Resident Evil Requiem has a third-person view for fewer cheap jump scares

The biggest surprise of SGF 2025 was the reveal of a new Resident Evil. The “ninth” game of the series broke cover on the first day of the gaming show. After a fake-out tease from Capcom executives halfway through SGF Live, the show closed with a brief trailer for the Resident Evil Requiem.

Resident Evil Requiem will center on a new character, Grace Ashcroft. Ahead of the hands-off gameplay presentation, game director Koshi Nakanishi outlined how Grace isn’t a combat-hardened soldier or survival expert of episodes past. In that way, she’s more exposed and under constant threat, at least judging from the early gameplay demo.

The audience collectively chuckled at Grace equipping herself with an empty medicine bottle. That is not likely to be enough. Apparently, though, her detective skills will come into use in the game, although we didn’t see that during Capcom’s presentation – she was mostly just trying not to die.

The gameplay demo starts with Grace, strapped to a hospital bed. She's seemingly soaking wet, injured and to add insult to those injuries, she’s also upside down. As she struggles to escape her restraints, a sense of constant tension and stress builds – it feels like the whole place is a threat, and I kept a careful eye on the closed door of the room intently as she finally broke free. The demo then plays out from Grace’s first-person perspective, a la Resident Evil 7 and Village. Things remain tense as she cautiously explores the mystery locale.

The gameplay focused on simple object interaction, like Resident Evil series past. Survival horror staples, like screwdrivers, broken fuses and overly ornate keys are still here as Grace sculked and breathed heavily around what appeared to be a run-down hotel.

Capcom

Much of the demo involves the fear of being attacked rather than actual attacks. Dark hallways, light switches that didn’t work, and barely any hints or objects to give Grace context about where she’s ended up.

Eventually, an infected corpse fell out of a door onto Grace, momentarily relieving the tension. Finally, a threat! But the dead body isn’t really the threat: a giant creepy hand swings across to grab the corpse, and it’s attached to giant ogre woman-beast that bites the head clean off. Grace spent the remainder of the demo fleeing the creature, which managed to bite her shoulder. This creature could even destroy the ceiling to create new paths. The demo concluded with Grace seemingly facing her demise, armed only with the medicine bottle.

The game starts up again, but with a twist. The camera pans out to offer a ‘classic’ third-person perspective to Grace’s nightmare. The audience during my screening went wild. (A quick now that Resident Evil Village's expansion added its own third-person mode, so it's not an entirely new shift.)

A Capcom spokesperson said you’d be able to transition between the views throughout Resident Evil Reqiuem, offering, if not a difficulty setting, more of a jump scare setting. My take is that a third-person view is a little less scary, so I’ll probably be using that. 

Resident Evil Requiem is set to launch February 27, 2026.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at

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