Resident Evil: Every game ranked!

By GamePro Staff
March 13, 2009 15:31 PM PST
Print
Email this!
Share
- Digg
- Yahoo Buzz!
- FaceBook
- StumbleUpon
- del.icio.us

From worst to best, the Resident Evil-doers at GamePro rank every single Resident Evil game. Where will Resident Evil 5 rank?

READ: Resident Evil 5: The 15 Most Sinister Characters
READ: Resident Evil 5's deathmatch versus mode
READ: Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles Wii announced

With Resident Evil 5 released, we've now seen 15 different different iterations of the acclaimed horror franchise released in the U.S., not counting mobile phone games and minor ports (eff those). From straight survival horror, to light gun games, to online multiplayer titles, we've ranked every game, from worst to best, based on our enjoyment of each title at the time they came out. Where will Resident Evil 5 rank? Read on to find out!

15- Resident Evil: Survivor

How do you make a crummy PSOne-era lightgun shooter even worse? Remove the lightgun. Due to the controversy of the Columbine shootings, Capcom removed GunCon compatibility with the game. The result is a cursor based shooter with a lame side story and even lamer characters, none of which ever appeared in any other title. Resident Evil: Survivor was hated by everyone who gave it the four seconds of playtime it didn't deserve. It's easily the worst game in the series.

Read the original Resident Evil: Survivor review!

14- Resident Evil Gaiden

Poor Barry Burton. The pudgy ginger was blackmailed by that bastard Wesker throughout the course of Resident Evil, while still uttering some of the game's most ridiculous lines ("Jill sandwich" and "Master of unlocking"). His valorous turn back to the side of his squadmates Jill and Chris (he "was their old partner, y'know") should have led to meatier roles in future games like Rebecca, Wesker, and pretty much everyone else who survived the original incident. Instead, his only starring appearance was in a Game Boy Color game, Resident Evil Gaiden, which approximated what the series would have looked like had it debuted on the NES. Terrible sprite graphics with an odd shift from the equally unpleasing top-down view to first person during combat scenes made the first portable RE game the worst, too.

Read the original Resident Evil Gaiden review!

13- Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2

Without spoiling its predecessor's placement, Resident Evil: Outbreak: File #2's poor showing is because of the almost complete lack of improvements made to the failed formula of the first. Resident Evil: Outbreak was a tease of what an online Resident Evil game should have been, and File #2 just perpetuated the blue balls. It's a shame it took until this month for Capcom to finally deliver a true online Resident Evil game. Too bad Left 4 Dead and Call of Duty: Nazi Zombies now lay greater claim to the ultimate online survival horror experiences.

Read the original Resident Evil Outbreak File #2 review!

12- Resident Evil: Deadly Silence

The worst ranking standard one-player survival horror version of Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Deadly Silence took the amazing original, left the dated graphics completely alone, and added some of the most superfluous additional modes and touch-screen controls to ever disgrace Nintendo's portable. Ever try resuscitating a character by blowing into your DS while riding the subway? Then you'll understand why we rue this portable abomination of a classic.

Read the original Resident Evil: Deadly Silence review!

11- Resident Evil Outbreak

As the first online-enabled Resident Evil, fans had high hopes for Outbreak. Unfortunately, it failed on a number of levels. First off, it put you in the shoes of a number of awful ancillary characters instead of the likes of Jill, Chris, and Leon. Secondly, it made use of the then-antiquated original control scheme--fine for slow-paced single player, but not for a more fast paced online adventure. The most egregious flaw, however, was the completely botched communication system. Who needs voice chat--or even text chat--when you can have your character spout out one of a handful of useless commands? The answer, Capcom learned years later, was everybody.

Read the original Resident Evil Outbreak review!