Never played Resident Evil 2 before...

[Flake]

I rather think I am. This game is still scaring the shit out of me though!

[optmusprimenumber]

noone agrees on playing the originals? seriously?

[Flake]

noone agrees on playing the originals? seriously?

I totally agree. In this, however, the failing is not with the original games but with me. I have too many games in my backlog and my attention span is limited at best. So it makes the most sense for me to grab the most easily accessible versions first (GCN, as it is one of my two all time favorite platforms) and THEN grab the classics later on if I want another go through.

[noiseredux]

noone agrees on playing the originals? seriously?

nope. I grew up with the PS1 version, but after playing the remake on GameCube I couldn't go back to it.

[Ack]

Admittedly RE2 is my favorite. I worry that you're going to be a bit spoiled with the RE remake on GC, as it pretty much removes any reason to go back to the original. If you do become interested in playing 2 and 3, I suggest the Dreamcast versions, along with the DC version of Dino Crisis if you're in the mood for PS1-to-DC-Capcom-Survival-Horror-ports.

Also I prefer the GC version of RE4, but I've not tried the Wii one.

Also, noise, Resident Evil Gaiden hurt.

[noiseredux]

Also, noise, Resident Evil Gaiden hurt.

haha what do you mean? I think it's a rather fantastic game.

[Flake]

So which one should I play first? Resident Evil Zero or Resident Evil?

[noiseredux]

So which one should I play first? Resident Evil Zero or Resident Evil?

not Zero.

[optmusprimenumber]

So which one should I play first? Resident Evil Zero or Resident Evil?

not Zero.

yeah not zero

[shadobeni]

I'm not an RE expert but I have played about the first half of Code Veronica and maybe 2/3 of Resident Evil 4 on PS2 and I've played a bit of RE3 on PS1. Although not part of the franchise, I have also played and beaten Dino Crisis on PS1 which controls in a similar fashion to the RE games before RE4.

The whole "tank" control mechanism where movement is relative to the character and not the camera (ie up = character walks forward, back = character walks backwards, left/right = rotate in place) can be frustrating to get used to. It certainly was for me when I first played Dino Crisis and took me some time to get used to. You have to stand still while facing in the general direction of your target if you want to shoot since you can't move and shoot at the same time.

The first RE game I played was RE4 which I had a lot of fun with but I started feeling like I was doing the same stuff over and over after a while. Although some hate the quick time events I thought they made the boss battles more fun and interesting. I ended up getting stuck at that giant mutated plant like boss where you have to shoot the eye. I had a hard time aiming with the analog stick. Because of the change from 3rd person to an over the shoulder 1st person like view, movement is a lot more intuitive in RE4 but you can only aim while standing still. You can shoot while moving but you can't aim your shots while moving at the same time.

Then I tried Code Veronica and despite not looking forward to tank controls, I found myself enjoying it quite a bit mainly for the story and atmosphere. However, it does lack some of the control additions that were added to RE3 like the dodge move. In RE3 enemies can follow you up and down stairs whereas in code veronica I noticed the dogs still couldn't follow me up stairs.

If the story matters to you from what I've read you can start with either RE1 or RE2. A few events in code veronica benefit from knowledge of RE1&2. RE3 appears to be more of a side story. RE2 on N64 has some additional files you can find in the game which give more background on the story that relates it to other games that no other version of RE2 has. RE4 I think doesn't really need any prior knowledge from the previous games story-wise but characters from RE1 & 2 do appear in that game.

Don't know which one is the scariest but I honestly don't find most games or horror movies scary anyway. But I felt both RE4 and Code Veronica had a good amount of "scare" moments and I thought code veronica in particular was good at building up to those moments.