Resident Evil: 10 Best Games, Ranked From Worst to Best

Highlights

• The
  Resident Evil
  series thrives after nearly 30 years, offering shocks, scares, and evolving gameplay mechanics.
• Not all games are created equal; standout titles like
  Resident Evil 5
  shine with co-op functions, while others falter in ambition.
• Games like
  Resident Evil Village
  offer action-packed experiences with memorable characters, but may not satisfy die-hard horror fans.

Since the original

Resident Evil
‘s release in 1996, the series has become one of Capcom’s premier titles.

Mega Man
,

Street Fighter
,

Dead Rising,
and the like have had their lulls (some of which are still ongoing), but the survival horror series has continued to shock its fanbase over its near-30-year run.

The series’ gameplay has evolved over the years, from the still cameras of the original series to the more action-based style of Resident Evil 4–6, to the first-person fear introduced in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. It tested players’ nerves with its zombies, BOWs, mutants, and other monstrosities, and tested their brains with its puzzles. But some of their games have been better than others, with these being the best of the bunch.

11 Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Metascore: 91

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis wasn’t actually meant to be a full-on sequel. It was going to be a side story showing what Jill Valentine was doing in Raccoon City while RE2 was going on. But Capcom needed a new game, and calling it Resident Evil 3 was going to appeal to fans more than calling it Resident Evil: Jill’s Bogus Journey. It also meant Shinji Mikami’s own sequel project had to be renamed Resident Evil 4.

The game sees Jill try to escape the city, and seek a cure for her infection while avoiding Nemesis, the most famous of the Tyrant variants. It’s essentially more RE2, which worked out well for it back in the day. However, that wasn’t enough, as the game is far too short and lacking in ambition and content to make it an experience worth replaying time and again.

10 Resident Evil 5

Metascore: 83

Resident Evil 5 was the biggest-selling game in the series until RE7 and RE2 Remake came along. Considering it was the immediate sequel to the almighty RE4, it had an eager audience waiting with bated breath to play it. The final result saw Chris Redfield join forces with Sheva Alomar to shut down a parasitic outbreak in West Africa and confront Albert Wesker one more time. It continued the action-packed gameplay style of RE4 but with new co-op functions.

Chris and Sheva could solve puzzles together, trade ammo and items with each other, and heal each other. With another human, it worked out fine and made the main campaign, DLC, and Mercenaries mode a blast to play. However, single players had less fun as the AI wasn’t as sharp on the uptake. It could make getting through the game as problematic as its portrayal of Africans. It’s still a fun time. It’s just better with friends.

9 Resident Evil Village

Metascore: 84

Some survival horror aficionados don’t get many spine-tingling chills from the RE series because they can’t resist getting bombastic. Silent Hill arguably outdid them in horror by being more subtle. SH2 may have had a giant, pyramid-headed thing chasing the player around, but it also had a gradually unfolding mystery that revealed the protagonist, James Sunderland, had a heart as dark as anything its cursed town could bring up.

Resident Evil Village had Ethan Winters head to Europe to fight off a magnet man, a corpse bride puppet, werewolves, and a giant vampire dominatrix in order to put his baby daughter back together again. It’s more action-packed than its forebear RE7, and its cast of characters are full of personality. Though for horror fans weaned on SH, RE8 must’ve felt more like a turn back to RE4‘s action movie wackiness.

8 Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Metascore: 86

History often repeats itself. When the series fell stagnant in the early 2000s, Resident Evil 4 gave the series a shot in the arm. But its own action-based gameplay eventually led to another slump after Resident Evil 6. To right the series’ course, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard went back to basics, as Ethan Winters heads down to Louisiana to find his missing wife Mia, only to come face to face with the Baker family.

The game drew comparisons to the canceled horror game P.T/Silent Hills with its first-person view and gameplay. But Capcom had started work on the game before P.T got up and running. It’s a quieter, slower experience that picks up the pace for the third act when players learn how the Bakers are connected with the wider RE universe. It was a bold new step for the series that, while not as expansive as RE4‘s, has kept it in rude health since.

7 Resident Evil 2

Metascore: 89

The original RE1 may have started the series off, but it’s since become more famous for its ‘unique’ voice acting and live-action cutscenes than scares. When fans do go back to the old games, they’re more likely to aim for its sequel, Resident Evil 2. It sees rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield try to escape Raccoon City as its citizens are turned into zombies and end up uncovering a conspiracy in the process.

It was an improvement on its predecessor in practically every way, with bigger levels, more puzzles, better graphics, and more monsters like the notorious Licker and Mr. X. The story was more in-depth and dramatic, introducing fan favorites like Ada Wong and Sherry Birkin, and told with more cinematic presentation. The game may be over 25 years old, but it holds up well, even next to its slicker remake.

6

5 Resident Evil (2002)

Metascore: 91

It’s funny listening to the original RE1‘s dialogue, though the game still has genuine scares behind it. Many moments were genuinely shocking, whether it was introducing zombies, the dogs crashing through the windows, and the Hunter lopping off Rebecca’s head. Even so, creator Shinji Mikami felt it hadn’t aged well by 2001, and wanted to remake it into something closer to his original vision for the game.

On top of the graphical, audio, and acting improvements, it added new wrinkles to test more modern players with. They could kill a zombie or two, but if they weren’t able to burn the bodies, they’d come back as the faster, more lethal Crimson Heads. It also added Lisa Trevor, who gave players both a terror to fear, and a tragic figure to pity. It led to the Resident Evil Remake becoming the definitive way to play the first game.

4 Resident Evil 2 Remake

Metascore: 91

It’s typical. Fans are left waiting 20 years for the original Resident Evil 2 to get a remake as well, and once it does, it leads to a deluge of remakes in its wake. But while RE1R stuck to replicating the original game with better graphics and new gameplay elements, Resident Evil 2 Remake went for an experience that combined the third-person action of RE4-6 with more of RE2‘s horrific atmosphere.

Leon and Claire now had to look around corners, into dark shadows, and through smoke to make sure there weren’t any zombies lurking within them. Or something worse. Its realistic graphics, improved setpieces and acting made it a more fearsome experience, giving fans of the original RE2 new horrors to contend with, and new scenarios to go through via the ‘Ghost Survivors’ mode. Whether a new fan or old, RE2R is a must-play game.

3 Resident Evil 4 Remake

Metscore: 93

Considering the first RE4 got ported to essentially every generation of consoles since the Gamecube-PS2 era, fans wondered if it really needed a remake. It never went away, and it was still fun to play. Compared to overlooked entries like REC:V, remaking RE4 seemed pointless. Yet the Resident Evil 4 Remake managed to impress fans and critics alike, including some of the more skeptical ones.

It helped that it didn’t aim to replicate RE4 1 to 1. Instead, it altered everything in the game to aid its new story. Leon’s past with Krauser now has more narrative meat, the Salazar boss fight has been changed completely, and Ada Wong’s ‘Separate Ways’ campaign has new levels and unique bosses instead of using the original’s asset-cobbling. RE4R stands on its own as a fun, survival horror experience in its own right.

2 Resident Evil CODE: Veronica

Metascore: 94

Resident Evil CODE: Veronica was one of the last of the classic formula games, where the Redfield siblings Claire and Chris investigate a viral outbreak in the Southern Ocean, going from Alfred Ashford’s Rockfort Island prison to Umbrella’s Antarctic facility, which reveals the truth behind Ashford, his sister Alexia, and the not-so-late ex-leader of STARS Albert Wesker.

When it was released, the game received widespread praise. Yet each re-release has seen its stock fall with each generation. Aside from age, it could be because of its difficulty, as it’s generally considered to be the hardest of the classic games. Then it’s also infamous for Alfred Ashford’s Psycho-inspired plot twist, and Claire’s less-than-helpful ally, Steve Burnside. Nonetheless, it’s a popular game for classic RE fans, and one they’d like to see get freshened up with a remake someday.

1 Resident Evil 4

Metacritic: 96

Before Resident Evil 4 came out, the series was rather stagnant. After 8 years, the traditional fixed-camera style was showing its age. It didn’t help that RE4 itself had a tortured development, where it had so many revisions that two of them became completely different games in Devil May Cry and Haunting Ground. In the end, Shinji Mikami powered through with a new design with a simple story: Leon tries to save the president’s daughter, Ashley Graham, from evil cultists with a twist in Spain.

Its action-heavy gameplay, with its over-the-shoulder gunplay, context-sensitive strikes, and smarter foes made it an exciting experience that couldn’t be contained by its Gamecube exclusivity status. It would end up becoming one of the most ported games of all time, and one of the most influential games of its era.