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.
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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