The game clearly deserves its rating for the gameplay, but definitely not for the story. This review is a requiem for those who've already finished the game, so I suggest scrolling further if you haven't finished it yet. (Or read it anyway; I don't really care.)

A little bit of history and personal rant:

Since Resident Evil 5 and Wesker, we haven't really seen a villain who survives more than one game. Even Mother Miranda, a literal woman who taught Spencer about virology and effectively ignited the entire saga called "Resident Evil," even she couldn't handle Ethan "Normie" Winters and his normie daughter despite being so powerful, tragic and meaningful. But more importantly, she couldn't handle the game's promotional material and gooners' activity towards Dimitrescu. Miranda just wasn't hyped properly and was easily overshadowed by other, lesser lords characters in Village — like Dimitrescu, who was marketed on the level of a main villainess (and maybe she should have been the one for Village, so the story of the greater character could continue in future games, while the players in Village could have more time with their big lady in the castle). But okay, you still managed to waste the great potential for a long-lasting tragic villain without a superiority complex as the prime motivation, because you couldn't even let her have a proper debut. Fine. (Not really; I hate games about Ethan's family.)

But enough about the bitter past, because when I booted up that game called Requiem, I expected the good ♥♥♥♥. Once I saw Zeno and Victor, I thought, "Okay, maybe, MAYBE we finally could have an amazing villain arc at last!" Those two were a mystery for sure, with so much aura, so many questions, so much... hope. The tension was high as hell, and in the end, well, it was all for nothing. It was just a trip to a destroyed Raccoon City as Leon.

Throughout the game, you're left questioning: "Who the hell is Zeno, and why do his moves and looks seem so familiar?" You question yourself further: "Did they really bring back the villain that died in RE5? Are the devs that desperate now? Screw it; at least I'll finally have a villain that won't die in its debut game." And what do you think? Not only did our Wesker boy have the moves and the grooves, but he also somehow missed that Oswell E. Spencer actually had a heart the whole time — and I didn’t see that coming either, no one did.

Among all the villains in the game universe, he—Spencer, one of the most heartless characters in the game universe—receives a redemption moment. Not Miranda, who was broken by the loss of her daughter and who was actually worthy of redemption, calling out her daughter’s name as her last words while dying… No, it’s Spencer they give the redemption to. To a character who was already developed in several games and whose legacy lives on even today. For some comical reasons, despite his genocide legacy and god complex, he decided to take care of baby Grace and to create an antidote to cure the T-Virus to redeem himself. It's not a bold twist for the story; it just doesn't seem convincing and redeeming at all, even considering that he created an antidote for whatever his egotistical reasons were.

Unfortunately, our degenerate wannabe Zeno-Wesker didn't know that and ruins his powers himself, despite not knowing what the hell that stuff even does exactly. And then he dies because of that. Without any boss fight with him throughout the entire game. Brilliant. He's like Miranda from Village, but in reverse. Because despite Miranda being proclaimed as a huge character for the story of the game series, she wasn't presented half as well as Zeno. While Zeno, on the other hand, has build-up and the intrigue level of somehow resurrected Wesker, overshadowing even Victor, the main antagonist, only to be reduced to a meaningless cheap knock-off in the final part of the game. That leaves you with a good questions: "Why he even was in the game then?", "Why so much hype and power demonstration comparing to Victor if he was nothing the whole time?" Oh, and Victor dies as well, so both main villains are dead again. Enjoy waiting for the next ones.

Gameplay in general is good. Even though my hype was high in the middle of the game, the rhythm begins to fade rapidly during the most highly anticipated and biggest selling point of the game: Leon in Raccoon City. The entire mood of the game drops from "Badass Leon" to "Melancholic, le sad Leon." The music, the environment, and the enemies—it all becomes so... uninteresting, monotone, and empty. It's not as horrible as it may sound, but I can definitely say, "Not what I expected," in a bad way. Final bosses suck, apart from the wannabe Hunk (or even an actual Hunk), which was more of a quick 1v1 special enemy than a boss fight. Parry mechanic is cool and polished, but ridiculous sometimes. You know what I mean if you tried to parry Victor's attacks in his second phase and were in shock that this is even possible and how dumb it is. Leon gets powered-up RE4 Remake-style combat, while Grace's sections improve on Village. Puzzles degraded to the point of just "copy the combination from the picture with the already solved puzzle."

I could give the game a thumbs-up because it was interesting to play despite a story that built up so great but without a proper climax, leaving me with somewhat mixed emotions, but the game's current rating doesn't really deserve to be 96% positive on the third day after release.