Every Game in the Resident Evil Series

Known as Biohazard in Japan, the survival horror series Resident Evil set the bar for future zombie video games. It quickly spawned multiple live-action movies, including the well-known franchise of the same name, comics, novels, audio dramas, and more.

Here’s every game in the Resident Evil series, for old fans to catch up, and new players to orient themselves in the ever-growing storyline.

• Resident Evil (1996)
• Resident Evil 2 (1998)
• Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999)
• Resident Evil – Code: Veronica (2000)
• Resident Evil Survivor (2000)
• Resident Evil Gaiden (2001)
• Resident Evil Survivor 2 Code: Veronica (2001)
• Resident Evil Zero (2002)
• Resident Evil: Dead Aim (2002)
• Resident Evil Outbreak (2003)
• Resident Evil: The Missions (2003)
• Resident Evil Outbreak File #2 (2004)
• Resident Evil 4 (2005)
• Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007)
• Resident Evil 5 (2009)
• Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (2009)
• Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D (2011)
• Resident Evil: Revelations (2012)
• Resident Evil 6 (2012)
• Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (2012)
• Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2015)
• Umbrella Corps (2016)
• Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017)

Resident Evil (1996)

As the game that started it all, Resident Evil follows the characters, Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. They are members of a highly-trained squad called STARS. In this installment, they’re deployed into Raccoon City to track down their missing team members.

Players can play as Chris or Jill and will have very different experiences based on their initial choice.

Resident Evil 2 (1998)

This game expands on the first one. However, you play as Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield while you try to escape Raccoon City.

Players must dodge or kill zombies, who were transformed following the government’s testing of a biological weapon.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999)

In the third installment of the series, players are taken back to Jill Valentine’s perspective. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis follows her while she tries to escape Raccoon City in the wake of the T-Virus.

What’s more, this game introduces a “nemesis” that follows the player as a recurring boss battle.

Resident Evil – Code: Veronica (2000)

After revisiting Jill Valentine in the last installment, Resident Evil Code switches over to Chris and his sister, Claire Redfield.

They experience a viral outbreak in the southernmost reaches of the world, following the events in Raccoon City.

Resident Evil Survivor (2000)

As the first Resident Evil series spin-off, this first-person shooter allows players to engage with the environment in rail-gun style.

Resident Evil Gaiden (2001)

This Game Boy Color game shows players a top-down perspective. Players control Leon Kennedy and Barry Burton, as they navigate a ship suffering from a T-Virus outbreak.

Resident Evil Survivor 2 Code: Veronica (2001)

In the sequel to Survivor, you play as Claire Redfield while she goes to Paris to find her brother, Chris.  He went missing after the bioweapon outbreak in Raccoon City.

Resident Evil Zero (2002)

This prequel for the Resident Evil series follows Rebecca Chambers and Billy Coen. They explore an abandoned training facility, meant for employees of a mysterious corporation called Umbrella.

Resident Evil: Dead Aim (2002)

It’s been four years since the outbreak in Raccoon City. Bruce McGivern investigates the pharmaceutical company Umbrella, while a stolen bioweapon is held hostage by a former employee.

Resident Evil Outbreak (2003)

This installment gives players the ability to play in a co-op style.

You are now back in Raccoon City, trying to escape the evil residents who are hell-bent on ripping you limb from limb.

Resident Evil: The Missions (2003)

This was Resident Evil‘s first attempt at a mobile game. However, its lack of commercial success delayed its release in other countries.

Rather than enriching previous stories or giving players a new plotline, the game provides a series of short challenges, each completed within a few minutes.

For the most part, you play as Jill Valentine, and can unlock other characters during gameplay.

Resident Evil Outbreak File #2 (2004)

Following Outbreak and utilizing all of the same characters, this game includes new scenarios that expand on the events from that game.

Resident Evil 4 (2005)

Once again playing as Leon Kennedy, players find themselves escorting Ashley Graham. You must get the president’s daughter to safety after she’s kidnapped by a strange cult.

This game doesn’t occur in Raccoon City, like most of the previous games in the series. Instead, it takes place in rural Europe, where a parasite has infected many of the residents.

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007)

This rail-shooter focuses exclusively on Umbrella, and precisely what they have been up to, from the mouth of the nefarious Albert Wesker.

Resident Evil 5 (2009)

Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar take a fictional area in Africa by storm in Resident Evil 5—the best-selling game in the entire franchise.  Additionally, they must deal with Jill Valentine’s reappearance.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (2009)

Set a few years before the events of Resident Evil 4, this game follows the events of the second game and Code Veronica.

You play as Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield; additional scenarios clarify some of the events of past games.

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D (2011)

This first-person shooter doesn’t have much in the way of plot but is a fun way to work on your aim as the different main characters of the franchise.

Resident Evil: Revelations (2012)

Revelations takes place between Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5.

Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield team up once again. They must stop an organization from dumping a deadly virus into the world’s oceans…thus potentially infecting the entire planet.

Resident Evil 6 (2012)

Enjoy gameplay as Chris Redfield, Leon Kennedy, Jake Muller, and Ada Wong while they join forces after a bio-terrorist attack.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (2012)

This game follows Umbrella agents in Raccoon City during the bioweapon outbreak and subsequent population infection.

Operation Raccoon City isn’t considered canon, however, but is still enjoyable as an adjunct to the main Resident Evil series.

Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2015)

Revelations 2 follows the events of Revelation and Resident Evil 5.

Claire Redfield must work with Barry Burton’s daughter, Moira, to escape a deserted island after being kidnapped.

Umbrella Corps (2016)

This game follows an employee of Umbrella, sent to test a weapon. However, he ends up on the corporation’s hit list after he learns a little too much.

This installment in the Resident Evil series was universally panned. Fans and critics considered it too generic and unimpressive. In other words, it is essentially no different from any other first-person shooter out there, just with the Resident Evil branding slapped onto it.

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017)

While the franchise deviated somewhat from its horror roots with Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6, Biohazard returns to those roots. Hence, this game establishes more of a creeping and insidious atmosphere than many of its predecessors. You play as Ethan Winters, searching for his missing wife in a creepy house.

via GIPHY

While the Resident Evil series has seen its hits and misses, it’s a solid franchise fans still can’t get enough of.

Capcom recently announced that Resident Evil Village would be coming out in 2021—so diehards of this classic zombified series can keep on playing.

But, until then, gamers have a plethora of options to choose from. Games from the Yakuza, Kingdom Hearts, or Metal Gear franchises, to some amazing visual novel games.

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Mike

Mike is a guest writer for Tea & Weed. His interests include skateboarding, music (listening and making), healthy living, fitness, investing, movies, travel.

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