Zach Cregger Names Resident Evil 4, Dark Souls 3 and More Among His All-Time Favorite Games

Resident Evil filmmaker Zach Cregger has narrowed down a near-impossible question for any player: what are the four best games of all time? Speaking in an interview with Regal Movies, Cregger named The Binding of Isaac, Dark Souls 3, Resident Evil 4, and The Last of Us Part II as the games that immediately came to mind.

It is a short list, but it says plenty about the sensibilities behind Cregger's Resident Evil film. Each selection is heavily associated with pressure, danger, carefully constructed spaces, and memorable horror. Even the two games that are not traditional survival-horror releases, Dark Souls 3 and The Binding of Isaac, build their identities around uncertainty, oppressive atmosphere, repeated failure, and the satisfaction of surviving an environment that seems designed to overwhelm the player.

Cregger did not present the choices as a definitive, painstakingly ranked list. Instead, he was visibly dealing with the familiar agony of trying to exclude countless favorites. After naming The Binding of Isaac, Dark Souls 3, and Resident Evil 4, he paused over the final choice and called the process "brutal" before settling on The Last of Us Part II. That hesitation will be recognizable to anyone who has tried to compress years of gaming history into only a handful of picks.

Zach Cregger's top four games

• The Binding of Isaac
• Dark Souls 3
• Resident Evil 4
• The Last of Us Part II

The selection is especially notable because Cregger has repeatedly spoken about approaching Resident Evil as a genuine fan of the games rather than simply as a director working with a recognizable brand. His favorite titles are not connected by genre alone. They also share an ability to communicate story, emotion, tension, and character through play itself. That is important for a video game adaptation, where the challenge is not just retelling familiar plot points but translating the feeling of interacting with an unstable and threatening world.

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Resident Evil 4 remains a key point of reference

Resident Evil 4 is the most obvious inclusion, and perhaps the clearest window into Cregger's perspective on the series. He has already said that his Resident Evil movie takes substantial inspiration from the fourth game. The film is not a direct adaptation of Resident Evil 4, however, nor is it built around one of the franchise's established protagonists.

Instead, the story follows Bryan, a medical courier played by Austin Abrams. Bryan is tasked with delivering a package to Raccoon City General Hospital at the end of his shift, only to find himself caught in the beginning of a zombie outbreak. The setup places an original character at the center of an iconic location and catastrophe, rather than having Leon S. Kennedy return as the lead.

That creative decision has drawn mixed reactions from part of the Resident Evil fanbase. Some players hoped to see a film that directly adapted a particular entry, especially one centered on Leon. Yet Cregger's comments suggest that the film is intended to be a broader conversation with the series: it uses a new lead and an original route through the outbreak, while still drawing details, locations, influences, and stylistic ideas from across Resident Evil history.

Resident Evil 4's influence can be felt beyond its place on Cregger's personal favorites list. The film includes an Easter egg tied to the game, while its relationship with the franchise also reaches toward Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 7. Cregger previously explained that the movie takes place parallel to the events of Resident Evil 2, positioning Bryan's ordeal alongside one of the most pivotal incidents in the series.

Gaming homework for Austin Abrams

Cregger's investment in the games also shaped the preparation he gave Abrams. Asked whether the actor was assigned any Resident Evil homework, the director said he advised him to play Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 4, and Resident Evil 7.

Those three titles offer a useful map of the film's creative DNA. Resident Evil 2 provides the Raccoon City setting and outbreak-era context. Resident Evil 4 is an especially influential action-horror landmark whose camera perspective and escalating encounters reshaped the series. Resident Evil 7 moved Resident Evil into an intimate first-person style and returned the franchise to a more claustrophobic, unsettling form of horror.

Cregger has also said that he pulled "character elements" from Resident Evil 7. That does not necessarily mean audiences should expect a direct recreation of that game's cast or plot. It instead points to an adaptation philosophy interested in borrowing tone, personality, and thematic textures from multiple entries without being tied to a single continuity beat-for-beat.

For Abrams, playing those games would have been about more than learning lore. Resident Evil games create a specific rhythm: moments of limited safety broken by sudden danger, small environmental details that signal catastrophe, and the unnerving realization that an ordinary room can become a trap. An actor playing an original character in that world needs to understand why players approach a hallway, a door, or a distant sound with immediate suspicion.

Bringing game camera language to film

One of Cregger's most intriguing comments concerns the movie's visual approach. He said the film uses visual language drawn from the games, spending much of its runtime in a third-person, over-the-shoulder framing while also shifting into first person on multiple occasions.

"The visual language is taken from the games," Cregger said, describing a film that moves between third-person and first-person perspectives.

That approach connects directly to Resident Evil's long history of camera experimentation. The earliest games famously used fixed camera angles to make players uneasy about what could be lurking outside the frame. Resident Evil 4's over-the-shoulder camera became an industry-defining template for action games. Resident Evil 7 then embraced first person to create a more immediate and vulnerable type of fear.

Using those perspectives in a movie is not as simple as placing a camera behind a character's shoulder. Games rely on player control, while a film controls the viewer's movement and attention. Still, a carefully chosen third-person perspective can evoke the sensation of navigating dangerous spaces, and first-person shots can place the audience uncomfortably close to a character's panic. Cregger's aim appears to be less about copying game mechanics literally and more about giving the film a visual identity that understands how Resident Evil feels to play.

That ambition fits his top four choices. Dark Souls 3 is a masterclass in using environments to generate dread and curiosity. The Binding of Isaac turns repetition and randomness into a disturbing descent through grotesque spaces. Resident Evil 4 balances fear with high-pressure combat and an instantly readable over-the-shoulder viewpoint. The Last of Us Part II combines cinematic staging with uncomfortable player proximity to violence, grief, and consequence.

What the four picks reveal

Cregger's list is not simply a collection of famous critical favorites. It reflects an interest in games that trust atmosphere and player discomfort. The Binding of Isaac is built around unpredictable runs, macabre imagery, and the urge to continue after failure. Dark Souls 3 asks players to learn hostile worlds through observation and persistence. Resident Evil 4 demonstrates how to sustain tension even as the player gains more tools. The Last of Us Part II uses its interactive structure to make emotional conflict difficult to escape.

There is also a notable overlap between these games and the qualities audiences often expect from a strong horror movie: controlled pacing, visual storytelling, vulnerability, sudden escalation, and a lasting sense that a situation can get worse at any moment. Cregger's choices make it easy to see why Resident Evil, with its mix of body horror, survival tension, action, and melodrama, would appeal to him as a filmmaking project.

Of the four, Resident Evil 4 is the only one directly tied to the film he has now brought to theaters. The other selections invite speculation, particularly Dark Souls 3. Neither Dark Souls nor The Binding of Isaac has received a movie or television adaptation, while The Last of Us has already reached television audiences. Cregger has not indicated that he is pursuing any of those properties, so fans should not read the list as a slate of future projects. But his enthusiasm certainly underlines the kind of game worlds that resonate with him.

An adaptation shaped by the whole series

For Resident Evil fans, the key takeaway is that Cregger's film is designed as an original story with a franchise-wide perspective. Bryan may be new, and the narrative may not reproduce one game's events exactly, but the director's stated inspirations run through Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 4, and Resident Evil 7. The result is intended to recognize the series' changing eras rather than treating only one installment as the complete definition of Resident Evil.

Resident Evil is in theaters now. Whether viewers embrace the original-protagonist approach or still wish for a more direct adaptation, Cregger's four favorite games offer a clear sense of the artistic instincts informing the film: horror that is tactile, tense, game-aware, and unafraid to make its audience feel trapped inside the danger.