You’ll never catch me watching a Saw movie. I don’t need even one night at Freddy’s to know it’s not for me. I wouldn’t even drive past Elm Street. And yet – I’ve played every single mainline Resident Evil game going back to the original in 1996 – including Resident Evil Requiem (available tonight for Xbox Series X|S). It’s easily one of my favorite series of all time.
So gather ’round, my jump scare-averse friends. Allow me to put my 30 years of Resident experience (and my natural immunity to the T-virus) to work to help you conquer your fears and enjoy one of the biggest games of 2026.
Set the Scene
Some fans will tell you that the way to play a horror game is late at night, lights out, headphones on. Do not listen to these masochists. Setting up a calming environment goes a long way to ensuring that the terrors on your TV stay there, safely confined to a little glowing box on the other side of the room. Resident Evil games are intense, so to minimize my feeling of dread, I typically play during daylight hours – and aren’t those days getting noticeably longer?
Hell, turn on the lights for some added (lack of) ambience, if that helps. Turn the volume down a bit – you don’t need every creaking floorboard spiking your adrenaline in 7.1 surround. When things get overwhelming – and they will – you can pause, look upon your more serene surroundings, and return to the game when you’re ready to be horrified once more.
Set the Settings
Now we’re almost ready to start the game – after a quick stop in the Settings menu to tone down the fear factor. A game’s difficulty can certainly contribute to its scariness; if you know death is lurking around every corner, you’re going to play scared. Fortunately, Resident Evil Requiem allows for a Casual game mode, allowing one to “Relax while enjoying the story and its puzzles.” See, just like a cozy game! Having played through the game on Standard (Modern), I found the difficulty balanced, with reasonably plentiful ammo and healing items.
Requiem also offers a series first: adjustable perspective settings. While the game will nudge you towards 1st person camera for Grace Ashcroft’s sections, the 3rd person option gives you a bit more situational awareness; essential when you’re trying to avoid detection… which you will want to do whenever possible.
[Deep Breath] Here We Go
OK, now we’re ready to start the game. While Requiem will see you alternate between playing as FBI Analyst Grace Ashcroft and Ageless Badass Leon S. Kennedy, early on you’ll spend much more time in Grace’s boots. While impressively brave, Grace is not nearly so battle-hardened as Leon, meaning you’ll spend a lot more of her time sneaking around, avoiding combat when possible, and running away from unkillable eldritch horrors.
There’s a trope in horror movies that the monster is always scarier when you don’t fully know what it looks like, and Requiem‘s early scenes utilize this technique masterfully. In an early encounter, Grace encounters a large… thing… in the dark, and I don’t mind telling you that I panicked and ended up sprinting directly into a dead end. Instead of struggling to make my way out I decided to use this as a learning experience… and just stood there. The creature soon came fully into view: yes, it was horrific, but when it lunged at Grace it wasn’t fatal. It attacked again, and yet Grace was still standing. It wasn’t until the third attack that I received a gruesome Game Over.
When the game reloaded, I came into the scene knowing that I didn’t need to be perfect in order to survive – just do your best and know that will probably be good enough to help you survive. Also, try not to get chased into dead ends.
Pattern Recognition: It’s Not Just for Soulslikes!
New to the series, the living dead of Resident Evil Requiem aren’t all mindless shamblers. Perhaps due to the recency of being turned, many have retained a shred of their humanity, continuing to go about what they were doing before they became a zombified murder machine. Unless disturbed, orderlies keep mopping the floor, a cook chops rancid meat with a giant cleaver, another keeps the power bill low by turning off lights that you left on.
As much as you may want to, there’s no need to kill them all (and Grace doesn’t really have enough firepower to do so). But as they follow the pathways that served them in life, you’ll find that most zombies roam predictably, and can be easily distracted or avoided by flicking on a light, throwing an empty bottle, or just staying out of their way. Once you know how dumb the undead are, they cause a lot less tension.
You Can Do This!
That said, not every abomination in the game is so easily avoided. Without question, Grace’s early scenes inspire the most dread in the game; if you can brave the opening couple of hours, know that you can handle anything the game will throw at you. Personally, I find myself most sensitive to jump scares when I first start playing a new Resident Evil game.
After a few hours, you’ll become more confident in Grace’s abilities, improve her survivability, and get better at anticipating when the scares might happen – and how to react when they inevitably do. Surviving The Worst Night Ever is why we play Resident Evil games – if I can have fun doing it, anyone can.
Resident Evil Requiem is available tonight for Xbox Series X|S… but you’re excused if you wait ’til the sun comes up.
Resident Evil Requiem Deluxe Edition
CAPCOM CO., LTD.
Resident Evil Requiem
CAPCOM CO., LTD.