How 'Resident Evil Requiem' Compares to the Best Games in the Series

We’re now mere hours from the launch of Resident Evil Requiem. The reviews are in, and the game is currently sitting at an 88 on Metacritic—that’s only slightly below the nine out of 10 I bestowed upon it in my review. So, the critics agree with me: It’s very good. Is it the best the series has ever been, though? That’s the question we're exploring today.

For purposes of this list, I’ll only be considering the nine mainline games, and the two spin-offs that stuck to the formula established by the original trilogy. That means no light-gun games and no multiplayer titles, which includes Resident Evil: Revelations and its sequel. With that in mind, let’s look back at Resident Evil’s 30-year history:

11) Resident Evil 6

If there’s one game on this list I doubt will ever get remade, it’s Resident Evil 6. It dragged on forever with a bloated campaign and a story that made no sense. RE6 is comfortably the low point in the series, and for a time it looked like it might be the end of the road as five years would pass before Capcom dropped another Resident Evil game.

10) Resident Evil – Code: Veronica

Here’s a fun fact: the only game in the series with a higher Metacritic score than Code: Veronica is Resident Evil 4. When it launched on Dreamcast in 2000, many felt it was a high point for the series. It hasn’t aged well, however, and unless/until it gets a remake of its own it is doomed to reside near the bottom of the list.

9) Resident Evil Zero

Although it was technically the fifth game in the series, Zero is first chronologically as a prequel to the events of the original game, following Rebecca Chambers of Bravo Squad. It featured character switching and a return to the Arklay Mountains. Rumors are that a remake is in the works for Zero, but until then its fate is the same as Code: Veronica.

8) Resident Evil 3 (2020)

This is the closest Capcom has come to a misfire with its remakes of the first four games. They didn’t do enough to beef up the brief campaign, and I found the shooting to be maddeningly imprecise. Coming exactly one year after the exquisite Resident Evil 2 remake, this one disappointed.

7) Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

After the struggles of RE6, Capcom went back to the drawing board, switching the viewpoint to first-person and recommitting to horror elements. RE7 is far more methodical than any other game in the series, and although it’s well regarded, the series’s decision to inject more action in two subsequent releases suggests it might’ve gone too far in that direction.

6) Resident Evil 5

While the pairing of Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar fell a little flat—we haven’t seen Sheva or even heard her name mentioned since RE5—I thought the action was enjoyable, and the couch co-op provided a lot of fun. For that reason, this might be the Resident Evil game I’ve played the most in terms of hours.

5) Resident Evil Village

A continuation of Ethan Winters’ story from RE7, Village takes on a Resident Evil 4 vibe in terms of its setting, and it adds a lot more action versus its predecessor. Having to take out the unique sub-bosses allows for an interesting mix of locations, and the first-person combat is crisp once you get the feel for it.

4) Resident Evil (2002)

When I made a list of the top-five RE games before playing Requiem, I had the 2002 GameCube remake of the original Resident Evil in second, ahead of RE4. Playing Requiem reminded me just how good RE4 was, which caused the GameCube remake to slip down the list. That’s not to imply anything negative about this version of the original, which remains eminently playable today despite releasing before Zero.

3) Resident Evil Requiem

At its core, Requiem is a mix of Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil 4, and it’s done extremely well, particularly when those stealth sections are followed by a dose of Leon wading in and killing everything you’ve spent the previous hours avoiding. It feels like payback. With phenomenal presentation and two distinct gameplay experiences, Requiem is the best new entry in the series in over 20 years.

2) Resident Evil 4 (2023)

As noted above, RE4 jumps from third to second after Requiem brought Leon S. Kennedy back into my life. Leon’s at the height of his powers in the 2023 remake of Resident Evil 4, which did away with some of that game’s silliest moments and made Ashley less of a liability.

1) Resident Evil 2 (2019)

To quote D’Angelo Barksdale in The Wire, “the king stay the king.” There’s a reason some of Requiem’s best moments draw on what happened in Resident Evil 2. It remains the standard bearer for the series and survival horror as a genre.