
It’s also the game that told us a little more about Umbrella, their various viruses, and the zombie outbreak, which really helped explain this universe a bit more clearly before Resident Evil Zero filled in more of the missing pieces. This is the game that introduced us to Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Sherry Birkin, Racoon City, and so much more.

The legendary Resident Evil 2 elevated the Resident Evil franchise and set up many of the narrative pieces that would come into play later on. Its spot on this list is largely a technicality, but for the sake of accuracy, Resident Evil 3 does technically help bridge the first and second games. While there are some obvious plotline ties to Resident Evil 2 in those early segments, much of the beginning of this game is really a side story designed to shed some light on what happened to Jill Valentine after Resident Evil. Resident Evil 3’s opening sequences occur 24 hours before the start of Resident Evil 2. That said, let us know if we missed any important entries in the comments below. Furthermore, we’ve included some spinoffs but are ignoring games that are either largely irrelevant to the timeline (such as Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D) or have been removed from or avoided in the canon ( Resident Evil Gaiden).

That’s why we’re going to try to help chart the Resident Evil timeline as it stands today.įor the purposes of this discussion, please note that we’re only talking about the Resident Evil games and not the live-action or animated movies. Granted, the Resident Evil timeline doesn’t stray too far from the release order of the games themselves, but subtle shifts in the storyline created by the occasional odd entry mean that it’s easy to lose track of how we got here. The reveal of Resident Evil Village‘s release date and gameplay brings us that much closer to another entry into one of the more complicated (and sometimes confusing) timelines in video game history.
