Speedruns have become increasingly popular over the years, with gamers everywhere competing against each other to be the best of the best. There are many different types of speedruns available for people to try, and now that's grown even further with gaming randomizers cropping up.
Speedrunning is a fine art, where players must use their skills and muscle memory to get through the game in total perfection. One mess up could ruin your chances of achieving the best time.
Each genre of games is being put to the clock, from JRPGSs to Metroidvania's to Shooters. Even survival horror games such as Resident Evil are widely speedrun.
They are a few main categories when it comes to speedrunning, Any%, glitchless, low%, and 100%, to name a few. Any% means that the game can be completed at any percentage, which a lot of game-breaking stuff happens. Glitchless requires that the speedrun cannot contain any glitches, but tricks/workarounds are accepted. And 100% is that 100% of the game has to be completed for the speedrun to count. And low% is that the game has to be completed at the lowest percentage possible.
Now here is a list of the fastest times from Resident Evil titles.
10 Resident Evil Remake
With the remake of Resident Evil, it adds a lot of quality of life improvements as well as better movement controls. The not-tank-like controls really made a difference in the speedrunning community.
In an any % run, the PC has the best time out of consoles and emulators. Playing as Jill, the best time is by Pessimism at 1:16.44, which is a pretty fantastic time. But playing as Chris, the time is 1:19:03, by Pessimism once again.
However, with PC (Door Skip) run, Pessimism playing Jill has a time of 54:39 and with Chris 55:48.
9 Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4 is by far one of the best Resident Evil titles in the series, but for different reasons. It wasn't entirely that scary, but it was definitely action-packed, and had Leon jump out of a lot of windows.
Resident Evil 4 has been released over a lot of different consoles; however, on consoles, for a New Game, the best time is on the PlayStation 4. On Professional difficulty, the best time is 1:35:49 by SH-3104. On the Steam version, the best time is 1:22:23, which shaves off over 10 mins from the PS4 version.
8 Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil 5 is a game where the Resident Evil genre was trying to go into a different direction. But overall, fans didn't really like where it was heading. However, it was the first game with proper co-op, and it has Chris punching at a massive boulder, which makes up for it, as it turned into a global meme back in the day.
This run is different because the main category for this game is New Game+ Solo. So on Professional difficulty with Chris, the in-game time (not including cutscenes) is 1:24:32s by HerDela.
7 Resident Evil 6
If fans did not like Resident Evil 5, then no way would they like Resident Evil 6. It was so different from its roots of survival horror that fans forget that it actually exists. Even though it brings back fan favorites such as Leon and Chris, in honesty, that was its only redeeming feature.
Among Resident Evil games, this is not a game many people speedrun, because it's broken up into four different chapters. However, on the PS4 New Game+ Solo, All Chapters speedrun on Amateur difficulty, using in-game time is 6:51:08 by Soulless_Persona.
6 Resident Evil 2 (2019)
The latest remake was, of course, Resident Evil 2, and it was utterly amazing. Everything about it was fantastic. However, it is one of the quickest games to play through, especially if you're speedrunning the game.
On PC (which has the fastest times) on a New Game as Leon on Hardcore, capped at 60 FPS, the best time is 56:06 by TheFuretto. For Claire with the same settings, the time is 52:45 by ingne135.
On an Any% run as Leon, the best time is 39:30 by Lyon. And for Claire, the time is an amazing 23:51 once again by Lyon.
5 Resident Evil 2
Resident Evil 2 is the second game in the Resident Evil series, and it introduces one of the most favorite characters from the franchise, Leon S. Kennedy. Oh, and also the horrifying Mr. X, who caused a lot of nightmares back in the day.
The two categories for this game are Any% and Low%, and the quickest times are on the PC version. An Any% hard run with Leon A is 50:37 by allancg, and a Low% run is 56:43 by pekoron.
With Claire, Any% is 53:36 by allancg, and the Low% run is 1:01:48 by pekoron.
4 Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
If players thought that Mr. X was terrifying, then bring in Nemesis from Resident Evil 3. After the fantastic reception of the Resident Evil 2 remake, of course, Resident Evil 3 is next on the agenda which is coming in April 2020.
Once again, the fastest times are on the PC (TWN/Taiwanese) version of the game. The two main categories for this are Any% and Knife Only. On an Any% original difficulty run, the best time is 40:55 by Orchlon. For a Knife Only original difficulty run, the quickest time is 44:42, which is crazy when you think about it.
3 Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Capcom decided after the fan's disappointment of Resident Evil 5 and 6 to try and take the game back to its founding roots, but with a slight twist. The entirety of Resident Evil 7 is a first-person perspective, which is a first for the series, if not counting the on-rails shooting titles.
On the PC version, on the hardest difficulty (Madhouse), on a New Game, the best time is 1:35:44 by superxiaojuju. But for a 100% run, the game is played on New Game+ with a time of 1:39:25 by DickGor.
2 Resident Evil
Resident Evil, the game that started the Resident Evil franchise, the game that began many people's love of the survival horror genre. Who would have thought that the use of a simple opening door animation could dial up the horror by tenfold?
This game has a lot of categories, but to shorten things up, only a few will be used. On the PC version to get the best ending, using no major glitches, no restrictions, and playing as Jill, the best time is 44:21 by WitchRain. Using the same settings but with Chris, the fastest time is 40:53.
1 Resident Evil: Code: Veronica X
Resident Evil: Code: Veronica X is the fourth installment of the Resident Evil series, and is the first to debut on a separate platform that was not on the PlayStation, which was the Dreamcast. Though it did eventually release on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Gamecube.
The main categories for this game are Any% and S-Rank and Glitched and Glitchless.
For an Any% Glitched run, the best time is 1:38:23 by uhTrance, but for a Glitchess run, the fastest time is 1:39:05 by uhTrance once again.
For the S-Rank Glitched run, the quickest time is 1:41:45 by silentkaster, and for a Glitchless run, silentkaster does it again with the best time of 1:44:02.