It's been widely known or assumed for quite a while that Leon Kennedy was going to be a part of Resident Evil Requiem, but that didn't make last night's Game Awards reveal any less awesome.
Leakers have been reporting Leon's involvement for many months (and PlayStation Network spilled the beans officially earlier this week), but his appearance in RE9's third trailer at The Game Awards was still met with an audible pop in the audience, and maybe even from my own room all the way across the country, too.
The inexperienced FBI agent Grace Ashcroft won't be alone in her terrifying adventure, because everyone's favorite rookie-cop-turned-government-agent-badass pulled up in a new whip towards the end of the new trailer, and he's likely being paid handsomely to do it, too. Well, Capcom is.
After the reveal, Capcom announced that Leon's ride is a custom Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT in partnership with the luxury car company. And if the leakers are accurate (and they have been so far), this may be a drivable vehicle in the game that Leon uses to navigate between areas.
RE9 both looks and sounds like it's aiming to combine the best part of both of the franchise's dueling identities, and jump back and forth between both. Survival horror and action. First-person and third-person. Action hero and out-of-their-depth survivor. And according to the director, that's exactly how it will play out.
"Requiem has just one, unified story," director Akifumi Nakanishi said in an interview with Automaton. "As the plot advances, you switch between Leon’s sections and Grace’s sections. There are even some scenes where they meet. Grace is 'the biggest scaredy-cat in Resident Evil history,' while Leon is a seasoned veteran, so seeing how those personalities interact is part of the fun."
Being able to swap between first- or third-person at any given time also excites me. How do I feel that day? Do I want to be scared and see the horrors up close, or do I want to pull it back and go guns blazing like Leon's been doing for almost 30 years? That freedom, and also the unpredictability, is by design as well, according to the director.
"If the whole game were Grace, it would be extremely scary," Nakanishi said. "In this sense, Leon’s sections work to release the tension. You feel safe during Leon’s chapters, and then scared again during Grace’s. It’s a consciously designed horror structure."
Leon is at least in his late 40s in RE9, and he's showing his age a bit, kind of like me. I feel you, buddy. He has visible wrinkles and he's got some graying stubble, but that has not stopped him from sporting the same haircut he brought into Raccoon City in 1998, or from kicking all kinds of ass as usual.
"Grace’s gameplay is based on Resident Evil 2, whereas Leon’s gameplay includes martial arts and melee moves, based on Resident Evil 4," Nakanishi said.
All of these words and notions combine to create a level of hype for a video game that I haven't felt in some time. Like many aging gamers, Resident Evil has been with me since my childhood, and all throughout my life in the years that followed. And I'm still excited for whatever comes next.
I have vivid memories of watching my uncle play the original game when I was seven or eight years old, and darting out of the room when the zombie dogs burst through the windows. I had a similar experience on my own in Resident Evil 2, playing as Leon, when the zombies broke down the windows of Kendo's Gun Shop. It took me years to find the bravery to play the game to completion (I got a PS1 and RE2 for my ninth birthday), and it's since become one of my all-time favorites.
For many, Resident Evil 6 was one of the low-points of the series when it launched back in 2012, and that's the last time we saw Leon in one of the games. Bringing him back for RE9, and likely his very own requiem, feels right. And heading back to Raccoon City one more time, as an old veteran of zombie-killing (or gaming, in my case), is a thrilling prospect that I can't wait for.
Welcome back, Leon, and I'll be seeing you on Feb. 27. Please bring Jill Valentine and/or Claire Redfield with you.
The post My favorite Game Awards reveal was its worst-kept secret: Resident Evil’s Leon is freakin’ back, baby, and he’s got a car sponsorship now appeared first on Destructoid.
