Thursday, April 02, 2020

My Top 50 Favourite Resident Evil Moments: #10 to #1

We're here! What are my Top 10 Favourite Moments in the Resident Evil series! Scroll down to find out! If you've missed #20 to #11 then click here, for #30 to to #21 click here, for #40 to #31 then click here, and to view #50 to #41 click here. It's time to reveal half of my Top 20. Let's do this!

#10 - Zombies Walk Through the Door - Resident Evil 2
Another moment that's incredibly special for us old school Resi fans. Picture this. You've played the original Resident Evil. It was terrifying, nothing at the time looked or played like it in the horror gaming genre. You've observed the door opening sequence many times throughout the game. A few years later you then play Resident Evil 2. Even more scary. Even more mundane yet iconic door sequences. And then there's just one door, ONE DOOR, in the game where they decide to scare the absolute shit out of you by having two zombies come through it. It was absolutely terrifying, it scarred me for a very long time! 

A couple of other things to note, when you play the B Scenario Campaign with either character, you understand why these zombies come through the door, and also, they did do homage to this scene in the 2 Remake, but, of course, with all the advancements in technology it was no where near as impactful but served as a nice little Easter egg for us oldies who played the original.

#9 - The Merchant - Resident Evil 4
"Welcome!"
"Whatr'ya buyin'?"
"Whatr'ya sellin'?"
"Ahhhh, I'll buy it at a high price!"
"Heh heh hah heh, thank you!"
"Not enough cash, stranger!"
"Come back anytime!"

Even to this day I quote The Merchant. He's one of my all time favourite minor characters in video game history. He's got so much personality for such a minor character. I'm so gutted that this guy was never seen again after Resident Evil 4, he was hugely popular amongst hardcore fans of the series and the fact that he wasn't in Resi 5, where there is a shop system, was hugely disappointing. I don't think fans would have cared about the potential lack of logic, placing him in Africa when he was in Spain in the previous game. We don't care! We just want The Merchant, dammit! And obviously, as an arms dealer, he's so helpful, giving Leon well needed guns, upgrades and first aid sprays. The man is a legend and we'll never forget him!

#8 - Ben Bertolucci's Death - Resident Evil 2 Remake
What a fucking moment. Sure, it's only been just over a year since RE2 Remake came out, but this moment deserves to be mentioned this high up on this list. It was singularly the best moment in the Remake. I mentioned it in my article last year "5 Changes I Like, Don't Like, and Would Have Changed".

In the original game Ben dies in a completely different way, which is again one of the reasons why I love this part in the Remake so much. Ben gets implanted with an G-virus embryo by William Birkin, or brutally brought down by his iron pipe, depending if you play the A or B campaign. Not only that, but Ben in the original game has two scenes of dialogue.

But in this Remake, oh no. That doesn't happen. He only has one scene, and it ends as quickly as it begins. In his prison cell, feeling safe from the chaos happening outside, Ben chills and smokes a cigarette. He bumps into Leon and before you know it, Tyrant grabs him from behind the wall and crushes his face with one hand. It's absolutely brutal and I love it. It's simply... wow. My mouth was ajar when I saw it for the first time. Incredible.

#7 - Tyrant Smashes Through the Wall - Resident Evil 2
Honest to Chris you don't realise how many people crapped their pants when this scene happened unless you played it back in the day. Tyrant, the original stalker, was everywhere in the B Campaign of Resi 2, but perhaps his finest moment is when you solve the torch puzzle towards the end of your time in the police station. You've solved this puzzle in the A Campaign, and the puzzle hasn't changed in the B Campaign at all, it's the same outcome. But as soon as the gear falls out on the opposite side of the room ready for you to collect, Tyrant smashes through the wall OUT OF NOWHERE. It's one of the best jump scares in video game history, so much to the point that they replicate it in the Remake to the same effect... but make it a random occurrence!

And then, of course, when you've dealt with the wall smash, you have to walk the long way round the corridor on the outside... and you wonder if he'll do it again, and he does! Sure it's not as scary but you just don't know which wall and when it would happen so it still catches you!

#6 - Krauser and Leon's Knife Fight - Resident Evil 4
When it comes to villains with short amounts of gametime that stay with me, Jack Krauser is high on that list when it comes to how much I love them. He featured at #18 in my Favourite Villains list, so that says a lot. He's only really in the game for one chapter, 5-3 to be exact, but his stamp on this chapter is immense. His history with Leon, his cool demeanour, his respect for his old comrade, despite wanting to kill him, everything about Krauser is just badass.

If we're going to narrow it down to one moment, it is, of course, the knife fight at the beginning of the chapter. When it comes to cool moments, Resident Evil 4 has them in abundance, but perhaps the coolest moment in the whole game has to be this fight. It's so slick, so cool, you feel like an absolute badass fighting Krauser knife on knife, man on man. The quick button exchanges are hard too, it took me ages to finish this sequence when I first did it. I just love this section of the game so much and Krauser is fully responsible towards why.

#5 - Wesker's Return - Resident Evil Code Veronica
When Code Veronica came out on the Dreamcast I was gutted. I didn't look at any of the previews of the game or any info of what happens in the game - don't forget that back then there was no YouTube. Most of my information was actually from magazines. So when the game came out on the PS2 a year later, I went into the game completely blind.

So when I heard "Greetings... you must be the lovely Claire Redfield" in a pompous British accent, I had goosebumps. I hadn't seen Albert Wesker since Resident Evil 1, so we're talking 4-5 years. In that time Resident Evil 2 and 3 had already came out. There was no signs at all that Wesker was to be brought back from the dead to haunt us again, and it was a stroke of genius by Capcom to bring him back into the series.

What's so good about this scene, a truly underrated scene in the Resident Evil series in my opinion, is how not only were you not expecting the return of Wesker (unless of course you knew in advance, which as I said, I did not), but Claire Redfield has no idea who he is either. She knew of Wesker but it takes her a moment to figure out it was him, what, with him being presumed dead and all. I love how he toys with her, beating her about, purely out of his hatred for Chris, her brother. After he gets a message he decides not to kill her and let her live for another day.

And then - there it is - the red glint in his sunglasses, and the huge supernatural jump into the abyss. Whatever Wesker is, he's not human, and it's truly a jaw dropping moment. I truly love this moment in the game because there's so much information to process at once. Wesker isn't dead. Wesker isn't human. Wesker is using Claire as bait to get Chris to come to the island so he can kill him in an act of revenge. It's all so good and it's a shame most people don't agree with me when I say it's one of the best moments in the series history.

#4 - Meeting The Licker - Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 2 Remake did the Licker tremendously proud. These bastards are one of the worst/best monsters in all of Resident Evil. They're so tricky manoeuvre, tough as hell and absolutely terrifying. I hate the noise they make in the original game, that's possibly the one thing they've struggled to replicate in any game since.

The first time you meet The Licker in Resident Evil 2 is simply one of those moments that players never forget. When you've seen Zombies, Dogs, Crows, Snakes, Spiders and other creatures in Resident Evil 1, they really needed to create a brand new enemy to scare the shit out of us with back in 1998. And this was the result. Thank you Capcom for the nightmare fuel, these bastards are just truly awful.

#3 - Regenerators - Resident Evil 4
Oh god. Oh fucking god. Has there ever been a more scary Resident Evil enemy in the series? In my opinion, perhaps not.

Regenerators are terrifying. They're tall, with abnormally long limbs, make the most god-awful noises, and creepily walk at you at a decent pace. What makes it worse is that the only way to kill them is to shoot invisible parasites that are all over their body - front and back.

Taking care of the parasites on the front isn't a problem, you have the infrared scope and you take them out. It's the ones on the back that are the problem. You can't go round the Regenerators because the corridors are too narrow, and they can extend their arms and grab you from afar. So you normally have to shoot a leg off. But... if you do that then they crawl at you at a quicker speed than their walking animation and jump up at you. They're just so scary and give you such anxiety taking them out. You have to be quick, in taking out the parasites on their backs.

Also, in what seems like an unpopular opinion, Regenerators for me are worse than the Iron Maidens. Iron Maidens, if you didn't know, are Regenerators with large spikes covering their bodies. Regenerators for me are worse for that very reason - if they bite you, they make the most awful noises chomping on your neck or wherever they latch on top of you. And even when you die, they don't let go, still chewing on your dead corpse for dinner! They're just, for me, probably the scariest monsters in the whole series.

#2 - Chief Irons'/Ben Bertolucci's Death - Resident Evil 2
So we covered Ben's death in the Remake earlier at #8, but his death, and Chief Irons' death in the original game, perhaps serve longer in the memory. This death was done in the Remake but to Chief Irons exclusively, yet it wasn't done to the same extent as the original.

William Birkin in the A Campaign will implant an embryo in either Ben or Chief Irons, depending on who you're playing as. When you get to either character in their next scene, the creature bursts out of them, rejecting their host. What makes this death so damn gruesome, is how the Baby G crawls through the chest and up through the shoulder. It's truly awful and gory, and I was hoping they'd do this scene justice in the Remake. Sadly they didn't, because the creature comes out of the chest rather than through the shoulder. It's good, but this original scene in the original Resident Evil 2, is truly a horrifying moment that wasn't done justice in the Remake. Just look at the GIF below, it's gruesome!

And here we are. What is my Favourite Moment in Resident Evil? Before we reveal, here's a countdown from #50 to #2...
  • #50 - The Mysterious White Bag (Resident Evil 4)
  • #49 - Piers Nivans' Sacrifice (Resident Evil 6)
  • #48 - Lurker Frogs (Resident Evil 0)
  • #47 - The Master of Unlocking (Resident Evil)
  • #46 - Eveline's True Identity (Resident Evil 7)
  • #45 - Playground Fun (Resident Evil 6)
  • #44 - G-Adult (Resident Evil 2 Remake)
  • #43 - Wesker vs Chris (Resident Evil: Code Veronica)
  • #42 - The First Zombie (Resident Evil)
  • #41 - The Orphanage (Resident Evil 2 Remake)
  • #40 - Meeting El Gigante (Resident Evil 4)
  • #39 - Ada's Trap (Resident Evil 6)
  • #38 - Meeting Yawn (Resident Evil)
  • #37 - Crimson Heads (Resident Evil Remake)
  • #36 - Tyrant vs Birkin (Resident Evil 2 Remake)
  • #35 - The Gallery Room (Resident Evil)
  • #34 - The First Tape (Resident Evil 7)
  • #33 - Entering the Village (Resident Evil 4)
  • #32 - Meeting Mimicry Marcus (Resident Evil 0)
  • #31 - The First Zombie (Resident Evil 2 Remake)
  • #30 - Ada's Return (Resident Evil 4)
  • #29 - Meeting Lisa Trevor (Resident Evil Remake)
  • #28 - Wesker vs Jill and Chris (Resident Evil 5)
  • #27 - Return to the Police Station (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)
  • #26 - Reuniting with Mia (Resident Evil 7)
  • #25 - "…SHIT!" (Resident Evil 4)
  • #24 - The Intro (Resident Evil)
  • #23 - Meeting Nosferatu (Resident Evil: Code Veronica)
  • #22 - Cerberus Teasing to Smash Through the Window (Resident Evil Remake)
  • #21 - Discovering the B Campaign (Resident Evil 2)
  • #20 - The First Las Plagas (Resident Evil 4)
  • #19 - The Garage (Resident Evil 7)
  • #18 - Double Mirror Licker (Resident Evil 2)
  • #17 - Scientist Attack in the Lab (Resident Evil: Code Veronica)
  • #16 - Cerberus Smashing Through the Window (Resident Evil)
  • #15 - Dinner with The Baker Family (Resident Evil 7)
  • #14 - Meeting Nemesis (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)
  • #13 - Lickers Everywhere (Resident Evil 5)
  • #12 - Jill Sandwich (Resident Evil)
  • #11 - Chainsaw Death Match (Resident Evil 7)
  • #10 - Zombies Walk Through the Door (Resident Evil 2)
  • #9 - The Merchant (Resident Evil 4)
  • #8 - Ben Bertolucci's Death (Resident Evil 2 Remake)
  • #7 - Tyrant Smashes Through the Wall (Resident Evil 2)
  • #6 - Krauser and Leon's Knife Fight (Resident Evil 4)
  • #5 - Wesker's Return (Resident Evil: Code Veronica)
  • #4 - Meeting The Licker (Resident Evil 2)
  • #3 - Regenerators (Resident Evil 4)
  • #2 - Chief Irons' Death (Resident Evil 2)
So, my Favourite Moment in Resident Evil is...

#1 - Meeting The Hunter - Resident Evil
Here we have it. The original Resident Evil Hunters. Nothing has been, in my opinion, as awful as the Hunters in the first game. More scary? Sure. Regenerators are probably scarier. And the graphics haven't been kind to that original FMV sequence when that Hunter chases after you through the Courtyard. But I can promise you, nothing crapped me up more than when I first saw that video sequence back in the day.

You'd never faced ANYTHING like the Hunters until that part of the game. Zombies, Dogs, Spiders, sure. But The Hunter was like nothing else. These guys were fast, they were strong, they can leap ridiculous heights in the air, they can combo attack you. If you're in bad health, they can swipe attack you and take your head off. They were truly awful.

We've had Hunters in other Resident Evil games. RE3 - they weren't as difficult. RE Code Veronica - they were difficult but not as scary. It's the one enemy that has never been replicated to a justifiable level. Even the RE1 Remake doesn't do them justice. Resident Evil, back in 1996, created a horrible bastard of a monster that gives me anxiety to this day because they're so tough, there's so many of them back in the mansion upon your return, and they're so unpredictable. So thank you Capcom, for filling me with anxiety, whenever I see one of these green bastards.

And that's it! I hope you've enjoyed my countdown of my 50 Favourite Resident Evil Moments. I'm sure everyone's list would be different, but let me know in the comments you agree with, disagree with and what are your most memorable moments in the series that maybe I haven't mentioned.

As always, here's a pie charts of stats from my listing you may or may not be interested in:


When we talk about titles individually, Resi 4 comes on top. It is, along with Resi 2, my favourite games in the series, so it shouldn't come as a surprise. With Resi 1 being the original you can understand why that game is so memorable, without we wouldn't have the other games.

That's pretty much it from me. I hope you've enjoyed the list as I said. Let us know what you think in the comments! Thanks for reading, any shares would be greatly appreciated! And until next time, take care!

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