Resident Evil Requiem ending: does Leon live or die?

Resident Evil Requiem has two endings, a good one and a bad one, and both turn on a single choice Grace Ashcroft makes at a computer terminal deep beneath Raccoon City. Choose wrong and Leon S. Kennedy is shot in the head. Choose right and the world's bioweapons are rendered useless. I think the good ending is clearly the one that's meant to be canon, and I think the game as a whole is a great chapter that nicely ties up a lot of things.

Resident Evil Requiem (2026), from Capcom, is the newest entry in a series that has been a massive part of my life. I've been with it since the start. The first game terrified me as a kid, but it was the second where I got completely sucked into the world, and that's still one of my favorite games of all time. I've loved going back through the remakes, but there's something more exciting about a new, undiscovered story rather than a retread of an old one.

Why Resident Evil Requiem keeps you on the edge of your seat

Survival horror is almost the only genre I play. Whether it's this, The Last of Us, Dead Space or Alien Isolation, these are the games that make me feel something. The tension, the action and the feeling of your heart racing are things I don't get from other games, and Requiem is one that will have you constantly on the edge of your seat.

The game acts as a celebration of the series, not only in its story but in its tone as well. There are many reveals, big callbacks to other games and a number of things that make it feel like a love letter to the fans. There's a lot to uncover, too: even the walkthroughs are clocking in at around 11 hours. Because of how in-depth it is, I'm focusing on the ending here, so anyone who wants to know what happens can still experience some of the surprises for themselves.

Grace Ashcroft and Big Mama bring back the horror side

The game jumps back and forth between two central characters. The first is Grace Ashcroft, an FBI agent investigating a mysterious disease. Grace is the adopted daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, a character from Resident Evil Outbreak, which shows just how niche the references get. Grace watched her mother being assassinated when she was younger, and it left her deeply traumatized. So naturally the FBI sends her to the place where it happened to investigate. The agency clearly doesn't care.

That takes her to a hotel where she encounters Umbrella's sinister legacy. Tonally, her half leans toward the horror side of the franchise, evoking the uneasy feeling you had in the Spencer mansion. Throughout her section she's stalked by Big Mama, a terrifying Mr. X or Nemesis figure. Big Mama is a lot like the Xenomorph in Alien Isolation, and you'll be very tense at points as she follows you around.

Leon S. Kennedy brings the run and gun action

On the flip side is series mainstay Leon S. Kennedy, who also has the best games in the series. His sections are far more action heavy and lean into the run and gun style of the fourth, fifth and sixth games. He's fast, he has no problem kicking zombies in the face, and he throws around his new signature axe.

Spencer calls Grace his hope in the file beneath Raccoon City

Like almost every Resident Evil game, both stories lead toward a mysterious laboratory, this time a facility located deep beneath Raccoon City. In the climax, Leon is succumbing to the effects of the Raccoon City Syndrome, and Grace comes across a computer with a file that has her name on it. In it, she witnesses a meeting between Spencer and her mother that reveals how Grace was handed to Alyssa.

Spencer is responsible for almost everything that's happened in the series. As the long-running head of Umbrella, he has caused all manner of evil. Here, though, we see that he wants to do something right for once. He calls Grace his hope, and she very much acts as his requiem. That detail is important, because it's the key to which ending you get.

The bad ending: destroying the mysterious agent gets Leon killed

In both endings, Grace makes it to Leon, who's dying outside the mainframe room, and the pair get inside. There they find a copy of Wesker, along with a computer that can release a mysterious agent. Grace goes to the terminal, where she can choose one of two options.

The first is to destroy the agent, and that's the bad ending. The facility starts to fall apart, and Leon cuts into the Wesker copy to save Grace while sending her away. He fights the villain only to be badly beaten and shot in the head, and Grace escapes the facility as it all comes crashing down. Luckily, you don't have to play the whole game again, because you'll eventually get a prompt asking if you want to reload the autosave from before Grace hit the button.

The good ending: Grace enters hope and cures Leon

Unless you choose the same thing again, you'll release the agent. In this ending, Grace thinks back to Spencer calling her his hope and enters that as the answer. Leon's shocked, but having just watched him die in the other ending, I'd say it can't be worse than that. Nobody knows what the agent will do, but Grace is assured that Spencer regretted his actions.

That opens up the files, and the Wesker copy takes the agent to inject himself. Instead of mutating him further, it wipes away the Raccoon City Syndrome, and it's revealed to be an antiviral. With it, all bioweapons across the planet will be useless and the world order will be restored once and for all. Grace then injects Leon, which cures him as well.

Victor Gideon turns out to be the real final boss

Victor Gideon then arrives. He's been enigmatic throughout the game, and he kidnapped Grace earlier to take her blood, but now he shows his true power. He beheads the Wesker copy, and although the platform collapses as it did in the bad ending, this time it leads to a final battle with Leon back at full health.

Leon goes toe to toe with the villain and eventually forces Gideon over the edge, but he comes back transformed. Leon quickly realizes Gideon is a nemesis, which is why he's been so relentless throughout. After Leon finally defeats him, he finds Grace as the facility collapses around them. She's unable to move, and they realize there's no way out. So they lie down as everything comes crashing down and prepare to die in the darkness.

Then light streams in and the roof splits overhead. Soldiers arrive to pull them out of the chaos, with a message from Captain Redfield.

Sherry, Emily and the Umbrella cover up exposed

Outside, Leon talks to Sherry and tells her he's got a dose with her name on it. The pair also talk about Emily. She's a little girl who goes through a lot, filling the role of the little girl these games often have, the role Sherry once played. Emily mutated, but Leon says saving her might still be possible because he didn't shoot her vital organs, so she's still alive.

News reports then expose the lab in Raccoon City along with Umbrella's secrets. They reveal that Umbrella controls the government and that it also murdered Alyssa. The president denies any involvement, but it's all been exposed.

The mid-credits scene: Grace, Emily and a mysterious object

We also learn that Emily has been saved, and that comes in the mid-credits scene, which brings things full circle from the opening. We rejoin Grace at her desk at the FBI as her boss comes over to pull her into another meeting. On her desk is a picture of her mother, and beside it is a picture of Emily and Grace. It mirrors how Alyssa took Grace in when she was a kid, with Grace now acting as a maternal figure for Emily.

The scene then cuts back to the crater, where two unknown soldiers retrieve a mysterious object. We don't learn exactly what it is, but you can bet it's setting up the next Resident Evil. This is obviously not the end of the franchise, and the object is likely going to be a device that sends everything crazy again.

My verdict on Resident Evil Requiem

As for the endings, the good one is clearly meant to be canon, closing things on a happier note rather than with Leon getting shot in the head and everything falling apart. I don't think this will be the last game we get, but it acts as a great chapter that nicely ties up a lot of things.

The Easter eggs, where they take the plot, and even bringing in really obscure characters like Alyssa all close things out in a fantastic way. Even the way they evolve the zombies to give them more personality is a nice touch that feels like a great evolution of the franchise. If you haven't played it yet, go back and check it out, because I think you'll really enjoy it.