Summary
TheResident Evilfranchise has had a lot of entries, between the mainline games in the series, the remakes, spin-offs, and prequels, the franchise has become a massive multimedia world phenomenon. While there may be a few games thatResident Evilfans would like to forget due to their design, there are plenty of others that are brilliant but just plain difficult to win.
From remakes that up the difficulty to games thatcompletely reinvented the ideaof theResident Evilfranchise, there are a lot of ways in which the difficulty of the franchise has reared its head in these survival-focused games that sometimes make surviving as difficult as it would be in a real zombie apocalypse.
Updated on June 28, 2025, by Chris Harkin:The Resident Evil franchise continues to motor on, even without any further updates besides the confirmed rumor that Resident Evil 9 is currently in development. Whether that new entry will challenge players on the same level that past ones have managed remains to be seen. There are also plenty of rumors about what the next remakes in the franchise may be, with Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 0, and Resident Evil: Code Veronica all being rumored as possibilities. As more entries are released, this article will continue to receive updates on which of the Resident Evil games are the most challenging and filled with frustration for gamers.
Although this entry has seen a fair share of debate amongResident Evilfans, it is a mainline entry in the series, it does feature many of the trademarks of theResident Evilgames, albeit with a much more action-oriented style over the traditional survival horror focus. This game was designed for the campaign to be played either with friends or in single-player, which was a lot of fun but challenged the creators to figure out how to make it manageable to complete without friends.
This challenge was mostly solved, butResident Evil 6remains a tough play that is by no means easy, just because it is fairer to try and complete than some of the older entries. The journey of many previous characters, such as Chris Redfield and Leon S Kennedy on a globe-trotting adventure through Eastern Europe, the US, and China, managed to move the story of the series along while also providing a sweeping journey unlike many of the previous entries where players would be stuck in a single location and attempting to escape.
InResident Evil 5, Chris Redfield takes his government agent status to West Africa, where he and his partner attempt to stop a bioterrorism weapon from being sold on the black market. Taking many cues from the action-packed style ofResident Evil 4, one of the major difficulties that came from the fifth mainline entry in the franchise was the huge lack of ammunition and supplies.
Not to mention that there was a similar challenge inResident Evil 5to that ofResident Evil Outbreak, the challenge of trying tokeep a computer-controlled partner alivein the form of Sheva Alomar, Redfield’s new partner. While this wasn’t the most beloved entry in the franchise, it did produce a memorable level of difficulty for fans.
Resident Evil 7was a complete overhaul and reinvention of the franchise. While it was praised for stripping back the action of some previous installments and focusing on the survival horror aspect, it also changed the game from any previous entry by setting the game in first-person. This allowed for a whole new level of terror to be added throughout the game that players hadn’t experienced in the franchise before.
The lack of prowess in combat that the player character had compared to previous games made for a whole different style of play. It was difficult to navigate at times, and the family ofTexas Chainsaw-inspiredmutants made for intriguing adversaries as players led Ethan through their plantation, searching for his missing wife.Resident Evil 7was a much-beloved entry anda return to form that fans had waited for, but that doesn’t mean it was in any way easy.
The most recent main series release outside the remakes,Resident Evil Villagewas a roaring success for the franchise. Not only was it a great example of many traits from earlier installments, such as puzzles, fascinating enemies, and the importance of finding secret items, but it also increased the level of combat from previous entries.
The higher focus on action was one of the main ways in whichResident Evil Villagemanaged to challenge players. Difficult boss fights and memorable moments combine to create an entry that has done a great job of moving the franchise forward, ensuring it doesn’t rest simply on the laurels of remakes from the glory days.
The most recently released remake in the franchise goes back to Leon Kennedy’s mission to save the president’s daughter. Surprisingly, the difficulty of the remake is even greater than that of the original, which was already not considered an easy game.
Players have been stunned by the remake, which many have praised for being challenging without getting frustratingly hard. The real challenge is in surprises since players don’t know what they’ll face around each corner, especially making the first playthrough incredibly difficult due to being unable to plan.
Though the Umbrella Corporation manages to challenge players in everyResident Evilentry,Umbrella Corpsbrings something different to the table in the form of a tactical shooter where players attempt to survive an ever more brutal sequence of challenges set by the organization that sent the player character out in the first place. This single-player side of the game made for an interesting and surprisingly tough campaign, butUmbrella Corpsreally flourished in the multiplayer mode.
In multiplayer, players compete as special forces from one of ten different organizations, all attempting to gather lost Umbrella Corporation intel and bio-weaponry after the collapse of Umbrella years earlier. This great tactical shooter side is tough to learn, but rewarding and an interesting view at a completely different genre and how it can fit into theResident Eviltimeline.
Resident Evil Zerodetails the events preceding the first game, and this prequel was a fascinating experiment. Not only did it take on whole new characters and a new setting with the abandoned Umbrella training facility, but it also providedquite a change in the mechanicsfor players who had become accustomed to the other games in the franchise.
Besides continuously having a character controlled by the AI around to hinder and irritate players, adding to the level of difficulty of the game, players also had to switch between the two main characters as they had different abilities for puzzle solving. This was a slightly awkward mechanic that helped add to the difficulty a surprising amount.
In an example of an original that was harder than the remake, the third main entry in theResident Evilfranchise was a fascinating and fast-paced journey as Jill Valentine tries, concurrently with the events ofResident Evil 2, to escape Raccoon City after a wider outbreak of the T-Virus.
Players found themselves being brutally chased by the Nemesis, confused because this entry was so completely different from any other game in the franchise. The complete chaos, constant boss chasing after Jill and difficulty of completing runs due to lack of items was exacerbated by the higher difficulty options players could dare to take on, which were made much easier in the remake.
The originalResident Evil 2wasn’t a particularly difficult game, so the 2019 remake shocked gamers by not being in any way a direct one-to-one version of the old game. Instead, the remake was more of a rebuilt version of the story that the old version had, without sticking to the same controls or exact story. Characters, events, and mechanics were all shifted dramatically.
Coming out in the wake ofResident Evil 7, gamers were shocked by the mixture of the seventh entry’s style with the difficulties involved in the second game. Difficult zombies, brutal puzzles that turned into real head-scratchers, and the always monstrous Mr. X lurking at every turn transformed the second entry into a remade, revamped nightmare that blew the minds of many gamers as they found out just how tricky aResident Evilgame could be,despite not being a particularly long game.
Another lesser-known entry in the franchise, but one that has become infamous among die-hardResident Evilfans due to their obsession with the intricate difficulties,Code: Veronicais considered by some to be the closest to being a mainline game out of the spin-off games in the franchise as it follows Claire and Chris Redfield months after the events of the second and third games.
Resident Evil - Code: Veronicamade ammunition and supplies hugely challenging, it kept save points rare in certain areas, and it was filled with enemies such as bander snatches which proved to be the consistent undoing of many frustrated players.Code: Veronicamay not be as well-rememberedas other games in theResident Evilfranchise, but it will keep its place as one of the most difficult challenges the survival horror franchise has seen.
