Resident Evil needs no introduction in the horror game genre. Since its debut in 1996, the franchise has seen long-lasting support and expansion over the course of the last three decades, including a wide array of storylines, spinoff games, movies, shows, and characters. Considered by many to be the blueprint for horror video games, the titles in the franchise are consistently rated as some of the scariest interactive experiences of all time, and the latest installment, Resident Evil 9: Requiem (RE9), is no exception. Since releasing on February 27th of this year, it has accumulated thousands of positive reviews, with many praising it as the scariest entry in recent history. But does it live up to the hype?

Developed by the Japanese studio Capcom, RE 9 takes place in various remote and abandoned corners of the midwestern United States. Long after the Raccoon City outbreak depicted in the franchise’s second and third installments, Grace Ashcroft, an FBI analyst investigating a series of deaths connected to the incident, is sent to a crime scene to gather additional information about her case. Things quickly devolve, and Grace finds herself fully involved in the shady remnants of the infamous Umbrella Corporation, a bioweapons development company responsible for the many outbreaks depicted throughout the franchise. She encounters Dr. Victor Gideon, a former Umbrella employee who is currently pursuing a highly secretive project from Umbrella’s past which promises to rattle the current world order. Helping her throughout her ordeal is series regular Leon Kennedy, a survivor of the initial outbreak and former special forces operative who has spent most of his life fighting Umbrella and its many splinter groups. Together, they must work together to survive and thwart Gideon’s potentially world-changing plans.

While relatively standard for a RE storyline, the gameplay has seen significant innovation since the previous entries in the series. The puzzle-based core experience has remained mostly unchanged, but the variety of puzzles has increased, leaving every unique cipher feeling relatively distinct from the rest. Perhaps the most welcome improvement to gameplay is the decision to provide both action and horror-focused gameplay options, with sections featuring Grace’s point of view being a far more frightening experience than Leon’s.

This method also incorporates the unique inventory styles into each perspective, with Leon sporting his classic RE4 briefcase organization technique and Grace using the more limited slotted inventory system. The game has some extremely intense sequences; however, while definitely frightening at times, I would disagree with those who claim it to be the scariest game in the series. The fear factor is too inconsistent in my opinion, and while the frequent changes in POV provide a welcome change of pace, they also somewhat diminish the tension of the game, never fully reaching the levels of intensity that RE7 maintained.

The game’s performance is fairly impressive. Even while running high settings with Ray Tracing enabled on my medium range rig, I was able to maintain a steady 75 FPS, and only in certain, more graphically intense situations did this number drop. Even then, it remained playable. Unfortunately, the game did struggle during cutscenes, with audio consistently becoming desynchronized from the visuals, sometimes by as much as three or four seconds. This undermined some of the narrative beats, and made certain sections feel a little silly, with the events in the story being revealed to me multiple seconds before the accompanying audio played. Despite this, I still enjoyed the campaign, and it provided a lot of clarification regarding the timeline, continuity, and events of previous games in the series. There are also plenty of references to previous titles and characters that any long term fans are sure to enjoy.

At a price point of $69.99, I  believe that the game provides enough content to justify its cost, but only if you are already a fan of the series. If you are looking to get into the franchise as a newcomer, I would recommend instead trying out one of the previous, less expensive titles, to become acquainted with the overarching story. Overall, Resident Evil 9: Requiem is a solid entry for the series, providing both an engaging narrative expansion and solid horror/action sequences that manage to both impress and terrify.