I’ve been aware of Resident Evil (aka Biohazard) since its initial Playstation release in the late 90s. I never checked it out because I didn’t like the idea of horror. I thought the idea of horror was mainly scaring people and that felt stupid to me. I had also had a somewhat traumatic experience with the demo of Silent Hill 1 and Myst when I was a kid (protip: don’t play them at 2 am in the morning)
Despite that though, I had a mild curiosity towards it. I kept seeing people talk about RE over the years, particularly after 2-4, and all the Playstation magazines I loved reading would often have content dedicated to it. I distinctly remember the various secrets as at the time I was obsessed with things like that in games (Back when things like that wasn’t something you could necessarily find day 1 on the internet)
In 2023, I caught the hype surrounding the Resident Evil 4 remake. By this time I had already played Silent Hill 1-4, and had experienced several horror games. I realized horror was just a label for things with unsettling atmospheres and monsters. Scaring you didn’t necessarily have to be the main purpose (even if some horror still tries to) I didn’t like the jump scares in horror, but I did like just about everything else about the genre
Resident Evil 4 remake seemed like a good place to start in RE then. The original was considered one of the greatest games of all time. I thought that if I didn’t vibe with it, I probably wouldn’t vibe with the whole series. Plus, as I said, I caught the hype, and I wanted to play something that was current with everyone else (Otherwise it can take a long time to catch up to others)
It was a gamble, but it paid off. RE4 remake became one of my top 5 favorite games of all time. I played that game more times than anything I had previously. I did everything in that game, even going as far to giving myself extra challenges (I did a no save professional run) and to try making mods for it. It made me want to play all the other Resident Evil games to get the lore.
I held off on playing any of the others right away though. RE4 had drained a lot of my energy and I ended up getting sidetracked by other media for a while. Though I always had the notion knocking around somewhere in the back of my brain. It wasn’t until the initial reveal of RE Requiem that I decided I needed to fast track my RE Journey, and it wasn’t until the month before release when I started.
Before I get into my thoughts on each individual game, there’s a few things I need to go over.
- I only played the numbered entries. I’d be interested in playing some of the others eventually, but I needed some breathing room after playing 7 titles in a row (many multiple times)
- I only played the remake versions of 1-3. 1 I hear was a faithful remake. 3 I had planned on doing the original due to people criticizing the remake for cutting a lot of content, but I decided to do the remake because I owned it and thought it would be better to experience the inferior version first.
- I did have plans to go back to the originals of 2 and 3, but upon playing a bit of 2, I had a hard time really getting into it (The controls and how easy it was to die was offputting) I’d still like to give both a shot sometime (esp 3 for reasons outlined above) but when that will happen is unknown.
- I did cheat on 5 and 6. For reasons I will outline. I also cheated a bit to get some achievements on 8 (For the mercenaries game mode which I don’t really consider the game and didn’t want to sink the time into like I had for RE4 remake)
- I played 1-3 and 7 8 in Japanese
Resident Evil
This was probably my least favorite game of the whole bunch. Which both surprised me and didn’t. It surprised me because so many people fondly talk about it and put it way higher than what I’d put it. However, having no nostalgia for it and primarily being someone looking for great story it felt very barry (er barren, sorry RE Joke there)
I played as Chris first, and I’ll just come right out and say I didn’t like him much. There just didn’t seem to be much to him. This was only amplified when I played Jill and realized she not only had more inventory (something that is painful in Chris’ campaign) but also more actual cutscenes. Chris just has a few unique encounters with Rebecca, who while cute just feels kind of thrown in there.
I almost considered not doing a Jill playthrough and moving on, but I’m glad I didn’t. She feels like the ideal way to experience the game with her slightly larger inventory and story that feels a lot more present than Chris.
I came out of Resident Evil not loving or hating it. It was interesting for some of the lore, but I was disappointed with how little there actually was. I feel like had I originally played it when it came out, I probably would have not felt compelled to play it all the way through or given the sequels a second glance (This was in the era I was playing JRPGs like FF7 though, so my standards were skewed)
An all around 6/10 game for me
Resident Evil 2 remake
When I first thought up this endeavor, I was the most excited to play this game given it was the remake of the game that introduced Leon Kennedy. Going into it after playing Resident Evil however, I was a little worried that maybe 4 was the exception. I had some hope since it was the remake it might be more like what I enjoyed.
It was a needless fear.
The game felt more like what I was familiar with in 4 remake. I guess that’s not a surprise considering the engine and all. The story also took a massive leap in quality from what I’d experienced in the first game (which I don’t know yet if that’s a result of the remake or if that was something in the originals yet) I ended up playing the game multiple times in order to unlock everything for both characters.
I picked Claire first, and if I’m being honest, I think I liked her story a bit more. Granted it’s not by very much. I loved Leon and Ada (Sorry 4 already biased me toward their ship, Claire never stood a chance) Claire just felt a bit better. Not sure why
If I had a criticism for it, I think it would be that I would have loved to see more divergence in the scenarios. While there’s some different areas, there’s not a lot, and most of the puzzles are entirely the same (even if you choose 2nd run where only the solutions are changed and you have an extra final boss) I’d have also liked to see more interactions between the protagonists themselves (as it feels like they become chummy way too quickly despite not interacting a whole lot)
Solid 8/10 I think
Resident Evil 3 Remake
I like what they did with Jill Valentine in this game. In the original, she was far from weak, but she felt a bit underdeveloped and naive. In this game, she clearly has been shaped by the events of the first game and has really developed into a strong woman.
I also liked the additional character Carlos. It was kind of a shame you only get to play him in a couple segments. I would’ve liked it to have been more like the situation in RE2 remake where each had their own story.
I’m not sure what it was like in the original, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how it was. You often see a lot of criticism for the game feeling too linear and many things being movies rather than action. I can concur that the game does feel short and like there should be at least double the amount of content.
Still, I appreciated it. Being on somewhat of a time crunch to get through them all, and it unmistakably being the same RE remake system, made it very easy to get through and play multiple times.
I will say the hardest difficulty is bullshit with the final boss. Technically I did cheat on it, but I don’t consider it cheating because what happened was kind of bullshit.
(Essentially I beat the final boss legit, but I messed up the last “event” you have to do forcing me to have to redo the fight.. So instead of banging my head into the wall for another hour+, I just decided to cheat through fighting it again)
7/10
Resident Evil 5
Oh boy, this game is not great.
A lot of people talk fondly about it. Saying it’s a great co-op game. Memeing about Chris and Wesker. It’s not considered to be a masterpiece, to be sure, but many would still rate it fairly highly (albeit for some it’s retrospectively) than I would.
This is when Resident Evil was considered to have jumped the shark a bit. I always remembered it as the one game in the series to draw a lot of controversy (for being based in Africa and involving killing of black zombies) However what really stands out is the gameplay, which goes from survival horror to survival action.
That wouldn’t necessarily bother me as much on its own. RE4 also kind of went down that path, though the setting, characters, and story are much more interesting. It was their implementation of a companion for the title that really made it feel bad.
I already had a pretty meh opinion of Chris. Playing as him in this game though felt very little like I was playing Resident Evil and more like I was playing Call of Duty or something (Note: I’ve never played Call of Duty, so the comparison may not be apt)
Sheva, while I have nothing personally against them introducing a new character, felt very flat. It made sense for her to be there and have some investment, but she still felt underdeveloped. However, the worst aspect was having to have the computer handle her AI.
I hear from many that playing this game is fun with another person. Unfortunately, I don’t have anyone to play it with. Nor would I necessarily want to play a game like this with someone else. Most of it just feels off from what I loved.
I ended up using cheats after dying a lot trying to get used to the game in the beginning. Maybe that soured a lot of my enjoyment on the game. Maybe if I had someone to play it through I’d rate it higher I don’t know.
Story-wise, I guess there was a lot of stuff I missed not playing the side games. I was confused by why Chris was traumatized over Jill (even though it did show one flashback) I was confused why there was this global army thing going on. I was confused on what Wesker was.. etc
I do not think it’s irredeemable, but it’s a 5/10 for me
Resident Evil 6
A lot of people rate this as the worst numbered Resident Evil and people say RE jumped the shark (even more than before) I understand why they would think that, and would even concur it’s probably a weaker title. However, unlike most, I would probably put it above the original and 5.
They brought back the co-op partner system of 5, which I wasn’t a fan of, but at least in this game it felt like you didn’t need to managed your partner as much. Maybe that’s just me, as I ended up cheating in this one too. Though I don’t remember ever having to mess with loadouts like in 5.
The game is certainly a lot more actiony and quick time events than the previous ones, and I do think that was maybe a mis-step, but I recognize at this point they’d run themselves into a corner. They had escalated everything to such a scale in the previous game, that it probably seemed difficult to go back to something as contained as a survival horror ala Racoon City. Not when people like Chris and Leon were already working for military/secret service kind of organizations.
What I really like about the game is the story. Yeah, it’s got some parts that are questionable (Like blue Ada) and it does sort of lean more like some action flick, but it does the most to try to explore something than I think any of the previous games.
I liked all the characters apart from Chris (Sorry I don’t like playing the sad soldier dynamic) Though even his story was fine. I think at parts they probably tried to do and cover a bit too much. The way it was structured could have been better, and I did get annoyed when I’d have to redo something because it happened in another characters story when they crossed over.
I give it a 6.5 because despite myself liking the story, it’s not up to par with any of the remakes honestly. Though it’s way better to me than the original or 5.
Resident Evil 7
This was probably the game I was most hesitant to play in terms of horror. Despite being critically acclaimed for being a return to Resident Evil’s survival horror roots, it also adopted a first person mode and looked to be leaning more into the “Scare you” territory. On the surface it also didn’t seem connected to any of the other series which made it harder to feel compelled to play.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it though. After I got over the initial discomfort over how much gorier/gross it was, it really wasn’t as scary as I thought it was going to be. Yeah, there’s still some tense moments, but it’s still Resident Evil.
What probably brings it down is some of the characters. While I loved Jack Baker, many of the other characters felt underdeveloped. Ethan was pretty simple/single minded, I didn’t like Mia (even though she was being controlled), Zoe and the other Bakers failed to make much of an impression, the ultimate antagonist felt too evil (despite giving some indications that they might be misunderstood)
Everything else was fine though. Gameplay was good, and retrospectively, it’s great for giving the setup that leads into Resident Evil 8
(Though I was a bit disappointed the game gives a somewhat major decision that you need to side with Mia despite her mostly being unreliable and treating you like shit for the entire game and punishes you if you choose to do the opposite)
Resident Evil 8
I’m going to say right off that Resident Evil 8 is now my second favorite Resident Evil and I’d rate it about a 9/10.
A lot of that is probably due to it being very similar to 4 remake. Considering a lot of what they did in this game has the same DNA they would use to make 4 remake. However, much of what I love is actually in the story itself.
The game does a much better job at establishing Ethan than 7 ever did, and despite having a 3rd person view option, I actually ended up using the first person view like in 7. I also enjoyed the enemies a lot more, even if they were a lot more tenacious.
I think where it loses a point for me is that despite being the most interesting villain, Lady D’s section felt very anti-climatic and a bit of a letdown. The DLC also, while good in the later half, was rather annoying in the first half (and yes I’m evaluating it with the DLC since the stories are relevant)