Resident Evil: The 5 Best Spin-Offs In The Franchise (& 5 Worst)

Whether it be main game or spin-off, the Resident Evil franchise has always had a consistency problem. From as early as Resident Evil: Director’s Cut, it was evident that while the series could easily hit the highest of heights, there was no real sense for quality control. Resident Evil 2 helped legitimize the series even further in spite of this, but RE3 and Code Veronica muddied the waters again.

The cycle repeated with 4 through 6, and will seemingly repeat again with 7 onward. All throughout, though, the series has seen many spin-offs to accompany the numbered titles—a subset of the franchise that’s even more inconsistent than the mainline entries.

10 BEST: Outbreak: Volume 2

It’s always good to contextualize Resident Evil through an initially positive lens. It’s one of the pioneers of modern survival horror and Capcom always found incredible ways to innovate with the series. The Outbreak duology was an attempt at giving Raccoon City a community in the midst of the initial outbreak.

Tying in directly with the second and third games, Outbreak: Volume 2 could be taken online all the way back on the PlayStation 2. While the scenarios themselves left a bit to be desired, the game featured tons of variety through multiple playable characters and has some of the best tension in the series to date.

9 WORST: Gaiden

Gaiden is a great collector’s item and little else. A spin-off pseudo-sequel to the second game, Gaiden sees Leon teaming up with Barry from the first game on another adventure. Gaiden infamously ends with Leon infected, a detail that is later ignored by the rest of the franchise because this game makes no attempt to properly fit into the series’ canon.

The gameplay itself is a tedious, repetitive slog, retaining none of the series’ signature mechanics. This is likely due to the game being on the Game Boy Color, requiring some massive step-downs from Resident Evil 1 and 2 on the PlayStation.

8 BEST: Umbrella Chronicles

A rail shooter adaptation of Resident Evil 0, the Resident Evil remake and Resident Evil 3, Umbrella Chronicles is easily one of the most valued spin-offs in the series. Not only is it an amazing source of series lore in a compact, digestible format, the actual rail shooting is also very well handled from a design standpoint.

Although the game features a great co-op mode, there’s a single player exclusive Wesker mode that helps fills in the gaps immensely on Wesker’s whereabouts prior to Code Veronica. The game was later re-released for modern consoles, but it’s still perhaps best played with a Wiimote.

7 WORST: Resident Evil 2 (TheGame.com)

TheGame.com was a relatively impressive piece of tech when it was released, but the fact of the matter is that its library was a horrible mess of junk. Notably, TheGame.com got “ports” of Duke Nukem 3D and Resident Evil 2, the latter of which being infamous as one of the worst downgrades of a game of all time.

TheGame.com port is basically unrecognizable and more or less unplayable. There’s nothing to be gained from experiencing Resident Evil 2 this way. Fans would be better off tracking down the Resident Evil 2 GBA tech demo instead. Now that’s an interesting port of the game.

6 BEST: Darkside Chronicles

Umbrella Chronicles’ direct sequel Darkside Chronicles adapts Resident Evil 2, Code Veronica X, and has a brand new story sequence in favor of adapting a third game, Operation Javier. The game as a whole is tighter, better paced, and narratively way more cohesive as it acts as a way to bridge 2 and CV thematically.

And that’s ultimately one of the game’s best strengths. Despite being a relatively simple rail shooter, Darkside Chronicles handles its characters and themes with an elegance that’s seldom seen in the franchise. It’s a shame Capcom never saw fit to make a third game adapting 4, 5, and 6.

5 WORST: Operation Raccoon City

Operation Raccoon City was one of the franchise’s biggest mistakes, alienating fans who already felt alienated by the series’ emphasis on action-horror rather than proper survival horror. ORC was that idea in its purest form, removing any element of fear from the franchise to focus entirely on rather bland gunplay.

It should be noted that ORC tried to distinguish itself by letting players alter how the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3 happened, but those are two of the most beloved games in the franchise. What hardcore Resident Evil fan would want to mess with with two of the few games that actually feature decent storytelling?

4 BEST: Revelations

Speaking of decent storytelling, Revelations for the 3DS ended up giving fans tons of hope for the franchise at a time where it seemed like Resident Evil 5 was the perpetual future. It dialed the series back to a more Code Veronica-esque vibe, a compromising between both survival horror and action.

The story was more mature than usual with good character writing, and Revelations saw the meaningful reunion of Chris and Jill after 5 failed to do so. Revelations saw a sequel, but the title’s fragmented nature ended up being its undoing, likely putting an end to the Revelations sub-series.

3 WORST: Mercenaries 3D

One of the 3DS’ many “killer apps” that helped keep the handheld in obscurity during its earlier days, Mercenaries 3D sounds great on paper. What fan wouldn’t love a port of Resident Evil 4 and 5’s incredible Mercenaries modes? It sounds great and all, but the 3DS was notoriously weak even at launch.

It could handle games like Ocarina of Time 3D well, but Mercenaries 3D was not a good showing of what the 3DS was capable of. Its online community is basically dead at this point, meaning that the game has no modern replay value today. It’s just a ghost of a game from the 3DS’ shoddy launch.

2 BEST: Outbreak: Volume 1

Where Outbreak: Volume 2 has the quantity, Outbreak: Volume 1 has the quality. Of the spin-offs, it’s easily the best of the bunch, offering a proper Resident Evil experience that feels comparatively modern to the first three games on the PS1. It almost feels like a sequel from a universe where Resident Evil 4 never existed.

The scenarios here are well paced, memorable, scary, and fun even played solo. It’s worth noting that the game is insanely difficult, but that might be a level of challenge that series veterans will appreciate. Outbreak: Volume 1 is one of the last classic Resident Evil games.

1 WORST: Survivor

Resident Evil Survivor is notoriously one of the worst games in the franchise and arguably the title that single-handedly soured Resident Evil’s good name in the '90s. Not only was Survivor first person, it had terrible level design, a bad plot, an atrocious difficulty curve, and was painfully unscary at a time in the series’ history where that wasn’t the norm.

It should be recognized that the Survivor sub-series did continue for some time, and even arguably got better with each game, but there really is no salvaging Survivor. It was the first of many terrible games that would ultimately come to plague the Resident Evil franchise, spin-off or otherwise.

NEXT: Resident Evil: The 5 Scariest Monsters (& 5 Lamest), Ranked