The Resident Evil franchise is one of the most popular horror franchises in history. This video game series, although isn't the architect of the post-apocalyptic, zombie-plagued world genre, most certainly helped popularize it even more. The game series has gotten so popular and successful that it has spawned various movies, animated shows, and comic books, on top of the myriad of games under the franchise's umbrella.
A lot of players have described Resident Evil as a series of fun-filled B-movies with high budgets, and that is mostly a very apt description. They even come with tropes and cliches that are almost present in every single game. These tropes and cliches are so hilarious and ever-present that those who have played every Resident Evil game will surely recognize these with very little deliberation.
10 Zombies Can Write?
At certain moments in the series, especially with the earlier games, the player will encounter notes written by those who are on the brink of transforming into zombies. As the player finds more notes of the same character, their writing will become more and more incoherent, suggesting their transformation.
The player will even encounter logs that have writings such as "tasty" or "itchy", amidst more incoherent writings. This means the person who became a zombie, or prior to transforming, took the time to write their ghoulish thoughts just to let the players know how terrifying this game is.
9 Leon Kennedy Can't Get A Girlfriend
Leon Kennedy is one of the most popular and iconic characters out of the Resident Evil franchise. He is also a massive flirt. One of the franchise's more hilarious tropes is the fact that Leon can never get a date, no matter how hard he may try.
Although Ada Wong is widely considered to be Leon's main love interest, he attempts to make a pass on another female character, to no fruition.
8 Battle Couple
Save for the latest games, the Resident Evil series has a tendency of pairing a male and a female character as the protagonists of a game. The series adds a sense of subversion to this, however, as both protagonists never really become an actual couple.
Prior to Resident Evil 6, every single protagonist in each game is a male-female duo. It was Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine in the first Resident Evil game. It was Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield in Resident Evil 2. This pattern continues right up to Resident Evil 5.
7 Poor Helicopters
Do the writers of Resident Evil have it against helicopters? If a helicopter arrives to "rescue" the heroes before the game's ending, chances are, it will find itself crashing to the ground eventually.
A helicopter crashing is an event that happens in almost every single Resident Evil media that it's hilarious, at this point. Those poor pilots never got their well-deserved happy ending.
6 Self-Destruct
A mechanic that's supposed to instill a sense of urgency to the players is reduced to an "A-ha!" moment in the later Resident Evil games. To tie up loose ends, the game's solution is to simply blow up a facility, or even nuke a city.
Every Umbrella facility in the game conveniently has a self-destruct mechanism in place so the players can rush out of the area at the end of the game.
5 Rocket Launchers Solve Everything
A lot of the final bosses in the game are gigantic, monstrous creatures. Of course, defeating them would be an insurmountable task for a mere human. So, how does almost every protagonist in the game overcome this herculean task? Fire a rocket launcher to the monsters' faces, of course.
Almost every single final boss in the game has been defeated with a rocket launcher that it's become predictable. It makes sense storywise, but it's hilarious nonetheless.
4 Naked Zombies
As if zombies themselves weren't terrifying enough, every so often, the game will send a couple of buck-nude zombies towards the players, which are both terrifying and hilarious.
In the first five games, the player will always encounter a bunch of naked zombies at the end of the game. These zombies are much more resilient than their clothes-wearing counterparts as well, making them much more memorable.
3 This Isn't Even My Final Form
If an antagonist isn't intimidating yet, chances are, the player hasn't encountered their final form yet. Those that already are intimidating can be made even more terrifying after a major transformation. Most boss encounters in the game have a final transformation process which turns them into giant, horrific monsters.
Examples of this trope are Salazar and Osmund Saddler from Resident Evil 4, Albert Wesker, Birkin from Resident Evil 2, and the Nemesis from Resident Evil 3.
2 Acronyms Are Fun
Capcom, the minds behind the Resident Evil franchise, just love their acronyms. A handful of these acronyms are very creative, of course, but a few of them borderline on the hilarious.
There are creative acronyms in the game such as S.T.A.R.S., which stands for Special Tactics and Rescue Service. On the other hand, the game also refers to genetically altered organisms as BOWs, or Bio-Organic Weapons, which is somewhat redundant.
1 How Did They Survive That?
A lot of the protagonists in the Resident Evil franchise have powers that make any protagonist impervious to any danger, and this power is called plot armor.
The heroes of the Resident Evil franchise could meet such tragic and fatal fates, such as being slammed into a power generator by a gigantic monster, fall off a cliff, or get hit by a rocket launcher, and the game will just conveniently find a way to bring them back later.