So, you want to play Resident Evil? - Sideline Entertainment

If you’re reading this that means that you want to dive into the greatest gaming franchise ever made, nice! Ok, greatest is my opinion, but it would make quite the debate. Resident Evil began its run in 1996, after 27 years we have seen close to 30 games accounting for remakes and spinoffs, 7 live action movies, 4 animated movies, multiple shows and literature. So how should you check out these games from start to finish? Warning: This article does contain light spoilers, nothing that will ruin any of the games, but a little information here and there.

There are two methods of doing this, the first being by order of the date in which the games were released. The second being the narrative order, which will require some interesting methods of playing. Let’s start with the release date method:

1996 Resident Evil (Remake available on current consoles/PC)
1998 Resident Evil 2 (Remake available on current consoles/PC)
1999 Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (Remake available on current consoles/PC)
2000 Resident Evil Survivor (Made for PlaySation not available on current consoles)
2000 Resident Evil Code: Veronica (Original available on current consoles)
2001 Resident Evil Survivor 2- Code: Veronica (Made for PS2 and Arcades not available on current consoles)
2001 Resident Gaiden (made for game boy color, not available on current consoles)
2002 Resident Evil Remake (Available on current consoles/PC)
2002 Resident Evil Zero (Remake available on current consoles/PC)
2003 Resident Evil: Dead Aim (Made for PS2, not available on current consoles)
2003 Resident Evil Outbreak (Made for PS2, not available on current consoles)
2004 Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2 (Made for PS2, not available on current consoles)
2005 Resident Evil 4 (Multiple Remasters and a full Remake available on current consoles and PC)
2006 Resident Evil: Deadly Silence (Basically just a weird remake of Resident Evil made for Nintendo DS and PS2 not available on current consoles)
2007 Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (Available on current consoles)
2009 Resident Evil 5 (Available on current consoles)
2009 Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (Available on current consoles)
2011 Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D (Available on current consoles)
2012 Resident Evil: Revelations (Available on current consoles)
2012 Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City (Available on current consoles)
2012 Resident Evil 6 (Available on current consoles)
2015 Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (Available on current consoles)
2016 Umbrella Corps (Available on current consoles)
2017 Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (Available on current consoles)
2019 Resident Evil 2 Remake (Available on current consoles)
2020 Resident Evil 3 Remake (Available on current consoles)
2020 Resident Evil: Resistance (Available on current consoles)
2021 Resident Evil Village (Available on current consoles)
2022 Resident Evil Re: Verse (Available on current consoles)
2023 Resident Evil 4 Remake (Available on current consoles)

As you can see, quite a few of these games were developed on older consoles. Therefore, unless you still have those consoles and want to spend a pretty penny for a collector’s game, you unfortunately will not be able to play every game. Your best bet for the rare titles would be to look up gameplay footage that is out there, unless you’re knowledgeable with PCs and want to try to find emulators for each game, good luck.

The second way of checking out the Resident Evil Franchise is by playing the games in their narrative order. This method can be confusing as it has you skipping numbers and at one point you start one game, stop, back track to another game, then come back to finish. Bear with me here, I will do my best to break this down as easily as possible. It is also possible to play all of these titles, they’re mostly main line numbered titles, with a few spin-offs.

Resident Evil 0 (Prequel)
Resident Evil

Here is where we get a little crazy.

Resident Evil 3 FIRST HALF ONLY: What about RE2? RE3 is weird. The first half of the game details the events of Jill Valentine after the first game, Resident Evil. You start just one day before the events of RE. LIGHT SPOILER: If you’re playing the remake (I assume you are) it cut a good bit of content, so save and stop playing when you get access to Carlos’s section.
Resident Evil 2: RE2 has 2 campaigns; Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy whom each have 2 playthrough scenarios. Due to this fact you have to play through each character’s set of scenarios in order to see all the endings and cannon story moments. It is worth it trust me.
Return to RE3: Pick up where you left off at Carlos’s section and finish the game.

So, I want to add this in, Resident Evil Survivor. You do not need to play this game, it was released on PlayStation back in 2000, but it contains some useful information. The game follows a pilot (you), whom after your helicopter crashes on Sheena Island, you lose all memory. Sheena Island is host to a top-secret Umbrella facility. Upon exploration after the crash, you meet a man named Andy Holland who informs you that you are Umbrella researcher Vincet Goldman, the man behind the outbreak on the Island. You have no memory, so you take his word. Eventually you meet, scare off, and ultimately follow to their house, two children (kind of creepy) by the name of Lily and Lott Klein. Children of two former Umbrella researchers, at their house, Lily informs you that Lott has run off to the Umbrella facility. You go after him to rescue him, after all the island is full of the undead and monster variants. Once reaching the factory and saving Lott, he informs you that you are not Vincet Goldman. Ark Thompson is your name, and you were sent by Leon S. Kennedy. The rest of the game involves meeting the real Vincet Goldman and his Hypnos T-Type Tyrant, which kills Goldman, you escape and kill the Tyrant as the facility self-destructs.

Why is this important? Getting a touch ahead of ourselves here, and with a very minor non-factor spoiler, if you just play the main games, Leon goes from rookie day 1 cop to top agent without much explanation. While Leon is not in this game, Ark was sent by Leon, presumably to infiltrate the Umbrella facility. This tells us that after the Racoon City Police Department outbreak, Leon started to move up the ladder and begun thoroughly investigating Umbrella. It also foreshadows some issues with Umbrella, no matter what lengths they go to in order to keep their research, viruses, and bioweapons hidden and contained, they will fail to do so. Let’s Continue:

Resident Evil Code: Veronica

I wish I could say that this is last time we’re doing this, but it’s not. Another game that is optional here, but I would recommend at the bare minimum watching a breakdown or playthrough of, is Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. Since I do actually recommend playing this one, I will not go into as much detail as I did with Survivor. Broken up into 4 ‘chapters’ Darkside Chronicles mainly retells the events from RE2 and Code Veronica, with added plot. The key chapters here are Operation Javier and Darkness Falls, serving as a prequel to RE4, Darkside Chronicles gives some major back story between two important RE4 characters. Again, you can skip this, but parts of RE4 will make a lot more sense if you don’t.

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. This game is packed with Information, much like Darkside Chronicles, it retells a lot of the games you’ve already played by now. The game is told from the perspective of Albert Wesker, meaning once again there will be added plot lines. The final chapter of this game is massive in terms of story plot and what is to come. I would say you can probably skip this one, it was ported to console but was originally developed for the Wii as a rail shooter. The gameplay is an experience to say the least, but I would recommend watching a thorough breakdown of this game.

Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4 DLC: Separate Ways
Resident Evil: Revelations
Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil: Revelations 2
Resident Evil 6: I do want to expand a touch here, RE6 was widely hated at the time of its release. There are 4 full length campaigns that you have to play through. Some of the hate came from too many action movie sequences, but a lot of the hate was pure confusion. Capcom has not done the best with the overall flow of the RE narrative, which is why we have so many spinoffs aimed at filling in plot holes. Most of the confusion at the time came from the fact that if you skipped the games I have listed above, then you also skipped a lot and I mean a lot of details that RE6’s campaigns are going to put you through. If you stick to this list, the game will be substantially more enjoyable for you. Otherwise, you will likely feel lost and only have the basic gameplay to judge, which is not what you’ll be accustomed to from an RE game.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Resident Evil Village: Without any spoilers, I would like to note that there is some lore within this game that one could technically debate exactly where Village would fall on this list. I will let you see and decide for yourself.
Resident Evil Village DLC: Shadows of Rose

We are finally done ladies and gentlemen, you made it! We currently have no information on the next mainline title, Resident Evil 9?We also have no true indication of what the next remake will be. The two main candidates that fans believe are Code Veronica or Resident Evil 5. This article will be updated to reflect any new updates to the Resident Evil franchise, now get to blastin’.

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