7 Best Resident Evil Games Of All Time
When you look at the 30 year history of this series – with all of its mutations and transformations – it's no surprise that so many of its instalments are considered among the best horror games ever made.
What's impressive is that so many of the best Resident Evil games have stood the test of time. Not to mention how much variation there is – there are true contenders for our best action games ranking in here, not to mention our list of the best single-player games. But above all else, the best Resident Evil games are good for one thing, and one thing only: scaring the living daylights out of you.
What's impressive is that so many of the best Resident Evil games have stood the test of time. Not to mention how much variation there is – there are true contenders for our best action games ranking in here, not to mention our list of the best single-player games. But above all else, the best Resident Evil games are good for one thing, and one thing only: scaring the living daylights out of you.
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00:00 With a 30 year history, it's no surprise Resident Evil has produced some of the best
00:10 horror games ever made. From exploring the creepy Spencer Mansion to surviving Raccoon
00:14 City zombies, or escaping vampire filled castles and more, there's a lot to love. Or hate,
00:20 depending on how you feel about monsters and running away from things.
00:24 But with all the mutations and transformations the series has undergone over the years, what
00:28 are the best games overall? It's that exact question we're going to answer now as we
00:33 take a look at the Resi games that have stood the test of time and the essential must plays
00:37 it has produced over three decades.
00:47 Creating the foundation for a successful franchise is one thing, developing a successful sequel
00:52 is something else entirely. Resident Evil 2 took the suspenseful action of its predecessor
00:57 and the suffocating atmosphere of the Spencer Estate and draped it across a sprawling city
01:02 under siege from the living dead. It's an ingenious survival horror game combining meticulously
01:07 crafted spaces with perfectly paced scenarios to form an experience almost as gripping today
01:12 as it was back in 1998. It's simply one of the greatest sequels ever made and the
01:17 one that firmly established Resident Evil's place in history.
01:33 This was an astounding remake when it landed in 2002 and immediately became one of the
01:37 best Gamecube games ever made. This redux takes the bones of the 1996 original and rebuilds
01:43 it, adding in improved combat mechanics, refined resource management and terrifying new threats
01:48 like crimson head zombies. It's overhauled visual design has also stood the test of time
01:52 pretty well, meaning one of survival horror's most formative experiences looks nearly as
01:57 good to play today as when it was first unleashed upon the world.
02:08 This handsome remake makes some odd changes to the original story and flow, and fluffs
02:13 a lot of the pace as a result, but it's still a good little action horror hybrid.
02:17 Nemesis for example is a much more scripted set piece threat compared to the PS1 original.
02:22 He's more a series of mini boss battles now compared to say, the ever pressing threat
02:27 of Mr X's pursuit in 2019's Resident Evil 2 remake. It also feels surprisingly short,
02:33 with a breakneck 5 hour zombie slaughtering quest to be had if you're quick on your
02:37 feet. But the mechanics are still solid, building on the template of the Resident Evil 2 remake,
02:42 it looks gorgeous and when it does get things right, it absolutely nails the landing.
02:53 The most recent Resident Evil is a bit of a ramshackle rollercoaster ride that undoes
02:57 all the work of Resident Evil 7's incredible reboot, but it still has some great moments.
03:01 It's a fun, but a far more silly take on the series that leans into camp melodrama
03:06 over actual horror. On the plus side, it introduces some iconic characters like Lady D, and a
03:11 terrifying dollhouse section easily as good as anything the series has ever produced.
03:15 But it's also got bizarre pacing missteps, like a brief swamp section or some excessively
03:20 trigger happy shooting levels that, overall, rob this instalment of some venom. It has
03:25 a strong opening half though that's well worth checking out, with only later wonky
03:29 segments lessening the impact overall.
03:35 Without Resident Evil 4, this video ranking the best Resident Evil games probably wouldn't
03:39 exist. Leon S. Kennedy's Spanish adventure reintroduced and rebuilt Resident Evil to
03:44 incredible effect, reshaping all third person games as a result for over a decade. This
03:49 wasn't just a sweeping reinvention of the Resident Evil framework, it's one of the
03:53 greatest action games of all time. Without this, everything from Gears of War to Dead
03:57 Space would have turned out very differently. Setting the undead slaying action over the
04:01 shoulder of Leon, Resident Evil 4 is both perfectly placed and utterly relentless. It's
04:06 an experience designed to overwhelm from the first minute through to the last while remaining
04:10 self-aware enough to revel in the ridiculousness of its own narrative arc. It's a truly remarkable
04:15 experience and one that changed games forever.
04:22 The Resident Evil 2 remake is an incredible reimagining of one of the series' finest
04:25 moments. It's a game that manages to beautifully combine the methodical challenge of the original
04:30 with the tight gunplay that Resident Evil 4 made as a video game standard. It's a
04:34 stunning love letter to the legacy of Resident Evil 2, but one that's fearless in how it
04:38 updates what's needed refreshing. It captures everything from the original perfectly, refrained
04:43 for modern tastes, without losing a shred of its terror or claustrophobia as you fight
04:47 to escape a zombie-ridden raccoon city.
04:55 This is the reboot that made Resident Evil relevant again by doing what the first game
04:59 had originally done, stealing all the good stuff from horror movies. In this case, mid-2000s
05:04 slasher flicks found footage and home invasion horror. After years of increasingly bloated
05:08 story excess, Capcom wiped the board clean and doubled down on claustrophobic dread,
05:13 with a focused story in a rotting Deep South mansion, with crunching first-person combat
05:17 and the diabolical Baker family as villains.
05:21 With the Bakers, the series discovered some of its most effective antagonists, stalking
05:25 the hapless hero Ethan Winters through their disconcerting Bayou estate. The reduced cast
05:30 created and enhanced some incredibly focused scares in a memorable story that utterly reinvented
05:35 the series, while keeping all the familiar elements. It's an outstanding retake on
05:39 Resident Evil that put the series back on the horror map.
05:45 So what's your favourite Resident Evil game? Have we got the rankings right? Let us know
05:48 in the comments below.