Ideal Playing Order

[Moonlight_Sonata]

After being something of a fanatic (especially about Resident Evil), I spaced out on video games at some point around 2011. RE1 and RE2 were probably my two favorite games ever, but I thought 4 and especially 5 were huge steps in the wrong direction and kind of stopped paying attention after that.

Recently, after giving RE 2 Remake a chance and loving it, I played through the RE 3 Remake and decided to just go through the whole series and see what I missed. I have almost finished RE 4 again, but now have a question about how best to proceed.

Should I go from RE 4 to RE Revelations and then 5 or should I follow the release order and do RE 4 then 5, then Revelations. I know that storyline wise, Revelations takes place between 4 and 5, but also feel like, as with many prequels, maybe Revelations would work better dramatically if you already know what happens in 5.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[JujuLodestar]

I would suggest RE4 - RE5 as if you were to move from 4 to Revelations then 5 you'd get thrown off since you'd suffer a combat downgrade.

Additionally. While Revelations does technically take place prior to 5, the Jill of REV retroactively feels more like her RE5 counterpart. So if you actually end up caring for that game's plot, you might want to become accustomed to that Jill first.
And on top of all that, despite being a prequel Rev can be taken on its own with a very loose tie-in to the mainline, but otherwise irrelevant.

 

[Turo602]

Should definitely do 4 and 5 and then the Revelations games. Resident Evil 4 and 5 are more or less the same kind of game, so it would definitely flow better going from sequel to sequel and then the Revelations games, which I'd highly recommend trying the 2nd Revelations game since you didn't mention it.

But the Revelations series does have a different tone and gameplay flow that would probably feel more refreshing after 4 and 5, and the stories aren't exactly that relevant to those games, though they do have their connections, but they would be much more appreciated after having played 5 first.

 

[Moonlight_Sonata]

Nice.

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. My intuition was in line with both of your reasoning, so I'm definitely going to play 5 before Revelations.

I do intend to play Revelations 2, as well. I'm not sure if I should go 4->5-> Rev1 -> 6 -> Rev2 or do 4->5->6-> Rev 1-> Rev 2 at this point. I played 5 when it came out and hated it, despite finishing it. I also played 6 upon its release, but I just couldn't stomach it at all and gave up before even finishing the first section. I'm going to force myself to get through everything this time (and, to be fair, I liked RE4 more than I remembered liking it the first time), but I do anticipate that I will like Revelations more than 5 or 6. So another concern is not making 6 seem worse by having played Revelations first.