Resident Evil games

[Andrew NDB]

Is anybody "in the know"? I've done a good amount of Googling but I'm not 100% up to speed.

Basically, what systems have the best versions of the games? I see there was a new Switch version of 0 that appears to be the most recent release of that game... but is that the same as the remastered version that's available on PS4, or different/better? What about the rest?

[Turo602]

Last I heard, Resident Evil 0 on Switch was terrible due to horrible load times that continue on passed the door sequences. They even implemented a new rotating icon just so you know the game hasn't crashed. And just know, you go through many doors in Resident Evil, so that's a real pain. I've heard of game breaking bugs for Resident Evil 0 on the other platforms, but I don't know how much of an issue it really is and it is kind of the only way to play the game these days unless you can manage finding the game on the Gamecube or Wii, which as far as I know, have no issues and are identical.

I don't think REmake has any issues on the Switch from what I heard, but you can't really go wrong with any platform for the HD remaster of that one.

I think the Dreamcast versions of RE2 and RE3 have been said to be the superior versions of the game. I don't know which version the Gamecube ports are based on, but they're all practically the same.

Code Veronica got an HD port last gen which is probably the way to go for that game and I personally find the last gen remaster of RE4 to be superior to this gen's remaster as I've noticed audio issues with kicking open doors and shooting as well as a weird looking reload animation with the sniper which is all probably due to the game being in 60 frames since that's the only real difference between last gen's and this gen's remasters.

Resident Evil 5 seems to run solid on all current platforms as does RE6, so current gen is a great way to get into those games.

[Andrew NDB]

But is RE 0 graphically this new thing (vs. Switch version)... or the same thing available on PS4?

[Turo602]

They should both be the same graphically. Nothing too spectacular has been done to the game graphically that the Switch couldn't handle. The HD remasters were available last gen too. So it should be fine in that department.

[Andrew NDB]

They should both be the same graphically. Nothing too spectacular has been done to the game graphically that the Switch couldn't handle. The HD remasters were available last gen too. So it should be fine in that department.

I mean to say... Resident Evil 0 had its remasters in 2016 on PS4 and X-Box One, but the Resident Evil 0 remaster on Switch JUST came out, last year. Is it exactly the same as the 2016 remaster?

Also, are there any moderately remastered versions of the Code Veronica games anywhere?

[Turo602]

I mean to say... Resident Evil 0 had its remasters in 2016 on PS4 and X-Box One, but the Resident Evil 0 remaster on Switch JUST came out, last year. Is it exactly the same as the 2016 remaster?

Also, are there any moderately remastered versions of the Code Veronica games anywhere?

Yes, they're the same game. It's a port of the HD remaster. However, it seems to have been poorly optimized on Switch because of the loading issue I mentioned earlier.

The PS3 and 360 got HD remasters of Code Veronica digitally. You can still get it on Xbox One because it's a backward compatible title. However, the PS4 also has Code Veronica under their Playstation 2 Classics on PSN which emulates PS2 games in HD.

[TheBlueTurtle1]

I love resident evil Zero, so underrated.

[sdp]

Resident Evil 4 came out on the quest and i think it's the definitive version of the game. You literally feel like you are there

[Andrew NDB]

Resident Evil 4 came out on the quest and i think it's the definitive version of the game. You literally feel like you are there

The RE4 remaster is probably going to drop soon, too.

[sdp]

Would prettier graphics be able to top actually being inside the world though?

[Andrew NDB]

Would prettier graphics be able to top actually being inside the world though?

Probably. I was watching the wife play through RE4 again a while back and it does look fairly dated in places.

[Turo602]

Probably. I was watching the wife play through RE4 again a while back and it does look fairly dated in places.

Yeah, it's aged the worst of all the modern Resident Evil games. Definitely looking forward to the remake and hopefully it'll address a lot of the issues with the original and make a decent survival horror game out of it.

The VR one apparently awkwardly censors lines of dialogue which seems to be a thing Capcom is doing these days which sucks. They're trying too hard to appease stupid westerners and protect their dollar before anyone can come after them.

[sdp]

yes they censored some dialog so Leon isn't as flirty and they don't mention the big boobs of Ashley which sucks that they did it but it doesn't affect the game play. And being able to "be" in the RE4 world, touch things, walk around it, get attacked, is all mind blowing. The graphics are sometimes better than the gamecube game when it comes to textures but some models might not look as good but none of that matters, the immersion makes the difference. I don't think a current gen remake that isn't VR would be able to match the experience.
I skipped on playing RE7 VR but now I definitely want to do it.

[Prowler]

I didn't get to play a Resident Evil game until a couple of years ago.

The remake of the original RE game was on sale in the Nintendo eshop. I shrugged and bought it.

Really liked the game. Had never played a survival horror game like that before.

I had always heard about the RE series obviously. But I never really had the chance to play it even though its games can be foujdnin pretty much every single system, including Nintendo ones. The GameCube had plenty of RE games for it, but for some reason, I never actually got any of them.

Better late than never I'd say. A shame RE2 and RE3 aren't available for the Switch. 4, 5, 6 and the revelations games are, though.

[Leo656]

I've had bad luck with these. Never played the originals, got most of the ones for Gamecube (RE3 and C:V are too damned rare and expensive now) but never played them. I always insist on playing a series in storyline order and I always get stuck about halfway through RE0 in a place where I'd need to restart the entire thing. I've tried like three separate times and couldn't hack it, therefore I never played the rest. I own some of them two or three times over for various consoles, and keep swearing to myself that I will get this sh*t done eventually. But so far, never had much luck.

Everybody tells me "Just skip 0, it's not even that great" and they don't really grasp the way I like to do things. I don't doubt them but I'm committed to going in storyline order because that is how I like to play a series.

I've had better luck with Silent Hill games. Only played a few but I managed to complete them at least, usually without too much trouble at all other than needing to look up a solution to a particularly obtuse puzzle. SH2 is one of my favorite games of all time, I must have beaten that one like five times at least.

[Prowler]

Is the RE series really that plot heavy to the point of each game being connected, though?

Surely one can just pick up a random game in the series and not feel lost. Video games aren't like movies, TV shows or cartoon series. It would not be a good business strategy to make your series very difficult for newcomers to get into, especially when said series has many different games by now, like RE does.

[Leo656]

Considering how the Wiki for the franchise is longer than the King James Bible, I am willing to assume that Yes, on some level the story must matter somewhat (even if almost all of it is batsh*t lunacy anyway). I mean if it didn't matter at all then there wouldn't be SO much of it.

I do have a few friends who "love" the franchise and have played several games and couldn't even begin to tell you what the hell the games' plot is because they themselves never cared, they just thought it was cool how sometimes you could shoot zombies with a bazooka, or whatever. :lol: But I mean, if that's all I wanna do for a weekend I have Lollipop Chainsaw... which is AMAZING. Especially once you unlock Juliet's tiny little bikinis. :tgrin:

But anyways, I mean, yeah, I would like to try and immerse myself in the lore, such as it is, while playing through the series. If I play them out of order I won't be able to keep track of anything, and if I don't care at all then I'll just play some Silent Hill stuff again since those games are generally more cerebral.

MGS is another one. People are like, "Just pick one and play it, the story doesn't matter, it doesn't even make sense anyway, it's about the gameplay." And while I'll admit that the gameplay is king, after doing the full series run in storyline order back in 2018-2019 I can attest that no, that's bullsh*t, the plot DOES matter and it absolutely DOES make sense, and it's epic as all hell... it's just... well, "convoluted" is a bit of oversimplification, though apt. "It makes perfect sense IF you completely immerse yourself in it from A to Z and pay absolute attention to Every Single Detail, and such immersion will be rewarded upon completion of the series" is I guess the best way I can describe it. Like, I'd played most of them many times, and yet, it was quite amazing just how much of it had just gone right over my head without the context of treating the series like one long narrative. In some ways it felt like I was only "really" playing most of them for the very first time. It was pretty f*cking neat, actually.

Don't ask me to explain it, though, I'm not in the right headspace. I'd need to be completely sleep-deprived, stoned off my ass on weed and running on about six cups of coffee while playing through them all again stopping only for sleep and bathroom breaks. Because IF YOU DO THAT then the plot of the MGS saga makes absolute perfect sense. :lol: I'll throw hands with anyone who says otherwise.

I doubt the plotline of the RE saga is anywhere near as life-affirming as that of MGS, but then again nothing in this world is. So it still might be pretty good.

[Prowler]

Well there's 2 different characters with different cutscenes in each RE game. Also, each plays differently. That seems to be the formula in most games.

RE games seem to be designed to be played through several times, so that you can unlock every achievement and outfit.

I don't know what route the story takes in other games of the series, but Capcom has always been a bit inconsistent with the lore of their series. Just look at Mega Man and Street Fighter example. I'd be very surprised if the Resident Evil franchise story and lore doesn't have a lot of plot holes and poorly explained details as well.

Well, RE is a survival horror series, so you can't just go around and blow up zombies constantly as if you were in Doom. That's what makes it interesting. But I dunno if most other games play like the original. I've heard RE4 is a big departure from the original's gameplay.

Sadly I cannot play 2 or 3. They're not on the Switch. Not even the GameCube versions. The remasters will probably never make into it either. All other games are available for it, but I'd like to try out 2 and 3 first before heading to 4.

[Turo602]

Starting with Zero is a bit of a fool's errand, especially for someone inexperienced with the series. I believe REmake released first for that very reason as it served as the foundation for Zero and got people familiar with what a Resident Evil game is like before they f*cked with the formula by having you control 2 characters at once and added the extra difficulty and tedium of removing the item boxes, which itself was a response to how stagnant the series was becoming.

The story of the series is also pretty much all over the place. The way the story plays out in the original trilogy is not necessarily the way it plays out canonically and even the recent remakes go against the stuff that has been long established in their original counterparts and canonical retellings. Resident Evil Zero, while mostly inconsequential to the overall story, only really serves to further fuel the retcons made by Code Veronica and REmake to Wesker's original fate in the first game. The Umbrella Chronicles takes this even further by adding lots of new lore to the series to try and make the story more coherent and tie up any loose ends.

But a lot of this doesn't really matter by Resident Evil 4 as it completely distances itelf from the main story and writes off the original plot in the dumbest way possible. Resident Evil 5 is no different with how it recontextualizes the whole Chris vs Wesker arc with newly added lore that has absolutely nothing to do with the old games and was pretty much the end of the original series from a story standpoint with Resident Evil 6 being set up as a new chapter in the series despite Resident Evil 7 and 8 ditching all the plot points it set up for some weird nonsense story about a bland guy named Ethan, his dry vagina wife, and his stupid kid.

Then there's the Revelations series which has also been neglected, which served to fill in the gaps between the action era games by diving deeper into aspects of the lore that came from nowhere like the BSAA, Terasave, and the mysterious Alex Wesker. But there hasn't been a new entry in 7 years or any kind of follow up to any of the story or characters introduced in these games.

The series may have started with some kind of initial goal in mind from game to game, but looking back at it, it was never really that connected, outside of Chris Redfield being a key plot device from game to game. The idea is that all these characters would eventually come together in some fashion and take down Umbrella, but that was all scrapped during Resident Evil 4's development, which was further muddled by the giant Wesker retcon they left themselves with that at the time, felt like it was leading to something meaningful, but was then immediately written off in RE5 after RE4 killed the series.

[Leo656]

I'm reading this as "The whole series is a bunch of overrated nonsense that only originally got super popular because zombies hadn't become The Most F*cking Annoyingly Overused Plot Device In The Entire Recorded History Of Fiction yet back in 1996." That's mostly what I'm gleaning from this conversation. :lol:

[Andrew NDB]

I'm reading this as "The whole series is a bunch of overrated nonsense that only originally got super popular because zombies hadn't become The Most F*cking Annoyingly Overused Plot Device In The Entire Recorded History Of Fiction yet back in 1996." That's mostly what I'm gleaning from this conversation. :lol:

It's kind of more than zombies, though. It's mutants and monsters and fungus people and stuff.

[Leo656]

Nobody lets me just do schtick anymore.

[Turo602]

Honestly, as diehard of a fan I am for this series, my general enthusiasm for it has died quite a lot because of how f*cking clueless Capcom has been since Shinji Mikami left the series. Resident Evil is just a name now that Capcom milks to keep reaching a wider audience. It doesn't even know what it wants to be anymore, but unfortunately for any real fan of where this series started, Capcom has been really successful with each and every single focus grouped game they've churned out.

The name Resident Evil is just too big to die, and despite Capcom's extremely corporate approach to video games, their developers know how to make a good game that the casual gamer will eat up without a second thought. Resident Evil 4 being a great example. A revolutionary and iconic video game masterpiece that just so happened to be called something it wasn't... That was really the end of the series as it used to be known and it hasn't really felt like a series since. Just a bunch of isolated games with loose connections to keep it familiar enough to suckers like me who remember what Resident Evil was.

With that said, I can definitely understand why Resident Evil got so big and it's by no means overrated. The original Playstation trilogy were great survival horror games of their time with Resident Evil 2 being the absolute standout. The series really begins to get weird around Code Veronica and Zero though, and while I personally like both games for their classic survival horror gameplay, they're both very polarizing for their stories and how they mess around with the survival horror formula. In both cases, I can definitely understand the criticisms to their stories, but if you generally suck at these type of games, these 2 will more than likely give you a harder time than the rest, which wasn't a problem for me.

But the gold standard is easily the Resident Evil REmake. Put simply, it's a survival horror masterpiece and the best game to come out of this franchise. No Resident Evil game has ever come close to it since with the only thing that could have ever topped it being the same exact remake treatment of Resident Evil 2. And I know, Resident Evil 2 was indeed remade, and while it is the single best Resident Evil game to come from Capcom post Shinji Mikami, it leaves a lot to be desired as a remake, but is made special by how it perfectly modernizes the classic Resident Evil survival horror formula. It is everything the series should have been since Resident Evil 4 and it's exactly what the series needs now, but they gave us Village instead...

The rest of the games aren't exactly bad either, but mileage will definitely vary depending on what you're looking for from this series and what you're willing to prioritize and put up with. As much as I hate what Resident Evil 4 did to the series, both RE4 and RE5 are some of the most fun games I've ever played. They're great games with familiar elements that are recontextualized for a much more quick paced and casual experience that focuses on action with the same characters you've been following. They're very easy to hate, but undeniably well made and fun.

However, the same cannot be said for Resident Evil 6 which is such a mixed bag. It lacks the polish you'd expect from a Capcom game due to either rushed development or budgetary restraints from its bloated scale. It's easily the most ambitious game in the series with lots of cool ideas that aren't always executed well. It had such an unfocused vision that aimed to please every type of fan and ended up pleasing none as each campaign was more or less just an action shooter with superficial illusions to previous games in the series. There's co-op fun to be had here, but it's definitely a series low point in terms of quality and direction.

Which brings us to the Revelations series, which was basically Capcom's idea of a classic Resident Evil game without Shinji Mikami, using the gameplay and a lot of the same conventions found during the action phase of the series. They were honestly pretty good for the time with the first being originally released for the 3DS, making it a rather cool novelty despite completely missing the mark as a classic Resident Evil experience.

The 2nd on the other hand was released episodically on consoles and was a huge improvement over the first one and a bit of a love letter to the fans as it was really aiming to gain back good faith in the series after Resident Evil 6 by giving fans things they wanted, like the return of fan favorites Claire Redfield and Barry Burton. They also followed up on Resident Evil 5's major loose end that was ignored in Resident Evil 6 by making Alex Wesker the antagonist and a female, which was a popular fan theory despite evidence pointing to the opposite. It wasn't perfect, but it was the kind of game the series needed at the time that not only pulled elements from all over the series, but evolved the gameplay in ways RE6 failed to and unfortunately hasn't been done again. It was the Resident Evil 6 fans deserved and the most interesting from a lore perspective the series had ever been since the original games as it was doing all kinds of work to make the newer games feel much more interconnected like an actual series again.

But this is Capcom, so we ended up in a hillbilly house that had sh*t to do with Resident Evil and never heard of any of that other stuff again... Honestly, my biggest gripe with Resident Evil 7 and Village is that they're called Resident Evil. Otherwise, I'd probably enjoy those games so much more as a separate survival horror franchise because that's honestly what it is, but without the Resident Evil name, no one would give a sh*t about them. The remakes are honestly the most exciting things about this franchise, and they haven't exactly nailed those either despite how incredible Resident Evil 2 turned out as a whole, seeing as Resident Evil 3 was stripped down and rushed out, feeling like nothing more than a companion piece to RE2 than a full-fledged game.

[Leo656]

I like you, Turo. You remind me of Me, just a Me that hasn't yet been TOTALLY beaten down by life and consumed by irrational hatred of Damn Near Everything. Yet.

I like that. I even kind of admire it, a little.

[Prowler]

Well, I've only played REmake so far. Great game indeed. Seems rather disappointing that no other Resident Evil game might come close to it in quality.

I'm still willing to play some of them, anyway.

Also, Jill Valentine is my favourite character. Clearly she's the face of the series. A game without her as a playable character seems a bit disappointing on paper, but I suppose I'd quickly get over her absence.

[Turo602]

I like you, Turo. You remind me of Me, just a Me that hasn't yet been TOTALLY beaten down by life and consumed by irrational hatred of Damn Near Everything. Yet.

I like that. I even kind of admire it, a little.

I can be extremely bitter when I want and I often hold back on places like these, but it does get tiring so I'd rather just make my case as clear as possible and if people can't handle it, then they can take their insecure dumbass elsewhere. I've dealt with enough sh*t in my life to be able to sling it, but I try to keep myself in check to get my point across, otherwise it's just gonna be a sh*t fest and everyone knows that's what social media is for.

Well, I've only played REmake so far. Great game indeed. Seems rather disappointing that no other Resident Evil game might come close to it in quality.

I'm still willing to play some of them, anyway.

Also, Jill Valentine is my favourite character. Clearly she's the face of the series. A game without her as a playable character seems a bit disappointing on paper, but I suppose I'd quickly get over her absence.

Don't get me wrong, Capcom is good at spinning sh*t into gold, so quality isn't really an issue for this series. As a newcomer, you'll most likely not be in contention with a lot of the decisions made in regards to story, characters, and shifts in gameplay. It's a fun series from a gameplay perspective and REmake probably won't even end up being your favorite anyway. But I value survival horror and the early history of the series and for me, it doesn't get better than REmake. You might like Resident Evil 4 more, hell, even Resident Evil 7. But like I said, it all depends on what you're looking for and what you prioritize.

As for Jill, I wouldn't exactly call her the face of the series. Her and Leon are probably the most recognizable and popular characters in the series but the games do tend to revolve around Chris Redfield more, for better and for worse.

[Andrew NDB]

Considering how the Wiki for the franchise is longer than the King James Bible, I am willing to assume that Yes, on some level the story must matter somewhat (even if almost all of it is batsh*t lunacy anyway). I mean if it didn't matter at all then there wouldn't be SO much of it.

I do have a few friends who "love" the franchise and have played several games and couldn't even begin to tell you what the hell the games' plot is because they themselves never cared, they just thought it was cool how sometimes you could shoot zombies with a bazooka, or whatever. :lol: But I mean, if that's all I wanna do for a weekend I have Lollipop Chainsaw... which is AMAZING. Especially once you unlock Juliet's tiny little bikinis. :tgrin:

But anyways, I mean, yeah, I would like to try and immerse myself in the lore, such as it is, while playing through the series. If I play them out of order I won't be able to keep track of anything, and if I don't care at all then I'll just play some Silent Hill stuff again since those games are generally more cerebral.

MGS is another one. People are like, "Just pick one and play it, the story doesn't matter, it doesn't even make sense anyway, it's about the gameplay." And while I'll admit that the gameplay is king, after doing the full series run in storyline order back in 2018-2019 I can attest that no, that's bullsh*t, the plot DOES matter and it absolutely DOES make sense, and it's epic as all hell... it's just... well, "convoluted" is a bit of oversimplification, though apt. "It makes perfect sense IF you completely immerse yourself in it from A to Z and pay absolute attention to Every Single Detail, and such immersion will be rewarded upon completion of the series" is I guess the best way I can describe it. Like, I'd played most of them many times, and yet, it was quite amazing just how much of it had just gone right over my head without the context of treating the series like one long narrative. In some ways it felt like I was only "really" playing most of them for the very first time. It was pretty f*cking neat, actually.

Don't ask me to explain it, though, I'm not in the right headspace. I'd need to be completely sleep-deprived, stoned off my ass on weed and running on about six cups of coffee while playing through them all again stopping only for sleep and bathroom breaks. Because IF YOU DO THAT then the plot of the MGS saga makes absolute perfect sense. :lol: I'll throw hands with anyone who says otherwise.

I doubt the plotline of the RE saga is anywhere near as life-affirming as that of MGS, but then again nothing in this world is. So it still might be pretty good.

From what I gather from watching the wife play through them all, and then watch her play through them all again, is there is one line of story from RE1-RE6 that keeps getting bigger and bigger, gets "best" in RE4 and then gets really convoluted and silly through RE5 and RE6. Then they kind of ditched the virus stuff altogether and made a much simpler, "back to basics" storyline for RE7 and RE8 with a new character. Texas Chainsaw-style house and inbred family in RE7 and largely abandoned creepy Eurotrash town in RE8, both with weird fungus zombies and very few connections to RE1-RE6.

[Leo656]

I'll play 'em eventually, if for no other reason than to justify the fact I've bought some of them twice.

[Turo602]

From what I gather from watching the wife play through them all, and then watch her play through them all again, is there is one line of story from RE1-RE6 that keeps getting bigger and bigger, gets "best" in RE4 and then gets really convoluted and silly through RE5 and RE6. Then they kind of ditched the virus stuff altogether and made a much simpler, "back to basics" storyline for RE7 and RE8 with a new character. Texas Chainsaw-style house and inbred family in RE7 and largely abandoned creepy Eurotrash town in RE8, both with weird fungus zombies and very few connections to RE1-RE6.

That actually happened as early as RE4.

[Prowler]

I can be extremely bitter when I want and I often hold back on places like these, but it does get tiring so I'd rather just make my case as clear as possible and if people can't handle it, then they can take their insecure dumbass elsewhere. I've dealt with enough sh*t in my life to be able to sling it, but I try to keep myself in check to get my point across, otherwise it's just gonna be a sh*t fest and everyone knows that's what social media is for.



Don't get me wrong, Capcom is good at spinning sh*t into gold, so quality isn't really an issue for this series. As a newcomer, you'll most likely not be in contention with a lot of the decisions made in regards to story, characters, and shifts in gameplay. It's a fun series from a gameplay perspective and REmake probably won't even end up being your favorite anyway. But I value survival horror and the early history of the series and for me, it doesn't get better than REmake. You might like Resident Evil 4 more, hell, even Resident Evil 7. But like I said, it all depends on what you're looking for and what you prioritize.

As for Jill, I wouldn't exactly call her the face of the series. Her and Leon are probably the most recognizable and popular characters in the series but the games do tend to revolve around Chris Redfield more, for better and for worse.

Well, Chris was also a main character in the first game, so it makes sense.

But Jill, as you said, certainly is very recognisable. I'd say she's the most famous RE character overall. Most definitely the most famous female character. I believe she was even in a Marvel vs. Capcom game or two, in fact.

Her blue dress in RE3 is very iconic. I know Lara Croft tends to get all the attention as far as video game women from that era go, but Jill is just as hot, imo. If not more.