The Resident Evil games are perhaps best known for their stories. With wacky characters, bizarre enemies, and scary set pieces, Resident Evil narratives tend to be tense, entertaining experiences that rarely overstay their welcome; most are rather short, with Resident Evil Village clocking in at around 10 hours.
Despite the series' singleplayer success, publisher Capcom has a history of pushing multiplayer modes into Resident Evil. These efforts tend to miss more than they hit, but that hasn't discouraged Capcom from relentlessly pursuing them anyway.
Resident Evil: Outbreak and File #2
The series' first foray into multiplayer was with Resident Evil: Outbreak, which casts players as residents of Raccoon City, whose daily lives are interrupted by the T-Virus outbreak. The survivors have to make their way through the city while fighting zombies, collecting key items, and solving puzzles — par for the course for a Resident Evil game. A follow-up, Outbreak File #2, was later released that boasted a few gameplay changes, but otherwise played the same.
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and Darkside Chronicles
This pair of games each re-tell events from the early Resident Evil games through the lens of a light-rail shooter. Players can pair up to take on the game's various levels, allowing for a cooperative, Time Crisis-style Resident Evil experience.
Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil 5 is the first mainline game built around co-op gameplay. The entire campaign can be played cooperatively, and considering that the AI for Sheva is pretty hit or miss, playing with friends is encouraged.
The game also, unexpectedly, brought competitive multiplayer to the series by way of the Versus mode, which pitted Jill, Chris, Sheva, and Wesker against each other in various game types.
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D
This 3DS-exclusive game brought Resident Evil's Mercenaries mode over to Nintendo's dual-screened handheld. Up to two players can team up for some arcade-inspired, score-attack gameplay, but that's really all this portable outing has to offer.
Resident Evil: Revelations
Another handheld horror title, Resident Evil: Revelations doesn't feature multiplayer in its campaign, but it does in Raid Mode — a challenge mode similar to Mercenaries, albeit with more depth and customization options.
Operation Raccoon City
This large departure from the series' norms casts players as members of the Umbrella Security Service team, tasked with destroying evidence linking Umbrella to the T-Virus Outbreak seen in Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3. In addition to a four-player cooperative campaign, there are also competitive modes, one of which allows players to take control of series stars like Leon Kennedy, Ada Wong, and Nemesis.
Resident Evil 6
Resident Evil 6 brought more multiplayer options to the series than ever before. Along with the standard co-op, Mercenaries, and versus modes from Resident Evil 5, new to the series were Onslaught, Agent Hunt, Predator, and Agent Versus Creatures; all of which allowed players to control the infected to take down other players.
Resident Evil: Revelations 2
Resident Evil: Revelations 2 brought back Raid Mode, but also introduced a co-op campaign, much like Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6. Here, one player fills a more active, offense-oriented role, while the second player provides backup to ensure they both make it out alive.
Umbrella Corps
Umbrella Corps has more in common with the likes of Call of Duty and Gears of War than it does its source series. This action-heavy take on the survival-horror series was panned upon release, with many feeling it was too large a departure from its roots.
Resident Evil: Resistance
Resistance came packaged with Resident Evil 3's remake, and pitted a group of four survivors against one mastermind. Unfortunately, balancing issues along with frequent network problems thanks to a reliance on peer-to-peer connections hampered this asymmetrical, unique take on Resident Evil.
RE:Verse
The series' latest multiplayer spin-off tosses the series' all-stars into familiar locations for them to battle it out. Think Super Smash Bros., but with Resident Evil gameplay. RE:Verse was supposed to launch with Resident Evil Village, but it was delayed to Summer 2021 shortly before Village hit store shelves. Just the other day, the game was hit with yet another delay pushing it into next year. It remains to be seen how this abstract spin-off will be received when it finally launches.
Resident Evil RE:Verse is currently set to release in 2022 on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.