When Does Resident Evil Requiem Take Place?

After a long wait, the ninth Resident Evil game was finally announced at the 2025 Summer Game Fest as Resident Evil Requiem. While details on it are currently scarce, its February 2026 release date means that fans won’t need to keep waiting much longer. Resident Evil Requiem stars FBI agent Grace Ashcroft as its new protagonist, having been sent to the area in or around the destroyed Raccoon City from Resident Evil 2 and 3 to investigate a string of mysterious incidents. Once Gamescom 2025 rolls around, fans should see and hear plenty more about Resident Evil Requiem.

For now, early previews indicate that Resident Evil Requiem will be renewing the series’ focus on horror elements, after Resident Evil 7 found success doing so almost a decade ago. An early portion of the game that was teased in the reveal trailer apparently consists of an intense stealth horror segment, compared by some to Alien: Isolation, where a large creature stalks Grace throughout a desolate building. Further details are pending, and fans have already begun theorizing about potential action sequences featuring Leon S. Kennedy, but for now, it may be best to settle for solving one mystery that’s more easily in reach.

Resident Evil Requiem Psychological Horror New Ground

Resident Evil Requiem is Finally Diving into Uncharted Territory for the Franchise

With the next Resident Evil title revealed, RE Requiem looks to be exploring some horror ground that the series hasn’t truly delved into yet.

Keeping Track of Resident Evil’s Timeline Could Aid In Understanding Resident Evil Requiem

Ties To Resident Evil’s Most Important Era Are Present In Requiem

The Resident Evil timeline has always made a point of being clear and orderly, and this will be particularly important once Resident Evil Requiem lands on the chart. Requiem is revisiting Resident Evil’s iconic Raccoon City after it was bombed in the endings of Resident Evil 2 and 3, which is a big deal for the franchise. Not only does this finally address the fate of one of the most memorable locations in Resident Evil, but it also brings the series back to its roots in canon. That also means that Resident Evil 1’s Spencer Estate is nearby, so the possibilities for Requiem are practically limitless.

Setting aside theories of returning Resident Evil protagonists, or potential closure for the proto-Tyrant Lisa Trevor after her disappearance in RE1’s remake, Resident Evil Requiem is tied into Resident Evil Outbreak. Grace Ashcroft is the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, a reporter and playable character present in Outbreak’s ensemble cast. According to dialogue in Resident Evil Requiem’s reveal trailer, Alyssa was murdered in a hotel eight years prior to the game’s events, and that little detail is a much larger clue to Requiem’s timeline placement than one might think.

Putting Together Clues About Resident Evil Requiem’s In-Game Date

Despite all the teaser trailer’s efforts to hide any dates clarifying when Resident Evil Requiem takes place, hearing Alyssa has been dead for eight years narrows the window it could happen considerably. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, which is set in 2017, includes an article Alyssa Ashcroft wrote dated 2016, so the earliest year that Resident Evil Requiem may take place in is 2024. It’s likely that it takes place in the range of 2024 to 2026, making Resident Evil Requiem the farthest full game in the RE timeline, and the second-farthest event next to Resident Evil Village’s Shadows of Rose DLC.

Mainline Resident Evil Titles Follow A Chronological Trend That Requiem Will Likely Repeat

One more detail needs to be considered while pinning down Resident Evil Requiem’s date, and that is mainline Resident Evil games’ tendency to adopt the same year they are released in. This does tend to include one year’s worth of wiggle room, likely owing to release dates shifting mid-development, so Resident Evil Requiem is most likely set in 2025 or 2026. Considering the likelihood that the game will acknowledge how long ago Raccoon City was bombed in dialogue, it shouldn’t take much sleuthing to determine exactly when Resident Evil Requiem takes place once it has been released.