Resident Evil Requiem is a perfect Resident Evil game, but they made this fan favorite way too dirty

Resident Evil Requiem is a great horror experience, and that much should be clear by now. From its empowering and rewarding action combat facilitated by Leon Kennedy to its slower, more tense passages built around Grace Ashcroft, Resident Evil Requiem is a wonderful victory lap for the great franchise, arriving just in time for its 30th anniversary.

Spoilers ahead too Resident Evil Requiem

Like a long time Resident Evil fan, Resident Evil Requiem is particularly satisfying to me. Make no mistakes, Requiem doesn't have MCU levels of references, easter eggs, or callbacks, but it definitely doesn't shy away from fanservice. You could argue that the very presence of Leon Kennedy, a protagonist who has come to define Resident Evil brand, is fan service in and of itself. Other surprises, like the return of the Raccoon City Police Department or the retaliation of the Tyrant mutant, are kept from feeling like nostalgia bait by not overstaying their welcome: they play the role they need to play and don't take center stage. It seems this touch-and-go philosophy was applied to a certain third act cameo as well, and while I still think this moment is effective, perhaps its fleeting, blink-and-you'll-miss-it nature made it a bit of an anticlimax.

Family

What to expect from Resident Evil, Evil Within Dev Shinji Mikami's brand new IP

Shinji Mikami, a graybeard from the industry and the original creator of Resident Evil, has founded a new studio working on a new intellectual property.

Resident Evil Requiem's HUNK Showdown is an abrupt end for the character

The famous mercenary and umbrella agent HUNK, whose title has been speculated to stand for “human entity, never killed”, appears in Resident Evil Requiemlast act. It is a huge surprise, because the character, which has been playable for several Resident Evil game and has a legacy of being overpowered, Leon is ambushed when he least expects it. This leads to a battle ax between the two, very reminiscent of the Krauser knife fight in Resident Evil 4.

There has been some debate as to whether this attacker is actually HUNK; I even thought it might have been Umbrella Corps the protagonist at first. But some HUNK-specific touches, like the iconic finger-wagging motions, give him away.

Fit the 9 games into the grid.

Of course, Leon overcomes HUNK and emerges victorious, and the epic battle feels like it's over before it even begins. The relative ease with which Leon dispatches HUNK is rather ironic since, when both characters were introduced in Resident Evil 2HUNK was meant to function as a bloated power fantasy, his game mode only available after you've fought for safety and resources in the main story. Back then, Leon was a rookie compared to HUNK; now Leon can defeat him in a few minutes of single combat. In this sense the meeting i Requiem serves to remind the audience how much Leon has grown since 1998.

But don't we already know that? Resident Evil 4 established him as a globe-trotting, almost superhuman special operator, and he's basically Kratos in the RE Requiem. HUNK, on the other hand, has been largely absent from the franchise for quite some time, and his quick death at the business end by Leon's battleaxe feels a little undeserved. At the very least, HUNK should have posed a bigger threat to Leon, maybe even acted as one of them Resident Evilstalker enemies, before meeting his demise.

Does HUNK really die in Resident Evil Requiem?

We should touch on the elephant in the room: if you return to the location of the battle ax, HUNK's body will have disappeared. Bodies seem to persist in the game world otherwise, so this has been interpreted as proof of HUNK's survival. After all, he is known for his ability to survive anything.

I think this uncertainty may have been Capcom's plan. There's just enough ambiguity here for HUNK to return in the future Resident Evil game wouldn't be completely unrealistic, but he doesn't have to come back either. Modern Resident Evil is defined by flexibility and experimentation, and not ruling anything out when it comes to a character like HUNK seems to be consistent with that policy—even if it's a little dirty.