Resident Evil is primarily known for its tense, nail-biting survival horror gameplay. However, it has also veered into action horror for a good deal of its history, and Capcom has maintained a fascination with having multiple protagonists.
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Posts 4There have been many pushes to make Resident Evil a multiplayer experience, to the point that some games are clearly designed as co-op experiences. The multiplayer modes have had a mixed reception: some are popular, while others are reviled, and still others are forgotten. Here are all of them, ranked.
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City was shut down and delisted in 2021, so it does not count.
14 Resident Evil: Resistance
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Survival Horror Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 64/100 Critics Rec: 32% Released April 3, 2020 ESRB m Developer(s) Neobards Entertainment Publisher(s) Capcom Engine RE Engine Multiplayer Online MultiplayerWHERE TO PLAY
DIGITALResident Evil: Resistance represents the bottom of the barrel for this series' multiplayer component. It is symptomatic of creative bankruptcy and a bid to catch on to a trend dominated by one game. We know Capcom wanted some of that Dead by Daylight money, but this is not the way to do it.
RE: Resistance features a group of survivors on one side and a mastermind laying traps on the other. Whichever side you're on, it's not very fun, because there are no dedicated servers. It's impossible to enjoy Resistance's gimmicks with the laggy peer-to-peer connections this game mandates.
13 The Darkside Chronicles & The Umbrella Chronicles
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Shooter Systems Released November 17, 2009 ESRB M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language Developer(s) Capcom, Cavia Publisher(s) Capcom Engine havok, mtframework Multiplayer Local Multiplayer Franchise Resident EvilWHERE TO PLAY
SUBSCRIPTIONThere's not much to say about these Wii entries in terms of multiplayer. Local co-op is available, and it's virtually identical to the single-player mode, except that a buddy can shoot zombies alongside you. It's more about the person you play it with than the features on offer, honestly. It doesn't make the game any harder to take the second light-gun into account.
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PostsTo allow a second player to join, sync up the Wii controllers and press the 1 button on the second controller. The co-op mode isn't heavily advertised, perhaps due to its simplistic nature. With the right friend, it can be great fun, but truth be told, with the right friend anything can be fun. It's still a nice feature to have, though.
12 Umbrella Corps
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Shooter Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 36/100 Released June 21, 2016 ESRB M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Game Experience May Change During Online Play, Intense Violence, Strong Language Developer(s) Capcom Publisher(s) Capcom Engine Unity Multiplayer Online MultiplayerWHERE TO PLAY
DIGITALToo little, too late, Umbrella Corps came and went without so much as a whisper in the wind. The lack of Resident Evil in the title alone should warn you that Capcom itself had little confidence in Umbrella Corps.
The game never had a high enough player-count for you to get matches consistently, and even if you do convince a group of friends to play it with you, there's nothing to set this mediocre third-person shooter apart from the slew of similar titles on the market.
11 Resident Evil Re:Verse
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Third-Person Shooter Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 38/100 Released October 28, 2022 ESRB M For Mature 17+ due to Blood and Gore, Intense Violence Developer(s) Capcom Publisher(s) Capcom Engine RE Engine Franchise Resident EvilWHERE TO PLAY
DIGITALCapcom's second attempt to cash in on a multiplayer trend was just as misguided as the first. Resident Evil fans don't want a generic PvP battle royale, especially not with the series' control scheme. Resident Evil's controls make for tense single-player campaigns, but they are completely out of place in fast-paced online multiplayer.
Nevertheless, Capcom pushed ahead with this companion piece to Resident Evil: Village. It's not very fun, and it also cheapens the series' dark presentation to see battle passes and virtual currencies shoved in.
Capcom announced that it would delist Re:Verse on March 3, 2025 and shut down its servers on June 29, 2025.
10 Predator Mode
Resident Evil 6
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Like Follow FollowedResident Evil 6
Third-Person Shooter Systems 3.5/5 OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 62/100 Critics Rec: 22% Released October 2, 2012 ESRB M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes Developer(s) Capcom Publisher(s) Capcom Engine MT FRameworkWHERE TO PLAY
SUBSCRIPTIONThis was what Resident Evil: Resistance was trying to be and failed spectacularly at. Predator Mode in RE6 allowed you to become Ustanak, RE6's unstoppable monster from Sherry and Jake's campaign, while five friends would attempt to take you down.
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PostsAsymmetrical multiplayer wasn't trendy in 2012, and RE6's Predator Mode generated barely any discourse. It's not great, but it's better than Capcom's later forays into the genre. There was one major flaw: some maps were clearly not designed to accommodate the Ustanak, and weren't much fun to play this mode on.
9 Siege Mode
Resident Evil 6
Okay, so this is basically VIP mode from Counter-Strike but with zombies. You're tasked with protecting one of your team members against the enemy team, who are all zombies. The zombie team doesn't have VIPs, so it's honestly more fun to play as the humans.
It's unbalanced, and that's the one flaw. However, Siege Mode in RE6 is certain to be a blast provided you have a big enough friend group to make it an engaging session. With random players online, you'll have much less fun.
8 Agent Hunt
Resident Evil 6
Resident Evil 6 featured a massive multiplayer component that went underappreciated due to how disillusioned fans became with the game's action elements. There was a variety of game modes, including Agent Hunt.
This mode allowed you to invade other people's games online as a zombie and kill them. Yes, while they were playing through story mode. The same could happen to you, and it was always frightening to see that a real, intelligent human was going to control the zombies you were facing. Video game AI isn't that scary in comparison.
If you do not wish to let others join, you can disable Agent Hunt visibility in the single-player settings at the start of each session.
7 Survivors Mode
Resident Evil 6
Someone needs to show Capcom the extra modes it made for Resident Evil 6 to remind the developer it's already done everything. Survivors Mode is a free-for-all PvP battle royale that pits you against five opponents. The last person standing wins.
What makes this better than Re:Verse? Well, for one thing, Resident Evil 6 already has a downright goofy presentation, so it doesn't feel as nonsensical. For another, there are no fake currencies or battle passes. And here's the knockout: Resident Evil 6's controls are honestly better for fast-paced, stylish combat.
6 Onslaught Mode
Resident Evil 6
Imagine competitive Tetris 99 as a third-person zombie shooter: that's Resident Evil 6's onslaught mode. You go head-to-head against a friend, clearing out waves of zombies. If you manage to chain together a good enough combo, it would send a wave of zombies into your opponent's game.
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PostsThis mode is great fun, as it combines the fun of chaining combos in Mercenaries with the tension of surviving against hordes of zombies. If Capcom had to retain one multiplayer mode besides Mercenaries, this is the one we'd pick.
5 Mercenaries Mode
Resident Evil 5 & 6
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Like Follow FollowedResident Evil 5
Survival Horror Third-Person Shooter Action-Adventure Systems OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 72/100 Critics Rec: 62% Released March 5, 2009 ESRB m Developer(s) Capcom Publisher(s) Capcom Engine havok, mt framework Multiplayer Local Multiplayer, Online Multiplayer Franchise Resident Evil Platform(s) PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Switch, Android, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows OpenCritic Rating Fair Powered by Expand CollapseOne of the most popular game modes in the series, Mercenaries has you kill zombies within a time limit while chaining together combos. There are crystals you can break for extra time, and some treasures increase your score multipler.
We'll be honest here: while it's okay with a friend, Mercenaries is far more fun alone. This is particularly true of Resident Evil 5's Mercenaries, where the small maps mean that a friend also killing zombies will cramp your style and cause your combo to run out. There also isn't much point in communicating while playing Mercenaries, resulting in silent and lackluster sessions.
Resident Evil 4's Mercenaries mode does not have co-op.
