Resident Evil Requiem has received a new bonus mode in a free update, and by golly it’s fabulous. It also has a great name: Leon Must Die Forever. And I’m sorry to say for all the Leon-fanciers out there that, yes, you’re going to see Mr. Kennedy dismembered in many different ways.
The mode requires you to have completed the game’s story, after which it appears as an option on the main menu. It’s a feature-packed roguelike that offers multiple paths through various of the game’s environments, on-the-fly ‘enhancements’ that change up Leon’s abilities, new enemy variants, multiple boss fights, and an overarching meta-structure that sees you earn points on each run and unlock abilities, weapons, and costumes for subsequent playthroughs.
The goal is to reach and defeat big bad Victor Gideon, but it’s a lot easier said than done. On my first runthrough I got to the second area before being careless with a blister-head which wasted no time before biting Leon’s face off. On my second I reached the Super Tyrant before getting absolutely clocked by a flying car and swiftly bisected by his claws. My third… look, it’s not called “Leon Must Die Forever” for nothing.
Capcom’s notes say that “multiple difficulty levels are available, including an extreme high-difficulty mode for only the most confident players”, which presumably unlocks once you’ve completed a runthrough or two (I haven’t yet gotten close). Each time I played the weapons I found were different, the enhancements changed, and I suspect that once you start completing runs other elements will change-up too.
There’s also a time limit, which I didn’t find especially onerous, but that’s also probably because I died on every run without getting close to running out of time. There are weird little gold spiders that scuttle around which reward more time when shot, and you also get time bonuses for killing certain enemies in certain ways.
The enemy variants are colour-coded and reward particular strategies. Red enemies are more resistant to gunfire, for example, but weaker to melee and hatchet attacks. Blue enemies have giant health pools, but are super-vulnerable to being parried and hatchet-ed. And then in amongst these are scattered the game’s various mini-bosses and tougher standard foes.
As for the enhancements, some of them are simple buffs while others offer trade-offs, and you earn points towards your next choice by just killing stuff. Some are fairly straightforward: I had one that increased headshot / weak point damage by 50% but decreased damage when you just hit the body. Others lock you into a particular playstyle, like a perk that massively increases grenade damage and gives a chance that a grenade won’t be consumed when thrown, but also debuffs all of your firearms. Which led to a fantastically explosive run that ended unceremoniously when I ran out of… erm, grenades.
Finally, you choose your routes by where you exit your current stage, with big red doors dotted around the environments, rather than choosing from a menu: so get ready for some exploring. The first stage is relatively gentle, as this mode goes, and does seem to be more about starting on a particular build and gathering a few weapons, but after that it ramps right up and doesn’t stop until Leon’s a bloody corpse.
First impressions? Yes please and thank you Capcom. The Leon combat in Requiem is just outstanding, and this builds it out in multiple ways while throwing everything plus the kitchen sink at you. I’ve been banging my head against Insanity mode since completing Requiem and, while I’m ever-so-slightly disappointed this isn’t Mercenaries mode, Leon Must Die Forever is a really well thought-out and meaty addition to what was already one of the year’s best games. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to get eviscerated again.