Resident Evil Requiem: all the key details on RE9's return to Raccoon City

Resident Evil Requiem, the ninth mainline entry in the Resident Evil series, is just a few months away from release. After its announcement stole the show at Summer Games Fest, we’ve been getting more and more news about the upcoming survival horror game. It’s looking like Resident Evil Requiem is set to provide a mix of series mainstays and fresh additions. In its reveal we've seen classic locations like Raccoon City and more deep-cut references to Resident Evil Outbreak, alongside a totally new protagonist.

From the newest trailers, to the release date, to all the latest updates on the story and gameplay, here are the key details you need to know ahead of your journey to the Wrenwood Hotel (and of course, your return to Raccoon City).

Resident Evil Requiem release date and platforms

That Raccoon City vacation is coming up fast. You won’t have to wait more than half a year for Resident Evil Requiem, as Capcom announced it will be available February 27, 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

The precise release date came alongside the game’s reveal trailer at Summer Game Fest 2025, which was a welcome change from teasers that often leave you waiting ages to know when a game will be ready.

Resident Evil Requiem trailers

The first trailer for Resident Evil Requiem debuted as part of Summer Games Fest 2025. It’s here that we were first introduced to Grace Ashcroft, the game’s new protagonist (and the only playable character that we've seen so far). Over the course of the trailer she goes from ‘locked in’ at her desk to uhh… literally locked to a spooky medical inversion table. It’s clear that getting to the bottom of her mother’s murder is going to be a lot more dangerous than she anticipated.

Meanwhile, the recently dropped ‘Official Game Overview’ provided further insight into Resident Evil Requiem, with interviews explaining the game’s core concept of "addictive fear" and exactly how they made Grace’s hair look so damn good.

Resident Evil Requiem's story

Resident Evil Requiem’s protagonist is Grace Ashcroft, an intelligence analyst for the FBI. Grace is the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, an investigative reporter for the Raccoon Press who appeared in Resident Evil Outbreak (a 2003 PlayStation 2 spin-off).

Grace is assigned to investigate a case involving a victim whose body was discovered in the abandoned Wrenwood hotel: the very same place where her mother was murdered eight years prior. She makes her way to the hotel in search of answers but winds up unearthing more than she bargained for, as the case "leads to uncovering the hidden truth behind the outbreak in Raccoon City." Now that’s a mysterious little hook right there.

So Requiem is obviously going to take us back to Raccoon City. It hasn’t yet been confirmed how long after the Raccoon City Destruction Incident (September 1998) the game takes place, but there’s enough information about the series’ timeline to put together a pretty reasonable estimate.

For one, we know that Grace was born sometime after 1998. She’s seemingly in her mid twenties now but is definitely at least 23, given the minimum age requirement to become an FBI agent. There’s also proof that her mother Alyssa was alive until at least 2016 thanks to a news article from her that appeared in Resident Evil 7. After crunching those numbers, we figure that Resident Evil Requiem is pretty much set in the present day (or 2024 at the very earliest).

To quote the immortal words of RE4’s Ashley Graham, "LEON, HELP! HELP ME, LEON!"

There’s been plenty of fan speculation that Resident Evil Requiem’s return to Raccoon City will coincide with the reappearance of another iconic part of the series: Leon S. Kennedy.

The flames of this theory were only further fanned by easter eggs in the trailer that are believed to show Leon’s jeep outside the Raccoon City Police Station, and a line that sounds an awful lot like it was delivered by Leon’s voice actor, Nick Apostolides. Add to that claims from a notable leaker and I’m just about ready to don my tinfoil hat and hop on the Leon hype train.

Besides, many of the Resident Evil games have two or more playable protagonists. So, who knows? Since Resident Evil Requiem will be playable in first person, we may get to experience what the world looks like from behind those blond boyband bangs—what a privilege.

Resident Evil Requiem gameplay

If being hunted down in a dark hallway of an abandoned hotel isn’t intense enough for you, in Resident Evil Requiem you can swap from third-person perspective to first-person perspective to experience all the horror up close.

You won’t be totally defenceless though. Grace’s line of work means she’s trained to wield a weapon, so there will be gunplay featured in Requiem. That said, she’s definitely less of a hardened fighter than previous Resi protagonists like Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine. She’s nervous, easily startled, and deeply affected by the loss of her mother. These traits—unfortunately for her—make her a great candidate for a good scare.

Besides, a gun and flashlight aren’t the only important assets in a survival horror protagonist’s toolkit; if you want to get by you’ll need smarts too. One of the most distinctive features of the Resident Evil series is its use of puzzles, and Resident Evil Requiem will continue its pattern of uh, having you find patterns to make your way through.