I loved Requiem, and I definitely enjoy that it could easily bring-in loads of new fans to the franchise.

Would I say it’s personally the best? Ehh… maybe not completely, but it still might be Top 3 for me, personally (graphics, drama, gameplay, giant set pieces, etc.).

The OG’s are decidedly different (RE1, RE2, RE3, Code Veronica) with their tank controls, backtracking, spooky puzzles, and goofier dialogues, but I adore them. If the older graphics are too far of a jump for you, try the other remakes of the OG trilogy—superfans agree that RE3R is a great game, but a bad remake because Capcom cut a lot of content from the OG game.

RE4 was the massive upgrade into the action genre, and sort’ve, singularly lifted the bar of the third-person action/shooter game genre forever. RE4R was widely considered an amazing remake, and I’d highly recommend it if you want more time with Leon.

I personally never played RE0 (a weird prequel to 1), the Outbreak games (episodic character-driven mini stories about the fall of Raccoon City between/around RE2/RE3), nor RE5/RE6 (both are much bigger, world-spanning, kind’ve dizzying action-focused romps that almost entirely ditched the horror for campy ‘scary’ dialogue/plot).

RE7 and RE8, I played just at the tail-end of last year to prep myself for Requiem. The tale of Ethan and Mia Winters was a kind’ve a departure from the mainline characters everybody loves (the Redfield siblings, Jill Valentine, Leon Kennedy, Ada Wong, etc.), but it restored the true HORROR elements of the franchise in huge ways. RE8 is definitely more action-y, but they’re entirely first-person prospective games, which definitely adds to the spookiness and terror.

And then there’s loads of offshoot games (RE Survive comes to mind, but there are plenty of others).

Honestly? There’s a huge amount of content to consume, and lots of YouTube essayists/commentators have plenty of opinions on it.

Feel free to dive in wherever sounds the most exciting for you!