Resident Evil Games In Order

Resident Evil is one of the most popular and influential game franchises that had many highs and lows throughout the years.

At the moment, the franchise is going strong, with the most recent titles such as Resident Evil 7 and the remake of Resident Evil 2 having received great reviews across the board.

In this list, we will be showcasing all the Resident Evil games ever released and providing a brief overview of each one in the main series, so read on!

Main Series

The original series currently consists of a total of nine games:

1. Resident Evil
2. Resident Evil 2
3. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
4. Resident Evil – Code Veronica
5. Resident Evil Zero
6. Resident Evil 4
7. Resident Evil 5
8. Resident Evil 6
9. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Naturally, since the franchise has been around for well over two decades at this point, the gameplay formula has advanced, evolved, and been revamped over the years. Read on for brief overviews of each game.

Initially released for the first PlayStation before being ported to several other platforms over the years, the original Resident Evil was launched all the way back in 1996.

It introduced the characters of Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, who would play major roles throughout the series. Players could choose one of them to play as when they set off to investigate the first T-Virus outbreak in Racoon City.

From a gameplay standpoint, the original game set the foundation that the following titles would build and expand upon, such as the emphasis on survival horror elements, inventory management, puzzles, limited save system and a fixed camera perspective.

Understandably, the mechanics changed with time, the later games refined the formula in various ways, and not all the elements of the original made it into the later installments.

All in all, Resident Evil holds up remarkably well even today, considering that it’s a PSOne title from 1996. Many fans of the series agree that it nails the survival horror aspect and that it boasts some of the best puzzles that the series has to offer, something that the later games would slowly phase out as they focused more on horror and action elements.

Released two years after the original game, Resident Evil 2 is a sequel that closely follows the formula of the original while improving upon it in nearly every way imaginable.

The sequel also takes place in Racoon City, two months after the events of the first game. This time, the player is introduced to two other major characters: Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield.

The core gameplay mechanics remain the same as in the first game. However, the main addition to the game is the new “zapping system” which allows the player to experience the game through the eyes of both characters, all the while some actions that are taken (or not taken) as one character can have consequences when playing as the other character.

Much like its predecessor, Resident Evil 2 was met with critical acclaim. It offered a memorable gaming experience on all fronts — horror, action, exploration and puzzle elements were all spot-on, and the zapping system gave the game extra replay value.

The third game, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, occurs after the events of the first game and immediately before the events of the second one. It features Jill Valentine as the sole protagonist, focusing on her escape from Racoon City and the encounters with the titular Nemesis creature that hounds her for most of the game.

Compared to the first two games, Resident Evil 3 is more action-oriented, but the core Resident Evil experience is still there, as not much has changed apart from the pacing. Add to it the looming threat of Nemesis and it’s an incredibly tense game, just like a Resident Evil title should be.

Again, Resident Evil 3 was met with positive reviews and praised by critics and fans alike, as it was a very competent sequel that improved upon the base set by the previous titles while expanding upon it in a number of meaningful ways.

The fourth game in the series is titled Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, and it features Claire and Chris Redfield as the two main playable characters. Most of the game takes place on Rockfort Island (located in the Southern Ocean) and Antarctica, both of which have a very different feel compared to Raccoon City.

The gameplay fundamentals are still the same, and the game feels more or less the same as Nemesis on the gameplay front, though it was a major step forward from a technical standpoint. It was the first game to feature 3D environments rendered in real-time, as opposed to the pre-rendered environments of the previous games.

At the end of the day, Code: Veronica was a bit of a turning point for the franchise as it gravitated more towards action over slow-paced survival horror. Still, it remained a Resident Evil game, and despite having received positive reviews like the other games before it, it was obvious that it would soon be time for a change.

Next, we have Resident Evil Zero, a prequel to the original Resident Evil game, as the title might suggest. It introduces two new characters, Rebecca Chambers and Billy Coen, and it moves the plot back to Raccoon City and its immediate vicinity, exploring the events that led to the T-Virus outbreak seen in the original game.

Resident Evil Zero still remained mostly unchanged on the gameplay front. However, it would be the last game to feature the classic fixed-camera perspective before the next game finally refreshed the formula. Needless to say, after four games, the old system started getting stale, but Resident Evil Zero still executes it quite well, though it may not be among the best titles in the series.

Despite the franchise fatigue, Resident Evil Zero still received positive reviews, though there were some mixed feelings regarding some of the new features, mainly the revised inventory system and the lack of challenging puzzles.

In 2005, Resident Evil 4 was released, and it is one of the most popular Resident Evil games ever made, and rightly so. It features Leon as the sole protagonist, taking place in a bleak unnamed village in Spain where the US president’s daughter is being held captive by a mysterious cult. It even parts with the classic zombies, replacing the T-Virus with the new Plaga parasites, which make for a new and exciting threat.

Now, it is in the gameplay department that Resident Evil 4 truly shines. It features a new over-the-shoulder camera perspective, which definitely helped make the game more immersive, and it opened the door to improving the gameplay mechanics.

In Resident Evil 4, the player has more control over where they aim their weapon, adding an extra degree of depth to the combat. It is possible to go for difficult but rewarding headshots but also to make enemies stumble by shooting them in the leg, or disarm them by shooting their weapon-wielding hand or the weapon itself.

On top of all that, the game adds some extra context-sensitive controls, allowing the player to interact with the environment in a variety of ways. This includes, but is not limited to, jumping through windows, over fences, knocking down ladders, attacking enemies in melee and dodging certain attacks.

Resident Evil 4 was met with universal acclaim and is often regarded as the best Resident Evil game ever made. Not only that, but it was one of the more influential games in recent memory, having inspired many third-person shooters and horror games, including recognizable titles such as Dead Space and The Last of Us.

Next up, we have Resident Evil 5, which was something of a mixed bag. The game features two protagonists once again — Chris Redfield makes a return and the character of Shiva Alomar is introduced — and this time around, the game takes place in a fictional region of Africa which has been afflicted by the same Plaga parasites seen in Resident Evil 4.

At first glance, Resident Evil 5 doesn’t differ much from Resident Evil 4 if we look at mechanics alone, as it features the same OTS view and contextual controls. However, it is more fast-paced, and it definitely feels more like an action game than survival horror.

Apart from that, while the previous Resident Evil games have experimented with featuring multiple protagonists, Resident Evil 5 is the first one actually to feature 2-player cooperative play, and the level design reflects this. That said, the game is best played in co-op, as the companion AI is not exactly great and can often take away from the experience.

All in all, Resident Evil 5 received positive reviews, but it was nowhere near as influential as Resident Evil 4. It didn’t bring much freshness to the table, and it seemed incapable of reconciling its horror and action elements, making it one of the weakest entries in the series.

Resident Evil 5 may be one of the weakest links in the franchise, but most will agree that the title of the weakest link goes to Resident Evil 6.

It features a total of four playable characters across multiple interlacing campaign storylines, and it even features a four-player co-op mode, but it lacks in substance in consistency compared to the other entries in the series. Resident Evil 6 pushes an even more action-oriented approach, with some sequences that feel a bit too over-the-top, even compared to the previous games.

It received mixed reviews from players and critics alike, and though it has some good segments, it generally fails to live up to the standard set by Resident Evil 4, and it is definitely the low point of the franchise.

At the end of the day, the reviews were generally mixed, and for everything that Resident Evil 6 did right, it seemed to do something else wrong. Of course, the game is not entirely without merit, but being such a painfully mediocre title in a series filled with critically acclaimed classics only accentuates its shortcomings.

The latest entry in the main series came out in 2017, and it shook things up a bit, considering how the whole action-oriented approach didn’t quite work out for the previous two games.

The premise of Resident Evil 7 is quite familiar: the protagonist, Ethan Winters, ends up at a seemingly abandoned remote plantation in Louisiana when he sets out to search for his missing wife, and you can guess how that works out.

Resident Evil 7 was a bold change of pace for the franchise, as it switched to first-person view for the first time, something that definitely helped shift the focus back to horror.

It is full of claustrophobic environments, is much slower than the two games that came before it, and it places an accent on exploration and features some very interesting puzzles. Weapons are scarce, especially early on, thus making stealth a big deal when it comes to avoiding enemies.

All in all, Resident Evil 7 looks downright amazing thanks to the new RE Engine, and it did a good job of breathing new life into a franchise that seemed to have lost its way in the years prior to its release. It worked exceptionally well in VR and was met with positive reviews. Although it’s not a perfect game, it’s one of the best entries in the franchise.

Remakes

Now, we have the remakes. There are two remakes of Resident Evil games available, plus one more on the way.

The first game in this category is actually the 2002 remake of the first Resident Evil game developed for the Nintendo GameCube. A remastered version of this game titled Resident Evil HD Remaster was released in 2015 for Windows, as well as the PS3, the PS4, the Xbox 360, the Xbox One and then for Nintendo Switch in 2019.

From a story standpoint, it depicts the same events seen in the original, but it also introduces some changes to the gameplay experience. Granted, the gameplay also remains fundamentally the same as in the original game, and the changes are minor and don’t really affect the experience as a whole.

Ultimately, the most important thing about the Resident Evil HD Remaster is that it brings the original Resident Evil experience to modern platforms, complete with great-looking graphical enhancements and technical improvements.

From the looks of it, you’d never guess that it was originally a 2002 GameCube title, and it is a treat both for long-time fans of the franchise and for newcomers who weren’t around when the original was released.

Unlike the Resident Evil HD Remaster, Resident Evil 2 is a full-fledged remake that reimagines the second entry in the franchise. Naturally, it tells the same story from the original Resident Evil 2, with some minor changes.

As for the gameplay, Resident Evil 2 features an OTS camera, much like Resident Evil 4 through 6, and it does a good job of balancing out the horror and action elements, offering both a heavy, oppressing atmosphere and tense combat encounters.

Ultimately, the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2 was met with universal acclaim, has received multiple awards, and it is easily one of the best Resident Evil games out there.

True, it may be a remake of an older game, but with its modern gameplay and extra content, it can stand perfectly well on its own two legs without having to ride the coattails of the original, as many remakes do.

The remake of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis will launch in April 2020 for Windows, as well as the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One. From what has been revealed so far, it will be a reimagining in the same vein as Resident Evil 2, and we hope that it will be as well-executed as its predecessor.

Spin-Off Titles

And finally, like virtually every other successful franchise, the Resident Evil series has spawned a lot of spin-offs. Here, we have a bunch of titles for different consoles and mobile devices, several of which have also received PC ports.

Console Spin-Offs

Title	Release Date	Platforms
Resident Evil Survivor	January 27, 2000	PlayStation Microsoft Windows
Resident Evil Gaiden	December 14, 2001	Game Boy Color
Resident Evil Survivor 2 Code: Veronica	November 8, 2001	PlayStation 2 Arcade
Resident Evil: Dead Aim	February 13, 2003	PlayStation 2
Resident Evil Outbreak	December 11, 2003	PlayStation 2
Resident Evil Outbreak File #2	September 9, 2004	PlayStation 2
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles	November 13, 2007	Nintendo Wii PlayStation 3
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles	November 17, 2009	Nintendo Wii PlayStation 3
Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D	June 2, 2011	Nintendo 3DS
Resident Evil: Revelations	January 26, 2012	Nintendo 3DS Wii U PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4 Xbox 360 Xbox One Microsoft Windows
Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City	March 20, 2012	PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 Microsoft Windows
Resident Evil: Revelations 2	February 24, 2015	PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4 PlayStation Vita Xbox 360 Xbox One Microsoft Windows Nintendo Switch
Umbrella Corps	June 21, 2016	PlayStation 4 Microsoft Windows

Mobile Spin-Offs

Title	Release Date	Platforms
Resident Evil Zombie Buster	July 2, 2001	Mobile
Resident Evil Assault The Nightmare	April 1, 2002	Mobile
Resident Evil: The Missions	December 1, 2003	Mobile
Resident Evil: Confidential Report	January 14, 2004	Mobile
Resident Evil: Genesis	March 5, 2008	Mobile
Resident Evil: Degeneration	July 9, 2009	Nokia N-Gage 2.0 iOS
Resident Evil Uprising	September 9, 2009	BlackBerry Windows Phone
Resident Evil: Mercenaries Vs.	April 14, 2011	iOS
Resident Evil Outbreak Survive	June 20, 2011	iOS Android

Conclusion

And that would be all the Resident Evil games released so far!

As you can see, this is a long-running franchise that spans many good (and bad) games, so it’s not impossible that we accidentally skipped something or made some errors. If you notice any games missing or any incorrect info, let us know and we’ll fix it ASAP.