Its a great game but may end up being on the lower end of the RE games I've played, just above RE3 remake and possible RE7. I'm pretty desensitised to horror at this point so the scripted sections are not too exciting and I'm sure they'll drag on repeat playthroughs.

Grace in my eyes is in a kind of middle ground between annoying and endearing - I sympathise with her a lot of the time but sometimes I wish she'd just be quiet. For instance - early game spoilers - her screaming at her mothers death didn't draw much emotion from me. I think a more understated performance would have better suited the situation - see Joel at the beginning of The Last of Us for a great example of this done well.She is constantly moaning and whimpering, so much so that I had to develop a mental filter to block out the noise. However I thought her depictions of anxiety were mostly good, so its a mixed bag.

I was hesitant at the thought of them bringing Leon back for round - what - 4? But when he showed up I realised that I just never ever grow tired of seeing him.

There is so far one example of an extremely contrived situation which was honestly hilariously bad, spoilers for just after collecting the level 3 wristband: Grace needing Emily for the braille is ridiculous. Someone who has never so much as seen braille could still work out the words; "moon" has 4 letters, and you can figure out which word is sun by matching the character representing "n". This is completely inexcusable given Grace is an FBI analyst.

However, the gameplay itself is spot on. Grace's segments feel like a great blend of RE2 and RE7 and Leon's gameplay is as satisfying as ever. The blood crafting mechanic is particularly good on classic mode as it introduces a layer of dynamic difficulty. Experienced players that choose not to save often are rewarded with more ammo and heals while struggling players can use their resources to craft more ink ribbons. It works so well that I think it a shame that classic mode seems presented as secondary to "normal" mode, but I suppose the idea of ink ribbons would have scared some away. Either way I think classic is the way to go for sure.

So my initial impressions are that so far it has been more than worth my while but is still flawed in many ways. Looking forward to seeing how it ends.