The Resident Evil Showcase has revealed extensive gameplay for the upcoming Resident Evil Requiem, launching on 27th February, 2026. Not only that, but we've also received official confirmation that zombies are back. But they're slightly different this time...
The zombies here are not completely mindless, but rather retain some of the attributes of their personalities when they were alive. This means you'll see zombies attempting to complete tasks like cleaning the environment, albeit in a completely deranged manner.
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The showcase explains that careful observation of your enemies will allow you to either sneak around them or get the drop on them. If you're playing as Leon, you'll be able to parry attacks with a hatchet and execute brutal finishing moves while also picking up weapons dropped by the zombies. And yes, this includes a chainsaw. Grace's gameplay, meanwhile, is more akin to classic survival horror, placing emphasis on limited ammo.
Crafting also makes a return, and you'll actually need to extract blood from your fallen enemies to create specialised injectors. The description for one of these says "Prevents corpses from mutating", so it seems reasonable to assume that we might see some enemies similar to the Crimson Heads from the Resident Evil remake.
The showcase also revealed three default difficulty levels for Requiem. Casual will add in auto-aiming to allow newcomers to ease into the experience, while Standard comes in both Modern and Classic forms. The latter brings back the Ink Ribbon items during Grace's gameplay, meaning your ability to save is finite. It's likely that a more difficult 'Hardcore' option will be available upon completion of the main game, but this wasn't mentioned.
It was also reiterated that you can change between first and third-person perspectives at any time during gameplay. Meanwhile, a Requiem Pro Controller will launch for the Switch 2 alongside the game next month, while amiibo will also arrive later in the year.