Capcom show what Resident Evil Requiem was going to be before they changed it

Capcom has explained how Resident Evil Requiem started life as an online open world game, and it’s chilling to think about.

Before Resident Evil Requiem was officially revealed at Summer Game Fest, rumours claimed it would be an open world game starring Leon S. Kennedy.

Capcom has since explained why Leon isn’t the protagonist, with game director Koshi Nakanishi highlighting how the character is ‘actually quite a bad match for horror’ because he’s not the kind of person who would ‘jump at something like a bucket falling’. As such, Resident Evil Requiem features a new ‘introverted’ lead, in FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft.

Following the Capcom Spotlight showcase, the studio has now confirmed it did experiment with an online, open world for Resident Evil Requiem, but these plans were dropped when it realised it ‘wasn’t what fans wanted’.

Speaking in an extended developer diary, which is available to registered members on Capcom’s website, Nakanishi shared a brief, blurry glimpse at the early online experiments for Resident Evil Requiem.

‘You might have heard some of the rumours, things like an online Resident Evil or an open world Resident Evil, which we spent some time experimenting with,’ he said.

‘But in the end, although we had some interesting concepts, we realised that it wasn’t what fans wanted to see or play. So we went back to the drawing board and created what led to Resident Evil Requiem.’

It’s easy to imagine how negative the reaction to an online Resident Evil game would be, because there’s already been so many bad examples. Resident Evil Re:Verse was Capcom’s last (terrible) attempt to make an online multiplayer title in the series, which is set to be shut down on June 29, after being released as a freebie with Resident Evil Village.

Before that, there’s been asymmetrical multiplayer jaunts in Resident Evil: Resistance, and co-op games like Operation Raccoon City and Resident Evil Outbreak. Interestingly, the protagonist in Resident Evil Requiem, Grace Ashcroft, is the daughter of investigative reporter Alyssa Ashcroft – a character from Resident Evil Outbreak.

To reinforce the point, Capcom highlighted that Resident Evil Requiem is a ‘single-player offline game’, and presumably no longer open world, although it didn’t exactly specify the latter.

All of this seemingly corroborates rumours last month, from series insider Dusk Golem, who claimed development on Resident Evil Requiem began in 2017 with Leon S. Kennedy and Jill Valentine as the protagonists.

He said it was originally ‘trying to be the opposite’ of Resident Evil 7, as a ‘big open world multiplayer game’, but it got a ‘heavy reboot’ in 2021 when Resident Evil Village was released.

Later in the video on Capcom’s website, Nakanishi said the sequel takes the emphasis on fear seen in Resident Evil 7 a ‘step further’, describing the gameplay as ‘addictive fear’.

‘For us, an ‘addictive fear’ means even though you might be scared, you just can’t stop playing,’ he added. ‘You want to see what’s next. You die, but wonder, ‘What if I tried this? Next time I’ll do it differently’. And when you overcome that fear, the sense of accomplishment is huge.

‘You want to keep going – as it’s almost addictive. That’s the kind of gameplay experience that we are aiming for in Resident Evil Requiem.’

The upcoming sequel follows Grace as she investigates a series of deaths in Raccoon City, 30 years after it was bombed in Resident Evil 3. It’s set to feature both a first and third person perspective, an option only added via DLC for Resident Evil Village.

Resident Evil Requiem is slated to launch across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on February 26, 2026.

Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.

To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.

For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.