Resident Evil Requiem’s Rhodes Hill Is the Ultimate RPD Remake

Resident Evil Requiem’s Rhodes Hill Is the Ultimate RPD Remake Southeast Asia Home Amazon Deals Pro-tips by Codashop PC PS4 Xbox One Nintendo Mobile Entertainment EsportsMoreSearch Home More About IGN SEAContactAdvertisePressUser AgreementPrivacy PolicyCookie PolicyRSSIGN Southeast Asia is operated under license by Media Prima Digital Sdn Bhd (199901014126) Change Region United States United Kingdom Australia Africa Adria Serbian/Croatian Adria Slovenian Benelux / Dutch Brazil China / 中国 Czechia / Slovakia France Germany Greece / Ελλάδα Hungary India Israel Italy / Italia Japan / 日本 Korea / 한국 Latin America Middle East – English Middle East – الأوسطالشرق Nordic Poland Portugal Southeast Asia Spain / España Turkey / Türkiye world.ign.com Register / Login Register / Login Login Register Resident Evil 9 Resident Evil Requiem’s Rhodes Hill Is the Ultimate RPD Remake Capcom’s new haunted house goes back to RE’s 30 year-old roots to subtly improve a timeless formula. This post might contain affiliation links. If you buy something through this post, the publisher may get a share of the sale. By Matt Purslow  Updated: Feb. 28, 2026, 10:45 p.m. Related reads:MapleStorySEA Celebrates 20th Anniversary With Massive Summer Updates This article includes mild spoilers for the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center section of Resident Evil Requiem. With Resident Evil turning 30 this year, it’s no surprise that Requiem leans into nostalgia. Leon S. Kennedy is back in a starring role, and the game’s trailers feature ominous shots of a crumbling Raccoon City police station – the labyrinthine haunted house that our floppy-haired hero had to fight through back in 1998. But while this latest edition of Resident Evil features its fair share of direct nods to the past, it’s Requiem’s new ideas that actually feel the most nostalgic. More like thisOpen Back Headphones: A Sound Experience Like No OtherThe story’s early sections, in which you play fresh-faced protagonist Grace Ashcroft, are where Requiem most successfully evokes the earliest days of Resident Evil. Despite using the series’ modern first-person perspective by default, it’s classic ‘90s survival horror in the truest sense, right down to the ink ribbons, should you wish. The building that Grace explores, the brand new Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center, is a next-generation echo of Resident Evil 2’s Raccoon City Police Department, complete with a puzzle-locked exit and deadly stalker prowling the halls. As much as it relies on the triumphs of the past, though, this RPD tribute demonstrates the timeless qualities of Resident Evil, and how the old hits can be made to feel like modern breakthroughs. Within just a few steps, it’s clear that Rhodes Hill takes all of its foundational cues from the RPD. The first locked door you encounter yields only to an ornate key. Around the corner, a metal shutter prevents access to the wider facility, the nearby empty fusebox signalling that you’ll need to find a replacement component to progress. Beyond awaits a reception desk flanked by sweeping stairs, the very model of Raccoon City’s extravagant main precinct. And, like Resident Evil 2’s classic location, Rhodes Hill is split into two halves, the west and east wings, through which you need to scour eerie chambers – many of which must first be unlocked using a steadily mounting collection of keycards – in search of a means of escape. The enterance hall of the Rhodes Hill Center echoes the design of the RPD. | Image credit: CapcomRequiem, if it’s not clear by now, is less reverential to Resident Evil 2, more indebted to it. That’s thankfully not too much of a problem when developer Capcom owns the original bank of ideas, but it does walk the knife-edge between remake and reimagining just a little too dangerously at times. For instance, the center’s final exit is unlocked using a trio of quartz cubes, each dispensed by ornate machines upon solving a three-symbol puzzle. Yes, it’s the RPD medallion puzzle in an ill-fitting mask.And yet this approach never feels like creative bankruptcy, nor does it feel like cynical nostalgia. That’s partly due to Capcom’s original survival horror formula having endured the test of time – Resident Evil 2’s fundamentals felt as fresh in the 2019 remake as they did two decades prior – but mostly because Rhodes Hill is arguably the strongest version of this environment format that the series has offered up since we visited the RPD. More expansive than both the Baker Estate and Castle Dimitrescu, and possessing a myriad of interesting loop routes and shortcuts, navigating its corridors is a fully engaging experience, regardless of whether you recognise the rough outline of Raccoon City’s police station or not.The facility’s layout and the way you engage with it are undoubtedly classic Resident Evil, but Capcom isn’t afraid to bring some subtle modernity to the proceedings. Requiem pulls a trick I’ve never seen in a Resident Evil before: many of the center’s zombies are genuine characters, rather than generic enemy fodder. There’s the broad, burly chef whose methodical chores have you second-guessing your route through the kitchen. Out in the adjoining corridor, there’s the man I know as “Flick”, who obsessively turns the lights on and off. Elsewhere, a rotting maid continues to scrub the floors, moving from room to room to clean up all the blood I’ve spilt. And above the dining room, a would-be opera star warbles from the balcony – a shrill sound that sends one of the centre’s noise-sensitive patients into a murderous frenzy.             This is classic Resident Evil at its most nostalgic, but rendered with the full knowledge that the past isn’t quite enough to create actual magic.Such distinct personalities are made possible thanks to Requiem’s emphasis on old-school survival horror. Despite the Resident Evil 2 homages, playing as Grace feels more akin to exploring the Spencer Mansion in Capcom’s bold 1996 original. This is a brutal environment where avoiding confrontation is the much smarter play (especially since, in a nod to the 2002 remake, defeated zombies can return to life as much more aggressive “Blister Heads”). But where the comparatively simple original Resident Evil often saw you fleeing threats and running past zombies, the more advanced enemy AI systems of today mean Requiem adopts a more stealthy approach, encouraging you to cautiously tiptoe around foes – something horror games in general have adopted over the past decade or so. By shifting the engagement style away from careful shooting gallery to tense stealth, the environment requires far fewer enemies, thus allowing the development team the time and resources to make each zombie feel unique. And, since your tasks have you looping and backtracking through the building, you repeatedly sneak by the same zombies, co