TheMist997's Ranking of Resident Evil (Starting From Four)

Over the course of a couple of months, I played every mainline Resident Evil game starting from 4. As a person who tries to write, I just had to rank them. So here is my list, which judging other RE ranking lists is pretty disagreeable.

Before getting into the list, here are the rules of this list. This list consists of six games: Resident Evil 4-7, and Resident Evil Revelations 1 and 2. I will only be considering the main campaign of each game, so no DLC and no raid/mercenaries/ other game modes. Well, that's about it for rules, so let's get into the list.

6. Resident Evil 6

By far the easiest part about making this list was put Resident Evil 6 at the end. Not only is this the worst Resident Evil games I have ever played; it's also one of the worst games I have ever played. The game had so many flaws that I made a whole entry talking about how much I hate the game. Some of the points I touched on in my RE6 entry include: making four mini campaigns for mass appeal only to appeal to no one, a terrible inventory and health system that was perfected in previous RE games, constant cutscenes and quick time events, a bad skill system, and more. If you are going through the RE series like me, then I would advise at the very least setting the difficulty to easy to get through the game faster. That's what I did, and I have never done that for any game. The only somewhat okay part was the Leon campaign, which even that was hardly bearable by the end. This was the only truly terrible experience I had with the RE series, thank God. Let's move on to the next game, shall we?

5. Resident Evil 5

No, I didn't put this here just to say that RE6 is six and RE5 is five. I know this one is loved by many, but whenever I played this one I felt mediocre about the game. I loved how it played similar to Resident Evil 4, but that is about all of the love I have for the game. I have noticed throughout the series that most games have a horror-like part (usually the beginning) and a more action-oriented part (towards the end). This was action from beginning to end, which proved to be rather repetitive. On top of that, the inventory system with the sharing aspect was annoying at best, the A.I. partner was incompetent (a theme that I felt was in most of the RE games I played), and the setting just felt bland. Yes, I did play this game solo, and yes, I know that playing with a friend is a much better experience so I am told. But if the only way to have true fun with the game has to be with someone else, then I think that is poor game design for those want to play solo or doesn't have any friends with the game. My overall experience with the game felt serviceable but dull.

4. Resident Evil Revelations 2

The next two games were the hardest part about this list, because of how similar this game and number three are. Every good or bad aspect of one game perfectly balanced good or bad aspects of the other game. Ultimately, I felt Revelations 1 was slightly better than this game. I'll talk about why under the number three spot, so I'll just talk about what I liked and didn't like about this game. I liked the abandoned soviet island look of the environments and the Saw-like approach to the story and level design was something I enjoyed, but I felt that it made the game feel a little less like a Resident Evil game. I didn't like partner-swapping aspect as for it added an extra annoyance in finding items and getting to certain areas, but I felt the partner was better than the partners in other RE games as for it had a few moments of fun and was a person I didn't have to worry about. Having two half-stories with Barry and Jill was something I personally didn't like. Ultimately, I found my experience with the game to be pretty good, especially after playing RE6.

3. Resident Evil Revelations

Like I said earlier, Revelations and Revelations 2 were really close, but it was the first one that ultimately pulled ahead. What made this one better to me? Like I said, every good or bad aspect was balanced by the other game's good or bad aspects. In the end though, I felt the aspects of this game were slightly better or not as bad as the other. For example, while I liked the look of the environments of the second game slightly more than the abandoned ship of the first game, I felt the first game's environment was slightly scarier and had tighter corridors, something that feels more like a Resident Evil game than the second game. While the A.I. partner is slightly better in the second, not having to switch back and forth between the two is better. On top of that, I think the plot of the first game felt more developed and the characters feel more fleshed out. In the end, I think the first game was ever so slightly better, but this game isn't so close the next game on my list.

2. Resident Evil 4

Isn't it funny how the first game I played in my series is so high up? I guess it's hard to make it better considering how great this game is. The setting and environments are great, the aiming made each interaction with enemies a bit scarier as for it is harder to kill them, the inventory system as well as the weapons are the best in the series, and more. What holds this game back for me? For starters, the headshot mutation mechanic. I think having some headshots mutate the enemy into a more powerful enemy is brilliant. I think forcing me to decide whether I want to shoot the enemy in the body with more bullets or in the head with the possibility of mutation makes each interaction a choice, and I love that. The issue I have with it is the fact that for me at least, it didn't matter where I shot them because their heads popped anyways. It broke the whole choice aspect for me, which was a big bummer. Also, I personally felt that mutations happened too often. The second thing that holds me back on this game was that it went on for too long. Their are too many plot development points throughout the game that made the plot wander and I felt done with the gameplay five hours before the game actually ended. Still, in the end I had a great experience with the game and I think it is a great RE game to play even if you aren't playing through all of them.

1. Resident Evil 7(very slight spoilers)

Yes, I like RE7 more than RE4. In the end, I think RE7 is the game that takes all of the elements I like about RE, adds in some extra mechanics like the first-person perspective, and blends them to make a pretty damn great Resident Evil game. While I think the style of gameplay RE4 made is fun, I think going back to the more classic RE style of gameplay is better. On top of that, I think the Baker family is more interesting than a lot of the characters I have experienced throughout the game, and showing their more human side towards the end gives the family more personality. I thought the gameplay was the right amount of scary, the bayou environment is a great setting, and the game ran for the perfect length. For those reasons and many more, I think that RE7 is the best RE game in the franchise (at least from Four on).

Well, that is my list. I am sure your list is different than mine, so do put in your top picks in the comments below. Thanks for reading my list (or skimming through my choices), and let's hope for that RE7 PC VR update (even though I am doubtful at this point).

That'll be a contentious list for some (Edit: Never mind, I forgot about the 'starting from four'). I am in the minority, but I really enjoyed six myself. It's not the best, but I thought it was really great. The only reason I didn't finish the remaster on PS4 is that I played so much of it on the 360. Same reason for RE4 and RE5 actually: I've already played through those so many times on other systems.

I love RE7 as well and I would love to see them remake games in that direction. I mean, there are so many remasters of RE4, but if they put RE4 out with that camera view and graphics engine, I'd be all for it. It'd work for any of the games really. I assume it's great with VR, but I didn't do that and still loved it. Honestly my favorite game from last year.

The first Revelations was great; I just think the animations were a little stiff. Revelations 2 was good for most of it, but it really turned me off at the end. I didn't mind Moira's excessive swearing early on, but it was super cringe-worthy in the end. Out of the games on your list, I'd probably go RE4... RE7, RE5, RE6, Revelations, Revelations 2. I don't feel strongly negative about any of them.

RE5 was at first really disappointing coming off of RE4, but it turned around to me and is really a superb game and a fantastic co-op game. It's kind of hard to place RE7 this early. I still feel like I need a little more hindsight. My only real issue with RE7 is that it is only eight to ten hours long. It does enough in its time to make it almost negligible, but still, I would have liked it to last a little longer.

I only docked RE6 behind five because it didn't draw my brother into it as much as RE5 as a co-op game. I don't think he disliked it like others, but he just wasn't as interested regardless. He enjoyed RE5, but he is just a much bigger fan of old style RE games, beating RE2 I don't know how many times. He still hasn't finished RE7. Oh, and Revelations 2 kind of has bad co-op, at least if you're player two.

I pretty much agree with everything you said. I have never really been able to decide if i would put 7 over 4, or 4 over 7(I think I'm leaning more towards 7...I really liked that game a lot).

And, I don't think I hated 6 quite as much, but I did not like it. I think playing it co-op helped slightly.

I might switch the revelations titles, but this is pretty much dead on with my tastes. Could see 7 beating out 4 down the road though.

@ntm: I liked Six too. I have no interest in Seven.

I can’t speak to Seven, but swap Five and Six around and that’s probably the way I’d order the list myself.

Just curious as to why you didn't include 1-3 in this list. I've been intending to mainline the whole series starting from the original RE.

I'm not throwing any shade at you or your list (I think it's solid and well reasoned!) but I do think that ranking the pre-RE4 games in the series is a slightly more interesting debate for lunatics like myself who still think that tank controls are "good". It might just be my perception, but most of the games post-RE4 are either divisive or widely disliked in a way that means 4 and 7 will likely be the top two on most lists.

I'd honestly rather play RE 6 again than either of the Revelations games. I don't know if that means I'm broken, but I prefer a bombastic failure to competent but forgettable "Direct to DVD" Resident Evil. Well, at least Raid Mode is pretty cool, I guess. Regardless, 4 still wins out for me, but I think 7 is an excellent foundation if Capcom decides to make another game in that style. If its last couple of hours were a little better and its puzzles were a little more interesting, it'd definitely be close to unseating 4 in my hypothetical rankings.

@nutter: Why no interest in seven though?

@dgtlty: I was originally going to go through all of them, but I couldn't find a way to play some of them unless I got roms. I personally didn't want to go the rom route, so I decided just to go from 4 on.

@arbitrarywater: Before playing these games, I actually played a bit of RE Remastered, and I would say I enjoyed what I played. Part of the reason I loved RE7 was the fact that it called back to those earlier games. I just didn't have the earlier games because I don't have access to them (I didn't feel like going through roms).

@ntm: Short answer? I think PT was enough of that style of horror for my tastes.

I know it changes things up pretty early on, but I just haven’t been drawn to more PT-style scares.

I’m sure my wife will convince me to get it on sale for $20 at some point so we can play through it.