Ranking Resident Evil Games from Worst to Best

[Music] when it comes to the most well-known Series in gaming Resident Evil has to be one of the top dogs the franchise spanning almost 30 years beginning all the way back in 1996 with the first game originally released for the PlayStation since then it's seen the light of day on the Sega satin the Nintendo DS Nintendo 64 and then everything from the PS2 right up to the PS5 and the Xbox series X no thanks bro and it's a series that's still going strong being more relevant than ever with the recent re4 remake last year in 2023 so I thought it might be fun to go back and take a look at the whole thing and rank the games from worst to best seeing as that kind of content really seems to be the thing you guys enjoy watching the most in an attempt to keep this list manageable though and have everyone out of here before we all die of old age I'm only going to be talking about the main games in the series this means I won't be talking about titles like Survivor outbreak or Revelations so but I don't have time to pay for you it is also a bit hard of a list to make too in the sense that outside of a few of these I don't think these games are ever outright bad so there's definitely going to be an element of personal preference here as much as it is trying to judge the overall quality of each specific game anyway haven't said that let's grab those red and green herbs some acid grenades and prepare to enter the world of survival horror that's what I'm talking about come on sucker Let's Get It On resident evil right but before I get too far into things I do need to quickly thank War Thunder for sponsoring this video War Thunder is a free-to-play massively multiplayer military action game available on Playstation Xbox and PC capturing the scale and intensity of large scale combat using military equipment their tanks planes helicopters and ships ranging from the mid 20th century all the way to the present year trying to bring the whole thing together with the feeling and atmosphere of a Hollywood Blockbuster movie for instance you can control the tank and break r on through to the front line or hang back and cover ground vehicles from the air with a chopper customizing those Vehicles even further to really make the experience feel more unique plus a high amount of detail has been put into making those Vehicles react believably during combat for instance you can disable a tank by taking out its tracks or destroy a Plane by igniting the fuel tank they've just added in the most recent update too with Alpha strike including Hungarian Aviation Vehicles along with a whole bunch of modern and classic equipment aside from visual effects and gameplay updates there's an all new map as well with North Holland for all new players and those who haven't played War Thunder for half a year or more you'll also receive some special bonuses like rentals for the P40 E1 aircraft or the M4 tank along with 100,000 silver Lions three premium Vehicles a week of a premium account and more so to get into things and download War Thunder for free make sure to click the link in the video description right so at the bottom of the list is is something I just felt had to go here and that's the re3 Remake okay and hot on the heels of the universally praised re2 remake which came out a year before however unlike the re2 Remake this one just isn't very good and there's a reason why Capcom palmed it off to their B Team instead of having the core group working on it sorry about that everyone's a little worked up it again follows the same plot as the original with Jill Valentine returning after the events in the first game trying to escape Raccoon City after an outbreak of the virus has turned everyone into zombies and it more or less follows in those same footsteps only it manages to do it a hell of a lot worse with how nemesis is handled being the perfect example the biggest problem there is that it just removes a lot of the freedom to those Nemesis encounters and most of those moments when he shows up are these highly scripted events where you often have no choice other than to just run away compared to the original game where you're at least given the option to stand your ground and fight this is most blatant during the prologue sequence where he just breaks through the the wall like he's the goddamn Juggernaut and then you spend the next few minutes just holding down the Run Buton As you move from scripted event to scripted event the other issue with this remake is the abundance of content that's just been completely removed I mean the original game wasn't like a super long game to begin with but yet somehow this remake finds a way to make it even shorter clocking in at around 4 or so hours and removing some pretty key sequences in areas like the entire boss fight against the gravedigger in the cemetery for instance is just gone along with exploring the Clock Tower and the factory now the Clock Tower and the factory in the original game had some of the most difficult puzzles in r3's history and I do kind of wonder if removing them was Capcom unintentionally just insulting the modern Gamers intelligence but realistically it's just more likely they didn't have the time or resources to add those eras back in I mean you know things are bad here when you arguably got to explore more of Raccoon City on decades old Hardware than what we did here with this remake either way though they're abs is noticeable and as other people have often said it makes this remake feel more like DLC that really should have been released alongside ra2 as opposed to being a standalone title it's actually a bit of a shame too because the new models they've chosen for Jill and Carlos are actually pretty well cast with Jill looking like the believable heroine who's just doing her best to get out of a bad situation and Visually too it has the same amount of Polish and attention to detail we've come to expect from Capcom by that point plus I do like to have the ending actually you pick up that rail gun to finish Nemesis off directly take the [ __ ] hit impressive still though this is easily the lowest point in the series especially where the remakes are concerned and the sure as [ __ ] didn't do that original game any justice you [ __ ] me now brings me no joy to talk about the next game in the list and that's Resident Evil Zero Resident Evil Zero simply because this one could have been so much better released originally in 2002 for the GameCube zero takes place before the events in the first game with Rebecca Chambers taking Center Stage as he teams up with a prisoner named Billy who was on route to death row before the train he was on is attacked by zombie Lees in fact the first hour so of the game takes place on this train as Rebecca first meets Billy and the two begrudgingly agree to work together all right but you just remember I will shoot you if you try anything funny and look I don't know if most people are all familiar with the general layout of a train but they usually tend to be long narrow and rectangular and narrow rectangles don't exactly allow for ease of movement or evasion when you're coming up against zombies anyway eventually the two of them make their way to some kind of underground facility which is where the majority of the game then takes place and in typical ra fashion your time is spent collecting weapons and items along with shooting horrific looking creatures as you solve puzzles and try to make your escape the big thing that Resident Evil Zero tried to introduce here was this concept of having to swap back and forth between each character on the Fly often to solve puzzles like having one person stand in one spot while another one stands on the other side of the room and activates like a lift or something and it is interesting in that way because it really does kind of showcase an early example of the whole budy system they put to Greater use in re5 and six only with the difference here being that you can actually swap back and forth between each character whenever you want the issue is that most of the time you're really swapping back and forth between them as a means to just sort out the mess that is your inventory and even for an RA game the inventory management and the lack of resources here is just next level with each character only having six inventory slots and certain weapons taking up two slots at a time this means that you're very limited in what items and weapons you can pick up which is fine I mean inventory management is one of the Hallmarks of the series only the game often throws in specific enemies and if you've not brought the right weapon or item along you're more or less just set up for failure where it soon becomes this frustrating process of having to reload an old safe V just to get through these conic traps the biggest blunder of all though is how Capcom thought it' be a good idea to remove item boxes oh Jesus so yeah those reality defying boxes which were all somehow magically connected have been done away with replaced instead with just nothing yeah so instead what you do now is just drop an item on the ground if you don't need it but what this means is you're likely going to be dropping all the items you don't need in the same area just one room with all of your crap just strewn across it like the filthy unced bedroom of an edgy teenager so it's like the alternative they've come up with to a wellestablished easy to use system is just having the player have all their crap scattered around on the floor in a completely disorganized manner what the hell were you thinking look it's just a dumb idea and there's a reason why Capcom have never brought this back since even outside of all that crap though Resident Evil Zero just isn't a very fun game to play and even by classic ra standards it just feels really slow to control I see movement aiming and firing weapons has a weird sense of delay and rooms also seem to be smaller overall too meaning you'll be seeing those door transitions much more than usual in fact the one benefit to playing through this on the PC is having the option to download a train which removes those animations entirely which does make a boring experience slightly less painful but even still like you can't skip over the rest of the dumb [ __ ] this game has like giant grasshoppers and zombie [Music] monkeys visually at least this one does look pretty good with some gorgeous pre-rendered backgrounds and the modeling for both Billy and Rebecca not to mention some of Rebecca's alterate outfits being of a high quality I'm almost there I'm glad I could be of service that's what she said overall though the whole thing is just a test of patience but not in a good way you don't get it and outside of getting a bit of Rebecca's backstory filled in here and there there's really no worthwhile reason to play this up next is 2012's Resident Evil 6 which despite its shortcomings was at least ambitious trying to tell one large over rocking story but then also breaking that down into four separate campaigns wait are you Chris playing as Leon Chris Newcomer Jak Muller and then finally a Wong with the overall story about a newly formed umbrella releasing a new sea virus Trin in China and then each character doing their part to stop that pandemic it's kind of like the combination of all the previous games with these various storylines and characters coming together at all the same time and there is definitely value there in seeing characters like Chris and Leon together Chris Leon oh uh Barney the whole plot about Jake being weskus son is also pretty interesting and Troy Baker puts in a surprisingly good performance making the guy far more likable than he really should have been it's just that the campaigns are often RI with bad design choices and just these moronic sequences barely even resembling survival horror and just being like this big dumb action movie with really tedious scripted events lame vehicle chases and a whole lot of recycled areas and boss fights just take the hit Leon's campaign is about the closest we get to a proper Resident Evil with a lot of time spent moving through these dark environments and shooting out actual zombies but then it's also about 2 hours longer than it needed to be plus it has one of the most drawn out final boss fights of all time not to mention one of the all-time weirdest boss fights too against the kind of creature that sexually confused anyone who play played R6 Chris's campaign on the other hand is the closest that Resident Evil ever got to Call of Duty involving shootouts in Eastern Europe and all these Highway chases [ __ ] it's definitely more fun to play through though fully embracing the cheese and putting the player into some hairy gunfights Jake's campaign features a wish.com Nemesis named the Houston act that doesn't really know when to quit along with adding in its own awful Chase signatures on a snowmobile and a motorbike and thead is is just like a bunch of recycled environments and scenarios from the other campaigns which is trying to wrap the whole thing up now I get it despite all of that though RS6 did at least have a pretty complex and enjoyable combat system with evasion moves and all these stylish melee [Music] takedowns but it's all just let down by what's easily the dumbest storyline the series has arguably ever seen and not even the side of a to1 crawling through the vents or Sher Burkin walking around in a hospital gown could ever save it it's still got the lowest aggregate review score out of all the main entries and the response to this one was so bad that it more or less killed off the franchise until 2017 when Capcom finally revived it with re7 not an awful game but yeah one that's definitely a bit of a mess [Music] now we're jumping forward a bit from 2012 to 2021 with Resident Evil Village an entry that had one of the all-time best marketing strategies involving a 7ft tall vampire lady with humongous knockers in the form of lady d you ungrateful selfish wretch who did far more for this game's reputation alone than anyone else possibly could have Cy again like R7 this is a first-person shooter putting you into the downtrodden boots of returning protagonist Ethan Winters who was just enjoying his life in Europe with his wife Mia and daughter Rose before their house is raided by Chris Redfield and the bsaa who seemingly murder Mia and then abduct Rose and Ethan with no context or explanation given I said get your hands off her Ethan no Ethan then wakes up in a snowy remote Village in the middle of nowhere that he soon finds out is controlled by a priestess named mother Miranda along with her four Lords one of whom happens to be late de quiet now child then becomes a matter of taking out these Lords one by one as you try to rescue Rose and make sense of what's going on and early on things are pretty damn good as exploring lady D's Castle skulling through the ghoul infested dungeon and dealing with all her subordinates feels like proper old school res in evil even having a chase after you through all these Halls is reminiscent of running away from Mr X and Nemesis in AR 2 and 3 are you kidding and then slowly opening up different areas with keys and other items is the Apex saari's level design there's a bit of a vintage horror vibe to everything as well with the premise of this snowy isolated Village along with fighting creatures that resemble werewolves and vampires and like all the modern ra titles it is absolutely stunning when it comes to the presentation and graphics with there being a lot of variety between all the various environments too so overall I don't have ra8 low on the list because I think it's bad I just have it this low because it's a game that I've never had any desire to replay I mean probably like once a year if not more I go back and replay through Resident Evil 1 through to 4 simply because I just like those games so much and I enjoy that sense of familiarity I get with each of them I've even done the same thing for the remakes for re1 and 2 as well numerous times along with re7 and I know that re8 isn't as old as those entries are but I mean even still like it came out 3 years ago and I've just never had any desire to go back through it it probably doesn't help either that the sequence against one of the Lords is more or less completely scripted removing all your weapons and just having you run around and interact with objects for like 30 minutes some of those final areas in the factory also absolutely outstay their welcome as well putting you up against these bullet spongy robot men that require little more than just good accuracy and shooting at all their blatant weak spots what puzzles the game has are also just more or less fetch quests and mother Miranda as a final boss is also pretty damn piss weak enough I mean all of the absolute best stuff in the campaign is early on when you're dealing with Lady D and then after that the rest of what follows just isn't on the same level there's more not to mention this entry paints Chris Redfield as an absolute [ __ ] with the guy keeping crucial information from Ethan throughout the campaign for no real good reason holy [ __ ] we got to go relax my men are monitoring the situation so it is kind of ironic there too that the big action sequence at the end of the game storming the village with Chris is played through his perspective overall though not a bad re game and it's one that I enjoyed but it's also just one that sort of came and went like a fart and hurricane you've dirty my dress now I knew that if I didn't include code Veronica in here somewhere the comment section will be flooded with people bringing that up so here it is Resident Evil originally released for the Sega Dreamcast in the year 2000 with there being long arguments and discussions over whether or not it's even a main entry but the long and short of it is that it was originally intended to be the proper sequel to Resident Evil 2 with a lot of the major plot points even then following on into Resident Evil 5 making the whole thing very relevant long time no see Chris Wesker story takes place shortly after ra2 with CLA being captured by umbrella in Paris after searching for her brother Chris she's imprisoned and sent to Rockford Island but wouldn't you know it there's another outbreak of the T virus and through that she's able to escape soon working alongside of whiny little emo kid named Steve who has a pension for gold lugers along with L's temper who brought you here and where is your family shut up I don't want to talk about it and she's also having run-ins with Alfred and Alexa Ashford The Offspring of one of umbrella's original Founders I have no idea what you're babbling about you don't fool me now for the first half of s the k campaign you'll play as CLA as she first escapes the island before she then ends up in Antarctica with Steve followed by the second half of the campaign is Chris where he mostly just retreads the same step she took as he tries to catch up to her and between both of these campaigns is one running theme in that this whole thing is often ball crushingly hard I mean this is about the most Resident Evil that Resident Evil ever gets with lots of backtracking limited inventory space and strict item management along with challenging boss fights and incredibly cheesy writing and voice acting you're still alive it is classic survival horror you know like backed into a corner with zombes shambling towards you that kind of survival horror but it is almost like too much at times shut up cla's campaign for instance is slow and just kind of boring for the vast majority because early on you've only got the pistol and the bow gun the ladder being one of the most pathetic weapons in any re game you know at least at least until you get the fire [Music] arrows and she doesn't even get the grenade launcher until about the halfway mark not to mention you won't even get your hands on the shotgun or the Magnum until you play as Chris sh but then even when you finally do get to plays Chris the combat still feels kind of underwhelming with the shotgun lacking that ability to deliver out those all satisfying eardrum rupturing head shots meanwhile on top of that too if you don't noce stock pile away certain weapons and ammo in the item box before swapping over to Chris well then you make his half of the game much harder than it needs to be code Veronica also has to win some kind of award for having the most annoying enemy types in the series as well there's these new BS for instance called the Bandit snatches which are kind of like Dollar Store Dow Sims that can extend their arm great distances to whack the player which never stops being annoying there's a room later on full of infinitely respawning mths which can fart out a cloud of poisonous dust but then also latch onto your back and lay eggs which are going to hatch soon after Chris's campaign has the added bonus of having to go up against a bunch of hunters as well which are easily one of the most dangerous enemies in the whole series and then to make that even worse there's a new variant of them called the sweepers which are able to poison you as well okay it also has some of the most notorious boss fights like one against a tyrant on a plane in an area the size of a goddamn broom closet or another one against this so-call NOS ferado a creature which is again able to let off poisonous gas and then even knock you off the side of the building if you're too close to the [Music] edge oh [ __ ] just kind of seems to be full of sections that are thrown in there to Blindside firsttime players towards the end of Chris's campaign for instance you'll have to suddenly swap back to CLA as she's attacked by mutated steeve where about all you can do is just run away but then after that you swap back to Chris only to be thrown right into a boss fight fire and if you don't know this is coming and didn't take enough healing items for CLA not to mention enough weapons and ammo for Chris well then you're more or less going to be [ __ ] oh [ __ ] it's also a story that seems to take itself very seriously which ain't helping either when the voice acting is so bad do not worry brother I will handle them both myself I mean Steve is definitely a highlight in that regard sounding like a whiny little [ __ ] oh Steve but wup absolutely Takes the Cake here with some of his lines just being laughable dear loser Chris you have no idea how much I hate you I hate you I hate you more than anything in this damn world and I know that people often go on about how cheesy the voice acting is in this series but truthfully it was only ever really like that in the first game I mean if you go back and listen to the dialogue and even RE 2 and 3 it was already at a much higher level so to use that excuse of it having always been bad as justification for how it sounds here in Code Veronica well it ain't really a valid [Music] argument probably the weirdest plot point is this bizarre Revelation about Alfred and Alexa early on in the story and I always found it kind of funny how up in arms journalists get about re5 supposed racism but yet none of them seem to have an issue with the whole crossdressing subplot in Code Veronica which again proves the point I suppose that people who complain about video games don't even play them to begin with Alfred crossdressing freak she can't do that shooter or something C Veronica is also the first game in the series to move away from those pre-render fixed camera angles instead opting for the environment to be fully 3D now this is good in the way that it lets the developers create these really cinematic and haunting camera angles but it also comes at the expense of the overall visuals and those flat low resolution textures are definitely lacking in comparison to the Vivid backgrounds we got in the PRI games and J You could argue that that was the intent but it really puts it in stark contrast when you compare it to the vibrant Graphics we got from other Dreamcast titles of the time about the only thing I still think is impressive are the water displacement effects and the modeling for both CLA and Chris I also find it kind of awesome how your current health state is shown on the Dreamcast controller so again yes not a bad game and it's understandable why this one's remembered so fondly by so many people but I do think it's one of those games where how highly you rate it depends on when you actually played it I mean my experience with this game originally was playing through it on the PS2 re-release but then given up after a few hours when I ran out of ammo and couldn't figure out where to go and even replaying after this video on an actual Dreamcast and using a walkthrough when I got stuck it was still a really challenging experience so I guess if nothing else on that positive note it does perfectly capture the heart and soul of what Resident Evil is all about and at the end of the day I did my part and I mentioned it in this video so you can all shut up now shut up I don't want to talk about it now some people might be shocked to see this next one so low and that's Resident Evil 3 Nemesis released in 1999 this one was originally developed alongside Code Veronica and intended to be a spin-off though for multiple reasons it ended up being the third game with Code Veronica off on the side doing its own thing there with the Dreamcast no story-wise it's definitely pretty interesting taking place around the same time as the events in the second game where Jill was trying to escape racen City shortly after the outbreak of the t- virus with a pretty badass intro movie too that really showcased the height of that 90s era pre-rendered Graphics you want some more along the way she's also going to team up with a guy named Carlos who you even get to play as for a brief stint as well as being constantly hunted by the aonomus Nemesis a vocabulary limited B sent into the city with the primary objective to kill the remaining Stars members and in that regard to ra3 was actually pretty hardcore in the way that it Flatout show Brad Vickers getting destroyed by Nemesis early on really emphasizing how much of a threat this thing was going to be no this is without a that to one of the best iterations of Jill Valentine we've ever had with a tank top dress and boots combo easily just as iconic as that original star's uniform which I don't know I guess was in the wash that day I mean it's memorable enough to the point that in the Paul Anderson movie that's more or less based off the game you already know it's going to be Jill by those cutaways to outfit alone as for the campaign itself well this really portrays the most hopelessness we've ever seen in an RA game and I just can't think many other entries that really capture that feeling of moving through an environment that's well past collapse I mean the battle is not only lost but so is the war and raccoon city is beyond saving at this point a big part of that too comes from the awesome soundtrack which is one of the series best with the save room thing being the absolute perfect example of a tune that captures the despair of the situation that Jill's really trapped [Music] in Resident Evil 3 also used IR mechanics to great effect completely changing the placement of items and even enemies for each playthrough making no two runs the same which is kind of awesome for the Casual Gamer but absolute torture for speedr runners standard ammo pickups remain but then a new feature allowed you to combine different gunpowder types to create whatever ammo you wanted even letting the player craft things like acid and frost grenades but of course what made ra3 so unique was that inclusion of Nemesis this literal killing machine that would pop up seemingly at random to chase after the player you encounter this guy early on out front the RPD after he kills Brad given you first of many in-game decisions this time to either stand your ground and fight him or flee into the building and then from that point on this [ __ ] could pop up but pretty much any time like random breath testing on the side of the road anywhere anytime that let me tell you too man this [ __ ] could move which was in St contrast to Mr X in ra2 who just kind of CAS strolled in your direction unlike Mr X as well this guy could actually follow you pretty much anywhere and choosing to fight him would earn you some handy rewards in the form of better weapons and items but it was also the source for a lot of frustration because the environment and the movement controls aren't exactly designed around going toe-to-toe with a character that has the ability to both Sprint and grab the player and despite this game's appearance of being more action focused it still has those same old tank controls from the previous entries which works fine against the other enemy times but it is a bit of a handicap when you're trying to take on Nemesis in certain areas I mean there's a reason why the best strategies for beating this guy pretty much always involve exploiting his AI even still though you'll see him do things like randomly Dodger grenades for instance what along with being able to pick up Jill and just throw it to the ground mechanic which is doubly annoying because to get back up you got to quick match the directional buttons and more often than not there he's simply going to grab you again before you've even gotten back to your feet one big addition to the controls here is that if you manag to press the aim button at just the right time you could pull off a Dodge move which was handy for avoiding things like Nemesis rocket launcher and certain other attacks but then it's also just far too inconsistent to be a trustworthy mechanic and just running away and staying mobile I've always found to be the superior tactic also outside of Code Veronica and Resident Evil Z this one has to be third in line for the amount of backtracking especially during those opening sequences in the city not to mention it has one of the most notoriously confusing puzzles in the entire series overall I've always just kind of seen it as a bit of a downgrade from Resident Evil 2 replacing the two campaigns we got in that game with just you know one campaign I mean you do get to play as Carlos for a bit there but that whole sequence is over in about 20 minutes one thing Resident Evil 3 did pioneer though is that it's the first introduction of the mercenaries mode which would go on to become a bit of a staple in this series from that point on so that's definitely a positive so again far from a bad game and one that I'll still play through at least once a year out of tradition but out of that original trilogy it's easily the weakest and not even the side of Jill dressed up like a sexy cop is going to change that you want Stars I'll give Stars right so after the piss poor effort that was R6 it took Capcom 5 years to bring the series back to its survival horror roots with Resident Evil 7 look was and in an attempt to probably make this seem as far a move from that game as possible they even changed things to a first-person perspective and while there have been games in the series prior like Survivor 1 and 2 and dead aim that used this perspective re7 is the first time it actually plays like a firstperson shooter and feels wholly designed around that concept oh big man got himself to really great results too with clever use of lighting and other effects like depth of feel to really capitalize on the whole found footage sub genre of horror I've seen people say that the first person view takes away from that aspect but I really think it does the opposite because you objectively lack that situational awareness that you get from a third person perspective and the way that certain enemies are able to sneak up on you works wonders at keeping you on edge it's also meant to be a bit of a homage to the Grindhouse genre as well with the whole concept of being stuck in this Backwater house in the middle of nowhere taken on a family psychos along with the gore and the violence being suitably over the top and I mean again as far as presentation goes this one still looks really good being the first game two to run on capcom's re engine come on now with me we're going to settle this this one introduces a new protagonist named Ethan Winters heading to a supposedly abandoned Ranch in Louisiana after receiving a distressing email from his wife Mia who he previously assumed to be dead his arrival is fairly innocuous despite the place being very ominous but it doesn't take too long there before things start to ramp up with the first Aro of the campaign being absolute [ __ ] Insanity for starters shortly after Ethan finds Mia locked away in the basement and the two make their escape she suddenly becomes incredibly aggressive and attacks him firstly with a knife and then after with a goddamn chainsaw even soaring his left hand off entirely Ethan manages to subdue her in the Attic of the house you know by shooting her in the face a bunch of times only to them be knocked out and awaken in front of the baker family in a very Texas Chainsaw masac inspired dinner scene Edith it's good getting to meet Jack his wife margarite and their son Lucas who are R definitely a few cans short of a six-pack you're a son of a [ __ ] he's soon able to break free and try to escape running into a local Deputy who really just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time culminating in a fight inside the garage as Ethan tries to run Jack over with a car only for Jack to then take control back and purposefully crash it setting himself a light in the process but even then like it only finally ends when Jack blows his brains out right in front of Ethan [ __ ] and again to just remind you this is the first AR cell of the game okay let's go from that point on it then becomes classic Resident Evil exploring a creepy manner finding theme keys to get into locked doors putting gear in item boxes and slowly uncovering the environment piece by piece along with killing slowly moving shambling creatures called the molded or whilst being randomly attacked by Jack who's patrolling the area there's equally insane boss fight in the basement against this guy too involving chainsaws which ends with a top half of his torso ceasing to exist but then that's the big problem that ra7 has in that it just doesn't quite keep up that same level of int density you've got in those first few hours and after Jack is killed for the time being things just kind of slowly start to die in the ass I mean the whole sequence trying to avoid margarite for instance is just kind of awful having to create a makeshift flamethrower to burn down all these nests of wasps proving once again that bugs are the most annoying enemy types in video games the actual proper fight against margarit is also about as bullet spongy as a Resident Evil boss has ever been and this one is really just about making sure you're brought along every available bit of ammo you had there is AAL sequence later on though involving Lucas where Ethan's trapped inside some kind of elaborate death trap room which honestly feels like something out of the S films but then after that is when it shifts up to playing as Mia I'll send help don't bother and this is the worst stuff in the entire game forcing you to run around doing errand work whilst also even avoiding enemies early on speaking of enemies the variety is sorely lacking and outside of the Bakers you're really just fighting the same variance of the molded over and over which AR all that tough to beat and a well-placed head shot with the shotgun is usually going to do them in shotgun but then even the Bakers are a bit of a let down and all up in the game there's only three proper boss fights two of which are against Jack and then the other one against margarite which is just kind of piss weak Lucas on the other hand just vanishes and is never seen again and it's not even really until that final sequence is Mia where the real villain is even revealed and the whole twist is that the real antagonist is what's more or less just a stuck standed creepy little girl one who is apathetic and just wants to have a family that loves her which really feels like the most boilerplate horror premise of all time we'll be together forever boring so it's really for those reasons that I don't have this one Higher up on the list but make no mistake this is still Resident Evil through and through and replaying it again in 2024 for this video I was still screaming like an absolute [ __ ] right so without a doubt what has to be the most underappreciated entry in the series is Resident Evil 5 originally released in 2009 Resident Evil 5 and a big reason as to why this thing didn't get the credit it deserved was that it did have the unfortunate timing if having to follow one from Resident Evil 4 a title which left fans with understandably high expectations and it's not helping either that in a lot of ways it really does kind of feel like it's just copying a lot of what re4 pulled off to begin with for starters the shooting and the movement controls are more or less identical and the mechanic of collecting treasure for upgrades along with all the various melee moves are also in line with a lot of those features that re4 added even just the whole premise of Chris coming to a village in Africa which is Ground Zero for a l plug us outbreak is again very similar it just took everything that R4 did and DED it up a notch to the point that it barely feels like survival horror anymore with sequences like being on the back of a Jeep with a mounted machine gun through to destroying a massive B with an orbital satellite but I think people often over look that it also tells a really cool story explaining what happened to jel throughout all those Missing Years along with bringing the whole Chris and Wesker rivalry to a head you know after Chris got his [ __ ] pushed in throughout cob Veronica I've had enough of your [ __ ] yeah it seems like in between Konica and R5 the guy has been on a steady diet of Tren and dball along with using giant Boulders as a speed bag this is also my all-time favorite iteration of Wesker and he's just such a comically over-the-top villain here that it's impossible to not smile like a jackass every time he's on the screen oh yeah speaking of over the toop villains you've got that sadistic Italian a named excelion plus we're forgetting it has one of the all-time best companions in the entire franchise with Chev Alamar my name is Chev Alamar o I like her and one of the greatest Crimes of the modern age is that Capcom have never brought her back for a single other game not a reference not a mention absolutely zip I mean it's like she got wiped from ever existing in the first place and what really set re5 apart was that the entire campaign was designed around that second character you grab it Roger with there being puzzles and sequences where both Chris and Chev had to work together it's to heavy for you let me give you a hand and I've actually got really fun memories of playing through the campaign in co-op mode in fact the first time I ever played this on my PS3 I had some random join my game only for them to then hang around for the next few hours and the two of us basically beating half of the game in a single session be every now and then I still wonder what that guy's up to these days you'll grab it Roger I mean yeah look there are still definitely things worth bitching about here like some of the forced cover shooting segments not to mention how artificial the difficulty gets towards the end when they just throw wave after wave of enemies at you but overall like re5 is a really fun experience especially with a buddy and the bonus of the mercenaries mode adds even more value if the ending to the re4 Remake is any indicator well then we probably be getting a remake for this one too and along with the other re5 apologists they'll absolutely be the first one in line waiting to shoot Wesker in the face all over again up next though is the one that started the whole thing off and that's the original Resident Evil released all the way back in 1996 and really what makes this one so good is the Legacy that it left behind because all of those key features and mechanics it introduced would go on to become Staples of not only the series from that point on but also just the survival horror genre for decades to come you've got the premise of umbrella being this Shady evil pharmaceutical Corporation responsible for all these horrible tragedies and then only a handful of people actually able to step up to the plate and stop them there's the near uselessness of the pistol as a starting weapon followed by the absolute Juggernaut that is the shotgun a weapon which becomes a force of Nature and the master of delivering out those always satisfying head shot I can see why this is so popular then finally the Magnum as an endgame weapon with its limited ammo always hoarded away until it's needed most along with the whole concept of fine caution and danger Health States not to mention the player ingesting green red and blue herbs to stay on their feet plus it's also a game responsible for countless nightmares as any of you to having to play it back in the '90s can probably testify to I mean you got the Cinematic showing off that first zombie for instance you know being one of the all-time classics along with what's really one of Gaming's most infamous jump scares with the zombie dogs coming through the window you choose to play as either Chris Redfield or jel Valentine with each campaign differing up just that little bit well it's not your fault this place is crazy with both of the trapped inside the mysterious Spencer mansion with the overall goal being just to get the [ __ ] out Jill's campaign is more or less like easy mode giving you a bigger inventory and assistance at Key areas from old mate Barry Burton better take it with you whereas Chris has two slots less for carrying items and also has to do all the heavy lifting himself working alongside Stars rookie Rebecca Chambers I see and in fact too like I blame this game and Rebecca Chambers specifically for making me having a thing for Shad tomboys in my teenage years despite who your play as though you'll still be killing horrific looking creatures along with overcoming all these various hazards and puzzles to make your Escape exploring one big connected environment in the process with there being Horrors lurking around every corner from your basic zombies through to Giants spiders snakes and even sharks so yeah pretty much just like walking around outside when you live in Australia even even just the concept of limited saves with the ink ribbons is something that played a big part in heightening the whole horror aspect knowing that if you got killed it could have potentially been hours since your last save probably the most iconic thing of all though was those slow tense intermission screens every time you ENT to the new area with an animation that was more or less just done to mask a loading screen but also ended up becoming one of the series most recognizable features capturing the mystery of heading into the unknown not sure of what was coming next again kind of like walking around outside Australia what's always been brilliant move too is how they introduced The Hunters right around the halfway mark yeah so like right around the time when most people would have cleared out the mansion and killed most of the standard Zombies the game then introduces these mutated monstrosities who have the ability to more or less Lop your head off in a single hit and it's a curveball that completely changes the way you play the game blindsiding the player with this sudden difficulty Spike to keep the last half of the campaign challenging in terms of the boss fights I think that's where Resident Evil starts to show its age the most I mean the final fight against the Tyrant is and always has been kind of underwhelming and most people will probably have so much Magnum ammo stopped up by that point that it's more or less just about how quickly you can mash the fire button so yeah like while it isn't quite as honed or scary nowadays as it was back then the genuinely Eerie backdrop of the Mansion heighten by those cinematic fixed camera angles along with the unintentionally hilarious voice acting really left us with one of Gaming's alltime Classics but how about you Barry I have this and the fact that is still as highly regarded as it is almost 30 years later is all the Testament it needs I don't know what's going on well it can't be helped and whether or not it's the Nostalgia talking re1 can still deliver the goods and then everything that Resident Evil did so well was expanded upon with the sequel Resident Evil 2 released in 1998 Resident Evil Evil 2 yeah baby that's what I've been waiting for said after the events of the first game in Resident Evil 2 you're either playing as newcomers Leon Kennedy or Clare Redfield exploring the Raccoon City Police Department as you hunker down from the outbreak on the streets bringing back a lot of similar Concepts and mechanics from the first game including limited resources backtracking puzzles and a focus on horror first and foremost and I might be a bit blinded by N St with this one because this is the first Resident Evil that I ever played as a kid but I still think this one deserves a top spot for a couple of key reasons firstly because it's a perfect story Evolution from the first game following on from the horrific events at the Spencer mansion and showing that cause and effect that it's had on nearby Raccoon City secondly because the backdrop of the RPD is easily one of the series most well-known environments more so I think than even the mansion and then thirdly because either playing as CLA or Leon had some pretty fundamental differences in the campaign with each of these being vastly different experiences than the other what was that that's what I was telling you about canonically Leon had to avoid the imposing Mr X a tant which pursued him relentlessly and then CLA would have to assist Sher Burkin and avoid sher's Father William who's been mutated by the T Virus into the type of creature that you know looks like it'd be really good at winning arm wrestling [Music] comps not to mention Leon's going to spend a fair bit of time working alongside ad w a dynamic which is something that linger throughout the rest of the series when I saw the uniform I thought you were another [Music] zombie it added in new features too like being able to upgrade certain weapons if you found the components and another really clever addition was how your character's animations would change depending on their health so you can now tell at a glance if you're in a caution or a danger State just by the way they moved around but more importantly it's because of that inclusion of Mr X because this is really the first time in the series where they introduced like a tyrant type character that hunts the player throughout the entire story which is something that would really become a common theme from that point on even as recent as re7 and8 with Jack Baker and Lady D r2's overall layout and design is also just about as honed as the series has ever been with just the right amount of exploration combined with unlockable shortcuts to make navigation a lot easier you got the first appearance of the Liquors easily one of the most vicious and fright in bws ever and like any good RA game worth it salt the whole thing ends up underground in some kind of top secret laboratory before a self-destruct sequence turns the entire site into a crater plus there's just so much value in multiple playthroughs with different unlockables available for each character finally this one also has some of the all-time best music in the series with that track you here when you first enter the RPD being burned into my brain [Music] [Applause] and if we use save room themes as a metric for how good an re game is well then this also means that this is one of the greatest I was there Leon I know what I've always loved about it too is how it's really the turning point for so many of the franchise's key players Leon for instance would go on to work for the government after this and end up in Europe trying to rescue the president's daughter CLA would also head off and try to find her brother Chris ending up captured and sent to Rockford Island plus it's kind of cool to think too that somewhere in the background Jill Valentine's running around as well wiping zombie [ __ ] off her leather boots it's a fantastic game and the best of the original trilogy so of course it makes perfect sense that it's the template for what's one of the all-time best remakes ever made get down now I remember there being rumors for like years that Capcom were even working on this thing to begin with and it wasn't even until 2018 when they finally showed it off and confirmed it existed with it finally launching a year later in 2019 part of what makes this remak so good is the casting choices they went with for both CLA and Leon and Capcom have always had a bit of a knack for picking unique and memorable people to scan into their video games but what that also means is that there's a much greater sense of realism and you truly feel like you're thrust into the shoes of these unfortunate characters who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time it's okay won't hurt you I promise consider for instance that it's Leon's first week on the job and CLA only happened to be in town to checking on her brother Chris no looking for my brother he's a cop to the Remake doesn't differ too much from that original setup either with both characters being separated early on and stranded in the RPD then having to find the means to escape the city Leon eventually meets up and works with the mysterious aah Wong dodging Haymakers from Mr Rex whereas CLA runs into Sher Burkin and the corrupt chief of police you Tire up now or she dies what an [ __ ] also avoiding sher's mutated dad William it's just that all of this stuff has been greatly improved the biggest change is that those iconic loading animations when entering new rooms is completely done away with which means you can now explore the entire building uninterrupted this also works great as well when you're being chased by Mr X because this big lumbering dick hole can now more or less follow you anywhere and hearing those stting footsteps getting louder and louder as you're desperately trying to solve a puzzle is the stuff that anxiety attacks are made of give me a break combat's been greatly overhauled too to the point that you can now outright dissect the standard zombies shooting off their legs or arms to slow down their movement speed and make them easier to avoid and Visually too it is an absolutely great looking game with Gorgeous lighting effects and a lot of awesome Gore what I always really appreciated was the updated attention to detail with the facial animation in the way that clar and Leon would winse and grit their teeth in pain when they're in a caution or a danger state but also that like it also built upon a lot of these returning characters fleshing out their back stories and making them seem like actual people in the original game for instance you see Bob Kendo for all of 10 seconds before he's then killed by a bunch of zombies in the remake though there's this whole subplot about how his daughter's been infected and as a result he refuses to leave it behind which is absolutely heartbreaking Emma sweetheart I told you to stay put Dad's [Applause] here okay it's just kind of like they knew what things to keep in and what things to improve that means You' still got the first appearance of the Liquors in the South hallway along with the [ __ ] puckering encounter with that giant alligator in the sewers plus of course the inclusion of Mr X who is now this fully autonomous creature that can stalk you the entire time overall the Remake said a precedent that the series has tried to replicate ever since and as long as they want to keep remaking these games to the same standard well they'll hear no complaints from me got your ass so it shouldn't come as any kind of a shock then that everything I loved about the ra2 Remake was doubly so in 2023 when they gave Resident Evil 4 the same treatment Christ making not not only one of the best games of that year but also a pretty strong Contender for one of the best games in the series a big part of why I enjoyed this remake so much was that it felt like they really emphasized just how much Leon had developed as a character since those events in the second game he weren't playing as a rookie cop anymore by this point Leon had seen some serious [ __ ] and the writing but also his new move set did a great job at showing that off the story is still the same Leon's heading to a remote Village in Spain to rescue the president's daughter but when he arrives he finds all the locals to be incredibly hostile and he's soon fighting back just to save skin eventually uncovering the mystery behind the Las plugers virus and how the whole thing's connected to Umbrella you think I'm going to give up that easy much like the ra2 Remake the controls are now akin to an actual third person shooter allowing aiming and strafing at the same time removing the tank controls from the original and you'll still equip and upgrade all manner of weapons as you wage war against these poor infected villagers villagers who I'd assume on any other day of the week you know when they're not consumed by a centuries Old Paris site are probably pretty nice people alongside r62 this is easily the most skill-based the combat has ever been in an RA game and what's without a doubt the coolest mechanic that they've added in is the ability to be able to deflect certain attacks with your knife impressive very nice it's no secret that the knife was a handy tool in the original useful for quickly breaking open crates along with conserving much needed ammo against the weaker enemies but it didn't have much of a use outside of that in the remake though these things can and absolutely will save your bacon letting you deflect everything from axes to Molotov cocktails even through the chainsaws which was not only a cool gameplay feature but also just a bit of an awesome visual spectacle seeing Leon show off some insane upper body strength as he pared one of those things this means the combat has a much higher skill ceiling and being able to Breeze your way through certain sequences not only felt amazing but it felt in line with the law of Leon now being this fully trained and capable agent even having him dropped these casual one liners after taking out an enemy like his [ __ ] Steven cagal or something not bad right and despite all of these additions they still managed to retain the DNA that made AR for what it was which means you still got to survive that Infamous water room you got the battle against Delo hunkering down in the cabin with Louis not to mention of course the return of Ashley Graham Leon are you kidding me jumping across chandelier seriously who does that what are you my mother and one of the absolute highlights is that whole new section playing with Ashley where you've now got a lantern that can be used to temporarily stun and fend off those reanimated suits of armor overall it felt like the riding skated a good balance between being cheesy but also so taken itself seriously throwing in some surprisingly well-crafted horror sequences that absolutely caught me off guard plus it again offers up lots of Replay ability trying to unlock and upgrade all the weapons and get all those hidden items it is true that a fair bit of content found its way to the chopping block and people are right in complaining about that stuff but the long and short of it is you're never going to satisfy 100% of the people 100% of the time and overall I think the Remake managed to balance the old with the new just right what but despite how much I do like this remake and maybe it's the Nostalgia in me talking at the end of the day I still prefer the original okay yeah I really don't know how you couldn't have ra4 at least somewhere among the top of this list not only did it help to completely reinvent the series being a departure away from the fixed camera angles of the previous games but it also heavily influenced action games for decades to come popularizing that over the shoulder Viewpoint that every third person shooter pretty much adopted from that point on on top of that too though like it's just a great game with a tightly crafted campaign where you played as returning bad boy Leon Kennedy no longer a dear in the headlights now a fully trained and capable government agent sent to that creepy European Village to rescue the president's daughter Ashley everything's going to be just fine also running into the very much not dead aah Wong who this time resembles an actual female human and not a combination of different rectangles need a ride handsome eventually uncovering a plot involving umbrella and a centuries old virus that has infected the locals and caused horrific mutations that yeah once again threatens all of humanity yeah nothing that a good roundhouse kick or a suplex can't solve while re4 isn't like a Flatout shooter it still has some of the all-time best hit feedback where the shooting controls are concerned with enemies reacting realistically staggering backwards when shot at or even being knocked onto their ass when hit by shotgun or grenades the game still utilized the tank controls from the previous games preventing you from strafing left and right along with forcing you to stand still to manual aim but the slower movement speed of the enemy seemed to balance this out leaving combat being challenging but also Fair throwing in the odd button mashing sequence or quick time event here and there to really keep you on your toes the updated Graphics engine allowed for far more detailed cinematics with the best animations we'd ever seen up until that point in the series not to mention it allowed owed for much more graphic Death Scenes some of which are still pretty damn Brutal by today's standards like s Leon having his head lopped off by Dr Salvador we're having his whole face melted off by acid I actually played this originally back on the PS2 and it's no secret that the PS2 Port was definitely lacking compared to its GameCube counterpart but even still like it was plain to see those advancements the series was starting to make here and when it eventually got ported across to the PC in 2014 for the HD Edition it made it even easier to appreciate the Artistry and the talent that went into creating this whole world one thing that did get a fair bit of criticism at the time was the whole escorting mechanic where you spend a sizable chunk of the campaign escorting Ashley and her ballistics through hostile territory how rude and I got to say like I do think these sections are a little bit overh did not to mention the other segments where he controlled Ashley directly I thought were a nice departure from the malady to keep things interesting her AI was fine for the most part as long as you kept it close and she was even nice enough to duck out of your way so you could shoot over a head along with giving you a little fist pump if you made any accurate shots with the rifle oh yeah and speaking of that too this was the first time that manual aiming was introduced to this series making head shots at absolutely necessary to maximize your ammo and certain enemies in boss fights even having specific weak spots you had to exploit and I got to say that there's fewer things more satisfying in video games than getting that perfect head shot with the shotgun or the rifles in re4 sure was a long way from just whipping out the grenade launcher or the Magnum and spamming rounds until something died and again like this whole manual aiming theme became the Cornerstone of the combat for the series from that point on speaking the cornerstones you've also got the introduction of Dr Salvador the chainsaw welding badass you come up against early on and again like the image of a chainsaw wielding lunatic is something the franchise has brought back countless times as well which is all kind of the reason as to why re4 is as high up as it is I mean like the Remake might do certain things a bit better here and there and adding new quality of life features and all that kind of stuff but much like Resident Evil 1 is the original Resident Evil 4 is really one of those tent pole titles for the series where every other game that came after it was really just kind of following its footsteps everything that we got in Resident Evil 5 and 6 was a byproduct of the systems that Resident Evil 4 first introduced I mean you wouldn't be uppercutting villages in Africa as Chris Redfield if Leon didn't do the whole thing four years prior not to mention you wouldn't be parrying chainsaws either and this might be the first game that ever really used that whole new game plus mode 2 where your items and upgrades would carry over into the next playthrough this meant you could start a new run but do it with like a fully upgraded red n or the broken butterfly which is a mechanic that saw a lot of rise in popularity after this game came out you can still find naysay and critics who dislike it for a whole multitude of reasons and you know what a lot of those reasons would probably be valid I still think the last few erors the game Drag more than a 9-year-old man's nut sack and how you need to essentially pause the game and go into your inventory every time you want to change weapons is a really dated feature as well and can just totally kill the flow of the combat but anyone who says it's just a dumb action game and not a horror game clearly hasn't played far enough to come up against the [Music] [Applause] regenerators to this day the impact he left on the franchise survival horror and really just gaming in general can't be ignored and I reckon you could get about anyone to play through this for the first time even in the current year and they'd still have a blast still though the top slot of all time has to go to the Resident Evil one remake Resident Evil which is not only a remake of one of the best survival horror games ever made but it's also responsible for kicking off the whole remake Trend with modern gaming to begin with directed by Shinji Mami as well the same BL who made the original which means it's authentic and doesn't feel like some kind of shitty fan job like what we got with MGS twin Snakes oh what was that it's just the perfect example of what a remake should be keeping the same feeling in tone but bringing the whole thing up to a more Modern Standard introducing new features but keeping them in line with the original and in fact too like a lot of the plot points and mechanics they added in were things that they originally wanted to include in re1 but weren't able to due to the limitations of the PlayStation oh yeah and like speaking of the PlayStation 1 it's even more staggering to think that both the original and the GameCube remake were only one generation apart oh Barry that was too close Barry that was a close one anyway the Remake more or less tells exactly the same story with the members of the Stars team finding themselves trapped inside the Spencer mansion and the player choosing to play is either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine you don't want to go back out there this time around too Capcom used an actual model named Julia vth as the likeness for juel Valentine who's really gone on to become one of the character's most popular iterations and yeah rightfully so I mean damn which is also an early example of Capcom using the likeness of actual people in their games which is something they started to do from that point on now that you mention it yeah but look I'll stop right here and be completely honest I actually missed out on this one back in 2003 simply because at the time I didn't own a GameCube and that was the only way to play it so it wasn't until it finally got re-released on PC for the HD Edition in 2015 when I managed to pick it up and finally finish it got it I can can handle myself but even still though like I feel like that's even more of a testament because playing what was more or less a 12-year-old game in 2015 the quality of that remake still came through and not only did it perfectly capture the feeling of the original but it also vastly improved it in multiple ways visually it keeps all the fixed camera angles from the original but it updates all of these backgrounds to make them even more terrifying than before adding in moving objects Dynamic lighting and shadows making it without a doubt the best dispens a mansion has ever looked even just the appearance of the basic zombies is now much more horrifying with their faces and brutalized bodies being a lot more detailed you had the option to use the traditional tank control scheme but also a more updated system that made moving around a lot quicker and easier to appease both the Old and New fans and combat was improved as well with the new defense items which were one-off weapons Like a Knife that could be used as a get out of jail free card if an enemy grabbed you plus I'd also argued that the updated save room theme is the best piece of music in Resident Evil history and has probably been featured in more unrelated video essays on YouTube than any other song that's existed the Remake adds in entirely new puzzles too along with a new enemy type in the form of the Crimson head which is still one of the most terrifying enemies in the entire franchise along with adding in new rooms and shortcuts to help circumvent the frequent backtracking you had to do in the original plus they somehow found a way to update all the Voice work making it sound much more professional but then also keeping the same cheesy toe in the original had and in Spades Chris take a piece of the action so it always gives me the [ __ ] seeing people online saying that Capcom should go back and remake this remake because saying that is completely overlooking just how much stuff this version improves not to mention ignoring the fact that you can't improve upon Perfection to begin with and the few things that this remake does poorly are just overshadowed by all of the stuff that it does well and if I had to recommend one game in the series one game that you should absolutely play well then guess what [ __ ] this is it it just encapsulates every single gameplay element and concept that the franchise is known for and it makes the whole thing incredibly accessible and like a fine wine or a decades old bottle of bourbon this thing just keeps getting better with age which finally brings me on to the end of this very very long video and can I say too that I managed to get through the whole thing without referencing the Jill sandwich line a single time [ __ ] I'm sure within the next year or so this whole list is going to be made redundant when Capcom bring out the next entry whatever that is but for now be sure to comment below as to whether or not you agree or disagree with my list and either way thanks for watching [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: GmanLives

Views: 297,399

Keywords: resident evil, netflix resident evil, resident evil 4 remake, resident evil 4, resident evil 3, resident evil 9, resident evil village, resident evil 2, raccoon city, resident evil 5, resident evil 7, resident evil 6, resident evil 5 remake, resident evil 4 vr, jill valentine, chris redfield, leon kennedy, claire redfield, capcom games, resident evil from worst to best, ranking resident evil games, gmanlives, gggmanlives, survival horror, horror games, horror games 2024

Id: DCNbZ8Zm4zE

Length: 66min 26sec (3986 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 31 2024