Resident Evil Requiem walked away with Ultimate Game of the Year at the 44th Golden Joystick Awards, held in London on November 11. Capcom’s survival horror sequel claimed 17 percent of the public vote, edging out Phantom Blade Zero (16 percent) and Crimson Desert (15 percent) in one of the night’s tightest races.
Requiem didn’t stop at the top prize. It also took home Console Game of the Year, Best Game Trailer for its “Evil Always Has a Name” promo, and Best Lead Performer for Angela Sant’Albano‘s turn as Grace Ashcroft.
The ninth mainline entry in Capcom’s long running franchise, Requiem follows Ashcroft, an FBI intelligence analyst drawn back to an abandoned hotel where her mother was murdered eight years earlier. Leon S. Kennedy, searching for a missing police officer, arrives at the same hotel, and players move between both characters as the investigation curdles into something considerably worse than a cold case. Delanie Nicole Gill voices The Girl, the game’s signature creature; reportedly, Gill gargled milk to land the sound.
Capcom released Requiem on February 27, timed to the series’ 30th anniversary, and the game hasn’t slowed down since. According to Capcom’s own investor materials, sales passed six million copies within three weeks of launch, said to be the fastest pace of any Resident Evil title, and had climbed past 8.5 million worldwide by the end of September. Universal Studios Japan built an entire Requiem haunted house for Halloween Horror Nights this year, complete with a Licker and a wandering Leon.
For a franchise three decades deep, a Golden Joystick sweep is tidy validation — one more hotel added to the pile of places you should not check into.
