Resident Evil Requiem was originally a tense, stealth-oriented horror starring only Leon, before the team went back to the drawing board: ‘People wouldn’t want to see a timid Leon’

Capcom published a lengthy Resident Evil Requiem showcase today, showing off some typically savage new footage and gameplay features. Series mainstay Leon S. Kennedy will co-star with newcomer Grace, and their sequences will be roughly even in length, with game director Koshi Nakanishi describing Requiem as essentially two games in one.

Grace’s parts will resemble Resident Evil 2 and 7, and will be “really entrenched in the horror aspects of the gameplay”. In other words, expect to do a lot of creeping around in the shadows, a lot of urgent crafting in corners, and every bullet expended will count. Leon’s parts will predictably channel the “thrilling tension” of Resident Evil 4, as well as its action focus. If you’ve ever wanted to deliver a roundhouse kick to a shambling zombie nurse, have I got good news for you.

“Each part is ordered to offer the ultimate balance of tension and release,” Nakanishi explained. It’s an interesting approach to blend the two primary Resi gameplay styles together, and this hybrid presentation was settled on when the team realised they couldn’t have it both ways with just Leon.

“We actually tried to make a genuine horror game with Leon,” Nakanishi says, “but sure enough we thought that people wouldn’t want to see a timid Leon. That was the overwhelming opinion, at least.”

Aside from the new gameplay footage—which you can see embedded above—there were a few more interesting details. The zombies in Requiem “retain characteristics from when they were alive” (hence the aforementioned zombie nurse). These wretched creatures “cling to the habits of their past lives”, with the custodian of a building given as one example: despite being a stumbling hissing mess she continues to clean the facilities in her zombie state, though understandably cannot help but to smash her head against a mirror while doing so.

Leon’s gunplay has been refined, with added emphasis on targeting different parts of a foe’s body for maximum debilitation. Crafting specialized injectors now calls for the use of infected blood, which—of course—can only be extracted from an infected, preferably after killing it.

Resident Evil Requiem releases on February 26, and if you watch the video above you can hear about all the pre-order bonuses and some bizarre partnership with Porsche.