Resident Evil: Requiem Shows the Full Potential of Capcom’s RE Engine

Resident Evil: Requiem is the kind of game you keep installed long after you’ve finished it, just because it feels so good to play. Visually, it’s stunning from the incredible details and smooth framerate, to the realistic lighting and best-in-class character animations. Not to mention the gore and intensity!

Unlike most games that feature both first-person and third-person options, neither method feels like an afterthought here.

I’ve been a huge Resident Evil fan for the majority of my gaming life, even dating back to the original Resident Evil on PS1. Requiem truly feels like the ultimate culmination of everything the series does well. Leon Kennedy is here, of course, with his wisecracking one-liners, spinning back kicks, and military-grade arsenal of weaponry, but he’s juxtaposed by the timid, comparatively frail, and tenacious Grace Ashcroft. 

The result is a game that essentially combines the best moments of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4, with the pulse-pounding terror of Resident Evil 7. Truthfully, Resident Evil: Requiem might be my new favorite entry in the long-running series.

The secret sauce that keeps everything moving smoothly in Resident Evil: Requiem is Capcom’s RE Engine. Capcom’s proprietary engine was originally created for 2017’s Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, which means it’s likely over a decade old at this point in terms of how long the company has been using it internally. Naturally, it’s seen significant changes and enhancements over those years. 

Ever since 2017, Capcom has used RE Engine to power the vast majority of the company’s major releases, such as Resident Evil Village, the remakes for Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 4, as well as games in other franchises like Devil May Cry 5, Monster Hunter Wilds, Dragon’s Dogma 2, and more. 

Capcom has repeatedly positioned RE Engine as a long-term internal asset rather than a one-off solution. Since its debut with Resident Evil 7, the engine has evolved across remakes, open-world systems, and genre experiments without abandoning its core philosophy: empower artists while maintaining predictable performance envelopes.

Unlike studios that pivot engines between generations, Capcom has refined the same rendering backbone. And now, with Requiem, that continuity is visible. Systems feel mature rather than experimental. Lighting interacts with materials consistently. Transitions between interior and exterior spaces are seamless. The engine no longer feels like it’s stretching to meet new demands.

When RE Engine launched with Resident Evil 7, Capcom integrated large-scale photogrammetry into its art pipeline. Real-world objects were scanned, reconstructed, and then optimized for runtime use, dramatically increasing environmental realism while preserving artistic control. That foundation still defines the look of Requiem.

Walls carry subtle micro-detail. Surface roughness varies naturally under changing light. Props feel physically grounded rather than procedurally dressed.

This is the first mainline RE Engine title to support full path tracing on PC configurations, alongside modern upscaling techniques. Whether viewed through rasterized lighting or path-traced modes, the difference compared to earlier entries is subtle but meaningful.

Indirect light behaves more naturally. Reflections carry believable energy. Shadow transitions are softer and less stylized. Materials respond consistently across camera perspectives. This means more physically plausible lighting, better material accuracy, and increased consistency across environments.

In Requiem, hair rendering appears to leverage strand-based simulation systems that Capcom has been iterating on in recent projects. In fact, Pragmata, the company’s upcoming new IP sci-fi shooter featuring an android designed to resemble a young girl with long hair, required the company to update the engine just so they could render her hair as accurately as possible. Even in Requiem, hair strands respond directionally to light, highlights track realistically, and silhouettes maintain integrity across camera distances.

Perhaps the strongest argument for RE Engine’s maturity is how composed Requiem feels under load.

Despite high environmental density and advanced lighting features, frame pacing remains consistent. Transitions between complex spaces rarely introduce visible streaming artifacts. Cutscenes and gameplay share visual parity without noticeable degradation. In fact, it even runs great on the Switch 2, reportedly, which was even a shock to Capcom’s developers. Personally, I played the game on a PS5 Pro and never once had an issue.

Since Requiem supports both first- and third-person perspectives, that design decision has deep technical implications. The varying camera distances impact LOD thresholds, shadow cascades, character details, occlusion, and how well the game can smoothly handle transparency.

Remarkably, you can swap between camera modes as either character from the Settings menu without needing to reload the game at all. Once you feel how distinct the two modes really are, it becomes all the more impressive. Neither mode feels compromised. That implies a rendering pipeline capable of dynamic adaptation without exposing its seams.

After nearly a decade of iteration, refinement, and internal investment, RE Engine has reached a point where it feels less like a bold in-house experiment and more like one of the most disciplined proprietary engines in AAA development. Lighting behaves naturally. Materials respond consistently. Hair, volumetrics, shadows, and performance budgets coexist without fighting each other. First- and third-person perspectives function seamlessly within the same rendering framework. None of it feels fragile. None of it feels improvised.

For longtime fans, Resident Evil: Requiem may feel like the ultimate culmination of the series’ strengths, and from a technical perspective, it’s something equally impressive.