10 best puzzles in the Resident Evil series, ranked

We asked several world-reputed masters of unlocking to rank the best puzzles in the series

Though it gave us Resident Evil 4, Capcom’s series shift from straight-up survival horror to more action-oriented territory displeased many fans. And if you miss the slower, more cerebral gameplay of the early Resident Evil games, then this list is for you. We’ve come up with a ranking of the 10 most interesting puzzles in the series that are 100% roundhouse kicking, boulder-punching-free.

10. The Sliding Squares puzzle from Resident Evil 4

The original Resident Evil 4 and its dozens of re-releases mostly did away with Resident Evil’s classic puzzles — but not with the concept of puzzles altogether. Perhaps as a cheeky reference to the more elaborate item-hunting puzzles of the past, RE4 tasks players with a challenging but uncomplicated puzzle of sliding tiles.

What you see is what you get with this one: Eight tiles that players have to move around until they form a neat picture that will open a door. It’s simple, completely different from what you’d expect, and it does a good job of pausing the action to have Resident Evil players do something completely fresh for the series.

09. The Drug Lab puzzle from Resident Evil 2 Remake

Resident Evil 2 Remake gets a lot of love for completely overhauling the original’s gameplay, but it also deserves some credit for its new puzzles. While some of the original’s puzzles could have worked in a remake, there’s just no point in having fans re-solve something they’ve known for over 20 years. It’s cool for remakes to add new stuff, and the Drug Lab Puzzle from the remake is a good example.

Remember how the scientists from the Resident Evil series seem to not be very good at their jobs? Most players probably don’t as in the original RE2 we just grab a vaccine and administer it to Sherry without much concern. The remake does a great job here by actually forcing players to do some lab work that the scientists have failed at. The cartridge dispersal puzzle revolves solely around the pressing of three different buttons so it’s pretty simple, but it still provides a nice combination of challenging and fun gameplay.*

*While we stand by how awesome this is in a game, we can’t help but stress that rookie cops shouldn’t try to do a scientist’s job in real life.

Screenshot by Destructoid

08. The Water Sample puzzle from Resident Evil 3

One thing about puzzles in the Resident Evil series is that despite their intended difficulty, you can just go to Gamefaqs or YouTube to completely “outsmart” them. That doesn’t happen here, as the water puzzle from the original Resident Evil 3 is randomized. YouTube can give you the gist of it, but you’re always going to be the one to come up with the solution.

Outside of that, it’s still a pretty fun experience that will have players learn the mechanics at hand instead of forcing them to go on an item hunt.

I certainly don’t think all puzzles should be randomized, but having at least one of these per game would be a great idea. Even if just to further terrorize players who believe they can rely on a quick win.

07. The Chess Puzzle from Resident Evil 0

Resident Evil 0 didn’t get a stellar reception upon release, but it did get one puzzle very right. In Resident Evil 0‘s training facility, players will come across a huge chess board. Chances are players will immediately think they’ll have to put all of their chess knowledge into practice — or that they’ll have to learn how to play Chess — but this actually nothing but a master troll move. Trying to engage with this puzzle that way may lead to death by poison, so we advise players just pay close attention to what they’re seeing.

The imposing and beautifully-drawn scenery is but a ruse. Players won’t have to challenge Resident Evil 0 to a deadly game of chess — they’ll barely even have to move any pieces. In fact, they just need to push the king and the whole thing will be over with. This puzzle does a great job of playing with our natural desire to overcomplicate things.

06. The Clock Tower puzzle from Resident Evil 3

Jill reaches a clock tower and needs to both restore its power and set the time straight so she can call for help by ringing the bell. This puzzle rocks because it involves the amount of exploration and item hunting that you’d normally expect from RE, but most of its steps are intuitive and the thing as a whole seems to make sense. We find the Clock Tower puzzle in the late section of the game, so it’s fair to believe this could really be the ending of the game.

This puzzle is great in and of itself, but what makes it one of the series’ all-time greats is its culmination. After all of our troubles, Jill climbs atop the clock tower to finally get rescued. A helicopter shows up to help, but it’s immediately intercepted by Nemesis who blows it up with his rocket launcher. What a marvelous punch in the collective gut of so many players in desperate need of escape.

Sadly, the clock tower doesn’t exist in the remake, but fans like it so much that they’re remaking it themselves.

05. The creepy Doll puzzle from Resident Evil Village

Inexplicably, most Resident Evil puzzles lack fear factor. Whether we’re in a zombie-infested city or a monster-ruled village, most puzzles revolve around pretty mundane activities like finding a regular item — usually a crank — and using it to open a door, or collecting a series of keys. Village changes that.

Resident Evil Village’s best puzzle has players disassembling and reassembling a doll. Sounds simple and creepy enough, right? Wrong. Well, this doll is actually made to represent Mia, Ethan’s girlfriend. This one gains extra points for creepiness, yes, but also for its direct connection to the story.

It also helps that this puzzle leads to the most horrifying moment in the game — but we won’t spoil that.

04. The Happy Birthday puzzle from Resident Evil 7

From the get-go, you know that a puzzle called “Happy Birthday” in this series is going to be anything but. In this twisted celebration, players encounter an old tape that shows someone getting killed after making a mistake when attempting to solve a puzzle. Then, it makes players enter the same room and face a puzzle they already know could turn deadly.

Despite its fame as a horror powerhouse, puzzles in Resident Evil tend to be way more forgiving than those of the much more PG adventure games from Sierra. The punishment for not solving a puzzle in a Resident Evil game tends to be just that of having to calmly try again.

Not here. This puzzle takes Resident Evil into SAW territory, and it works. The fact that we go into this puzzle knowing that it could be our last adds a layer of tension never-before-seen in the franchise.

03. V-Jolt puzzle from Resident Evil and REmake

The V-Jolt puzzle does something that the series sadly doesn’t usually care for — giving players the choice to use their smarts to beat the enemies. You can ignore the puzzle and enter a firefight with a gigantic zombie plant, but you have the alternative of concocting a chemical mix to fix the problem.

You can totally love the Resident Evil series without loving its puzzles. Many fans find some of the puzzles in the games a chore, but tough luck. Most games in the series require players to solve all of their puzzles if they are to survive the zombies. That phrase must sound insane to anyone who doesn’t know the series, but fans know exactly what we’re talking about.

Puzzle haters will probably rank the V-Jolt puzzle as their favorite puzzle because it’s completely optional, whereas puzzle lovers will probably like it because it’s fun.

02. The Piano puzzle from Resident Evil 1

Though not very challenging, the piano puzzle from RE and REmake is one of the most memorable in the series. In the Spencer mansion, players will find a piano that, in true spooky mansion fashion, features a mysterious door-opening mechanism.

Players will open the door by correctly interpreting a music sheet and playing its notes in the correct order. The perfect input will get Jill or Chris to play a segment of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. The result is a beautifully haunting moment in a game that usually just goes for the haunting part.

It also raises poignant questions regarding the Spencer family. Like, “Do the Spencers suck so much that they hate Moonlight Sonata?” There’s no way they would’ve picked a song they liked because that would mean having to close the scary door whenever they decided to play it.

01. Resident Evil 7 demo finger puzzle

Should we be including a puzzle that’s not from the actual game? Maybe not, but we think we’d be cheating if we were to ignore its impact because it didn’t come tied to a price tag.

This was not a mere puzzle, but a whole Internet-wide event that anyone could join in on. The continually-updating demo for RE7 made sure every player got mad together while trying to figure out the mystery behind a finger, and the result was just fantastic. It was one of those viral community moments that modern gaming should try to achieve more often.

This demo clued us in on the fact that the new Resident Evil would be trying to carry the torch that P.T. had unfortunately dropped, and we’re glad that it did. While both Resident Evil 7 and Village feature various action elements, both games do a great job of balancing them with puzzles that beautifully honor the history of the franchise.