Which game do you feel best represents the series as a whole?

[Graco]

As much as I want to say RE3 I think I have to go with 2. While 3 brought in great innovations and maintained a horror feel well enough, I'd say 2 is the series pinnacle in terms of atmospheric elements and ominous nature. The composer couldn't have done a better job complimenting the ruined and decadent scenery, and fighting Birkin always felt suffocating. While Nemesis is more relentless Birkin does a better job of becoming more aggressively powerful after each encounter and more unsettling and gruesome. Even armed with powerful weapons Birkin always made me feel helpless. Each area was the most immersed I had ever been with a game, especially when I got to the lab. I loved how bewildering it was to take in the entire game at that moment. RE2 definitely did a good job of never plateauing (or in some games' case declining) as it continued. I'm sure there's plenty I'm leaving out.

Although I find the gameplay in its successor more enjoyable the overall experience of RE2's setting, characters, creatures, music...I could go on...gives it an edge compared to its counterparts and the sum of its parts is what I feel to be paramount of Resident Evil, and why it is still my favorite series. (For what it was, anyway.)

[TheSelfishGene]

I actually think it's really hard to say.
I'd even go so far as to argue that in the first three games the styles of horror are quite different.

In the first game there's a rich atmosphere and fear of dread. It's really hard to describe, and others can probably expand on it, but to me the flavour is very different from 2 and 3. I think there's a real dread of exploration of this mansion. I remember the feeling when the mansion had been repopulated with hunters. The REmake goes back to this and makes it even worse with crimson heads. The environment itself it's also deadly with traps that could kill you like the shotgun and armory puzzles.

RE2 has by far the most jump scares in the series. Not that the other games don't have them, but RE2 doesn't have such a scary environment like RE1 does - and it relies on 'cheap' scares. There's also a progression through environments, so I guess they couldn't have the dread and scares tied to the environment as much. It's still my favourite of the series, but mostly because the other mechanics and challenges are so tight.

RE3 gives a feeling of being truly underpowered (the first time you play on normal difficulty anyways), and there is a lot more tension from the relentless nemesis. Very different again from RE1 and RE2. There's even more progression through environments, and less commitment to horror from there and more action. So the 'horror' is shifted to never feeling safe from the nemesis.

I don't know if this is the result of different development teams, or even if it was so intentional. But to me the games have really different flavours, and I replay them depending on what kind of experience I want.

CODE: Veronica borrows thematically from RE1, has a sense of progression from RE2, and seems bogged down as a result. I don't think the mechanics are so tight either, so that's why I don't like to play it anywhere near as often as the others. It just feels like it doesn't have as much character and identity as others. It tried to be loftier with it's story (love, family, duty, etc), but to me it kind of falls a bit flat, and the story isn't as intricately linked to the gameplay (ie. I don't FEEL the dread of opening another mansion door, trying another mansion puzzle. Walking past a boarded up window. Or leaving the save room in RE3 when I can hear nemesis' music).

[News Bot]

The original trilogy is pretty much the absolute apex of the series. Then there's REmake in a league of its own.

[Guest]

It's hard to choose you know, i love RE2 in every way because i played when i was still a kid, but i can't exclude the remake as the greatest in the series !

[yurieu]

RE2 to make the series unforgivable, and RE0 since it has all RE features plus AAA graphics/music, we have mansions, labs, caves, churches, trains, zambies, hunters, dogs, lil monkeys, bats, insects, tyrants, leeches and a big appearance of wesker, birkin and enrico, further more you have plenty more weapons than Remake even upgrades....dude, its a must cry.

[Grem]

It's really hard to say since we have to take into consideration both pre and post-RE4 games, and there's also the story to think of.
For me, RE is not only defined by all pre-RE4 games, and it's a mistake to think that all post-RE4 games don't represent Resident Evil at all.

It's like there's two series in one, so to speak. And RE is both a survival-horror and an action horror game whether we like it or not.

I'd say none. There's absolutely no RE that represents both orientation accurately. Revelations tries to mix up RE1 and RE4 for example, but it's too timid and the story is very forgettable within the mythology.

RE6 tries to be the "best-of" of the series, but fails in recreating the spirit of the first RE in Leon's campaign. It also has original monsters, so it lacks all the key creatures like Tyrants or Hunters.

RE5 is the most representative story-wise with the conclusion of Umbrella and Wesker and it's not really necessary to play the other games to appreciate the story BUT it's an action game based on RE4 gameplay, so it's not representative of the original games by any means in terms of atmosphere, etc....

It's certainly not RE4 either. It's story is too far from the mythology the series created and the gameplay is too action-oriented even though the game has a good atmosphere and the context is somewhat survival.

I'd go as far as to say that RE1 doesn't represent that much the series as a whole. The story isn't very well defined since we can't have a canon ending and it's "too" centered on survival unlike all the games that came after.

Maybe RE2 or RE3 represent the series the most. They are survival-horror, but the games are dynamic and have an hollywood feel to them. The whole Raccoon city incident is something all post RE4-games keep reminding us (in prologue or character's dialogue).

The only thing these games lack is the whole Wesker vs Chris story arc because I think it's essential to the story of the series (some may disagree with me).

But frankly, I don't think there really is a RE game that legitimately represents the whole series.

[REmaster]

The original trilogy is pretty much the absolute apex of the series. Then there's REmake in a league of its own.

Pretty much nailed it on the head.

[warren]

the unlockable modes make rebirth the perfect resident evil.

[Lanzagranadas]

As much as I want to say RE3 I think I have to go with 2. While 3 brought in great innovations and maintained a horror feel well enough, I'd say 2 is the series pinnacle in terms of atmospheric elements and ominous nature. The composer couldn't have done a better job complimenting the ruined and decadent scenery, and fighting Birkin always felt suffocating. While Nemesis is more relentless Birkin does a better job of becoming more aggressively powerful after each encounter and more unsettling and gruesome. Even armed with powerful weapons Birkin always made me feel helpless. Each area was the most immersed I had ever been with a game, especially when I got to the lab. I loved how bewildering it was to take in the entire game at that moment. RE2 definitely did a good job of never plateauing (or in some games' case declining) as it continued. I'm sure there's plenty I'm leaving out.

Not much to add to this.

Resident Evil 2: I love the atmosphere, settings, environments, game progression, game structure, soundtrack, FMVs, and how everything work together. It´s hard to explain what exactly is, but RE2 gives me feels and make me inmerse on the game and story in a higher degree than any other classic RE did.

[BradVickers780]

Id have to say RE2 and RE3 because it concluded the events of Raccoon City.

[Aleff]

I think 2 is pretty representative of the originals pre RE4.

The RE 1 is unique enough to be considered a separated series IMO.

[Det. Beauregard]

Remake for the atmosphere
RE2 for the gameplay

[Dracarys]

RE2/3/Remake etc are great games, they don't represent series very well because the series has great games as well as several bad ones.

CVX would be my answer, it reprents some of the good points of the series, while including some crappy ones too.

[REmaster]

RE2/3/Remake etc are great games, they don't represent series very well because the series has great games as well as several bad ones.

CVX would be my answer, it reprents some of the good points of the series, while including some crappy ones too.

That's an interesting take.

[Carcinogen]

REmake - best visceral horror game ever made, perfectly tuned mechanics for the format, comes from a team that knows how to design scenarios. Extra gameplay modes put intriguing spins on already solid gameplay.
RE2 - desperation and character-based plot dynamics, still manages to be a thinking man's game despite linear gameplay.
RE3 - less linear than RE2, never the same game twice, incredibly rewarding difficulty balancing and mechanics, and Nemesis himself is an iconic video game bad guy for obvious reasons. learning all this game's nuances is enough to keep you coming back, because it has a lot in common with a fighting game.
RE4 - linear action trash with awful balancing, no horror, and an even worse plot
CV - soap opera that was, in all honesty, a step back from RE2, and also had wonky balancing. aged terribly, is nothing to write home about. it wasn't even developed in-house by Capcom, was it?