arsenal of weapons you will ultimately end up using against not only human enemies, but mutated foes as well. The story is also quite interesting, since it revolves around Artyom, his wife Anna, and their friends the Rangers departing the Moscow Metro system in a train to explore the Russian wilderness.

Gears of War: Reloaded

When the original Gears of War first came out back in 2006, it was considered a mind-blowing experience for the time thanks to its visuals, as well as refinements over the turn-based shooter mechanics we had seen done much worse in plenty of other games. Gears of War: Reloaded, however, proves that the original title still holds up to this day thanks to its incredible campaign with plenty of set pieces, fun and varied weapons to play around with, and some downright fantastic visual upgrades that have been made to take better advantage of modern hardware.

Dead Cells

Dead Cells is one of those rare indie games that manages to get just about every single one of its aspects right. Even something as simple as movement and exploration feel great in the roguelite action game, and the level of variety on offer with the weapons, as well as the meta progression system that encourages not only mastery of the traversal systems, but also a willingness to explore, make just about every run of Dead Cells feel like a fun time. Throw on top some excellent pixel art that really makes its massive boss fights come to life, as well as the plethora of additional content – ends up making it very difficult to put the side-scroller down for good.

Detroit: Become Human

While games made by Quantic Dream might be quite divisive at times, Detroit: Become Human is outright the best title that the studio has put out so far. Featuring narrative-focused gameplay that largely involves having conversations and making choices at key moments, Detroit: Become Human tells three distinct stories in a world where humanity treats sentient androids that it has developed as slaves. All three stories have the player take on the role of a distinct android, where you have to figure out the complex moral quandaries that take place throughout the storylines.

Portal 2

When the first Portal came out, it was widely regarded as a radical new entry in a genre that was otherwise known to revolve around killing things. It ultimately ended up laying the foundations for what would become Portal 2 – a bigger, grander sequel in every way possible. Portal 2 takes place an unknown amount of time after the events of the first game, and has Chell once more pick up the portal gun to find her way out of the Aperture Science facility she’s trapped in. Along with GlaDOS returning once more as a major character, Portal 2 also features a new character in the form of Wheatley. We also get a lot of storytelling in the game, since quite a bit of it has you exploring ancient versions of the bathroom curtain company that would eventually become Aperture Science.

Outlast

There might be plenty of stealth-based horror games out there, but Outlast manages to be something quite special thanks to its use of some real-world history to build up its scare. Revolving primarily around the MK Ultra experiments that were conducted by the CIA, the game puts you into the shoes of independent journalist Miles Upshur who is trying to get the scoop on Mount Massive Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Unfortunately, owing to unethical experiments, most of its residents have essentially gone insane, and now Upshur must figure out how to survive and get out in one piece while also making sure he gets enough evidence along the way. Outlast also makes use of a handheld camera as its primary PoV device, since it offers a night vision mode. However, players will also have to keep a track of their battery consumption, since you don’t want to be trapped in the dark with murderous people around you.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Ostensibly the closest the Metal Gear franchise gets to having a “final” game since it takes place furthest into the future, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a major departure for the series. It trades in the tactical espionage action in favour of the more bombastic tagline of lightning bolt action, and puts you in the shoes of a fully cyborg-ised Raiden at the peak of his power. Developed by PlatinumGames, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance features a fantastic combat system that has an emphasis on not only long and vicious combos, but also parrying the enemy’s attacks to open them up for massive counter-attacks. This, along with the Zandatsu system that lets you cut just about everything, be it an enemy’s limbs or a bridge’s support, make Revengeance a treat to play. Throw on top an over-the-top but fun story about private military contractors and a cartoonishly evil US Senator and you have an explosive roller coaster.

Resident Evil

Before the remake of Resident Evil 2 back in 2019 was considered the high watermark for video game remakes, the series had already earned similar acclaim for its remake of the original Resident Evil. Originally released on the GameCube all the way back in 2002, the remake of the original Resident Evil eventually made its way to PC, complete with higher-resolution textures and all of the high-quality upgrades that it got over the original. Even after all these years, Resident Evil still manages to feel like a one-of-a-kind survival horror experience, thanks to its tight level design and generally excellent gameplay that melds environmental puzzle solving and tense action sequences, all while keeping you on the edge of your seat thanks to a constant scarcity of weapons and ammo.

Watch_Dogs 2

It’s no secret that the original Watch_Dogs was a bit of a disappointment, both in terms of its visuals, as well as its story and characters. The series’ second stab at the series in the form of Watch_Dogs 2, however, proved to be a much more interesting experience. Rather than focusing on the brooding Aiden Pearce, Watch_Dogs 2 instead stars a group of scrappy young adults as they venture into the real world to start their careers, but find themselves fighting against an authoritarian regime that is making use of high-tech surveillance technology to control the populace. Protagonist Marcus Holloway is a much more fun character than Pearce ever was, and the attempts of his rebel hacker crew, DedSec, to take down ctOS 2.0 are a wild, fun, and often emotional adventure.

Silent Hill f

After the Silent Hill franchise spent over a decade being missing from the overall gaming scene, the series made a bombastic return with last year’s remake of the seminal Silent Hill 2. A year later and now we even have a brand new entry in the stories franchise – Silent Hill f. The game takes place in the unique setting of a quaint Japanese finishing town in the 1960s, where school-going girl Hinako has a strained relationship with her parents and goes to meet her friends for some solace. However, a sinister fog starts covering the town of Ebisugaoka, and Hinako finds herself trapped and fighting for her life. While there is an emphasis on combat this time around, Silent Hill f is still able to effectively pull off the scares and tense atmosphere that the series is known for.

Dying Light: The Beast

The newest entry in the Dying Light franchise is seen as something of a return to form for the series. While Dying Light 2 Stay Human did well for developer Techland, the studio itself acknowledged that it had lost what made the original Dying Light great, and hence we get The Beast. Once more putting us into the shoes of Kyle Crane after the events of The Following, Dying Light: The Beast features improved parkour-based traversal over its predecessor, while also bringing in improvements to both melee and ranged combat, all of which is packaged into a fantastic new open world to explore with plenty of variety, both in terms of zombie types and the scenery.

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter

A reimagining of an absolute classic, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is a ground-up 3D remake of a seminal 2D sprite-based RPG. As its name implies, it is the first part of the expansive Trails franchise, and puts you in the shoes of Estelle Bright and her adopted brother Joshua as they set off as members of the peacekeeping guild, starting out as bracers and slowly working their way up. The Trails series, while long, absolutely features several stories well worth experiencing, and there is currently no better way to start your journey than with Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter.

Blue Prince

Puzzle games, especially in the indie space, tend to come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Very rarely, however, does one show up that ends up feeling like a revelation. This is precisely what developer Dogubomb achieved with Blue Prince. The premise is quite simple: you are stuck in a mysterious manor – Mt. Holly – where the rooms shift around for no apparent reason. The core of the game is exploring the mansion, but the twist is that the player decides what the next room will be every time they open a door. Blue Prince has a wide gamut of puzzles for players to figure out as they try to make their way to the rumoured Room 46. To throw another wrench in your plans, the house once again shifts its rooms around every dawn. Blue Prince is the kind of game where you can spend anywhere from between 15 minutes to several hours at a stretch as you try to comb through the mysterious rooms of Mt. Holly to find a way to their destination.

Commandos: Origins

While the real-time tactical stealth series Commandos doesn’t really need much of an introduction, the latest release, Commandos: Origins, proves that the genre and style of gameplay still has legs in the modern day. Taking us all the way back to the origin of the World War 2 crew of commandos you play in the original Commandos, Commandos: Origins offers entirely new challenges throughout its various maps, all with more modernised gameplay thanks to updated visuals, as well as a large variety of objective types that will have you make use of just about every ability you and your crew can muster.

“Of course, there will be boss battles,” he told Automaton-Media. “However, rather than defeating enemies in a flashy manner as you progress through the game, like in games that emphasize gun shooting action, the style is more like Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2, where players expand their exploration area in a closed space and overcome obstacles using their wits.”

It’s in line with the growth of protagonist Grace Ashcroft, who goes from being scared of her predicament to eventually fighting back. “One thing that’s so appealing about the Resident Evil series is that characters who are initially terrified grow stronger as they gain experience in extreme situations. Grace is scared at first, but the situation eventually causes her to snap, and she becomes able to fight her enemies.

“Being able to experience this process of growth together with the protagonist is one of the highlights of the game,” said Nakanishi. Interestingly, he mentions that knives will allow for “new ways” to take down threats.

Of course, there are rumors of Leon S. Kennedy, who is playable and seemingly offers larger gameplay gameplay areas compared to Grace. However, these are also allegedly more grounded and horrifying than his previous stints. With how wild previous games’ bosses have been, it should be interesting to see how they turn out in the sequel.

Resident Evil Requiem is out on February 27th, 2026, for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. It’s arriving to celebrate the series’ 40th anniversary with Resident Evil 7: biohazard and Resident Evil Village out on the same day for Switch 2 players.

Rather, Cregger is more interested in telling a fresh story within the world of Resident Evil. He said that the movie will act as a love letter to the game franchise, and will follow the same rules for its fiction as the games do.

“Let me say this: this is not breaking the rules of the games,” Cregger said. “I am the biggest worshiper of the games, so I’m telling a story that is a love letter to the games and follows the rules of the games. It is obedient to the lore of the games, it’s just a different story. I’m not going to tell Leon’s story, because Leon’s story is told in the games. [Fans] already have that.” Following up on fans that might want to see a more faithful adaptation of Resident Evil games, Cregger said that “They can play the game.”

Rumours surrounding the movie have indicated that its story will revolve around a courier and their attempt at delivering a package to a remote hospital. However, with the outbreak of the zombie virus, they invariably will end up in a battle for survival against “hordes of mutated creatures”.

Back in April, Cregger had also spoken about the Resident Evil games, and how he is taking inspiration from them to execute the vision for his movie. “There’s a moment that comes in almost every Resident Evil game where you find yourself in a dark passageway, your health is almost zero and there’s no way around,” he said. “You have to go through but you know there’s something awful for you in the darkness.”

“That is a thrill that the Resident Evil games have perfected. My movie will be built in the spirit of those games and follows one central protagonist from point A to point B, as they descend deeper into hell.”

The Resident Evil movie series getting rebooted was announced all the way back in January. The production on the film will be handled by Resident Evil screen rights owner Constantin Film along with PlayStation Production. The movie will be co-written by Cregger along with Shay Hatten (John Wick: Chapter 4, Army of the Dead).

When it comes to movies, Resident Evil’s live action outings have always been an entirely separate franchise from the games, with their continuities being highly divergent despite the movies borrowing elements from the games like the existence of the Umbrella Corporation. The first of these movies, staring Mila Jovovich, came out all the way back in 2002. Despite the fact that the movies are barely connected to the game franchise, the movies have made $1.2 billion worldwide.

The Cregger-directed Resident Evil movie is slated to hit theatres on September 18, 2026. Rumours have indicated that it will feature Austin Abrams in one of its leading roles.