I bought RE2 by accident when I was like 8.
There's one store in my hometown that sells and trades used games. I was meant to trade my game to "Batman of The Future: Return of the Joker" but when I went home and I opened it, there was RE2 Disc 1 inside!? XD Because I was so young, you could only make it into the Kendo Gun Shop :'D
That sucks, but at least you became a fan of the series. Resident Evil 2 was just awesome the first time around. That one and Resident Evil 1(remake) and Resident Evil 4. Those are great gaming experiences that make you feel as though you're part of a horror movie. I love all the games, though not equally.
Resident Evil 4 ranks as my number 1, because it marries both the horror and the fast paced action perfectly. In my opinion anyway. I wouldn't have minded a mention of Claire by Ada and Leon at some point, just as an homage to them being connected through RE2, but it was a great game regardless.
Resident Evil 2 comes in second. I think it's better than the first game because it's more relatable as far as environment goes and it has three vulnerable characters we can identify with in some ways. Leon, Claire and Sherry. They're all lost and confused and just trying to survive in one piece. The horror adventure brought the three of them closer together and they're by far my favorite characters in the series. Well maybe Sherry not as much...
Others I rank below these two are Resident Evil 1 (remake), Resident Evil Code Veronica (hardest), Resident Evil 5 (wraps up the Chris/Wesker/Jill story nicely), and Resident Evil Zero.
Below these, I really enjoyed the Outbreak Files - it took a while to get into them and after I did warm up to them, they were a lot of fun. I know they're all just meant to be every day people trying to escape, but I wouldn't mind them making little cameos here and there throughout the series. Doesn't matter which one because other than Yoko, I don't like one better than the other.
Probably my least favorite is Resident Evil 3 Nemesis. I like the game, but it just feels like it drags along and although it introduces the Nemesis, it's not as groundbreaking or impactful as RE2 was for me. There's no new ground covered or anything. It's more of an expansion of RE2 really. You're just playing different characters and I really like Jill by the way. I vaguely recall passing the game, and it took me a long time simply because I was debating whether to finish it or not. Being the die hard RE fan that I am, I decided to complete it eventually.
