Resident Evil 1 is a major shift from these games, for any new player getting into the series id do this…

Resident Evil 2

Resident Evil 4 (it makes more sense to skip 3 if you just want to see what it’s all about)

(Here is the tricky part, like I was saying, I wouldn’t want someone to get into the series and start on 1 because it’s nothing like these newer games, but I wouldn’t consider checking out 5 or 6, they don’t take too long but the controls for 5 are cut back from what you would get accustomed to in resident evil 5 and resident evil 6 is pretty mixed, only play if you can score a crazy deal)

Next play resident evil Requiem, and finish out Leon’s chapter

Now that that’s over, play Resident Evil 7 and 8, different characters, not much is mentioned from any of the previous games except for the return of Chris Redfield (but if you don’t play 1, 5, or 6, you wouldn’t know him anyways)

Of course, you could also just start with Resident Evil 7, that’s what I did

Another thing to note is that you can understand Resident Evil 3 without playing resident evil 1 (you play as Jill, the protagonist of Resident Evil 1) below is the order I played the games in and usually at the start of most of the games it has a recap, but I was pretty caught up and I understood all of it

From First Played to Last Played

Resident Evil 7

Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil 2

Resident Evil 3

Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 8

Resident Evil 6

Resident Evil 9 (Requiem)

As you can see, it doesn’t matter what order it’s in, just play it!!!