Yeah RE2 was definetly the best of the alone in the dark knockoffs, I really think I prefer this newer game though, it's almost as though this is what RE should have been from the get go , too bad it took em 5 games that were practically identical to figure that out.
Resident Evil 0- By this point I'd lost interest in the series, it just wasn't very good despite trying a few things differently I still felt as though I'd played 'this' game too many times.
Resident Evil 1 PSX - The original RE wasn't a very good game in alot of ways production wise but the gameplay and setting took a less popular franchise from another developer and made it something better .. unfortunatly it screamed so much 3DO in its FMV cinematics that its hard to go back to it.
Resident Evil Gamecube - This removed almost all of the 3D0 and added the finer gameplay quirkcs from the latter games in the series such as the 360 turn , it was a worthwhile addition to the series and between the graphics and added rooms was definetly worth playing even for RE veterens.
Resident Evil 2- Compared to the original PSX Resident evil game this is fantastic, the number of zombies on screen doubled , the weapons were better and the way the story unfolds is still the best done in the series. I mean who can forget Mr. X ? or the first time you see a licker , the G virus tyrant through its many stages of evolution. The games only sticking point is that whereas the first one had the mansion and a few scattered mildly dumb puzzles, the second one had incredibly stupid puzzle designs , I mean you were in a police station yet it was basically set up like the mansion ? and the excuse was that the police cheif was CRRRAAZY ? Other then that though the game is the tits, in its PSone format though the CG videos haven't held up well at all, even at the time I thought CG leon looked like a downs sydrome sufferer. His chin is modeled way to large.
Resident Evil 3- As far as I'm concerned RE 3 is a case of 1 small step forward and 2 leaps backwards. Recall MR. X in RE2 , who has numerous SCRIPTED yet still effective appearances. Well in RE3 capcom decided a foe like that should chase you through the entire game , why ? idono becuase its scary I guess ? Nemesis lost most of his impact after the 13th time he came bursting down a hallway at me, and his personal slogan became more a case of "ugh not again" then "Oh no! my pants are filled with shit". RE3 marked 2 improvements though- the 360 turn was introduced and now 10 zombies could run around on screen at once, it's just a shame that the story should have been Resident Evil 2.5 , Racoon city was even worse then the police station for poor puzzle design and they're wasn't as many cool boss fights, I might also add that the final boss this time around was really lame instead of cool like the last games were. The game obviously knew it was more of a Zombie killing tech demo becuase after you finish it you can play Mercs, a mini game where you run around the games maps and do nothing but kill stuff until you die or run out of time , it was also done I think because this was the shortest RE game and easiest . Also it had no second character, no B scenario. Basically it took the series in a direction I didn't like.
Resident evil Code Veronica- The reason I bought a dreamcast back in the day, if you coldn't have guessed from the above rant, I found Code Veronica much better then Nemesis, The fully 3D engine, the more traditional gameplay, 2 characters , interesting boss fights returned , Also Really nice CG movies. The puzzles in this one actually almost worked in context to the notes left in the game and the fact that you actually see the antogonists for more then 10 seconds in this one so you KNOW they are crazy. I thought throwing wesker in the game was a cool idea as well, the banders while neat enemies are no lickers though so despite all its additions I still think RE2 was a better title overall.
Resident Evil Extra game crap- Both Dead Aim titles, the gameboy color game and other junk like that, I don't consider any of it valid series stuff, never did play any of them, Surviver especially is supposed to be really bad so I stayed far away from it.
Finally RE4- This managed to take the best points of Code veronica and the couple of good things about RE3 and stole liberally some good ideas of other titles to make it the best Resident evil experience yet. The puzzle element which was typically really bad to begin with has been toned down, you don't ever reallyhave to backtrack in this game , it's nice and long (twice the length of any previous RE title) ,The bosses are amazing , and mostly the new camera angle and inventory system coupled with buying weapons as you play just make the game the best culmination of the series best points. The complaints are minor and few with this one- it's stretching it a bit but up until the first boss fight I agreed with Anyaka completly, it didn't quite feel like a resident evil game but when its all said and done it definetly did the job.
Bring on RE5 Capcom! Take 2 years + if you have to , make it as good as 4. In meantime remake RE2 and 3 as one game and fix all th eproblems of both.