Resident Evilis a very old franchise, spanning over twenty years of games andmovies. The games have shuffled appearance and genre several times over the series' long history, going from survival horror to action and back to survival horror.
RELATED:The 5 Most Powerful Bosses In The Resident Evil Games (& The 5 Weakest)
TheResident Evilgames also show that more hours does not equate directly to quality, especially with some of the longer entries in the series.How Long to Beatwill be used as a reference to determine the average lengths of the campaigns.
13Resident Evil 2 (1998) (5.5 Hours)
A beloved classic,Resident Evil 2took the tank-control survival horror of the first game and amplified it, moving from a mansion to a police station, for the majority of the game.
The game also gives a bigger picture for the story of both Umbrella and Raccoon City, something left a bit more to a mystery in the original. While a single run-through of the game doesn’t take very long, it had plenty of special modes to give replay value.
12Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (6 Hours)
A game that feels much longer than it actually is,Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon Cityis an off-shoot of the main series. It’s an extremely clunky and poorly designed third-person shooter that ignores all of the game’s survival horror aspects in favor of pure action.
With poor A.I., bad level design, and some bullet sponge bosses, this generic shooter is a game that people can skip. It even has a multiplayer component that’s just as terrible, if you can even find a match.
11Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (6.5 Hours)
Not quite as beloved asResident Evil 2,Resident Evil 3: Nemesisstill does some very interesting things for the series. The addition of the constant Nemesis chasing you throughout the game is a fun horror mechanic, so great they used it for theResident Evil 2remake with the Tyrant.
RELATED:Resident Evil: Ranking 10 Games From Worst To Best
The game takes place before and after the events of the previous game, following Jill Valentine as she tries to uncover what happened and put a stop to Umbrella.
10Resident Evil (7 Hours)
While playing with the tank controls and the fixed camera now would be beyond frustrating,Resident Evilis the undisputed father of the survival horror genre.
At the time, no game established such a creepy atmosphere as well as the firstResident Evil. Furthermore, the puzzles were great and the backtracking didn’t feel overdone the way it might now.
9Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (8 Hours)
The Wii was a popular enough console to get the big franchises on it but was too weird to get their mainline games, resulting in plenty of strange spin-offs.
Resident Evil: The Darkside Chroniclesis an on-rail shooter taking place beforeResident Evil 4in the timeline. It was received fairly well despite an odd premise for the series.
8Resident Evil 2 (2019) (8 Hours)
This console generation has been filled to the brim with remasters and rereleases but nothing holds a candle to the remake ofResident Evil 2.
This ground-up reimagining of the second game is a fantastic modern survival horror game this is perfectly crafted. The game has no wasted space or moments and plays better than you remember the original playing.
7Resident Evil: Revelations (9 Hours)
Nintendo is good at getting its own entries in series for its consoles. Originally released for Nintendo 3DS,Resident Evil: Revelationsfeatures a game broken into episodes, each featuring puzzles that must be solved.
RELATED:10 Plot Holes In Resident Evil That Were Never Explained
The game also has a multiplayer mode where remixed versions of the puzzles can also be played through. Another in-between game,Revelationsfollows Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield as they try and stop a biochemical weapon from being deployed into the world’s oceans betweenResident Evil 4and5.
6Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (9.5 Hours)
Simultaneously a return to form and a new direction for the series,Resident Evil 7served as a soft reboot for the series, even using its Japanese title “Biohazard.”
The game is the first and only to be first-person and it’s a return to survival-horror after a string of entries that were all more action-focused, especiallyResident Evil 6. Resident Evil 7focuses on the Baker family who became infected with a bioweapon after taking in a little girl they found.
5Resident Evil Zero (9.5 Hours)
A game that felt out of time when it released, on the backend of the tank-control era but too late to still be acceptable, the game added a second controllable character and the ability to drop items anywhere but ultimately doesn’t leave much impact on the series overall.
Resident Evil Zerowas designed for the Nintendo 64 but ultimately came out on the Gamecube, where it felt outdated.
4Resident Evil - Code: Veronica (11.5 Hours)
It didn’t take long for Capcom to start creatingoffshoot gamesfor other platforms, with the fourth entry in the series releasing on the Sega Dreamcast in addition to others.Code: Veronicahad the usual tank-controls and horror stylings but featured 3D rendered backgrounds with dynamic movement, instead of the series usually prerendered still backgrounds.
RELATED:10 Games Like Resident Evil You Need To Play
The game serves as a direct sequel toResident Evil2,following Claire and Chris Redfield post the destruction of Raccoon City.
