Believe it or not, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is a decade old this time next year. An instalment that changed the game for Capcom's survival horror series, it made first-person the standard for mainline titles and brought proper terror back after the failings of Resident Evil 6.

It's fascinating, then, that next month's Resident Evil Requiem is described best as a blend of the two extremes.

Returning favourite Leon and newcomer Grace lead a campaign split in half, with the former bringing the action and the latter all about classic inventory management and tense combat. It is a culmination of Capcom's work in the genre over the past 10 years, as the gameplay strokes of Resident Evil Village and Resident Evil 4 meet under one roof.

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Resident Evil Requiem, therefore, presents itself as the definitive franchise experience and the ultimate PS5 horror game overall. Three hours of play on PS5 Pro in an early section of the title has us convinced that's true.

Our play session marked the first time Leon has been playable during the buildup to the game's release, as he opens the preview having just arrived at the Rhodes Hill care centre. It very quickly becomes clear there are zombies on the loose inside, allowing us the first taste of action gameplay in Resident Evil Requiem and some of its new features.

This is the combat of Resident Evil 6 dialled up, with judo throws, flashy takedown moves, and a hard-nut Leon. At this point, the game defaults to the third-person perspective, letting you get a better view of your surroundings as zombies pour into the tight meeting room and reception area.

Leon is all about blasting the undead with bullets and then getting up close to finish them off with an elaborate melee move. He'll throw them over his shoulder, pose for a headshot, and execute zombies in quick-time events. The sequence also allowed us to steal the weapons certain enemies brought to the fight — a new feature in Resident Evil Requiem — with a doctor wielding a chainsaw.

Once you've killed the zombie, the chainsaw will violently fling itself about on the ground, continuing to deal damage to anyone (including you) that comes into contact with it. Once it settles down, you can take the chainsaw for yourself and cut down the undead. An extra layer to this, though, is if you don't get to the weapon in time, another enemy can take it for themselves.

It feels like Capcom is purposefully flamboyant with Leon's section, as it even takes the time to introduce the scene with big, bold lettering over the entire screen like it's a Remedy game. Everything about playing as the fan favourite is so over the top, and it taps into the kind of action that made Resident Evil 4 an all-time great.

Leon soon meets Grace inside Rhodes Hill, at which point the perspective changes to the newcomer from a first-person camera angle. Most of our hands on session was spent playing as Grace, who has the overall objective of escaping the facility by finding three hidden quartz.

With no ammo whatsoever and a much tighter perspective, it initially feels like you're playing an entirely different game as you take control of Grace. All she can do is run away and try to survive until you reach the main hall, where you'll start to stock up on bullets and green herbs.

Grace and how she plays have been the focus for most of Resident Evil Requiem's marketing cycle up to this point, so you'll already be familiar with how it subscribes to the tense, survival horror framing of the past two mainline entries.

Conserving your ammo, health, and carefully freeing up inventory slots for new items as you explore, it's while playing as Grace that you'll encounter the classic puzzles of the series. Jewels are used to open locked doors, photos must be references for symbols, and Antique Coins can be traded for upgrades — it's classic Resident Evil.

What this latest slice of gameplay reveals is a handful of new features and mechanics to contend with. As you explore the building, you can extract blood from zombies, which forms a type of currency you'll use to craft items. In addition, there are test tubes and formulas hidden in the environment you can collect and analyse to get more crafting recipes.

The zombies themselves have then been given a facelift, as some will replicate the actions of the jobs and habits they had before dying. We encountered a zombie chef continuing to cut meat in a kitchen, a zombie cleaner in the bathroom, and a zombie singer in a bar area whose scream will temporarily stun you.

One other new mechanic we spotted right at the very end of our preview brings back the idea behind Crimson Heads. If enough time has passed, zombies can come back to life in a more powerful form, sporting significantly more health, speed, and extra damage. They have a fleshy growth sticking out of their head to mark the enhanced version, and add an extra tension to backtracking through areas you've already explored — there's always potential for the zombies to come back to life.

All these little updates and gameplay enhancements work to upgrade the survival horror formula the new mainline titles have subscribed to for a few entries now, allowing Resident Evil Requiem to still feel fresh when playing as Grace. When split up between Leon's action-focused sections, the overall experience should have a nice pace to it, as you spend a few hours blasting zombies and then switch to puzzle-solving and survival.

It's this that could make Resident Evil Requiem one of the definitive PS5 horror games. It's got the action, and it's got the survival horror — it's a two-in-one pack of the best horror gameplay around. With all the Resident Evil charm, lore, characters, environments, and design on top, Resident Evil Requiem is shaping up to be another landmark moment for the series.

If it gets everything else right beyond what we've played, then Resident Evil Requiem will belong right alongside what is considered the franchise's greatest instalments. This could be another Resident Evil 2 or Resident Evil 4 moment.

Resident Evil Requiem releases for PS5 on 27th February 2026. Have you already been convinced to pick the game up in a month's time? Let us know in the comments below.