Many of the games are pretty far-disconnected from each other, so really you can start anywhere that feels right for you. Resident Evil 0, 1, 2, and 3 are more tightly-related to each other, so if you want to experience the “original” story, I’d recommend going with RE1 Remake, then RE0 Remake, then RE2 Remake, and RE3 remake. Note that the RE1 and RE0 remakes are a lot older than RE2 and RE3, and are the traditional “tank control” game styles, while RE2 and RE3 remakes are more modern, over-the-shoulder games, so there may be some disconnect while playing through these. But these four games focus more on the Umbrella Corporation and the T-virus outbreak in Raccoon City, while the rest of the series strays away from the events in Raccoon City, entirely.

RE4 is a must-play. There’s like a billion different versions of it, too, so just pick up whatever is newest for your platform. You can’t go wrong with any of them, IMO. This one is often seen as a soft reboot of the RE series, so it’s thematically much different than the games before it. Honestly, if there is any RE that you should play, it’s RE4. This is a perfectly fine starting point, if you ask me.

RE5 and RE6 are honestly skippable, if you ask me. These ones kinda continued the “reboot” path RE4 took, but don’t really have any iconic moments of their own; I hardly remember anything from these games, and you’re not really going to miss out on any important storylines or anything by not playing them.

RE7 and RE8 are a sort of second reboot to the series, and are tightly related to each other. So if you want to start with the most modern “era” of RE, start with 7. I didn’t care much for RE7 and RE8 because they didn’t “feel” like Resident Evil to me, so I can’t really speak to how relevant they are toward the overall story.

There’s also a ton of side games, as well. I wouldn’t recommend bothering with any of them unless you really like the lore of the games they’re related to.