Reviews by Kyle Ellis

First appearance: Resident Evil (1996)

I’d love to be a hipster and tell you some obscure villain like Morpheus D. Duvall from RE: Dead Aim (2003) is the best in the series, but we all know it’s Albert Wesker.

This evil genius was the face of Resident Evil villainy from the series’ inception in 1996.

With great intelligence and superhuman abilities, Wesker was a fearsome force driving viral and parasitical disasters worldwide.

It took throwing Wesker in a volcano and shooting him with an RPG to finally take him down – a warrior’s death for one of the most hardcore villains in gaming.

First appearance: Resident Evil (1996)

Much like the zombies he’s so good at neutralizing, Chris just keeps coming back – over and over.

After the nightmare at the Spencer Mansion, Chris has dedicated his life to fighting Bio Organic Weapons as a member of the BSAA.

Wherever zombies get up from their graves, Chris will be there to punch them back into the ground.

And I mean that literally.

While his recent dark and grizzled look from Resident Evil Village is pretty damn cool, my favorite Chris will always be the muscular Pillar Man from RE5.

First appearance: Resident Evil 2 (1998)

HUNK is as mysterious as he is cool.

This one-man-army works for the Umbrella Security Service.

He was first introduced as a playable character in The 4th Survivor – a specially challenging mode in RE2 where you had limited resources.

Well, HUNK doesn’t need resources.

He’s cold, calculating, and ruthlessly efficient when it comes to killing – zombie or not.

After the Raccoon City incident, he even invented his own fighting style to deal with infected in an outbreak situation.

If I had to guess, it includes a couple of [Link removed - login to see].

First appearance: Resident Evil (1996)

The measure of a man is what he does with power.

And in Barry’s case, it’s what he does with a .44 Magnum.

This often-overlooked character was the calm cornerstone of the STARS Alpha Team.

He was in charge of weapon supervision and coming up with witty jokes like the [Link removed - login to see].

He’s one of the nicest guys in the entire series without that hampering his ability to blow up zombie skulls left and right.

After this traumatic experience, Barry has done everything in his power to be a good family man – including fighting to protect them from bio-terrorism as part of the BSAA.

First appearance: Resident Evil (1996)

Some characters are interesting, others are bad-ass – and Rebecca?

She’s just plain adorable.

This medic is an unlikely survivor from the STARS Bravo Team, who had to brave the horrors of the Arklay Mountains way before Chris and Jill set foot in the mansion.

Despite her painfully cute & almost child-like appearance, this medic proved to be one of the most resourceful characters in the series.

Her smarts definitely served her right during her stay at the Spencer Mansion, and she went on to become a leading researcher in viral outbreak counter-measures.

If Resident Evil was an RPG, she’d be the healer.

First appearance: Resident Evil 7 (2017)

Fans of long-lived series like Resident Evil have a tendency to write off new characters without giving them a chance.

But Ethan Winters has earned a place on this list with grit and clenched teeth.

Despite having no training whatsoever, Ethan manages to drive the Baker family back and becomes instrumental in controlling the viral-enhanced mold outbreak in the bayou.

Hell, he even gets his hand sawed off only to put it back together with some chewing gum and duct tape minutes later.

Wait, what?

Go play Resident Evil Village if you want to know how he pulled that feat off.