PREVIEW: Resident Evil 9: Requiem

Grace Ashcroft, a young FBI technical analyst and the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, an investigative reporter who last appeared in 2003’s Resident Evil Outbreak

There is a "2nd main character fans will be familiar with a large array of weapons"

Press demo begins immediately after the conclusion of the reveal trailer

Grace, who has been mysteriously captured, awakens upside down, strapped to a bed, and understandably scared out of her mind.

She manages to escape, but she’s out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Grace has little combat expertise, and my session features zero action.

Rely on wits to survive the derelict Wrenwood Hotel, the site of Grace’s mother’s murder.

Switch to third-person anytime

Capcom labels first-person view as the “recommended” experience

Requiem proved terrifying regardless of perspective

Opening the first door gives way to an oppressively pitch-black hallway; it almost

The game feels most like RE7, as I bump around in the dark spaces searching for open doors, every step producing a heart-stopping creak as I fear alerting whatever may be lurking.

Despite being labeled a hotel, Wrenhood seems more like some kind of clinic. Several rooms have hospital beds, remnants of medical staff, such as messages and, more horrifying, the bodies of doctors.

Classic RE formula

Locked door bearing a cherub icon over the lock indicating the necessary key.

A lit hallway sits behind a gate powered by a fuse box missing one of its fuses

Find the fuse in one room, but it’s locked behind a case. Another room has a note stating the fuse box requires a screwdriver to open it, which should be located in the nurse’s office

Solving puzzle in reverse order, searching drawers yields items like a health-regenerating shot and a classic green herb.

Bottle was the only weapon early on and it’s used to distract threats rather than deter them

Grace finds a lighter, and she opens a door that causes a dead body to fall onto her in my first jump scare

Corpse, wearing a doctor’s lab coat, clearly looks infected, though that doesn’t stop Grace from checking his pulse and asking if he’s dead in an unintentional funny bit

Suddenly, a large mutated arm emerges from the darkness to seize the body, slowly lifting it towards a grey, bloodstained maw of seemingly once-human teeth that takes a massive bite

Grace can hardly speak as the camera pans up to reveal what I can best describe as a towering, humanoid hag-like creature sporting stringy grey hair, a bulbous eye, and a tattered rag masquerading as clothing

Monster pursues, squeezing its large, mutated form down the narrow corridors. At one point, it grabs her, lifting Grace to take a big, debilitating bite out of her, necessitating a quick heal

Retreat into a nearby room, closing the door behind me. Curiously, though, the monster doesn't follow. After waiting a minute, she opens the door and look up to find a gaping hole above the doorway. So that's how this thing is getting around the hotel

As the creature crawls inside the ceiling, hanging light fixtures shake and creak to indicate the monster's rough proximity.
Meet Requiem's new persistent enemy, following in the terrifying footsteps of Mr. X and Lady Dimitrescu.

The rest of the demo is spent trying to avoid and evade this threat as it periodically resurfaces, at one point crashing through a wall to cut off like Jack Baker in RE7

Feels familiar and terrifying in the ways we’ve come to love since 1996

It isn’t clear whether we are in a decade-plus future from Resident Evil Village’s Shadows of Rose DLC took place, or a different period
Source: Game Informer