Editorials
The ‘Resident Evil’ Franchise Ranked: 26-11
Resident Evil is among the most important video game franchises around, especially in how it pushed horror games into the limelight.
Since 1996, there have been highs, lows, and complete misfires along the way, and after a dark time for the survival horror giant, it’s started to reclaim some of its majesty in recent years.
The question is, where do those highs and lows rank in the Resident Evil pantheon? We’ve taken every Resident Evil title, spin-offs, and all, and ranked them. Of course, you may feel differently where their order is concerned.
In this first part (because there are a lot of games), we count down from 26-11.
26. Umbrella Corps (2016) PS4, PC
The Resident Evil series has been rife with spinoffs in its two decades plus lifespan, and while some have been fine additions that build the Resident Evil name up, there are just as many that tear it down. Umbrella Corps is the just about the worst of those.
Umbrella Corps is a team-based shooter that just happens to grab certain Resident Evil assets in a foul-smelling attempt to leech off any goodwill fans still had for the name.
Its main crime (beyond missing the point of Resident Evil, which is a common crime on this list’s lower half) is that it’s perhaps the blandest take on a game universe that features horrific monstrosities and ridiculously endearing B-movie acting. Umbrella Corps does nothing to showcase that, nor does it ever threaten to.
It is a dull, uneven shooter that doesn’t even have the decency to be entertaining. An insult to Resident Evil, which is probably why the name was ditched in the first place.
25. Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City (2012) Multi-Format
Before Umbrella Corps came along and vomited on the rapidly-decaying corpse of the franchise, there was the similarly reprehensible Operation Raccoon City.
This co-op shooter takes you on a what-if? tour of the events of Resident Evil 2, as you play the role of Umbrella specialists sent in to retrieve delicate Umbrella info and, if you fancy it, kill the floppy-haired boy wonder, Leon Kennedy.
The emphasis on multiplayer here saw the single player serve up an utterly dreadful, hellish experience that radiated the poor level design and shoddy A.I. to lethal levels. Multiplayer team-ups made the nonsense a touch more tolerable, but even then, what should be a fun romp through familiar locales and characters is somehow just thuddingly yawnsome for large swathes of time.
24. Resident Evil Survivor (2000) PS One/PC
Survivor marked the first in a surprisingly long line of Resi-themed on-rails shooters and is a great example of how not to do such a game.
In essence, Survivor is a light gun game, and yet outside of Japan, it wasn’t actually compatible with one. That made it a very fiddly game to aim with, so you can sort of understand why Capcom went with the franchise’s patented slow-paced gameplay to compensate for the treacly controls.
Unfortunately, that translated into a pretty painful shooting gallery that was done no favors by some painfully unappealing visuals. Slowly, but surely, this side-series became more refined and shaped the rotten core into something that was actually pleasant and intense to play. The first Survivor could easily have killed the rest though.
23. Resident Evil Gaiden (2001) GameBoy Color
The white-hot popularity of the Resident Evil series in its early years meant that fans wanted more zombie-smashing adventures on all sorts of platforms. As with many popular games of the day, there was high demand for a portable version of Resi.
Up stepped Resident Evil Gaiden on the Game Boy Color in 2001, and as with the previous spin-off Survivor, it missed the mark in trying to do something a little different.
Here, Resident Evil went top-down aboard a luxury passenger ship where that pesky Umbrella had caused yet another viral outbreak. Lucky Leon Kennedy and Burly Barry Burton are on the case, ready to foil another potential bioweapon beast along the way.
Combat went first-person, with players having to hit a reticle on a sliding bar to register a hit. It was one of many misfires. The save system (carried over from mainline Resident Evil) was ill-suited to gaming-on-the-go and the cerebral puzzles were swapped out for dreary fetch quests for keys.
It did have an entertaining story to tell at least. Stocked up with the signature melodrama and conspiracy that made the franchise so beloved. Sadly it wasn’t enough to make the rest tolerable.
22. Resident Evil Survivor 2 Code: Veronica (2001) Arcade/PS2
The second attempt at a Resident Evil light gun game did thankfully improve upon the misshapen horror that came before it. Here we had an actual arcade shooter based on Code: Veronica and the natural visual bump was the first noticeable upgrade from the previous year’s dingy effort.
Survivor 2 is a ‘reimagining of the events of Code: Veronica via the dreams of Claire Redfield. As a result, enemies from Resident Evil 3 Nemesis made their way into the game, including the Nemesis itself (if a timer runs out the monster stalks you)
On console (PlayStation 2), light gun support was present, and the overall controls were tweaked on the Dual-Shock to not be such a laborious exercise this time.
Survivor 2 still felt too slow-paced for a light gun shooter, however, and thus it proved to be another middling effort.
21. Resident Evil: Dead Aim (2003) PS2
By the time 2003 rolled around, Resident Evil as a franchise was starting to wane, not yet revitalized by the sharp turn of Resident Evil 4.
The light gun Survivor series still had room to improve though and Dead Aim on PlayStation 2 provided a unique blend of third and first-person action that saw the best entry in this spin-off series.
It sees the return to sea as you encounter yet another outbreak, this time aboard an Umbrella Ocean Liner named the Spencer Rain.
What’s remarkable about Dead Aim is it was a rare early Resi that allowed players to aim and move at the same time, a good compromise that proved to be the closest mix of Resident Evil and Arcade gun game yet.
Again though, this wasn’t exactly a great light gun game, rather a strange, but an ambitious hybrid that at least made a good fist of what it wanted to be.
20. Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D (2011) 3DS
Mercenaries mode is one of the greatest video game extras of all time, spanning multiple Resident Evil titles and providing plenty of longevity beyond the core game. It was surely a matter of time before a standalone spinoff happened and surprisingly it came on the Nintendo 3DS.
In The Mercenaries 3D, you took a character around Resi-themed stages, racking up points and a high-score as you look to unlock new outfits, weapons, and characters along the way.
The Mercenaries 3D made the most of the 3DS’ tech, handing off the inventory management to the handheld’s second screen. It also saw the return of movement and aiming together (it’s still odd to think of that as a rarity).
Still, it isn’t quite as good as the majority of Mercenaries modes elsewhere in the series, as the 3DS struggles to fully replicate the best of the mode.
19. Resident Evil 6 (2012) Multi-Format
Resident Evil 6 is a commercial high point of the entire series, and it is also the biggest mess of the mainline series. Largely due to the irregular pacing and an abundance of QTE moments.
It does have its merits as a game. Leon’s campaign captures some of its predecessor’s zombie-ridden claustrophobia for example, and the combat was generally the same as Resident Evil 5. Easily the highlight of this game is this marriage of 90’s Resi atmosphere and Resident Evil 4’s mechanics.
Yet the shift into a more action-orientated game that happened to feature monsters, that started with Resident Evil 4, became obnoxious at this point and Resident Evil 6 ended up a lopsided, bloated shadow of what the series once was.
18. Resident Evil Outbreak File #2 (2004) PS2
While Resident Evil did go through a stage of playing ‘Me Too’ to popular gaming trends in the later years, there was a time when the series would delve into fresh ideas.
The online-based Outbreak games were fine examples of this. Coming at a time when internet gaming, especially on a console, was a thing of luxury.
Even when Outbreak File #2 came along, the world at large just wasn’t ready for this online co-operative survival horror, and both it and its predecessor are not remembered in quite the way they should be.
Anyway, more on that later. Outbreak File #2 is slightly weaker than the original game, but it does have zombified zoo animals.
17. Resident Evil Outbreak (2003) PS2
Resident Evil Outbreak was miles ahead of its time. It created the delectable balance of trust and paranoia that you’ll find housed in many examples zombie-themed media.
You and a group of other sods lucky enough to have internet doodads for the PS2 and live in the correct country were caught in Raccoon City’s viral outbreak and need to work together to escape certain death by a rather large bomb.
Should you fall by fair means or foul, you could come back as a member of team undead, and getting delicious revenge on a lousy former teammate is on the menu.
Outbreak is one of those last few Resident Evil games that really should get a remake or remaster. Unfortunately, the closest we get to multiplayer Resi now is Umbrella Corps.
16. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (2009) Wii, PS3
The Darkside Chronicles continues the on-rails shooter series with a mix of retellings of old stories and some interesting expansions of them.
It’s a largely Leon-focused game, with a sort of prequel to Resident Evil 4’s story concerning the partnership of Jack Krauser and Leon, and in between, there are abridged on-rails versions of Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica.
It’s an okay light gun-style game that is worth a look thanks to its mix of nostalgia and lore-building.
17. Resident Evil 3 Remake (2020) Multi
The low ranking for Resident Evil 3 Remake doesn’t dismiss what it does well. It has moments of intensity that are a match for the original, and it’s a punchy action romp. It doesn’t do much justice to its source, however.
Nemesis is relegated to a set-piece machine after a short while, key sections and enemy types are missing, and even by Resident Evil standards, it’s a very short game.
Worth a blast for a badass reimagining of series stalwart Jill Valentine, but not the most nourishing big-budget Resi.
14. Resident Evil 5 (2009) Multi-Format
Resident Evil 5 can be viewed as a perfectly acceptable action game with some impressive co-op action. As a Resident Evil game though? It takes a few too many of the wrong lessons from Resident Evil 4’s success.
It also somehow takes the nonsense factor up a notch. The final battle between Chris Redfield and long-time nemesis Albert Wesker is equal parts amazing and absurd as the pair fight on a volcano, and Chris famously punches a boulder (that’s Chris, the human man, not Wesker, the guy with superhuman strength, punching a boulder).
Resident Evil 5 is an action game first and a horror game second. This led many to be disappointed by the switch in priorities, but it’s fair to say it does a does occasionally tickle the belly of horror in a satisfying manner. A big plus to the return of the Lickers. Made all the more terrifying with a fresh coat of graphical paint.
13. Resident Evil Revelations 2 (2015) Multi-Format
Resident Evil goes episodic! Revelations 2 gave us the gift of a playable Barry Burton and the debut of his potty-mouthed daughter Moira in a five-part story that also sees the long-awaited return of Claire Redfield.
It’s a bit rough around the edges compared to other modern third-person Resi’s, but it is closer to the spirit of Resident Evil than most of those. Also, Mercenaries Mode returns and is still a good time!
12. Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007) Wii, PS3
And lo, there was actually a pretty good light gun shooter in the Resident Evil series, and its name was The Umbrella Chronicles.
This time we had none other than the deliciously evil Albert Wesker narrate the hand Umbrella had in the events of several core Resi games (Zero, Remake, and Nemesis among them) as you got to play as nine characters from them in another on-rails effort.
While there is also an original scenario to cap this anthology off, the fascinating stuff is in the revisits to old haunts as you gain a new perspective on familiar stories.
It was very much at its best on the Nintendo Wii, but it did make its way to PS3 packaged with Darkside Chronicles.
11. Resident Evil Zero (2002) Multi
Or ‘Resident Evil: What’s Rebecca Chambers up to?’ Before the series shifted to Resident Evil 4’s style, we got a second slice of the Resident Evil Remake engine with this novel, if frustrating, prequel to Remake.
In Resident Evil Zero, Rebecca Chambers and Billy Coen investigate an abandoned Umbrella training facility and to nobody’s surprise, it’s just crawling with nightmares.
The novel hook for Zero is that you could switch between its two protagonists at any point and inventory items could be dropped on the floor to be switched between the two or to come back to later.
This proved to be a bone of contention for many fans, with the difficulty ramped up by some needless backtracking (which is saying something for a series rife with backtracking). Despite that, a wholly original Resident Evil in that Remake engine? Getting a glimpse at events before the series began? Unlocking an Albert Wesker campaign after completion? That makes Resident Evil Zero worth investigating.
The Top 10 Resident Evil Games can be found here.
Five decades ago, Stephen King published the story of a bullied girl with telekinetic powers and forever changed the world of horror.
Carrie follows a high school misfit who seeks revenge for a hideous prank by psychically destroying her senior prom. The name Carrie White has become synonymous with the concept of a formal dance thanks to a flawless adaptation from Brian De Palma. Now fifty years after the film’s release, Mike Flanagan is putting his own stamp on the troubling story.
Rather than a feature film, the writer/director will expand King’s relatively slim debut novel into an eight-episode miniseries for Amazon Prime set to premiere on October 7.
Flanagan is no stranger to the world of Stephen King. A long-time Constant Reader, he first made waves with his daring adaptation of Gerald’s Game (2017), a novel many fans considered un-filmable. His underrated Doctor Sleep merges the disparate plot of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining with King’s original source material, and his 2024 genre-bending tearjerker The Life of Chuck faithfully executes one of the author’s most metaphysical novellas.
He’s currently mired in pre-production for an expansive adaptation of The Dark Tower series, keystone to King’s connected universe, and Warner Bros. recently announced that Flanagan will helm a new version of The Mist, King’s 1980 novella which sees a small Maine town overrun by otherworldly monsters.
Considering the vast array of the author’s previously unadapted material, an obvious question arises. Why reimagine Carrie in 2026? Noting the timeless nature of the content, Flanagan expressed his desire to bring the story of a bullied girl into modern times, mirroring his approach to Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. He explained, “The only way to approach it was to build something new out of the ingredients of Carrie. Otherwise, there’s really no purpose in trying to retread ground that’s been so beautifully walked before.”
His miniseries will maintain the novel’s bloody bookends while delivering “big surprises” along the way.
A New Prom Night Nightmare
The roughly 60-second teaser introduces Summer H. Howell as Carrie White just before the moment of catastrophe. Standing in a prom dress, she smiles at her applauding classmates with an ominous crown perched upon her head. Moments later, Carrie unleashes a rage-filled scream into the night air while promgoers rush for the exit doors. But careful examination of this scene shows Carrie wearing a different, albeit dirty dress as she seems to telekinetically punish her peers.
In an exclusive first look with Entertainment Weekly, Flanagan explains that in his version of the story, “the events of that prom are going to be completely different.” An open trunk emitting a crimson glow does hint at the pig’s blood dumped on Carrie’s head, but it’s likely Flanagan’s formal dance will be a different kind of horror altogether. Despite these changes, the series may end with the widespread destruction outlined in the source material. Unlike any previous adaptations, King’s novel ends with the near-total destruction of Chamberlain, Maine. A flaming street in Flanagan’s trailer promises similar carnage no matter what prank sparks Carrie’s deadly revenge.
The Monstrous Addition of Social Media
On the opposite end of this fiery conclusion is an extreme act of bullying that brings together the story’s main cast. King’s novel begins as Carrie gets her first period while showering in the girls’ locker room. Completely unaware of the concept of menstruation, the sheltered girl thinks she’s bleeding to death. Her classmates respond with vitriolic rage. Led by ultra-mean girl Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton), they mock the terrified teen while pelting her with tampons. Glimpses of this disturbing event reveal that Flanagan has excised the scene’s nudity while adding a seismic update. As Carrie sobs in the shower stall, Chris and her friends film the breakdown with their phones.
Other scenes note the presence of social media, bringing King’s fifty-year-old story into the digital age.
Flanagan’s adaptation promises to explore the destructive power of social media, an often invisible entity with a potential for harm rivaling Carrie’s own powers. While King’s tormented heroine suffers in front of a small group of girls, Flanagan’s version of the incident will likely become a viral video, potentially circling the globe on social media. Similar to Katt Shea’s criminally underrated The Rage: Carrie 2, which includes elements of revenge porn exploitation, Flanagan’s modern retelling will distinguish itself by exploring the nebulous cruelty of online bullying, a force ten times more powerful than the irl pranks King first envisioned.
A Completely Reimagined White Family
In addition to modernizing these canon events, Flanagan hints at updates to Carrie’s oppressive upbringing at the hands of her mother, Margaret White (Samantha Sloyan). Dead before the novel begins, we never meet Carrie’s domineering father Ralph, known to carry a bible alongside his gun. Flanagan’s White household will be an altogether different beast. In his version of the story, Carrie and her mother have been hidden away in the unassuming home, forced out of hiding by Ralph’s unexpected death. Perhaps we will finally meet this elusive man whose shadow hangs over his wife and child. Considering the White family’s fundamentalist lifestyle, this reimagining hints at tradwife culture and a home ruled by staunch patriarchal control.
Whereas King’s Carrie has been tormented by her classmates since Kindergarten, Flanagan’s Carrie will be a wide-eyed newcomer to public school, eager to make friends and engage with her peers. We glimpse Carrie cozying up to Chris and the equally popular Sue Snell (Siena Agudong) as she navigates a new social scene. Of course, we know this kindness is part of an elaborate plot designed to lull Carrie into a false sense of camaraderie, setting up an atrocious act of public humiliation. These brief moments of feigned compassion put Sue’s own complicity into question. Will Flanagan’s version of the character find the courage to defend Carrie from vicious bullies or will she succumb to peer pressure and join in the mob mentality?
Perhaps the biggest deviation from King’s original text is the relationship between Carrie and her mother. King’s Margaret White is a horrifically abusive religious zealot whose worldview has been hardened by internalized misogyny. She shames Carrie for menstruating, locks her in a closet to “pray,” and regrets not killing her child in infancy. She’s also responsible for Carrie’s social ostracization. Known to berate her neighbors for their “sins,” Margaret forces her daughter to live by an extreme code of conduct and disallows any potential friends lest they corrupt the girl with their worldly ways.
Flanagan’s version of the character is perhaps just as much a victim as Carrie herself. Also trapped inside her home, his Margaret is overly vigilant, her own trauma manifesting as strict control. Describing a more sympathetic depiction of the iconic villain, Flanagan explains, “Our Margaret White is a woman who fiercely loves her daughter and wants to protect her from this world … [She] doesn’t know how to do that and thinks the way to protect her is to close her off; not punitively, but to create this private utopia.”
Despite this potential softening, Sloyan’s Margaret may still have a sharp edge. Though she has appeared in many Flanagan projects, from Hush (2016) to The Fall of the House of Usher (2023), she is best known for her role as the abhorrent Bev Keane in the poignant saga Midnight Mass (2021). Perhaps inspired by King’s Margaret White, Bev is pious and sadistic, willing to punish anyone who does not adhere to her warped approximation of Catholicism.
Flanagan specifically wrote Margaret with Sloyan in mind, likely remembering the actress’s eerie ability to create deceptive empathy and shift our allegiances on a dime.
Expanding Stephen King’s Telekinetic Universe
While most of King’s story deals with an unthinkable prom night in Chamberlain, Maine, large sections of the semi-epistolary novel see experts debating the nature of telekinesis. Do Carrie’s frightening abilities represent a new phase in human evolution or is the prom night carnage merely a fluke? King settles the debate with a shocking denouement in which a young mother recounts her infant daughter’s ability to dangle her crib toys in midair. We’re left to wonder if she will become another tormented girl who surprises the world with metaphysical strength.
Flanagan plans to build out this brief scene while amplifying themes of female empowerment. After introducing our main cast of characters, episode two will open with an unrelated story in which we meet another girl with the TK gene. Each subsequent chapter will expand this world, building out a roster of telekinetic young women. Considering King’s fondness for stories about powerful kids, often described as possessing “the shining,” Constant Readers will no doubt have their eyes peeled for various Easter Eggs nodding to the author’s vast catalogue.
Giving Carrie Her Own Voice
Perhaps the most striking distinction in Flanagan’s new trailer is the extent to which we hear Carrie’s voice. The sneak peek is fully narrated by the titular prom queen as she demands accountability. “I want to know why,” she explains while detailing Chris’ elaborate plan. Aside from the aforementioned coda, King’s book essentially ends with the aftermath of the prom night tragedy, leaving little time for Carrie to reflect. His shifting narrative does bring the reader into her fragile mind, though not before she’s been cowed by relentless cruelty. We watch Carrie sink into bloodthirsty revenge, but never hear a considered desire for justice or repair.
Flanagan’s original monologue allows Carrie to voice her pain and mourn the life she could have had. We’re also treated to a mug shot-style photo of Chris with a bruised and bandaged face, implying that the mean girl will have to answer for her senseless sadism.
Flanagan is known for filling his series adaptations with heartwrenching speeches that cut to the heart of his thematic intentions, and this teaser seems to follow suit. After years of fans, critics, and scholars analyzing Carrie’s pain, perhaps his modern retelling will offer the titular anti-hero a chance to finally speak for herself.
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