While playing Resident Evil: Requiem, I started getting very strong vibes from The Evil Within series, especially its first installment. Released in 2014, the first Evil Within, which was created by Shinji Mikami, the mastermind behind the first Resident Evil games, was a pure survival horror adventure which combined a mind-twisting storyline with extremely challenging gameplay. In a past article, I had highlighted the similarities between the leads of the two series, Sebastian Castellanos and Leon Kennedy (of course Leon is not the only protagonist of the Resident Evil series, but he is one of the most prominent). Now Requiem seems to be playing a rather more direct tribute to the now cult Evil Within games, not randomly featuring the hero who has most things in common with their own lead character.
From simple visual references to actual plot segments, Requiem seems to reference The Evil Within in a way that contributes greatly to the overall feeling of nostalgia that the latest installment of the Resident Evil series carries anyway, as it relies heavily on its own past, both lore-wise and as far as its protagonist is concerned.
The suspicious sanatorium
In The Evil Within, the game begins with the lead character, Sebastian Castellanos, and his team being called to investigate an incident involving gruesome murders at a mental hospital. The building is large and imposing, and it looks vaguely as it belongs to another time and place.
Similarly, during the intro in Requiem, Leon arrives at the Chronic Care Center, founded and maintained by the mysterious Victor Gideon. The sanatorium is again a building with an aura of the past, what with its exterior architecture and its mazey interior structure.
The creepy hooded man
The arch-villain of The Evil Within is Ruben Victoriano (fondly called Ruvik), a tormented soul who used to be a genious in science and who is behind all the suffering that our protagonist is forced to go through. Since Ruben is practically dead, he literally floats around sporting a white robe with a hood that conceals most of his face.
In Requiem, the arch-villain is Dr Victor Gideon, a deranged scientist who is obsessed with obtaining what he believes to be the ultimate bioweapon created by Oswell Spencer. Not only he looks similar to Ruben Victoriano, but his first name is also a direct reference to Ruben's last name. Both are unnaturally tall, due to their condition, and their favorite habit is to scare their potential victims by showing up unexpectedly in the semi-darkness.
The helpless child in white
A key character in The Evil Within is Leslie Withers, a young inmate at the asylum, who is being pursued by Ruben so as to function as a host in the experiment that he carries out on himself, aiming at his coming back to life. Leslie is a mentally unstable and emotionally weak boy who is practically unable to act out of his own will.
In Requiem, as soon as Grace finds herself at the Care Center, she finds Emily, a little girl who is locked in a cell. Emily is one of the many clones created using Grace's DNA, and although she seems like a smart girl, her suffering from cataracts in both her eyes greatly affects her efficiency and abilities.
The secret society that pulls the strings
In the first Evil Within, the main element that essentially moves the story forward is what started as Ruben's experiments in his attempts to reunite with his dead sister Laura, a ground-breaking technology that was based on exploring people's memories. Subsequently, he was murdered by agents of Mobius, a secret society who stole his idea and, as we learn in The Evil Within 2, developed it on a larger scale, aiming at global mind control. The head of Mobius was the Administrator, who was in charge of all its activities.
In Requiem, an underground secret society has been working to bring Spencer's vision to life, using similar methods and even bioweapons to those of Umbrella. It is called The Connections, and the evil Dr Gideon is one of its members. Zeno, the obnoxious Wesker Clone, acts as the society's representative. Similarly to Mobius, The Connections also partly aimed at achieving universal mind control.
Screams of death
In The Evil Within 2, there are two separate monsters, the Anima and the Lament, who both act as visual representations of Sebastian's remorse and inner torments. The Anima is a chilling figure with long black hair who floats around singing melodies deliberately off-tune. If she sees Sebastian, she attacks him immediately, literally draining the life out of him, instantly killing him. (clip)
The Lament is a tall monster figure that reeks of toxic waste, who walks around in a rickety way, letting out low screams that are a combination of singing and crying. Once she sees Sebastian, she lets out a terrifying, paralyzing and extremely loud scream, able to drain all his stamina. Immediately after, if he does not manage to run away, she grabs him and spits a load of toxic goo on him, killing him. (clip)
In the Care Center in Requiem, there are two zombie singers, Selena and Eileen, who were patients in the sanatorium. Each of them occupies one wing of the Care Center, and they walk around singing and occasionally screaming their lungs out, when they notice anything suspicious. If they see Grace, they attack her by screaming in her face, breaking her ear drums and causing her instant death. (clip)
The murderous kitchen man
During the intro of The Evil Within, Sebastian finds himself hanged upside-down in a gruesome room which looks like a mix between a kitchen and a slaughterhouse. As soon as he frees himself, he must sneak by a monstrous Slaughterer who chops dead bodies with a huge hatchet and later yields a chainsaw.
In Requiem, as Grace is trying to figure out a way to escape the Care Center, one of the first things she must do is pass through the sanatorium's kitchen. The chef is very angry though, so she must sneak behind him and subsequently try to avoid any accidental meeting with him, because he never abandons his favorite chopper.
The ominous rainy evening
In The Evil Within, action starts as Sebastian and his team drive off to the Beacon Mental Hospital to investigate the killings, on a rainy, dark evening.
In Requiem, there are similar weather conditions the evening that Grace arrives at Wrenwood Hotel.
And they are the same when Leon arrives there, later that evening.
The villain causing chaos
In The Evil Within, soon after Sebastian and his team manage to leave the mental hospital, a complete chaos is about to ensue, as we catch a glimpse of Ruben standing on a high rooftop.
Within seconds, he initiates a series of earthquakes that nearly completely destroy the city.
In Requiem, Leon catches a glimpse of Victor Gideon from a distance, as soon as he arrives at the area of the Wrenwood Hotel.
When Dr Gideon realizes that Leon had spotted him, he starts an outbreak by infecting random people around him, causing an absolute chaos in the area.
During the extended intro of The Evil Within, as Sebastian exits the mental hospital in a rush, the driver officer of his team calls him from an ambulance he had found available, so that they can escape from that place which is about to collapse.
In Requiem, after Grace manages to escape the Care Center with Grace, she bumps onto Henry, a helicopter pilot, who sends her in a cabin in the garden to find the helicopter key so that they can all leave together.
Tied up(side down)
At the very start of The Evil Within, after Sebastian enters the mental hospital for investigation with his partner, soon after he checks the rest of the areas through the control monitors. Just then, he is attacked by Ruben, and loses his senses; and when he comes to, he finds himself in the den of the Slaughterman, tied up and head down, among hanging corpses.
In Requiem, after Grace is met with Dr Gideon in the attic of Wrenwood Hotel, she is neutralized by him and when she gains her senses again, she finds herself a stretcher in the Care Center, tied up and with her head down, while large quantities of blood are being extracted from her body via a needle.
The weird nurse
As soon as Sebastian wakes up in Ruben's twisted world in The Evil Within, he meets Tatiana, a nurse with a weird look and a even more weird attitude. However, she turns out to be quite friendly, albeit maintaining her mysterious character until the end of the game, as well as in The Evil Within 2, where she appears again, having a similar role.
When Leon arrives at the Care Center in Requiem to start his investigation, he is greeted by a nurse who works there. Although there is nothing mysterious about her, she still looks a bit weird, especially as she looks at Leon with some disbelief; eventually though she turns into a zombie, together with the rest of the personnel and the patients of the sanatorium.
The Cedar theme
In The Evil Within 2, Sebastian has to navigate Union, a virtual town, which however has streets, houses and inhabitants (both human and zombified). A street where a very important house is located is called Cedar Avenue.
In Requiem, after Leon arrives at the ruined Raccoon City, one of the first points of interest that he has to explore is an apartment building which is called Cedarbrook Apartments.
The Processing process
While running from the crazed Slaughterer in the intro of The Evil Within, Sebastian has to run along a corridor in what seems to be a peculiar Processing Unit, with blades on both sides that slowly but steadily move towards each other.
In Requiem, while exploring the basement of the Care Center so as to find the items needed in order to free Emily from her cell there, Grace has to go through a Processing Plant, in which she eventually witnesses the rather gruesome processing process.
The bloody slide
After making it through the Processing corridor in The Evil Within, Sebastian slides down a bloody duct with several traps along the way.
Similarly in Requiem, after the Processing process is over, Grace is able to leave that area via a duct which ends up in a slide drenched in the blood of the processed zombified bodies.
The bloody pool
The bloody slide in The Evil Within leads to a pool filled with blood, in which Sebastian falls and gets the disgusting rotten blood everywhere on him.
Grace as well in Requiem ends up in a bloody pool after going down the bloody slide, and the rotten blood even gets in her mouth. Yikes!
A holy shelter?
While trying to figure out what is going on in the bizarre alternative reality where he found himself, Sebastian reunites with Joseph, his good friend and partner. After making it safe together through numerous dangerous and nearly lethal encounters, they find shelter in a church which, however, hides even more dangers.
After surviving the helicopter crash in Requiem, Grace rushes with Emily in a nearby chapel where Leon also finds them but is soon overrun with zombies.
Nasty giant dogs
Among the tough enemies that Sebastian and Joseph have to face in The Evil Within while navigating together part of the unknown territory where they found themselves, is a huge, bloodthirsty dog with several heads mixed into one, a big mouth, lots of sharp teeth and a disgusting tongue sticking out. It is called the Sentinel, and it is very sly.
In Requiem, while Leon is chasing Dr Gideon during an unforgettable motorbike ride, the evil doctor unleashes several dogs, the Garmr, which may have one head each, but they are equally nasty and also have their tongues sticking out too.
Spidey Spidey
One of the most painful encounters that Sebastian has in The Evil Within is the tormented ghost of Laura, Ruben's ill-fated beloved sister. Laura roams Ruben's memories in the form of a terrifying creature that is a hybrid of a monstrous human and a spider.
A literal spider of not so literal dimensions awaits Leon in Requiem as soon as he arrives at the destroyed Raccoon City. It is the Titan Spinner, and nothing less than its name insinuates.
Blasts from the past
The aforementioned Laura, as well as the Slaughterer from the intro and the Keeper, a butcher-like creature with a safe instead of a head, are important enemies that Sebastian meets for the first time in The Evil Within. All of them make a triumphant return in The Evil Within 2 as some kind of mini-bosses, which are in fact all an illusion created by the game's main villain, Father Theodore.
When Leon locates Zeno and Grace in the ruined Raccoon Police Department in Requiem, Zeno attempts to keep him away by summoning the Tyrant, the ferocious enemy that Leon had encountered and fought back in Resident Evil 2.
The disturbingly flirty villain
The main antagonist for the first part of The Evil Within 2 is Stefano Valentini, a deranged fashion photographer who once was a war correspondent. Stefano tangles Sebastian in his sick game and at some point captures him in the City Hall of Union, where he unfolds his demented personality in all its glory, flirting in an extremely creepy way.
Aspiring to turning Sebastian into his greatest work of art, he cuts him with his dagger, by way of a signature. (clip)
After Dr Gideon traps Grace in the Care Center in Requiem, he captures Leon as well and ties him up in a dark attic. Clearly mesmerized by our hero and fascinated with the obvious signs of his infection, the unhinged doctor makes several flirty moves that are as disturbing as he is.
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The creepy flirting is not the only common thing that Stefano Valentini and Dr Gideon have in common. Stefano in The Evil Within 2 had lost his right eye prior to the game's story during one of his assignments as a war correspondent and he has it now replaced with a camera.
Because of this, his vision looks like a dark room and he sees everything around him bathed in a red light.
Dr Gideon in Requiem constantly wears a custom helmet covering the upper part of his head, with night vision equipment and multi-lens cameras.
Due to this specialized equipment, his vision too simulates a dark room.
The ruined city
The aftermath of Ruben's haunting of Krimson City, where the first Evil Within takes place, is an almost entirely destroyed area, with collapsed buildings, flooded streets, tons of rubble, and several dangerous enemies at every turn.
In Requiem, Leon returns to the destroyed Raccoon City which has been a ghost place ever since the missile hit it in 1998. The once lively town is now a mess of ruined buildings, flooded areas, zombie-infested collapsing towers, rubble and more rubble.
The iconic train path
At some point in the final chapters of The Evil Within, Sebastian and Joseph spot a dilapidated train forming some sort of bridge over a huge gap which seems to be the only way to reach their destination.
A bit later, Sebastian finds himself in a dark and ghostly subway station, which leads to that train.
Eventually he reaches the place where the train is, and sees the actual bridge path that is forms over the abyss, which he needs to cross so as to go to the other side.
When he enters the train and starts walking carefully along its wagons, Ruben throws obstacles along the way, in order to threaten and scare him, eventually appearing himself and causing the train to collapse.
In Requiem, after Leon leaves the RPD and passes through the Orphanage to find the entrance to the hidden facility of The Connections, he spots a train forming a bridge path over a deep chasm.
To reach it he first has to pass through a dark and abandoned subway station which, on the highest difficulty of the game, also hosts baby spinner spiders.
Soon after, he arrives at the exit of the station, where the train actually is.
As Leon walks along the wagons to reach the other side, deadly branches of the Plant 43 block his path, soon causing the train to collapse, and forcing Leon to continue his way via an underground cave complex.
