A DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE
---------------------------------------
---- RESIDENT EVIL ----
---------------------------------------
VIDEOGAME SERIES BY CAPCOM ENTERTAINMENT
Begun by Dan Birlew, 1998
Updated by Thomas Wilde with permission, 2000-2005
*****************************CONTAINS SPOILERS**************************
This thesis contains spoilers. If you have not already played the games,
the authors strongly suggest that you do so before reading the document.
The best introduction to the games is to play them.
************************************************************************
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction, Legal Stuff, Disclaimers, and Update History
2. Dead Men Telling Tales: RESIDENT EVIL
i. A Summary of the Basic Plot of RESIDENT EVIL
ii. Story Differences Between Chris and Jill's Games
iii. Differences Between RESIDENT EVIL and RESIDENT EVIL "2.0"
iv. Random Musings
3. Things To Do In Raccoon When You're Dead: RESIDENT EVIL 2
i. The Plot Thickens
ii. Events Between RE and RE2/RE3
iii. A Summary of the Basic Plot of RESIDENT EVIL 2
iv. A Summary of the Conclusion of RESIDENT EVIL 2
v. Differences Between Claire A/Leon B and Leon A/Claire B
vi. The 4th Survivor Minigame
vii. Conclusion
viii. Random Musings
4. Nobody Here Gets Out Alive: RESIDENT EVIL 3: NEMESIS
i. The Death of Raccoon City
ii. A Summary of the Basic Plot of RESIDENT EVIL 3: NEMESIS
iii. A Summary of the Conclusion of RESIDENT EVIL 3: NEMESIS
iv. Different Paths
v. Different Endings
vi. The Epilogue Files
vii. Conclusions About The Conclusion
viii. Random Musings
5. Ten Thousand Bullets: RESIDENT EVIL: SURVIVOR
i. A Summary of the Basic Plot of RESIDENT EVIL: SURVIVOR
ii. A Summary of the Conclusion of RESIDENT EVIL: SURVIVOR
iii. Different Routes
iv. Conclusions about the Conclusion
v. Random Musings
6. Sibling Rivalries: RESIDENT EVIL: CODE VERONICA
i. A Lovely Island Hideaway: CODE VERONICA, Part One
ii. The Return of Chris Redfield: CODE VERONICA, Part Two
iii. A Summary of the Conclusion of RESIDENT EVIL: CODE
VERONICA
iv. Conclusions About The Conclusion
v. The Ashford Family Diaries
vi. Random Musings
7. Becky's Big Adventure: RESIDENT EVIL ZERO
i. A Summary of the Basic Plot of RESIDENT EVIL ZERO
ii. A Summary of the Conclusion of RESIDENT EVIL ZERO
iii. Conclusions About the Conclusion
iv. Random Musings
8. Ghost Ships: RESIDENT EVIL GAIDEN
i. Coming So--Aw, To Hell With It
9. Ten Thousand *More* Bullets: RESIDENT EVIL: GUN SURVIVOR 2
10. We Cover the Waterfront: RESIDENT EVIL: DEAD AIM
i. Introduction
ii. A Summary of the Basic Plot of RESIDENT EVIL: DEAD AIM
iii. A Summary of the Conclusion of RESIDENT EVIL: DEAD AIM
iv. Conclusions About the Conclusion
v. Random Musings
11. With A Little Help From My Friends: RESIDENT EVIL: OUTBREAK
i. Introduction
ii. Scenario One: Outbreak
iii. Scenario Two: Below Freezing Point
iv. Scenario Three: The Hive
v. Scenario Four: Hellfire
vi. Scenario Five: Decisions, Decisions
vii. Plot Branches and Side Notes
viii. The Remain Hopeful Endings
ix. The Regretful Endings
x. Conclusions About the Conclusion
xi. Random Musings
12. Everything Old Made Dead Again: RESIDENT EVIL 4
i. Introduction
ii. Village of the Damned: RESIDENT EVIL 4, Part One
iii. The Trick is to Keep Breathing: RESIDENT EVIL 4, Part Two
iv. A Summary of the Conclusion of RESIDENT EVIL 4
v. So Much for Being Subtle: ASSIGNMENT ADA
vi. Puppet Masters: SEPARATE WAYS
vii. SEPARATE WAYS, Chapter One: Ring the Church Bell
viii. SEPARATE WAYS, Chapter Two: Rescue Luis
ix. SEPARATE WAYS, Chapter Three: Retrieve the Sample
x. SEPARATE WAYS, Chapter Four: Stop Leon's Assassination
xi. SEPARATE WAYS, Chapter Five: Obtain the Sample
xii. Conclusions About the Conclusion
xiii. Random Musings
13. My Favorite Apocalypse: RESIDENT EVIL: OUTBREAK - FILE #2
i. Introduction
ii. Scenario One: Wild Things
iii. Scenario Two: Underbelly
iv. Scenario Three: Flashback
v. Scenario Four: Desperate Times
vi. Scenario Five: End of the Road
vii. A Summary of the Conclusion of RESIDENT EVIL:
OUTBREAK - FILE #2
viii. Multiple Endings
ix. Plot Branches and Side Notes
x. Conclusions About the Conclusion
xi. Random Musings
14. Unanswered Questions
i. RESIDENT EVIL v2.0
ii. RESIDENT EVIL 2
iii. RESIDENT EVIL 3: NEMESIS
iv. RESIDENT EVIL: SURVIVOR
v. RESIDENT EVIL: CODE VERONICA
vi. RESIDENT EVIL ZERO
vii. RESIDENT EVIL: DEAD AIM
viii. RESIDENT EVIL: OUTBREAK
ix. A Look At Wesker's Report
x. Wesker's Report 2
xi. RESIDENT EVIL 4
15. Frequently Asked Questions
i. Document and Series Questions
ii. RESIDENT EVIL
iii. RESIDENT EVIL 2
iv. RESIDENT EVIL 3: NEMESIS
v. RESIDENT EVIL: SURVIVOR
vi. RESIDENT EVIL: CODE VERONICA
vii. RESIDENT EVIL: THE MOVIE
viii. RESIDENT EVIL ZERO
ix. RESIDENT EVIL GAIDEN
x. RESIDENT EVIL: DEAD AIM
xi. RESIDENT EVIL: OUTBREAK
xii. RESIDENT EVIL 4
xiv. RESIDENT EVIL: OUTBREAK, FILE #2
16. Say What?!
i. The Weirdest of the Lot
17. Mistakes
18. Easter Eggs
19. About the Authors
20. Conclusion
=============================================================
1. Introduction, Legal Stuff, Disclaimers, and Update History
=============================================================
Dan Birlew began this thesis in 1998. I lucked across it in
1999, just when I was starting to get good and obsessed with
Resident Evil, and found it to be a useful resource.
After the release of Resident Evil 2 for the N64, I wrote a
transcription of the EX Files from that game, combined with
some notes on the RE storyline for the sake of the N64 crowd.
That transcription is currently hosted by gameFAQs.com (among
others), and after I wrote it, I got a lot of e-mail from N64
owners asking about the finer points of the storyline.
After about the twelfth e-mail I got, I went back to look
at Birlew's analysis for help, and wound up deciding that it
needed an update; rather than answering a flood tide of
e-mail, I could just point at this document and say, "Lo!
I have come down from the mount with answers!"
Birlew had already told me earlier that he wasn't planning on
updating this document and, in fact, was legally prohibited
from doing so. I asked him if I could do it. Please note the
following, which was not extracted under duress of any sort:
> Thomas Wilde has my full permission to continue the
> Resident Evil Thesis in my place. He has full permission
> from me to use any materials from my former versions that
> he sees fit. I relinquish these materials to him, since I
> am unable to continue or update the Thesis due to certain
> agreements I have made with certain companies.
>
> Sincerely,
> Dan Birlew
> formerly known as "President Evil"
Every time I say "me" or "I" in this document, it's Thomas
talking; every time I say "we," I refer to the audience of RE
as a whole. This document is copyright 2000-2005, Thomas Wilde,
except for those clearly labeled parts that are copyright 1998,
Dan Birlew. All recognizable concepts from the Resident Evil
series are copyright Capcom, and their usage in this document
does not constitute a challenge to that copyright. And so on.
And so forth. All rights reserved; violators will be fed to
the Neptune.
+------------ READING THIS DISCLAIMER *COULD* SAVE YOUR LIFE -----------+
| |
| Before we begin, I'd like to issue a general disclaimer. I don't |
| mind people e-mailing me to ask questions that aren't covered in |
| this FAQ, but: |
| |
| I'M NOT INTERESTED IN YOUR "THEORIES." |
| I'M NOT INTERESTED IN "ANONYMOUS SOURCES." |
| I'M NOT INTERESTED IN INFORMATION "FROM THE RE STAFF." |
| |
| This document deals in actual, documented, in-game plotline |
| information. Don't send me your dissertation on why Rebecca is a |
| spy, don't tell me anything that you got out of one of S.D. Perry's |
| novels, don't tell me anything that a friend of a friend was told by |
| a friend who had a friend who delivered pizza to the RE staff, and |
| don't e-mail me naked pictures of your sister because "she looks |
| just like Jill" (wait... actually, go ahead and send those). |
| I don't mind questions, but I do mind having my time wasted. |
| If you *do* send me a theory, don't expect me to reply. |
| If I don't reply, don't get upset. I warned you. |
| Read this entire document before you send me any questions. |
| If you send me some kind of outlandish claim, have an |
| official source ready to back it up. |
| |
| Please note that for my purposes, an "official source" does not |
| mean that you make something up about there being someone who |
| works for Capcom who is willing to risk his job by answering |
| spoilery questions about one of their flagship series at the |
| behest of some dork with no noticeable English skills and an |
| AOL account. I am comfortably certain that anyone who writes me |
| to claim that they have such an acquaintance is lying to me, |
| in an attempt to get my attention. I would like to point |
| out that not only am I wise to this scam, but there is an |
| an entire wing built onto Bellevue to house the surviving |
| morons who tried, and succeeded, to get my attention by |
| acting stupid. Trust me; you and I both have better |
| things to do. Seriously. |
| |
| All power to the people, and ban the $%#&ing bomb. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+-------- NOT READING THIS DISCLAIMER CAUSES CANCER IN LAB RATS --------+
| |
| This is a *storyline* FAQ. It deals strictly with plot |
| elements of the Resident Evil series. It is not a gameplay |
| FAQ. If you're having trouble getting through the game, I |
| encourage you to seek out the various online FAQs written |
| for the Resident Evil games (particularly those by Dan |
| "President Evil" Birlew, Brett "Nemesis" Franklin, Vincent |
| Merken, Henry LaPierre, Vesther Fauransy [although I recommend |
| him with slight reservations; his FAQs are a little weird], |
| and "Stinger 3:16"). They are all available on www.gameFAQs.com, |
| among other places, and can probably be found at the same place |
| where you found this document. |
| |
| In short, send the gameplay questions to one of those |
| talented gentlemen, and/or check out their FAQs. They're |
| very well-written, and have helped me with my own |
| gameplay problems in the past. |
| |
| I *WILL NOT* reply to e-mail asking for gameplay information, Game |
| Shark codes, cheats, secrets, or file transcriptions. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+-- IF YOU DON'T READ THIS DISCLAIMER, I GET TO HIT YOU WITH A PICKAX --+
| |
| No, you are *not* Shinji Mikami. I'm comfortably certain that |
| you don't work for Capcom of Japan, either, especially if you're |
| e-mailing me from an America Online account. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
=======
Updates
=======
May 1st, 2005:
-- the Vienna Tweaked remix.
July 25th, 2005:
-- the Outbreak File #2 update.
November 14th, 2005:
-- the Separate Ways update.
========================================
2. Dead Men Telling Tales: RESIDENT EVIL
========================================
In 1996, Capcom released Resident Evil for the PlayStation.
RE was, and is, a strangely difficult adventure game which
put the player up against an ancient mansion filled with
secrets, puzzles, and, incidentally, ravenous flesh-eating
zombies. While the game gained a degree of deserved notoriety
for some of the worst dialogue and voice acting in console
history, it also gained a fanatical following.
In 2001, Capcom announced that they were remaking the original
Resident Evil for the Nintendo GameCube. The remake, released
in North America on May 1st, 2002, represents a new beginning
for the series; it boasts ridiculously realistic graphics, a
much-improved script, a better cast of voice actors (albeit
that isn't saying much, as fourth-grade nativity plays have
better voice acting than the original RE), and the same
difficult gameplay that characterized the original, as well
as a number of story elements that were left out of the
original game (such as the infamous Trevor's Letters).
This synopsis covers the storyline of the 2002 remake of RE.
If you're looking for the original game's synopsis and FAQs,
you can check them out as a separate file (eventually) at:
http://www.dimfuture.net/elsewhere/writing/birlew-re.txt
===============================================
i. A Summary of the Basic Plot of RESIDENT EVIL
===============================================
Following the strange deaths of a number of citizens of Raccoon
City, the local police department has put the Special Tactics
and Rescue Service, a special force dedicated to stopping local
terrorist activity, on the case. The STARS immediately sent
its Bravo team, led by Enrico Marini, into the Raccoon Forest,
where several of the murders occurred.
The Bravo team promptly disappears. On the night of July 24th,
the STARS Alpha team follows the Bravos into the forest by
helicopter, looking for clues as to their disappearance.
They soon find the Bravo team's helicopter and its dead pilot,
mangled beyond recognition. The architects of this massacre,
a pack of wild dogs, soon spring an ambush, killing Joseph
Frost. The rest of the team attempts to fight the dogs off,
but the dogs don't seem to mind gunshot wounds.
The whole situation proves to be too much for Brad Vickers, also
known as "Chickenheart," the helicopter pilot for the Alpha team.
He panics and takes off, leaving the rest of the Alpha team stuck
in the middle of the forest. After a headlong flight through the
woods, the Alpha team takes shelter inside the nearby Spencer
mansion, a supposedly abandoned country estate.
The player's role in the game begins at this point. As either Chris
Redfield or Jill Valentine, two of the five survivors of the Alpha
team, the player must find out just what's happening here, while
fighting off the mansion's current inhabitants. Chris will eventually
find and partner up with Rebecca Chambers, the field medic and lone
survivor of the STARS Bravo team, while Jill will be assisted by
Barry Burton, a police veteran and fellow Alpha team member. The
game unfolds differently depending on which character is chosen.
The character's investigation of the mansion begins with Albert
Wesker, the captain of the STARS Alpha team, instructing the character
to check out the source of a nearby gunshot. Upon investigating, the
character finds Kenneth Sullivan, a member of the Bravo team, dead
at the hands of a zombie. When the character tries to report back
to Wesker, he's vanished.
Wesker's disappearance is the beginning of a long stretch of bad
luck. The mansion is inhabited by hordes of flesh-eating zombies,
killer crows, more dogs, and a giant snake. Further, the zombies
must be decapitated or incinerated, or a "dead" zombie will mutate
into the clawed abomination that the mansion's late inhabitants
have nicknamed a "Crimson Head." Fortunately, there are more
powerful weapons and ammunition hidden within the mansion, as
well as stores of kerosene to use against the zombies.
As the character advances through the mansion and the outlying
buildings, discarded papers and uncovered journals begin to hint
at what's really happened here. Apparently, the people who once
lived here were working on some kind of experiment, and that
experiment has gone awry. Notes from the mansion's original
architect, George Trevor, reveal how the mansion's new owners
left him to die in the mansion's hidden labyrinths, and how
they may have tortured his wife and daughter.
Eventually, the character manages to unlock a door at the back
of the mansion, opening the way to the graveyard and dormitories.
Here, in an isolated cabin, the character is ambushed by a twisted
parody of a woman. Clad in a tattered dress and shuffling towards
the character on legs that have been chained together, the creature
screams as it attacks. Even the character's most powerful weapons
will do no good, and the character is forced to retreat.
In the scientists' lodgings, the mystery only deepens. Other
experiments have produced a massive, bloodthirsty plant, codenamed
Plant-42, as well as a trio of mutated sharks. The character manages
to dispatch the plant with the help of the scientists' notes, and
the sharks are left helpless when the flooded observatory is drained.
It's in the dormitories that new clues to the nature of this mansion
are discovered; the powerful corporation Umbrella has something to
do with these scientists, and for whatever reason, the scientists
are very interested in the STARS.
After Plant-42 is dispatched, Wesker reappears, claiming to have
been separated from the rest of the team following a monster
attack. He tells the character to return to the mansion and finish
the investigation there.
Upon the character's return to the mansion, a new monster appears.
These "Hunters" are powerful and relentless, and rarely show up
alone. Although Hunters are now stalking the halls of the mansion,
the character is able to visit new areas using a key found in the
dormitories. Thus, he's able to find the materials to reactivate
an elevator in the courtyard behind the mansion.
The elevator lets the character through a secret door, which
leads to an old series of mining tunnels. At one end of the
tunnels, hiding in a dark cavern, the character finds a wounded
Enrico Marini, the captain of the Bravo team. He tells the
character to stay away. STARS, he says, has been betrayed.
Just as he's about to reveal the identity of the traitor,
a single gunshot rings out from behind the character, killing
Enrico. The character gives chase to Enrico's assassin, but
the arrival of a pack of Hunters covers the assassin's escape.
Yet another elevator, at the other end of the tunnels, takes
the character to an underground river and a loading dock.
After another encounter with the twisted creature from the
cabin, the character finds a drainage ditch, which has been
made, over many years, into a candle-lit hideaway.
In this hideaway, which looks like nothing so much as a young
girl's room, the character finds the last thing he needs to
open the last door back in the mansion. A ladder in the hideaway
leads back up to the cabin in the graveyard, where the twisted
creature was first encountered. When combined with the information
in Trevor's letters, and recently discovered research notes, a
sick suspicion may begin to grow in the player's mind.
The last door in the mansion leads down a long flight of stairs,
to the crypt of Jessica Trevor. It is guarded by the twisted
creature from the cabin. The character, assisted by either Barry
or Wesker, manages to open Jessica Trevor's sarcophagus, and the
creature jumps into a nearby pit after taking Jessica's skull.
A letter in the coffin removes all doubt; the twisted creature
is Lisa Trevor, who was experimented on by Umbrella's scientists.
She has spent the last thirty years in agonizing pain, locked
inside a constantly mutating body that cannot die. The ordeal
drove her insane a long time ago.
The character proceeds on alone. Trevor's crypt leads directly
to an ornate fountain, which conceals the entrance to the real
laboratories, deep underneath the Spencer estate. The character
descends, into the dank corridors of the laboratory, where more
surprises await.
Not only has Wesker betrayed the STARS, but he has been complicit
in this mansion's experiments all along. A slideshow in the lab's
audiovisual room identifies Wesker, wearing his characteristic
sunglasses, as one of the leaders of this group. He has been
instructed by his supervisors at the megacorporation Umbrella
to betray the STARS, in the name of covering up the accident
and generating combat data for Umbrella's monsters. As if that
wasn't enough, the team member that Wesker claimed to be
"separated" from was actually taken prisoner. He or she is
inside a dark cell in the laboratory, awaiting release.
Wesker himself is preparing for his last and greatest betrayal,
deep in the laboratory's storage room. He explains himself to
the character, almost as if he needs someone to tell his
secrets to. He plans to doublecross Umbrella by blowing up
the mansion and all its secrets; the betrayal of STARS was
simply to cover his tracks as well as the company's. To this
end, he's blackmailed Barry Burton to help him destroy evidence.
As the horrified character watches, Wesker unleashes the
most powerful bioweapon in Umbrella's arsenal: the Tyrant,
an inhumanly dangerous monster. Unfortunately for Wesker,
it isn't very good at taking orders, and its first act is
to turn on the man who thought he was its master. Its second
is to come after the player's character, who will discover
that for all the Tyrant's power, it has a glass jaw. A few
Magnum rounds or acid grenades drop it in its tracks.
The character must now run for his life. The laboratory's
self-destruct sequence has been activated (either by Wesker
or by a well-meaning Rebecca), and very little time remains
before the entire mansion is blown sky-high. Rescuing the
captive STARS member in the back room, the character runs
out to the mansion's helipad and signals Brad "Chickenheart"
Vickers. Brad has been circling above the forest all this
time, awaiting word from one of his teammates. He sees the
character's signal flare, he descends to the helipad.
Of course, nothing is ever that easy. With two minutes left
on the self-destruct device's timer, the Tyrant bursts from
the rooftop. It has shaken off the sluggishness from its
months of storage, and now moves with the controlled strength
and speed of a freight train. Even with help from Barry or
Rebecca, the character is barely able to stay alive.
With seconds to go before detonation, Brad Vickers drops a
rocket launcher onto the helipad. An anti-tank rocket proves
to be more than even the Tyrant can handle, and it's blown
to pieces.
The surviving STARS climb onto Brad's helicopter. As Brad
lifts off, the Spencer estate explodes into a pillar of
flame. The STARS are left battered and bloodied, but alive...
with a story to tell that no one will believe.
====================================================
ii. Story Differences Between Chris and Jill's Games
====================================================
1. At various points in Jill's game, you may run into Barry,
who's acting very suspicious. You'll find him in the aquarium
room on the second floor at one point, where he's destroying
evidence (he'll already have torn the first couple of pages
off of the Researcher's Will file). You can also overhear a
conversation between him and Wesker outside Dormitory 002.
To trigger the encounters with Barry, discover Kenneth's
body, and return to the dining room without fighting the
zombie.
2. If Chris is poisoned by the giant snake, you'll take control
of Rebecca, who'll have to get Chris some serum from the
infirmary. If Jill's poisoned, she'll pass out in the hall
outside the attic, and wakes up in the infirmary at full health.
3. Jill can manufacture V-Jolt by herself, then use it in the
boardroom in the Aqua Ring to weaken Plant-42. When she enters
that room, Plant-42 will grab her, and Barry will come in with
a flamethrower to rescue Jill. Chris has to fight the plant on
his own, unless Richard died in the mansion attic; if that's
the case, Rebecca will have to save Chris by making V-Jolt.
4. In the final encounter with Lisa Trevor, Jill will find
Barry standing over Jessica's coffin. When Barry tries to
point his gun at her, Jill takes it away from him and points
it at him. Then, when Lisa arrives, the player can choose
whether or not to give Barry his gun back. If you do, Barry
will help out in the ensuing fight with Lisa; if you don't,
Lisa will kill Barry.
In Chris's scenario, you'll run into Wesker in Jessica's tomb,
who'll aid you against Lisa. If Wesker gets knocked off of the
platform, he'll reappear in the lab at the end of the game,
offering no explanations.
5. If your supporting character is still alive, it will change
the final encounter with Wesker:
-- Chris, with Rebecca: inside the lab, Wesker will
explain his motivations and shoot Rebecca in the
chest. While Wesker's standing in front of the
Tyrant's tank, it will wake up and gut him,
stabbing right through the side of its containment
tank. After Chris defeats the Tyrant, he'll find
that Rebecca's still alive, thanks to her bulletproof
vest, and that Wesker's definitely dead. Upon leaving
the laboratory, Rebecca will set the charges in the
power room, which will trigger an emergency evacuation
procedure and unlock all the doors in the lab. You
may then rescue Jill and get to the helipad.
-- Chris, alone: Wesker is slain by the Tyrant, and
drops the Master Key. You can use that key to open
Jill's cell door and to get to the helipad.
-- Jill, with Barry: Barry will hold Jill at gunpoint
when she enters the lab. Wesker will gloat to Jill
about his plan, but in so doing, will let slip that
the threat he's been holding against Barry was a
bluff; his family isn't in any danger. Barry will
unexpectedly overhear that and knock Wesker
unconscious. He doesn't act in time to prevent
Wesker from draining the fluid from the Tyrant's
tank, however, and the Tyrant will escape shortly
thereafter. It knocks Barry unconscious before it
turns on Jill. After the fight, you'll find that
Barry's okay, but Wesker's slipped away in the
confusion. You soon find out that he's set the
charges in the power room, as with Rebecca, above.
-- Jill, alone: almost identical to Chris's scenario
without Rebecca, as above.
==============================================================
iii. Differences Between RESIDENT EVIL and RESIDENT EVIL "2.0"
==============================================================
1. If you're an expert player of the original game, the remake
is expressly designed to mess with your head. In the event that
a puzzle or ambush has carried over to the remake from the
first game, there's usually a different solution, another
wrinkle to the puzzle, or monsters come from completely
unexpected directions. (Zombies and Hunters can open doors.)
2. Richard Aiken would die no matter what you did in the
first game, regardless of how quickly you brought him the
serum. In the remake, saving Richard will let him survive
until you fight the giant snake (Jill's game) or enter the
Aqua Ring (Chris's game), at which point something will
eat him. If you save him, he'll give you his radio, and
you'll be able to take his combat shotgun after his death.
Richard's death also affects what options you have when
you deal with Plant-42.
3. The Chimera that haunt the power room now look a great
deal like RE3's drain deimos.
4. As mentioned above, zombies that are "killed" without
being decapitated must be incinerated. Otherwise, they'll
eventually rise again as the vicious Crimson Heads.
5. It is *much* easier to get your support character killed
in the remake. To get Barry killed in the original Resident
Evil required a series of bizarre choices and decisions that
might or might not have worked; here, all you have to do is
refuse to give him his revolver.
6. Naturally, the biggest addition to the remake is that of
the unfortunate Lisa Trevor, as mentioned above. More about
Lisa can be found by reading Wesker's Report 2, as detailed
below.
7. If Wesker "dies" in the encounter with the Tyrant, you
can search his body to find a file written by William
Birkin. In it, he writes about how the G-Virus is almost
finished, and how he wishes he could rub his success in
Alexia Ashford's face.
8. If your support character manages to make it to the end
of the game, s/he'll help you in the final battle with the
Tyrant, on the helipad. During this time, if the Tyrant
manages to knock your character down, it'll leave you
alone in favor of grabbing your support character by the
neck. Unless you shoot the Tyrant at this point, it'll
kill your support character, which will cue the fifth
possible ending.
9. In the original game's best ending for Jill, you could
return to the power room after the self-destruct sequence,
and you'd find a Chimera standing over Wesker's dead body.
Such is no longer the case in the remake; the power room
is empty.
10. The mansion wardrobe is now hidden in the darkened
closet in the east statue room. Check the large painting
against the back wall. It's actually a door.
11. Chris meets Rebecca when he enters the mansion attic;
she is no longer lurking evilly in the infirmary with a
can of bug spray. In REv.2, this is the first time Chris
and Rebecca meet, period, since as we learn in RE0, the
Raccoon Forest investigation is Rebecca's first case as
a member of STARS.
12. In the helipad encounter, the Tyrant can and will
bat an incoming rocket out of the way with its claw.
===================
2iv. Random Musings
===================
1. I have to admit that I'm disappointed with the remake.
They kept some of the stupid things, like Chris's low item
capacity, and didn't address the issue of Rebecca's survival.
2. The Lisa Trevor subplot appears, at first glance, to be
almost completely meaningless; it's just there to add another
Tyrant-esque monster. To understand her true significance, it
helps to hunt down a translation of Wesker's Report 2, which
is discussed further below.
3. The existence of Crimson Heads in RE lends credence to
the statement in Survivor that Lickers, the wall-crawling
monsters first encountered in Resident Evil 2, are mutated
zombies. If a zombie can mutate into a faster form that's
sporting vicious claws, it's entirely feasible for it to
mutate further into the still-vaguely-humanoid Licker.
4. Cinematic references in RE:
-- the deer head in the study is from the 1990 remake of
_Night of the Living Dead_. It might've been in the
original, but if it was, I didn't see it.
-- I may be on crack, but the end sequence of the game,
with the Tyrant bursting from the rooftop, seems to
be taken almost frame-for-frame from a 1990 Japanese
sf film called _Zeram_.
-- alert reader Jay Yencich writes to say that the
opening title-screen sequence of RE is much akin to
the death and zombification of Roger in _Dawn of
the Dead_.
-- according to Dan's official RE strategy guide, Chris
and Jill's alternate costumes are from _The Mexican_
and _Terminator 2: Judgement Day_, respectively. Chris
is dressing like the Brad Pitt character in the former
film, while Jill is dressing like Linda Hamilton in
the latter.
============================================================
3. Things To Do In Raccoon When You're Dead: RESIDENT EVIL 2
============================================================
=====================
3i. The Plot Thickens
=====================
The original Resident Evil is a relatively straightforward
horror game. Its sequels have been entirely different,
mixing horror with equal parts action, mystery, and
conspiracy. Each RE game since the second has had an
intricate series of subplots, as well as at least a few
independent subplots to work through. Furthermore, each game
has deliberately left a few mysteries unsolved by the end.
In other words, things are about to get a lot more complicated.
One of the stranger wrinkles in the RE storyline is the
weird way that RE2 and RE3 relate to each other. I have the
two games listed separately here for the sake of maintaining
some kind of order, but in actuality, half of RE3 takes
place before RE2, and the other half takes place well
afterwards. This is noted in RE3's plot summary, below.
==================================
3ii. Events Between RE and RE2/RE3
==================================
After the "mansion incident" in July of 1998, Chris Redfield
attempts to start an official police investigation of
Umbrella, but Chief Brian Irons sabotages it. Suspecting that
Irons might be on the take, Chris requests an investigation
of Irons's background and a federal probe into Umbrella.
With typical government efficiency, the FBI doesn't respond
to Chris's requests until the night of September 29th, when
Claire gets their fax in Chris's old office.
Chris begins investigating Umbrella alone. He manages to
uncover a great deal about Umbrella's operations inside
Raccoon City, including the work on the G-Virus and the
location of the labs underneath the city. He's apparently
so intent upon his work that, to his sister Claire, it
looks as though he's dropped off the face of the Earth.
In August of 1998, Chris finally tells Jill Valentine about
what he's been doing. In mid-September, without telling Claire,
he and Barry Burton leave for Europe to further investigate
Umbrella. Jill elects to stay in Raccoon City for a while,
intending to investigate Umbrella's underground labs.
At some point, Jill resigns from the S.T.A.R.S. and the Raccoon
City police department for unknown reasons. (We can make all
sorts of guesses, though, most of which involve Brian Irons.)
====================================================
3iii. A Summary of the Basic Plot of RESIDENT EVIL 2
by Dan Birlew
====================================================
On the night of September 29th, 1998, Claire Redfield
motorbikes into Raccoon City. She is a college student, and
is searching for clues in the disappearance of her older
brother Chris. On the other side of town, Raccoon Police
Department recruit Leon Kennedy is making his way to the
Precinct for his first day of duty. Stopping to investigate
a mysterious corpse in the middle of the street, he fails to
notice the figures closing in behind him. Claire pulls up to
a diner for a late meal, but finds that she is intended to
be the next course.
Both characters are surrounded by zombies. They collide in
the alley behind the diner, where Leon saves Claire. Finding
an abandoned police cruiser, they make a run for it.
In the car they get acquainted, while Claire finds a gun in
the glove compartment. But they are not alone. In an amazing
sequence, a zombie leaps out of the backseat and struggles with
Leon. The rookie loses control of the vehicle and they crash into
a wall. The zombie flies through the windshield. Before they can
catch a breath, a dying trucker bears down on them in a massive
gas tanker. The two leap out of the wreck as the tanker collides
and flips over, exploding in a huge ball of flame. The characters
are separated by the blaze, and each must make their individual
way through the game.
This is the point at which the player begins, choosing which
character to assume based on which of the two game disks are
loaded. When the player finishes with one character's adventure,
the save file enables the player to approach the same game from
the other character's perspective, in a reverse game. Thus, the
scenarios progress as either Claire A & Leon B, or Leon A &
Claire B. There are differences in each game, and there are
differences in each combination. In addition, whatever the
first character does in their scenario affects the second
character's game.
For the purpose of brevity, this synopsis will follow the
plot as it occurs in the Claire A & Leon B combination, which
is by far the more structurally sound of the two scenario
combinations.
Claire begins on the Raccoon City streets, now overrun by the
zombies who have come out due to the crash. By baiting them
in a certain direction, she figures out that she can create
openings in their ranks and slip past them. She ducks into a
gun shop, hoping to find ammo for her weapon.
Inside, the clerk points a crossbow at her. After she
convinces him that she's not a zombie, he locks his door.
With a slightly sexist attitude, he admits he doesn't know
what is happening in Raccoon City or where the zombies have
come from. Claire finds some ammunition for her gun and
starts to move on just as the undead lay siege to the store.
Crashing through the display window, they tackle the shop's
employee and chew him to pieces on the floor. Unable to save
the man, Claire's only hope is to run through the back door.
(In the N64 RE2 'port, we find out this man's name is Robert
Kendo, and he's the owner of the gun shop.)
Weaving her way through the slow moving ghouls, she makes
her way to the police station. S.T.A.R.S. helicopter pilot Brad
Vickers is encountered near the precinct, recently deceased
and come back by diabolic means. Executing this former hero,
Claire enters the Raccoon Police Department. She finds that
the place has been electronically locked and barricaded
against an apparent siege by the undead.
Leon finds himself directly behind the Police Department. He
has a shorter run than Claire, but must find the key to get
into the maintenance shed at the back of the Precinct. All
the while, flesh eaters converge on him. He gets lucky and
finds a back stairway to the roof of the station, but he
witnesses a rescue attempt fail.
A helicopter appears overhead. There is a lone precinct
survivor on the roof, signaling to it. Zombies attack the
unfortunate wretch. He sprays random machine gun fire
everywhere, accidentally killing the helicopter's pilot.
The helicopter crashes into the station and explodes into
flames. There's a water tank near the wreckage that can be
used to put out the fire, but Leon will need a valve handle.
Claire finds a cop lying on the floor of an office, seriously
wounded and dying. (In RE3, we learn that the cop's name is
Marvin Branagh.) In a brief speech, he tells Claire that her
brother Chris, and the other S.T.A.R.S., tried to get them to
believe that they'd encountered zombies in the woods outside
Raccoon, but no one would listen to them. He gives her the
card key that will open the electronic locks in the Precinct.
He tells her to rescue the other survivors in the police
station and get out. When she starts to protest, the
half-disemboweled officer sticks a gun in her face and
rudely orders her out. He locks the door behind her. Claire
accesses the computer in the main hall, unlocks the doors,
and continues on.
In the zombie-infested office on the first floor, Leon finds
the necessary tool to put out the fire. When he opens the
water tank and douses the blaze, another helicopter appears
overhead. This one is towing a rack of huge cylinders. One
of them detaches and drops. The bomb-like container blows
apart, revealing a huge humanoid creature. The giant crashes
through the roof of the precinct. The trenchcoated menace
heads right for Leon, who empties his weapon into the
stalking monstrosity before it falls. When Leon leaves the
room, the sinister intruder rises... and follows. Little
does Leon know, but anyone who had survived the mansion
incident might recognize this creature as a new and improved
version of the Tyrant.
At the same time on different sides of the station, Claire
and Leon both encounter a new and deadly lifeform.
Amphibious and spider-like, these creatures look like
crawling people turned inside out. They lash out with claws
and an incredibly long and sharp tongue. Police documents
refer to these creatures as "lickers," and no one knows
where they came from.
On the second floor of the west wing of the precinct house,
Claire finds the S.T.A.R.S. office and the log kept by her big
brother Chris. This document explains that he and the other
S.T.A.R.S. members had no luck investigating the involvement
of the Umbrella Corporation in the mansion lab incident. They
departed for Europe to search for Umbrella's main
headquarters. Suddenly a fax comes in, addressed to Chris. A
federal investigation on Umbrella has yielded naught for
clues, but an inquiry posted to the internal affairs
division by Chris regarding Raccoon Police Chief Brian Irons
has been answered. By his record, the Chief would appear to
be a deranged genius and former rapist.
Back outside the office, Claire catches sight of a young
girl being pursued by a zombie. While Claire dispatches this
thing, the fleeing little girl bumps into Leon. Frightened
out of her mind, she ducks into a small opening in a broken
door before he can stop her. Leon and Claire reunite. Leon
admits that this place is dangerous, and Claire suggests
that they split up and look for the girl and a safe exit. The
rookie cop gives her a radio so they can keep in contact.
Leon finds the two parts of a police operation report,
detailing the events of the past few days. The courageous
citizens of Raccoon made a grim standoff in the precinct
house against the flesh-eating undead. But some escaped the
precinct through the exit to the basement in the east wing.
He also finds a note addressed to him from the RPD, and the
party favors for a surprise welcome party they were planning
to throw for him. It seems his party has been cancelled.
He heads for the basement while Claire is startled by a
woman's screaming on the second floor. In order to save
whoever's in trouble, she needs a bomb to clear the helicopter
wreckage. Nearby, she finds the key to unlock the door
downstairs and save the wounded cop. When she returns to
him, he has been fighting off zombies unsuccessfully. Claire
now learns why he rudely forced her to leave him. He
rises, transforms into a zombie, and attacks her. Sadly,
Claire incinerates him. She finds a detonator and a chunk
of plastique, and heads back upstairs.
In the basement, Leon is fired upon by a beautiful woman
named Ada Wong. She's looking for a reporter named Ben
Bertolucci in one of the basement jail cells. After Leon
graciously helps her clear some wreckage out of the way, she
ditches him. He tries to catch up to her, but instead finds
the incarcerated reporter in one of the jail cells. Ada
catches up to them now, but where she went first is a
mystery. Questioning Ben, Ada reveals that she's looking for
her boyfriend John, who works out of an Umbrella branch
office in Chicago. He disappeared in this area some months
ago. Ben refuses to tell her what he knows about what's
happening in Raccoon City. Just then, a monstrous roar fills
the air. Ben has locked himself in his cell for protection
and refuses to leave, but directs the others how to get out
of the Precinct. Ada takes off, and Leon runs after her.
Claire detonates the plastique near the helicopter wreckage
upstairs. She finds an office full of stuffed trophy
animals... and a more gruesome trophy on the desk. The
Mayor's daughter lies sprawled out, a medium-sized wound at
her abdomen. Behind the desk sits Police Chief Brian Irons.
He has completely lost his mind. Although the girl's wound
looks like a bullet hole, he claims that she was attacked by
a zombie, and that she will resurrect within an hour. The
only way to stop the zombification is to decapitate the
victim or put a bullet through the brain. He admits that
taxidermy used to be his hobby (which links him to the
Umbrella mansion, because of all the stuffed trophies found
by the S.T.A.R.S. team there). He asks to be left alone,
and Claire is only too willing to get away from him.
In the room next to the Chief's office, Claire hears the quick
footsteps of someone fleeing from her. She finds the little
girl crouched in the dark. She radios Leon to let him know
that she cleared the helicopter wreckage and found the
little girl. The little girl says her name is Sherry Birkin,
and her parents work at the Umbrella plant. Her mother
called her during the T-virus outbreak and instructed her to
go to the police station for safety. She has heard her
father's voice in the station, but can't find him. Also, a
creature is stalking her. A mighty roar emanates from
nearby. Sherry runs off, and Claire tries to pursue her. In
the office, the Chief and the dead woman's body have
disappeared. However, he has left behind his diary detailing
the extents of his depravity.
Leon has found the sewer system that runs under the city. In
the processing plant, he comes across what appears to be the
exit door but doesn't have all the necessary keys to get
through. Going back, he finds Ada also investigating the
sewage plant. She has found an open vent shaft that she can
get through with a boost. She hits the ground on the other
side, startling the same little girl Leon and Claire
encountered previously. As she runs off, Ada notices that
the little girl dropped her pendant. Amused, she decides to
keep it in case they meet again. After a quick search, she
finds a precinct key and returns to where Leon waits. She
throws the key back through the vent, but she can't get back
herself because the vent is too high. Once again, Ada runs
off on her own against Leon's orders.
Leon returns to the precinct house, searching for the last
few keys he needs to get out. While looking for clues on the
first floor, the horrible Tyrant bursts through the wall, and
only falls after Leon empties his shotgun into it. Leon races
upstairs and finds more items he needs. The Tyrant follows.
Again, Leon is forced to shoot it out with this brute. The
thing is finally subdued, even if only for the moment.
After gathering several keys of her own, Claire finally
catches up to Sherry in the Chief's office. Behind the desk
is a secret elevator, and Claire makes Sherry stay behind
while she goes to investigate. The elevator lowers her into
some kind of custom dungeon beneath the precinct, lit by
flickering torches. As Claire cautiously creeps down the
hall, she hears the Chief scream.
In his private chamber, Chief Irons is backed into a corner
by a hideous mutating creature. Something shoots out of this
thing's hand and down Irons's throat.
In a hideous torture room, Claire finds the Chief, ranting,
raving, and armed. He explains to Claire that his town has
been torn apart by the experimental monsters of the Umbrella
corporation. He tells her that a man named William Birkin is
to blame. Claire recognizes the name. Irons states that
Sherry is Birkin's daughter. Completely paranoid, the Chief
is ready to kill Claire. Before he can execute her, something
bursts through his upper torso from within. A small creature
leaps out of Irons and falls down an open chute nearby. Claire
follows this thing, only to see it quickly grow into some kind
of horrible infant. The thing attacks her, but she destroys it
fairly easily. She runs back to the second floor to get Sherry;
their escape route is now clear.
Leon makes his way to the precinct's clock tower where he
finds the final piece in the Chief's bizarre architectural
puzzle. Now able to exit the police station, he finds an
open dust chute and slides back down to the basement. Upon
landing, he hears Ben screaming in the jail cell nearby.
Leon runs to the reporter's aid, but is too late. The same
thing that impregnated Irons has gutted Ben. The dying
reporter gives Leon a document which entangles Raccoon
City's chief of police in a government conspiracy. In terrible
pain, Ben dies. Ada finally catches up to Leon, and they
read this document together. It is a series of letters from
William Birkin to the police chief, describing in detail how
Umbrella was bribing the chief to keep secret their actions
in the town. Birkin had learned that Umbrella sent spies to
steal his research. Ada then rushes off, explaining only
that she has to find John. She thinks he's in the chemical
plant. Leon is prevented from following by another call from
Claire. She has found a different exit from the precinct and
will join him in the sewers.
Leon runs after Ada, but in the sewage plant, he is
confronted by the mutating Dr. Birkin. The scientist wrenches
a steel pipe off of the wall and attacks Leon with it. Leon
empties a full clip of Magnum bullets into the scientist,
who doesn't fall. Instead, Birkin dives into the muck of
the sewers.
In the sewer beneath the station, Sherry is separated from
Claire when a drainage chute opens and sucks her into a
lower level. Sherry runs for safety, finding herself in a
garbage room. Just when she finds a nice shiny trinket, the
floor springs open and dumps her into the garbage hold.
Knocked unconscious, she fails to see a monster slouch out
of the darkness. Birkin has found his daughter at last.
Ada abruptly rejoins Leon, and he admonishes her for
running off. She agrees to stick with him, for now.
Searching everywhere to find Sherry, Claire runs into her
mother, Annette. The suspicious woman worked with her
husband William on a bioweapon called the G-Virus, a
mutagenic substance that turns whatever it infects into
a giant monster. Birkin injected himself with the virus
when armed Umbrella agents seized the virus from him.
When Birkin was accidentally shot, he used the virus to
keep himself alive. The G-Virus rejuvenates dead cells,
but it also mutates them. He became a monster, a "G-Type,"
and hunted his killers down. The T-Virus leaked from his
laboratory after the attack, and was carried into Raccoon
City by the rats in the sewers.
The G-Virus seeks to spread by finding other host bodies.
When Annette learns that Sherry is in the chemical plant,
she becomes upset. The virus can only be spread through a
complimentary genetic host. Birkin will try to find and
impregnate Sherry with a virus embryo. From somewhere close,
they hear the little girl scream. Claire sends Annette
searching in the opposite direction and continues on.
Leon and Ada search the chemical plant for weapons and
ammunition. They bump into the frantic Annette. Ada chases
the armed scientist. Annette turns and fires on her pursuer,
but Leon jumps in front of Ada and takes the bullet. While
Leon lies unconscious and seriously wounded, Ada chooses to
run after Annette.
Claire finds the garbage dump and spots Sherry, lying
unconscious on a heap of rubble. She calls out to the little
girl, but a gigantic alligator hears her and attacks. Claire
runs back down the corridor and finds a switch to release a
gas canister. When the alligator grabs the canister in its
huge maw, Claire shoots the cylinder. The resulting explosion
flings chunks of the sewer beast's head everywhere. Moving
to Sherry, Claire spots somesort of red worm slithering away;
it is one of William's embryos. Stirring, Sherry complains
of stomach pains. Claire assures her that everything will be
all right. She leads Sherry out of the spider-infested sewers,
past the bodies of several soldiers wearing gas masks...
Ada hounds the scientist through the sewers to the central
control area. Annette blasts Ada's gun out of her hand, an
adept shot for a scientist. She advances on Ada,
interrogating her. Learning that Ada is looking for her
boyfriend John, Annette realizes that she's talking about
one of the researchers at the mansion lab. She knows that
John turned into a zombie, and then died when the lab was
destroyed. She makes it seem that William was working at the
mansion as well, and that he developed the G-Virus there.
Annette starts to explain the new G-Virus to Ada when she
spots her daughter's pendant around the woman's neck. In a
suddenly aggressive manner, she demands to have it. A cat
fight ensues, ending with Ada punching Annette and sending
her flying over the rail. Inside Sherry's pendant, Ada finds
a secret compartment containing a sample of the G-Virus.
Claire and Sherry discover an underground tramcar. After
powering it up, they ride for some distance to an unknown dock.
Apparently they aren't out of danger yet, as the grunts of
the undead are heard nearby. Claire blasts through corridors
full of zombies. They arrive at a train turntable platform.
Inside the engine car, Claire finds the key to the control
panel outside. An alarm sounds upon activation, and the
girls run back inside the car. The entire platform
disengages and drops. It seems they have found some sort of
large secret elevator. Sherry is overcome by her stomach
pains and passes out. Her monstrous father shows up,
threatening to smash the traincar to pieces. Claire runs
outside and ducks a steel rod flung at her by William. The
screaming madman mutates, growing a new head and a
vicious-looking claw. Claire quickly pelts the thing with
enough flame grenades to burn down a forest. When the G-Type
is finally face down in a pool of its own blood, Claire runs
back into the train car. The elevator finishes its descent,
and she carries the unconscious girl into an Umbrella
loading dock. It would seem she has discovered a large
underground laboratory.
A slightly delirious Leon awakens and hunts for Ada. He
finds her in the subterranean garbage dump. After bandaging
his bullet wound, she lets him know that John is dead. She
doesn't seem terribly upset though, and insists they get out
of the sewage plant. At the tram platform, Leon recalls the
car. They board and head for the train elevator. On route,
they are attacked by the G-Type, which isn't dead yet. It
stabs one gigantic claw through the ceiling over and over,
seeking the passengers. Ada fires at the hand, blowing off
one of the fingers. The monster retreats. The two slip out
of the tram and make for the train platform.
Claire sets Sherry on a cot in the security office. She
gives Sherry her vest to keep her warm. The girl stirs, and
lets Claire know that she trusts her and depends on her.
Claire assures her that she will find something to cure her.
Leon has to recall the train elevator platform. Leaving Ada
in the control room, he descends to a secret security room
and there finds the necessary key. When he flips on the
surveillance camera aimed at the door he just entered, he
sees Umbrella's ugliest and most fearsome agent hot on his
trail. After one more battle with this 'Mr. X', Leon returns
to the upper control room to find Ada unharmed. He recalls
the elevator from there and they descend to the lab. But
their moment alone is not to be enjoyed. William is back,
and he exacts a terrible revenge against Ada. His claw
shoots through the wall, stabbing her in the back. She
passes out, and Leon goes out to fight William. The
G-Type has grown two new arms and doubled in size. Leon
pumps the thing full of shotgun blasts before it does any
good. Bleeding heavily, William leaps onto the elevator
shaft wall and leaves Leon alone.
In the lab, Claire figures out that the main power conduit
has been shut down. She finds a fuse for power connection,
and then she is free to explore the lab. Umbrella has
conducted further experiments with plant vegetation, as a
titanic vine grows up from the bottom of one shaft. Its
offspring slide along the ground, spitting acid at her.
Worse, there is an even stronger variety of the "lickers"
here than those encountered before.
The elevator platform's engine overheats, and it stops on an
upper floor of the lab. Leon leaves the wounded Ada in the
train car while he goes searching for something to patch her
wound. He crawls through a vent duct and drops into a
corridor. The elevator platform restarts and continues to
descend. Leon has lost Ada again. He finds an emergency
elevator that will take him down to where Ada has gone, but
it needs power. He finds a door to a "Power Room," but it is
locked. In a room with a huge smelting pit, he fights his
way through the tougher new breed of "lickers." He connects
the emergency elevator's power and goes up to the lab. In
what is obviously William Birkin's former experiment room,
he finds the power room key and goes back to the first level.
Leon runs off the elevator, but not very far. Annette Birkin
somehow sneaks up on him, brandishing a pistol and a vial
of blue liquid. She accuses him of being a spy, just like
the girl he's with. Leon denies that Ada is a spy, and Annette
laughs. She's done a background check on Ada, and has discovered
that Ada works for "the Agency." She's an undercover agent,
using her relationship with John, the researcher, to gather
information on Umbrella. Annette declares that no one will
take her husband's virus from her, and prepares to shoot
Leon. Mr. X suddenly crashes through the ceiling behind Leon.
Annette flees. Evading the powerful giant, Leon gets to the
power room and unlocks it. The monster has followed him, and
now the rookie cop is cornered. Shots ring out. Ada is back,
blasting away at the unholy behemoth. Unfortunately, she runs
out of bullets. As she reloads, the Tyrant seizes her and
lifts her into the air. Ada fires several rounds point blank
into his face. Temporarily blinded, the giant swings Ada into
a control panel, denting the panel and probably breaking every
bone in her body. Blood gushing from his face, Mr. X falls off
the platform into the smelting pit. Leon runs to Ada's side.
In her last moments, she tells him that she's fallen in love
with him. Leon kisses her passionately. Ada goes limp and dies.
Leon screams in grief. Near Ada's body, Leon finds a master key
that fell out of Ada's pocket when Mr. X dropped her.
After Claire finds a keycard in the research room, Annette
pops up again. She's still armed and dangerous, and somehow
knows that Claire tried to kill William. After Claire tells
Annette that Sherry has been infected by the G-Type, the
monster growls nearby. Excited, Annette runs after him.
William crashes out of the ceiling, still alive. More
monster than human now, he cuts his own wife down with one
terrible claw swipe. When Claire rounds the corner he leaps
back up into the ceiling. A dying Annette begs Claire to
save her daughter, giving her detailed instructions on how
to create an antidote to the G-Virus, using materials that
can be found somewhere in the lab.
The damaged central unit in the power room is wracked by
explosions. Lightning bolts course up and down the huge
column. A computer voice comes online to announce that the
self-destruct sequence has been activated, and all personnel
should evacuate to the cargo train platform at the lowest
floor of the lab.
At the edge of the iron smelting pit, a gigantic clawed hand
emerges from the red hot pool. Mr. X isn't down for good
yet, and he may be more dangerous than ever.
Claire runs out to the monitor room. A motion detector
alerts her that someone else is in the lab. Leon is
onscreen, emerging from the power room. Claire tells him to
go back to the security office to rescue Sherry while she
creates the G-virus antidote.
Leon rides the elevator back down into the lab, and retrieves
the barely conscious girl. He uses the master key in the
elevator to take the emergency access tube and reach the
lab's escape route, a high-speed train.
Following the instructions for the G-Virus vaccine, Claire
rushes to the VAM room on the Lab's fourth floor. Killing
several last zombies, she finds a vaccine cartridge. Reading
the instructions for the "Devil" vaccine, she inserts the
cartridge into the machine and starts it up, allowing the
base vaccine to be synthesized. She takes the cartridge and
heads back down to Birkin's lab.
Leon finds the train without power. Laying Sherry on the cot
inside, he finds a platform key at the back of the train and
hurries to power up their escape transport.
Claire inserts the base vaccine into the virus antidote
synthesizer in Birkin's lab, and the machine creates the
"Devil" automatically. On her way back out, she accesses a
corridor to the experimental containment room, where she
finds a huge cargo elevator that will take her down to the
train platform.
An explosion rocks the entire lab. The computer announces
that the self-destruct sequence has begun. There are only
five minutes remaining until total detonation.
Leon races across a bridge over the train to the opposite
platform. There he unlocks the containment chamber for the
power plugs for the train's generator. He takes the plugs
into the next room and inserts them into the power grid. The
computer warns him that the power will be completely shut
down momentarily in order to power up the train. In the
blackout, a huge creature lands behind him. A transformed
Mr. X is ablaze from his dip in the molten vat. With two
huge claws, he charges at Leon, knocking the poor guy from
one end of the room to the other. Suddenly another familiar
shape appears, at the top of the gantry over them. Still
wearing Sherry's pendant, Ada drops Leon a rocket launcher.
The cop recognizes her, but doesn't have a moment to spare.
He dives for the launcher, scoops it up, and fires at his
vicious adversary. The creature explodes into a dozen body
parts. The power comes back on and so do the lights. With
two minutes until detonation, Leon runs back to the train.
Waiting patiently for the elevator to reach her floor,
Claire's thoughts are suddenly interrupted as something
smashes through the ceiling right above her. She backs up
just in time to avoid being squashed as the G-Type drops
into the room. She fires several grenades into the genetic
monstrosity, but all she does is trigger yet another mutation.
The creature's newest form is doglike, pursuing Claire on
four legs and slashing at her with a mouthful of jagged
fangs. Claire runs around the room, playing matador as it
charges at her. Finally, her weapons have an impact on the
thing, and it dissolves into a puddle of genetic jelly.
Claire's elevator arrives, right on cue, and she descends
to the train loading platform.
Leon finds the train platform crawling with naked zombies.
Blowing their heads off left and right, he fights his way
to the switch that opens the gate blocking the train's path,
and throws it. As the gates open, he returns to the train
and starts it up. Slowly, the train comes to life.
Claire gets to the platform just as the train is taking off.
She sees Leon, leaning out an open door, yelling for her to
get on. She misses that opportunity, but luckily there is
another open door.
Once she's inside, the Umbrella lab completes its detonation
sequence in a huge explosion. The train rocks, throwing a
still-unconscious Sherry to the floor. Claire quickly
administers the vaccine to her and they wait. Finally, Sherry
comes to and thanks Claire for saving her. Leon thinks that
the danger is over, but Claire disagrees. She still has to
find her brother. Leon moves up into the cockpit. Still upset,
he says goodbye to Ada.
The train suddenly lurches. Leon moves back into the cabin
with the girls. No one can figure out what the disturbance
was. Leon runs toward the back of the train. The train is
equipped with the same computer system as the lab. The
computer warns them that a bio-hazardous material has been
detected on board. The train will detonate in just two
minutes. The cabin is locked, and Leon is unable to get back
to Sherry and Claire. He runs to the back of the train to
search the cargo compartments.
At the rear, giant tentacles smash through the ceiling. Leon
races back to the front as the G-Type makes an encore
appearance. Birkin is now nothing more than a gigantic black
blob, pulling itself forward with four huge tentacles. Leon
blasts the thing until it loses solidity once more. Then he
heads back toward the cabin.
===================================================
3iv. A Summary of the Conclusion of RESIDENT EVIL 2
===================================================
Leon, standing on the gap between the train's two cars,
tries to get back inside and discovers the door has locked.
Claire can't open it from the other side. The biohazard
is still present, apparently... and still after Sherry.
The G-Type has reformed, and attempts to smash into the
cabin. Claire, not knowing where Leon is, tells Sherry to
hide. Sherry opens a vent to the cockpit and crawls through.
She promises Claire that she can stop the train.
Leon is on top of the engine car, climbing up to the
cockpit. He looks behind him to see the G-Type's tentacles
searching for him.
The main body of the G-Type smashes into the cabin. In order
to hide, Claire climbs down through a hatch and hangs onto
the bottom of the train while it's still moving.
Leon rips open an escape hatch on the roof of the cockpit.
Sherry hasn't had so much luck figuring out which button to
push. Leon spots the emergency stop switch immediately and
points it out to her. Sherry slams her fist on the button.
The train brakes. Sparks shoot out from behind the wheels as
the transport slows, dousing Claire in a shower of yellow
fire. She fights to hold on.
The train stops. The computer warns that the train will
detonate in thirty seconds. Claire crawls out of her hiding
spot and with a sigh of relief, spots daylight at the exit
of the train tunnel. Leon and Sherry are out, looking for
Claire at the front of the train. She joins them just as the
G-Type smashes into the cockpit. The heroes dash for the
mouth of the tunnel, through which they can see the rising
sun. They've lived to see the morning of September 30th.
The monster's tentacles smash through the cockpit
windshield, searching for its enemies. The computer counts
down, 5, 4, 3, 2...
At the last second, the G-Type realizes what's about to happen.
The heroes leap clear of the tunnel.
The transport train detonates quickly car by car, from the
rear to the front. A vicious geyser of fire blasts out of
the tunnel.
Claire and Sherry get up, commenting that they both look
pretty awful. Leon rises, but is already moving off, saying
they don't have time to waste. Claire wonders why. Leon
turns and tells them, "Hey, it's up to us to take out Umbrella."
Blackout. Heavy metal theme music and the credits roll.
===========================================================
3v. Differences Between Claire A/Leon B and Leon A/Claire B
by Dan Birlew
===========================================================
If you play the game in the opposite order, starting with
Leon first, the plot is different in several respects:
1. Sherry keeps her pendant throughout the game. This means
that Ada never obtains the pendant or the G-Virus sample it
contains. Also, Mr. X wants the G-Virus, so he goes after
Sherry and Claire and not Leon and Ada.
2. Annette explains William's mutation and the cause of the
outbreak to Ada, rather than to Claire. Claire finds Annette
after Ada knocks her over the rail, and Annette falls
unconscious soon afterwards.
3. Sherry is never impregnated with a G-Type embryo, so
Claire doesn't have to create a G-Virus antidote. Thus, no
mention of an antidote is heard.
4. Ben Bertolucci is impregnated by Birkin with a G-Type
embryo that later bursts out of him. Why Birkin would
implant him with this is never discussed or explained.
5. Chief Irons is ripped in half by Birkin.
6. Annette is fatally wounded when the G-Type pounds on the
ceiling in the lab and drops a pipe on her head. Leon takes
the G-Virus sample that she is holding.
7. Leon confronts Ada about being a spy. Annette, barely
alive, shoots Ada. Leon's love falls over the rail into a
deep chasm. Enraged, Leon tosses the G-Virus after her.
8. In the game's finales, Leon confronts the G-Type while
Claire battles Mr. X. Likewise, while escaping from the RPD,
Claire fights the G-Type embryo and Leon is attacked by
Dr. Birkin.
9. In Claire's final confrontations with Mr. X, she lures
him into the smelting pool by tossing Sherry's pendant with
the G-Virus over the side. On the trainpower platform, Claire
is aided in her battle against the mutated Mr. X by Ada. This
provides a larger mystery than the previously explored
scenario. How did Ada survive such a fall?
10. At the end of the closing movie, it is Claire instead of
Leon who leads them off, saying, "Chris... I have to find you."
Perhaps the reasons why the previous plot summary focused on
Claire A/ Leon B are now clear. The focus scenario is much
richer in plot and explanations. There is not as great a
leap of faith required to believe that Ada still lives.
Resident Evil 2 is a game much richer in story than its
predecessor, as is evidenced by the number of pages needed
to summarize the plot versus that of the original Resident
Evil. In this chapter of the story, questions are raised.
Some are answered, while others may never be solved.
==============================
3vi. The 4th Survivor Minigame
by Dan Birlew
==============================
A couple of secret games are available to the most capable
of Resident Evil survivors. With the right timing, skill,
and stamina, players will receive an A ranking in Resident
Evil 2. While the secret weapons gained make for a fun
replay, the most interesting aspect of this ranking is a new
playable character named "Hunk." The players are asked to
create a new save file for a minigame called The 4th
Survivor, the special mission suitable only for this
seasoned Umbrella agent. The 4th Survivor is a "battle
game." The player is given a limited amount of ammunition, a
simple goal, and an enormous army of evil monsters to outwit
in order to survive. This side-adventure is a true test of a
player's survival skills.
Whether it is his real name or a codename is uncertain, but
Hunk is certainly a buff character. Dressed in militaristic
biohazard containment gear, Hunk's eyes glow with the power
of his infrared goggles. He runs much faster than the usual
Resident Evil playable character, even when seriously wounded.
Playing as Hunk requires a good amount of quick thinking and
strategy on the part of the player. While some strategies
can be useful every time, the game's enemies sometimes react
differently to Hunk. This means that The 4th Survivor is
always a challenge, even to seasoned Resident Evil veterans.
==========================================
3vii. A Brief Summary of The 4th Survivor
by Dan Birlew
==========================================
The game begins in a total blackout. Someone is thinking,
"G-...G-Virus... I have to deliver it to Umbrella..." The
scene opens at the end of the sewer station, sometime after
Ada and Leon have made their way to the Lab, but before the
end of the regular game. A body floats face down in the
muck, one of the Umbrella infiltrators sent to steal the
G-Virus from renegade scientist William Birkin. The body
stirs, shifts, and shows signs of life. Slowly, Hunk regains
consciousness and rises.
After a quick look around, Hunk pulls out his radio. "Alpha
team here," he says through his gas mask, "Mission
accomplished."
"Roger," confirms another agent on the radio. "We'll meet
at the rendezvous point."
A map cuts in. A blinking beacon light shows Hunk that he
has to get to the second floor roof of the RPD precinct house
in order to be airlifted out. Hunk takes off up the stairs.
Between this stealthy agent and his goal is a small army of
the evil dead. Zombies plague his flight, along with giant
spiders, killer dogs, and slithering botanical experiments.
He has only a limited amount of ammunition, and must balance
his present needs against what he may encounter in the future.
Luckily he has some herbs to heal himself and treat poisons,
but it's not a lot. Leon and Claire have already taken all of
the ammunition from the RPD, so Hunk is stuck with what he has.
The zombies have retaken the Precinct in greater numbers
than ever before, and have laid several traps for the
unfortunate Umbrella agent. With some skill, he just barely
avoids these. But as he nears his goal, the insanity grows.
Each room bears an ever-greater horde of ghouls, quickly
converging on the lone survivalist. Shaking off his
attackers, he clears a pathway out with the barrel of his
gore-splattered gun.
After several close calls, Hunk tops a staircase to the
second floor of the RPD. He's halfway home, but the
nightmare is not yet over. Stomping toward him is a
monstrosity he has only heard rumors about at his agency. At
long last, Umbrella has perfected the Tyrant, and they've
sent it after the G-Virus. Somehow able to sense that Hunk
possesses a sample, the monster attacks him. Reasoning with
the beast would be no use, so Hunk evades the slowly
advancing thing and moves on.
In the final hallway, Hunk meets the Tyrant once again. How
it got over here so quickly is a real mystery, one Hunk
doesn't have time to solve. Evading the hulk yet again, the
agent reaches the roof and lights his last flare to signal
for a rescue.
The pick-up chopper swoops overhead immediately, as if it
has only been a block away this entire time. It hovers over
the precinct for an unbearably long moment, then a bright
spotlight is trained on Hunk. Impatiently, he waves for them
to come down and get him. The helicopter quickly lands and
airlifts the tired and wounded operative. As the Umbrella
chopper soars off into the ominous skies, a brief epilogue
appears on the screen. The agent has delivered the virus to
Umbrella, promising that this is the end of one nightmare,
but only the beginning of another.
=======================================
3viii. Conclusions About the Conclusion
=======================================
Resident Evil 2 leaves us with the following resolutions:
1. William Birkin's laboratory and research have been
destroyed.
2. Somehow Umbrella has almost perfected a Tyrant, and has
more at their disposal. Their research continues elsewhere.
3. Leon, Claire, and Sherry have all survived.
4. Ada may have also survived.
5. Raccoon City is in ruins.
6. Leon has a new mission in life, while Claire continues hers.
7. The rest of the S.T.A.R.S. team may be somewhere in Europe.
===================
3ix. Random Musings
===================
1. As pointed out by Dan Birlew in the original version of
this document, Tofu, another hidden character, is also
accessible in RE2. However, his scenario is so incredibly
silly that it doesn't really apply to the storyline. He is,
after all, a block of bean curd with a knife.
2. Mr. X isn't really very committed to his mission. He seems
to deliberately put it on hold a couple of times to go after
the player. This is most obvious in either B scenario, where
Mr. X leaves the character carrying the G-sample alone in
order to go down the elevator shaft after the player.
3. So why, exactly, didn't anyone clean out Wesker's desk?
They thought he was dead.
4. Annette's claim that William Birkin created the T-Virus
was contested by files in Survivor and CV, and is flatly
contradicted by RE0. An attempt to unravel the issue of
who created the T-Virus is contained within the FAQs below.
5. Note that "The 4th Survivor" is the first RE minigame
to actually figure into the plot. We won't see this again
until Assignment: Ada in RE4.
6. In the seven years since RE2 was released, virtually
every environment in it has been used as the setting for
some part of another game. Much of the RPD was recycled
for RE3 and RE:O2's "Desperate Times" scenario, Rebecca
visits part of the shipping lanes underneath the city in
RE0, and RE:O's "Below Freezing Point" scenario is set in
Birkin's laboratory.
The only parts of RE2 that haven't reappeared in a later
game are the Raccoon sewer system and the city streets
from the start of the A scenario.
7. Cinematic references in RE2:
-- the Umbrella lab is sort of a mixed bag of film
influences; I recognized bits taken from _Day of
the Dead_, _Return of the Living Dead Part 2_, and
_Return of the Living Dead Part 3_.
-- Leon is dressed more like Peter and Roger in _Dawn
of the Dead_ than like any other officer in the RPD.
-- the giant alligator may be a reference to the undead
alligators at the beginning of _Day of the Dead_.
-- okay, so I mentioned _Zeram_, right? The big pink
quasi-embryo that crawls out of Irons/Ben, as well
as the little pink embryos that crawl out of *that*,
look a lot like a similar creature, which is spawned
by an alien, in _Zeram_.
=======================================================
4. Nobody Here Gets Out Alive: RESIDENT EVIL 3: NEMESIS
=======================================================
RE3 has more replay value than any other RE game to date,
with three endings and plenty of secrets to unlock, as well
as the incredibly fun (read: addictive and frustrating)
Mercenaries minigame. It also introduced the Dodge feature,
which let players duck or roll out of the way of incoming
attacks with the push of a button, and featured the return
of RE's Hunters.
=============================
4i. The Death of Raccoon City
=============================
The threat did not end with the destruction of the Arklay
lab. There are still monsters loose in the Raccoon Forest,
and Umbrella's experiments continue at a half-dozen hidden
labs inside the city.
Everything changes in late September of 1998. After Umbrella's
attack on William Birkin, as shown in RE2, sewer rats carry
a fresh wave of pure T-Virus directly into Raccoon City. Within
minutes, the epidemic has begun. Soon, dozens of zombies are
roaming the streets. Raccoon City is placed under martial law,
and the casualties begin to mount at a shocking rate.
The Raccoon police force tries to fight back the zombie invasion,
but their efforts are sabotaged from within by their police chief,
Brian Irons. Not only does the steadily-getting-crazier Irons
somehow prevent the RPD from calling backup from outside Raccoon,
but he deliberately spreads confusion among the policemen. As a
result, the police's first major battle against the zombies, on
September 27th, is a near-total disaster. The few surviving police
withdraw to the RPD building and reinforce it to withstand a siege
of the undead. In the next two days, the policemen and surviving
civilians die one by one, cut down by either mutants, zombies, or
Irons himself. There are a handful of survivors, but not many.
As the police battle the zombies, two helicopters marked with
Umbrella logos land in the city and drop off a small number of
armed men. These men have better equipment than the police,
but they're a relative handful of soldiers against an army, and
soon they, too, are running for their lives.
By September 28th, Raccoon City is a ghost town, swarming with
zombies and monsters. A military blockade surrounds Raccoon City,
enforcing a quarantine. No help is coming. Thousands are dead.
Somehow, Jill Valentine has managed to survive all of this.
On the morning of September 28th, alone, she makes her last
bid for survival: her last escape.
=======================================================
4iii. A Summary of the Plot of RESIDENT EVIL 3: NEMESIS
=======================================================
Jill's escape attempt begins with an explosion, as she literally
blasts her way out of an apartment building. Jill takes shelter
inside a nearby warehouse and meets another survivor. She tries to
get him to come with her, but he refuses to leave the warehouse.
Jill tells him that their only hope is to get out of town, but
he shuts himself inside a nearby trailer rather than listen.
Jill, alone, leaves the warehouse. The streets are disturbingly
quiet, with only the occasional zombie wandering around. As she
sneaks through a back alley, a man suddenly bursts out of a
closet, pursued by a mob of zombies. Jill recognizes him as
Brad Vickers, and runs after him.
After chasing him through the streets and back alleys of
Raccoon, Jill finds Brad inside a local bar. They briefly
talk about what's happened to the city. Brad, although he's
wounded, gets up, telling Jill that "he's comin' for us.
We're all gonna die! He's after S.T.A.R.S. members. There's
no escape!" With that, he leaves the bar.
Outside, Brad's nowhere to be found, so Jill sets out on her
own. She emerges onto the street in front of the RPD building.
Both ends of the street are blocked by car crashes, but a nearby
alleyway leads further uptown. The door to it is locked, but Jill
left a set of lockpicks in her desk at the RPD. She heads there.
In front of the RPD building, Brad Vickers finds Jill again.
He looks like someone dropped a truck on him. He starts to
say something, but is cut off by the arrival of a new monster,
a humanoid creature dressed in black. Its face is permanently
stuck in a lipless grimace. (Roughly two days from now, Leon
will meet Mr. X, which looks a lot like this thing.) Jill is
frozen in horror as the creature grabs Brad by the face and
lifts him into the air. It kills Brad by shoving a tentacle
through his head, throws away his body, and advances on Jill,
muttering a single word: "...S.T.A.R.S...."
Jill's weapons seem to have no effect on the creature. She
ducks inside the RPD building and slams the doors behind
her. Although the doors buckle under the creature's attack,
they don't give. Safe for the moment, Jill searches the
building for equipment and ammunition. More than half of the
building has been sealed off by the few surviving police, but
she can still get to her old office.
The S.T.A.R.S. office is wrecked. Someone has deliberately
broken the radio and the desks have been ransacked. As Jill
leaves with her lockpicks, the radio plays an incoming
transmission from someone named Carlos. His unit has been cut
off and no survivors have been found. He asks for anyone who
can hear him to respond, but the broken radio can only receive
transmissions. All Jill can do is wish him luck as she leaves.
The only warning Jill gets before the creature returns is the
sound of shattering glass. It jumps through a window on the
first floor of the RPD, toting a rocket launcher in one hand.
Dodging a barrage of missiles, Jill barely manages to get out
of the RPD building alive. She picks the lock on the alleyway
door and keeps running. She seems to have lost the creature.
As Jill makes her way uptown, she finds a dead man wearing
the Umbrella logo. According to his diary, the dead man was a
member of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasures Service, an
in-house paramilitary unit maintained by Umbrella. For some
reason, Umbrella's hired and sent mercenaries into the city.
More dead UBCS soldiers turn up elsewhere. One is lying in
front of a nearby parking garage, killed by a pack of zombie
dogs. Another has fallen victim to a new creature, a bizarre
breed of giant, mutated insect. These "drain deimos" are
surprisingly dangerous, but shots to their unarmored belly
kill them in seconds.
Jill steps back onto the street outside the construction
site, and sees a man run into a restaurant. Jill follows him
inside. He introduces himself as Carlos Oliviera, a corporal
in the UBCS, and asks if Jill's okay. When she expresses
disbelief--Jill can't believe that anyone from Umbrella
cares whether she's okay or not--Carlos elaborates: his
squad was told to rescue Raccoon's civilians, but the mission
went wrong the moment they landed. Before he can continue,
the creature stalking Jill reappears, coming in through the
restaurant's back door.
As the creature charges, Jill notices a gas leak in the
restaurant's kitchen. She and Carlos hide behind the counter,
and as the creature stops next to the leaking pipes, Jill
throws a lit oil lamp at it. The ensuing explosion nearly
kills both Jill and Carlos, but knocks the creature out.
As they leave the restaurant, Jill asks Carlos why his squad
was sent to Raccoon. Carlos's answer--that they're rescuing
civilians--isn't good enough for Jill, since the destruction
of Raccoon is largely Umbrella's fault. Carlos replies that
he and his fellow mercenaries are just hired hands, and if
Umbrella had some kind of ulterior motive for sending them
in, he doesn't know what it is. If Jill wants answers, she's
asking the wrong guy. The sound of shattering glass inside
the restaurant cuts him off. Carlos invites Jill to join his
squad, and runs off. Jill starts to follow Carlos, but the
creature comes after her again, seemingly unhurt.
After losing the creature in Raccoon's shopping district,
Jill hides inside the offices of the Raccoon Press. Inside,
she finds another gemstone that matches one she found in
the RPD building. They turn out to be the missing parts to a
time lock on the gates to Raccoon's city hall. Jill repairs
the lock and opens the gates.
The city hall is boarded up, and looks as though it's been
undergoing the same kind of siege as the RPD. Past it is a
trainyard, where one of Raccoon City's cable cars is parked.
Inside the cable car, Jill meets a gray-haired man wearing
the same logos as Carlos. Jill greets him, assuming he's one
of Carlos's teammates. The man asks her insultingly how she
managed to survive. Jill replies that she's a S.T.A.R.S.
member, which seems to satisfy him. He walks into the next
car, leaving Jill alone with a badly wounded and delirious
UBCS officer. Jill tends the man's injuries as best she can,
then follows the grey-haired man.
Carlos is in the next cable car, and renews his invitation
from earlier. The gray-haired man, who is apparently Carlos's
commander, says that they can't trust Jill. Before Jill can
respond, Carlos says that they need her help, as their unit
has been reduced to Carlos, the gray-haired man, and Lieutenant
Mikhail, the injured man in the last cable car. His commander,
Nicholai, grudgingly agrees, and tells them about his plan.
An extraction helicopter is waiting for a signal from their
team. The designated landing zone is by the St. Michael Clock
Tower, a Raccoon City landmark. Nicholai intends to use the
cable car as a mobile shield to get them through Raccoon City,
although the car will require repairs first. Carlos and Jill
agree to this plan, and the three of them split up to look for
parts for the cable car.
Jill heads to a nearby gas station first, to get motor oil.
Carlos enters the station behind her, but a mob of zombies
sniffs them out. As Carlos keeps watch, Jill finds a locked
cabinet with oil in it. Carlos steps outside to fight off the
zombies. Jill hurriedly opens the lock and grabs the oil.
Before she can get outside, a live wire falls into a pool of
motor oil in the gas station's garage, starting a fire. Jill
sprints out the front door as the place burns down around her.
Outside, Jill finds Carlos slumped against the wall, next to
a pile of dead zombies. Jill briefly thinks he's dead, but
Carlos shakily gets to his feet. The fire suddenly spreads
outside, to the pools of gasoline leaking from wrecked cars,
and then to the gas station's pumps. Jill and Carlos barely
escape an explosion that completely destroys both the gas
station and most of the block that it's on. As they pull
themselves to their feet, Carlos tells Jill that he's going
to look for extra equipment. He leaves.
Jill finds some engine parts and returns to the cable car
to fix it. Outside the cable car, Mikhail, despite his wounds,
massacres a horde of zombies and collapses. Jill runs up
to him and demands to know if he has a death wish. Mikhail
insists that he cannot stop fighting just because he's wounded.
Even though the zombies are innocent victims as well, as Jill
says, Mikhail sees no reason why he should take responsibility
for anything that's happened to Raccoon. After all, none of
the UBCS soldiers are really involved with the company. Jill
agrees, and says that that's the only reason she's trusting
the UBCS at all.
Jill helps Mikhail back into the cable car and tells him to
rest. She also tries to repair the cable car's engine.
She has everything she needs, except a special additive
for the motor oil. She heads back into Raccoon, towards
an Umbrella-owned sales office.
Before going to the office, Jill stops by the warehouse in
downtown Raccoon where she had taken shelter earlier. Inside,
she finds a group of zombies greedily devouring the body of
the man who'd refused to come with her. In the trailer that
the man was hiding in, Jill finds a book where the man has
written his final words. His name was Dario Rosso, and he
had always meant to be a novelist.
When Jill reaches the office, Nicholai is already there. He
has just killed another UBCS trooper who was infected with
the T-Virus. Jill demands that Nicholai explain why he shot the
man, who was still conscious. Nicholai explains to Jill, as
if it's obvious, that it took fewer bullets to kill the man
before he became a zombie.
Jill lets herself into the office's storage locker, where she
finds the additive she needs. At the same time, another horde
of zombies finds the sales office. Jill hears Nicholai scream.
When she fights her way back into the office, both Nicholai
and the UBCS mercenary's body are gone.
On her way back to the cable car, Jill has another encounter
with her stalker outside City Hall. Once again, Jill runs
for her life. The creature doesn't follow her to the next
street, and before Jill can wonder why, the ground crumbles
under her feet. She's dumped into part of the Raccoon sewer
system, which a large, mutated worm has claimed as its own.
Jill escapes from the sewers via a conveniently located
emergency ladder.
Jill finishes her repair work on the cable car. Carlos walks
in, and Jill tells him that Nicholai won't be joining them.
Carlos grimly accepts the news, and offers to drive the
cable car. The car begins to glide smoothly away from the
station, but it shakes suddenly from a tremendous impact.
Jill investigates, and finds that the creature stalking
her has busted into the cable car. With nowhere to run,
Jill knocks it to the ground with a barrage of grenades.
The creature gets right back up again, seemingly unhurt
by an attack that would have killed anything else.
Suddenly, Mikhail opens fire on the creature with his
assault rifle, commanding Jill to get out of the cable car.
The creature advances on Mikhail, whose rifle jams at
exactly the wrong moment. The creature backhands him against
the wall, then throws him across the cable car. A tentacle
emerges from the creature's hand, coiling around its wrist
like a striking snake, and it walks towards Mikhail to
finish him off. Just before it reaches him, Mikhail rolls
over, pulls a grenade from his vest, and pulls the pin. The
resulting explosion knocks the creature out of the back of
the cable car, kills Mikhail, and destroys the cable car's
brakes. Jill pulls the emergency brake, but the car doesn't
come to a full stop until it hits a wall. Jill blacks out.
Jill regains consciousness alone in the courtyard of the St.
Michael Clock Tower, next to the twisted ruin of the cable
car. Night has fallen and the sky's cleared. She finds Carlos
inside the tower, who's now convinced that Umbrella has no
intentions of letting them out of town alive. Before he can
get hysterical, Jill slaps him, asking him if he's just
going to give up. Carlos retorts that he just can't handle
what's happening, and runs off.
The clock tower is nearly deserted, except, as usual, by the
occasional zombie or giant spider. Jill finds several more
dead mercenaries within it, one of whom is carrying a copy of
the UBCS's mission plan; sure enough, they were here to rescue
civilians, but were specifically after Umbrella's employees.
The UBCS's extraction chopper is in the suburbs of Raccoon,
waiting for someone to signal it by ringing the clock tower's
bell. Jill runs up to the bell tower, to find the bell's
mechanical ringer has been dismantled. Solving another of the
puzzles that seem to be everywhere in Raccoon City, she finds
a key to unlock a storeroom downstairs.
On the balcony of the clock tower, the creature returns,
seemingly unhurt. Jill rips the wiring out of one of the
clock tower's searchlights and electrocutes the creature. As
it lies twitching, Jill makes her escape, but once again, it
gets up and gives chase. For some reason, though, it doesn't
follow her downstairs.
In the storeroom, Jill finds an ornate gear that'll fit in
the bell's ringer. She runs back upstairs and installs it.
The bell starts to ring, and as Jill rushes outside, the
extraction chopper comes flying in. Jill waves it down, and
for a moment, thinks that she's finally safe.
She is, of course, wrong.
Someone fires a missile at the helicopter. As it explodes,
the helicopter plows into the clock tower, showering the
courtyard in burning debris. Jill looks up to see the
creature standing on top of the clock tower, its missile
launcher in its hand. It jumps down in front of her, intent
upon finishing her off once and for all. Before Jill can
react, the creature stabs her with one of its tentacles,
and Jill immediately begins to feel shaky and ill. She's
been infected with the T-Virus.
Suddenly, Carlos arrives and attacks the creature. The
creature, more annoyed than hurt, returns fire. Carlos is
knocked silly by a near-hit, but manages to blow up the
missile launcher. As he passes out, Jill opens fire on the
creature, hitting it with everything she has. The creature,
after taking enough damage to kill an army, finally staggers,
then falls into the flames from the burning helicopter.
Jill limps over to Carlos and passes out. Carlos wakes up
and cradles Jill in his arms, desperately trying to wake her.
Jill is unconscious for two days, during which Leon Kennedy
and Claire Redfield make their own escape from Raccoon City.
She wakes up in the chapel of the clock tower after midnight
on October 1st. Carlos has been watching over her. She doesn't
feel any pain from her infection, but that in itself worries
her. Jill makes Carlos promise that if she turns into a zombie,
he'll kill her. Carlos says that he'll find something to help
her, and that she'll be safe in the chapel until he returns.
Carlos leaves the clock tower through a door in the storeroom,
and finds that he's down the street from a hospital. He
investigates, hoping to find something to cure Jill.
The hospital lobby is strewn with dead men and partially
locked down with a steel shutter. As Carlos enters, a zombie
slowly shuffles towards him from the back of the room.
Before Carlos can shoot it, something decapitates the zombie
from behind. A new creature, some kind of viciously clawed
reptile, screams at Carlos. Jill would recognize it as a
Hunter, one of the deadlier bioweapons she encountered in the
Spencer mansion. After a vicious, albeit brief, fight, Carlos
kills the cerature and enters the head doctor's office.
Carlos takes the head doctor's private elevator to the fourth
floor. The hospital is crawling with Hunters and the occasional
zombie. There, in the hospital's file room, he finds Nicholai,
who is holding a smoking gun and standing over the body of
another UBCS member. Carlos has a lot of questions for Nicholai,
but the only answer Nicholai has is that he--Nicholai--is
"one of the supervisors." That's all Carlos needs to know.
Nicholai points his gun at Carlos, but before he can fire,
the man on the floor pulls the pin on a grenade. Both Carlos
and Nicholai run for cover, and Nicholai winds up going out
the fourth-floor window.
Carlos is confused about what just happened, but he continues
his search. To his surprise, he finds another of Umbrella's
laboratories in the hospital's basement, where two creatures
are floating in incubation tanks. They look like Hunters,
but where the Hunters Carlos has been fighting are sort of
generically reptilian, these appear to be deliberately
patterned after frogs. (These are probably the MA-121
Hunters mentioned in RE2's EX Files. See Frequently Asked
Questions, below.)
Carlos finds a set of instructions in the lab. Using them
to operate the laboratory's machines, he creates a vaccine
effective against the T-Virus. Running back to the clock
tower, he finds a surprise waiting for him in the hospital
lobby. Someone has set explosives to demolish the hospital.
Carlos leaves the hospital at a dead run, taking cover from
the explosion inside the alley leading to the clock tower.
The hospital collapses in on itself in a burst of flame.
In the clock tower, the ceilings are buckling and groaning,
as if the tower is planning on following the hospital's
lead. As Carlos crosses the clock tower's front hall, the
creaking intensifies into a pounding. With a sudden crash,
the creature that has chased Jill throughout Raccoon City
breaks through the wall. The creature's heavy coat has burned
away, revealing that it's covered in writhing tentacles.
Carlos tries to fight the thing, but it's only interested in
getting to Jill. Fortunately, Carlos beats it to the chapel.
Carlos gives Jill the vaccine. The drug takes effect almost
immediately, and Jill wakes up. She asks Carlos what
happened to him, and Carlos says that he just had another
fight with the monster. Jill wonders aloud whether the
creature can be stopped at all. Carlos says that he's
sure it can, but he doesn't sound convinced. Jill realizes
that the creature is toying with them. Carlos then tells
her about Nicholai's survival, and warns her that although
he doesn't know what Nicholai has planned, he's sure that
Nicholai is their enemy. Claiming that he has to "take
care of some things," Carlos leaves.
Jill runs into the creature as she leaves the chapel. She
leads it a merry chase through the clock tower, losing it
along the way, and ducks into Raccoon's city park.
The park is infested with monsters, but Jill easily takes
care of them. Inside the tool shed in a local graveyard, Jill
breaks through a bricked-up doorway and discovers an abandoned
Umbrella command center. Several documents are scattered
throughout the room. One of them, a report from one of the
supervisors, finally gives her a name for the creature that's
been chasing her; Umbrella calls it the "Nemesis," and they
sent it to kill the surviving S.T.A.R.S. members. The unnamed
supervisor continues to speculate that if the Nemesis is still
loose in the city, then the S.T.A.R.S. must be very hard to
kill... but they can't hope to evade it much longer.
Nicholai is waiting for Jill when she leaves the command
center. He's impressed at her survival, but refuses to help
Jill in any way. When Jill asks him, he admits that the true
mission of the UBCS was to gather data on Umbrella's
bioweapons in a combat situation, but no one ever expected
the UBCS units to be completely wiped out. After a sudden
tremor shakes the ground, Nicholai runs off.
As Jill follows Nicholai, the earth falls out from under
her. The giant worm that Jill fought in the Raccoon sewer
system is back, but not for long. The worm destroys the
graveyard trying to kill Jill, and she responds with a
barrage of bullets and grenades. When Jill climbs out of
the wreckage of the graveyard, she leaves the worm's
cooling corpse on the ground behind her.
The park has been overrun by a fresh wave of zombies while
Jill fought the worm, but they're little more than
annoyances at this point. On one of the park's isolated
footpaths, Jill finds two more dead UBCS soldiers, one of
whom is clutching a set of orders from Umbrella. The orders
confirm what Nicholai said earlier. The supervisors were
also instructed to destroy the hospital and all the data
stored inside it. Umbrella is covering its tracks, and for
some reason, a lot of their supervisors are winding up dead.
The footpath leads to a rickety bridge, which in turn leads
to an abandoned factory. As Jill walks across the bridge
towards it, the Nemesis jumps onto the bridge in front of
her. Jill leaps off the bridge, into the river below. The
Nemesis, after she's gone, turns and walks towards the factory.
Underneath the bridge, Jill finds an entrance to an old
sewer duct, and from there finds her way into the factory. A
quintet of zombies spring a crude ambush on her, but Carlos
arrives and saves Jill a second time. Jill thanks him, and
he tells her that a missile is going to be launched into
the center of the city at dawn, which is coming soon. The
two of them have to split up and find some way to escape,
or they'll be caught in the blast. Carlos puts a hand on
Jill's cheek and tells her to watch out for Nicholai.
The factory is nowhere near as abandoned as it was supposed
to be. Umbrella has been conducting experiments with the
T-Virus here and using the facility to dispose of toxic
waste; as a result, the factory is crawling with Stingers,
Hunters, and powerful, mutated zombies. As Jill explores,
a sudden burst of gunfire sends her running for cover.
Chortling, Nicholai locks himself inside the radio room.
Jill accidentally stumbles into the facility's trash
room. Not only does the door lock behind her, but the room's
automated systems come online; in five minutes, the room
will automatically dump everything in it into the factory's
waste area. Given what's *in* the waste area, that'll almost
certainly be fatal. Just as Jill thinks things can't get
any worse, the trash room's lights come on, revealing an
old friend. The Nemesis has been waiting for her.
For the first time in four days, Jill gets lucky. She ducks
underneath one of the Nemesis's wild swings, and it tears
open a pipe on the wall. Whatever is flowing through the
pipe is corrosive enough to burn off half of the Nemesis's
tentacles almost instantly. As the Nemesis recovers, Jill
shoots out another pipe, drenching it in acid a second time,
and then a third. The Nemesis screams, covered in horrible
burns. It falls down, and doesn't get back up. Jill notices
the body of an Umbrella scientist in one of the trash heaps.
She searches his pockets and finds a keycard which unlocks
the trash room doors. As she gets out, the Nemesis's body is
dumped into the waste pool.
The factory's speakers crackle to life, and a woman's voice
reports that a missile attack has been detected. Jill runs
towards the door Nicholai went through and unlocks it with
her new keycard. The door leads to a communications tower. As
Jill picks up a portable radar receiver, the radio suddenly
comes to life. Outside, Nicholai taunts Jill from a helicopter,
and rakes the tower with a burst of machine-gun fire. Apparently,
he's the one who's been killing supervisors, simply so Nicholai
could get more bargaining power when it comes time to negotiate
his bonus with Umbrella. He says that he had also intended to
collect a bounty which Umbrella had placed on Jill's head, but
he decides to fly away instead. Jill, he says, is doomed anyway.
Carlos runs in. He hasn't had any luck in finding an escape
route, but he refuses to give up. He frantically uses the radio
to scan all frequencies. A familiar voice comes over the
radio. Someone else is coming in a helicopter, specifically
for Jill. All the two of them have to do is meet it at the
factory's helipad. The factory's systems alert Jill and
Carlos that the missile has been launched, and unlock
the door to the helipad. Jill heads there, and Carlos runs
back into the factory to make last-minute preparations.
Apparently, the factory used a scrapyard as their landing
zone. Jill runs through a maze of crushed and stripped cars,
and finds that a small war was fought here recently. Several
dead U.S. Special Forces soldiers are lying outside of the
factory's power room, as well as the burning corpse of a
mutant (actually a Mr. X unit, like the one that attacked
Leon the day before). An official report is on the ground
near one of them, accompanied by a photograph of an
experimental new weapon code-named "Paracelsus's Sword." The
report specifically mentions using it to fight Umbrella's
bioweapons. The Sword is an enormous rail cannon, and looks
like just the thing to take out a Tyrant, but it's far too
big to have been snuck in. There's a mystery here, but Jill
doesn't have time to figure it out.
Jill enters the power room, and an explosion from outside
seals the door shut behind her. Dead bioweapons are lying
everywhere, including several Mr. X units, one mutated,
with several dead soldiers lying among them. (Alert reader
Petri Rantala points out that the dead, clawed Tyrant in
the corner has claws on both hands, which would lead one
to believe that it's a mutated Mr. X rather than an old
Tyrant.) On the other side of the room, Jill finds the
Paracelsus's Sword cannon, still hooked up to the factory's
power plant and aimed directly at the dead Tyrant. Jill
tries to turn it on. The cannon's computer tells her to
hook up several oversized batteries strewn around the room.
As Jill shoves the first battery into place, she hears the
sound of dripping water behind her. Chemicals slowly begin
to leak into the room. Jill turns around, and the Nemesis's
"corpse" falls through a hole in the ceiling. It squirms
towards her, mutating with every move it makes. It's somehow
managed to survive its bath in the waste dump by mutating
into a new quadrapedal form. It is now saturated with
acidic toxins, and spits them forth in a lethal shower.
Jill frantically hooks up the last two batteries to the rail
cannon. Paracelsus's Sword begins to charge up. Left with no
other choice, Jill has to turn and fight back. The Nemesis is
still a vicious opponent, but it's nowhere near as tenacious
as it was, and Jill's assault drives it away. The Nemesis limps
to the other side of the room and begins to chew on the Tyrant's
corpse. This puts it directly in front of the charged rail cannon.
The rail cannon's blast shakes the room, tears through a
four-foot block of scrap metal, vaporizes the Tyrant's
corpse, and doesn't really look like it hurts the Nemesis
much at all. A second blast finally sends the Nemesis
screaming to the ground. Jill checks the radar receiver,
which tells her that she has less than five minutes before
the missiles hit. Before she can leave, the Nemesis
gets back up for one last attempt to kill her, firing a
blast of venom at her head. Jill rolls out of the way,
grabs a Magnum revolver from a dead soldier, and slowly
pursues the writhing Nemesis across the room. She empties
its cylinder into the Nemesis, and finally, bleeding from
its every pore, it stops moving.
Jill leaves the power room and takes an elevator up to the
helipad. Carlos takes the elevator up just after she does
and runs forward, lighting a signal flare. A blue-and-white
helicopter slowly descends to the ground in front of Carlos,
and both he and Jill climb aboard with a few minutes to spare.
=============================================================
4iii. A Summary of the Conclusion of RESIDENT EVIL 3: NEMESIS
=============================================================
Jill thanks the helicopter's pilot, who says that he couldn't
just let her die. Jill seems to recognize him and leans forward.
The pilot turns to her and asks her, "Are you ready to finish
this?" (The pilot's apparently supposed to be Barry Burton,
although it's never said out loud.)
A flash of light outside the window draws Jill's attention.
The missile flies past the helicopter and hits the center
of Raccoon City. The surviving zombies look up in confusion
at the bright light, just before they're consumed in a wave
of fire. All that remains of Raccoon City is a smoking crater.
As the helicopter flies east, Jill, looking out the window
at what used to be Raccoon, vows that Umbrella is going down.
We're shown a news broadcast. The morning's top news story
is, of course, the strike on Raccoon. The President and
Congress planned and executed the destruction of Raccoon
City, which has been "literally wiped off the map." More
than a hundred thousand casualties are expected.
"Our hearts go out to the citizens... of Raccoon City."
====================
4iv. Different Paths
====================
The game's basic plotline can vary each time you play
through it. However, while the details change, the
fundamental events are always the same (Nicholai apparently
dies at some point before you activate the cable car, Jill
always finds Carlos somewhere inside the clock tower, etc.),
so they aren't worth listing in full here. For most of the
choices, I've just kinda picked the one that I liked more
and used it for the summary.
The exception is that I deliberately placed Carlos in the
gas station. Nicholai is a huge badass, but I'm not willing
to believe that he's enough of a badass to survive an
explosion that levels a city block (unless the explosion, as
Vincent Merken and I have theorized, knocked him through a
plot hole). I can accept a lot, but that's just crazy.
=====================
4v. Different Endings
=====================
The ending I've used for the summary is apparently the
official one, as one of the files in Resident Evil: Survivor
is written by Nicholai on October 5th. The other two possible
endings are detailed below, and both of 'em wind up with
Nicholai being real dead.
Ending #2:
Instead of negotiating with Nicholai, Jill blows him out of
the sky. Aside from that small yet satisfying detail, this
is the same as Ending #1.
Ending #3:
Instead of jumping off the bridge, Jill shoves the Nemesis
off and walks into the abandoned factory via the front door.
She and Carlos meet up in the second-floor break room, where
a visibly exhausted Carlos tells her about the incoming
missiles. Things proceed as above after that, but when Jill
reaches the trash room, she's ambushed by Nicholai. From
cover in front of the trash room, Nicholai explains that
there's a "modest" bounty offered by Umbrella for whoever
kills Jill, which he intends to collect. Jill tells him,
basically, to stick it.
Nicholai replies by firing a couple more shots at Jill.
Something, probably the Nemesis, grabs Nicholai from behind.
Jill hears him scream, followed by some wet crunching
sounds. When she rounds the corner, she finds Nicholai's
dead body hanging off of the pipes in the ceiling.
When Jill reaches the communications tower, she hears an
incoming transmission from Carlos. Carlos tells her to take
the nearby radar receiver and meet him elsewhere.
After Jill's showdown with the Nemesis, she rides the
elevator up to find Carlos waiting for her in Nicholai's
helicopter. Jill watches Raccoon explode as they fly off,
saying that this time, "they've gone too far."
=======================
4vi. The Epilogue Files
=======================
Every time the game is beaten on Hard Mode, an Epilogue is
shown after the credits and ranking screen. There are eight
Epilogues, each dealing with a major character from RE; in
order, the files are about Jill, Chris, Barry, Leon, Claire,
Sherry, Ada, and Hunk. Each file is about a paragraph long,
and is accompanied by original character art.
From the Epilogue Files, we know the following:
-- after escaping Raccoon, Jill found one of Chris's hideouts.
It was trashed, but Chris wasn't there. She plans to keep
looking for Chris so the two of them can finally take down
Umbrella. Carlos and Barry may or may not be with her.
-- Barry has left his family. He doesn't intend to return to
them until he's paid his friends back for betraying them.
-- after they escaped the lab at the end of RE2, Leon angrily
told Claire to leave him and Sherry alone. She promised to
return, and disappeared into the woods near Raccoon.
-- Leon has been made some kind of unspecified offer by
either the U.S. government or someone claiming to represent
them. He attempted to get them to leave Sherry out of this
offer, but she "knows too much." We do not know what Leon's
response to the offer was.
-- Sherry is in the custody of the U.S. Army, and is waiting
for Claire to come back.
-- the woman who had called herself Ada Wong survived. She
is leaving that identity behind and preparing for another
mission.
-- Hunk is a little crazy, and has a tendency to be the
only survivor of his missions. He's seen without his
mask in his file.
======================================
4vii. Conclusions About the Conclusion
======================================
1. Raccoon City has been destroyed. Thousands are dead.
2. Jill and Carlos have survived, thanks to Barry Burton.
3. A vaccine exists for the T-Virus, and it's been given to
Jill. In theory, she's now immune to it.
4. Ada and Hunk are both still alive. This brings the known
total of Raccoon survivors to eight, out of more than a
hundred thousand.
5. Jill is newly dedicated to the destruction of Umbrella.
She's looking for Chris.
6. Umbrella is actively seeking the deaths of the remaining
members of S.T.A.R.S.. They have a "modest" price on Jill's head.
7. Claire Redfield is somewhere in America, continuing her
search for her brother.
8. Leon Kennedy and Sherry Birkin are in government custody.
9. Leon has gotten an unspecified "offer" from someone claiming
to be a government agent. (Presumably, this offer is genuine,
and is how Leon got the job he has in RE4.)
10. The U.S. government has attacked at least one Umbrella
facility with very little, if any, success.
11. Umbrella actually tried to *stop* the government from
blowing up Raccoon. Apparently, there's something else going
on here that we don't know about.
12. Hunk survived. Umbrella has a sample of the G-Virus.
13. Someone on the development team hated Brad's guts.
=====================
4viii. Random Musings
=====================
1. In the power room, scattered amidst the dead Tyrants, are
shards of red containment capsules, similar to the one that
Umbrella used to transport Mr. X in RE2. If anyone was wondering
where that helicopter might have gone after it visited the
RPD, it isn't a enormous intuitive leap to say it went to
the Dead Factory.
2. As I've mentioned below under Unanswered Questions, the
military blockade around Raccoon is apparently manned by spider
monkeys. Neither Leon or Claire so much as see a blockade, and
we've seen no fewer than seven helicopters, some unmarked, enter
and leave Raccoon's airspace without any problems. (Count 'em.
You might even come up with a few that I missed.)
3. The Mercenaries minigame, while horrifyingly addictive,
doesn't really apply to the storyline. I would've thought
that this was obvious, but apparently, it isn't.
4. For those who didn't know, RE3 was subtitled Last Escape in
Japan. This is why Jill uses that phrase a lot. (Personally, I
think it should've been the subtitle of the American version,
but that's me.)
5. Although the back of the CD case says that Jill quit S.T.A.R.S.,
she never says as much in the game. As a matter of fact, she claims
membership several times ("Hey, I'm no ordinary civvie!" Shut up,
Jill. Just shut up).
6. According to an article in Game Informer, Nemesis's design
was one of the rejected designs for Mr. X. In the sketch they
published, Nemmy's rocket launcher was an elaborate rifle.
7. As established by the epilogue of Outbreak, the bomb that
destroyed Raccoon City wasn't actually a nuclear weapon. Further,
the missile Jill and Carlos see was just the first of many.
8. Cinematic parallels in RE3:
-- _Return of the Living Dead_ also had an ending which involved
a missile attack. The end scenes of the movie and the end
scenes of RE3, showing the missile arcing towards ground
zero, aren't identical but are thematically similar.
-- furthermore, _Return of the Living Dead_ also has a scene
where a small army of zombies rush a police barricade.
-- the power station sequence is much like a scene in
_Return of the Living Dead, Part 2_, especially if you opt
to electrify the zombies.
-- according to my co-worker Alicia Ashby, the bombing of
Raccoon City reflects a very common plot point in Japanese
pop culture. Man, you drop two nukes on some people and
they just never let you forget about it.
================================================
5. Ten Thousand Bullets: RESIDENT EVIL: SURVIVOR
================================================
Survivor, also known as Gun Survivor, is a cross between
Resident Evil and a first-person shooter. If you're playing
something other than the North American release, then you
get to use a light-gun with the game, which is probably
a lot more fun; if you're in North America, however, you
get to move your gunsight around the screen with your
control pad, and the game gets very annoying.
In any event, Survivor is the story of an amnesiac man who
wakes up in the middle of a biohazardous outbreak. He must
fight to stay alive, while he tries to figure out just who
he is, what he's doing here, and why everyone he meets is
either scared of him, or is trying to kill him...
==========================================================
5i. A Summary of the Basic Plot of RESIDENT EVIL: SURVIVOR
==========================================================
In late November of 1998, an isolated city called Sheena Island
is the site of another T-Virus outbreak. In a short time, Sheena
Island is a ghost town, chiefly inhabited by Umbrella's monsters.
As the undead mill through the streets, a helicopter flies over
the town. A man in white, holding a gun, clings to one of the
helicopter's landing struts. He yells, "You won't get away!"
He fires once, apparently hitting something vital, and the
helicopter begins to burn. As the helicopter plummets towards
the street, the man in white falls off.
Some time later, a man in jeans and a brown parka wakes up
next to a burning helicopter. He doesn't remember anything about
who he is, where he is, or what he's doing there. All he has
is his Glock 17 pistol.
The man, our hero, sets out to explore the city. On the next
street over, he finds the body of the man in white, who looks
like he's dead. Our hero kneels over him, and finds a set of
dogtags in the man's hand, identifying him as Ark Thompson.
Our hero thinks that the man looks familiar, but a lone zombie
interrupts his examination. He executes the zombie, and finds
a rusted key in its pocket.
The key unlocks the front door of a nearby church. The church is
small, and relatively well-maintained; the only discordant note
is the Umbrella logo, carved into the wall above the altar. In
the church manager's office, our hero finds the man's diary, where
he has written about the destruction of the American city of Raccoon
at the hands of the renegade scientist, William Birkin.
Our hero leaves through the back door of the church, to an isolated
street where a pay phone is ringing. Whoever it is hangs up as soon
as our hero answers the 'phone.
After a brief fight with a pair of Lickers, our hero finds his way
to another ringing pay 'phone. He picks it up, and whoever is on
the other end calls him Vincent. Our hero is confused, but the
man continues talking, calling him a murderer. He denies it, demanding
more information from the man on the 'phone, but the man hangs up.
Suddenly, helicopters appear overhead. Our hero ducks into a nearby
arcade as men in the black and blue uniforms of SWAT officers
descend from overhead. Their commander, his voice muffled by a
respirator, reminds them of their orders; they are to cleanse the
area of its infection.
Inside the arcade, our hero sees a team of cleaners dispatch two
zombies, but then they attack him. Apparently, "cleansing the area"
is synonymous with "killing all the witnesses." Up close, the
"cleaners" look more like gorillas dressed in body armor than anything
else; their arms reach almost to their feet, and they roll around on
their knuckles like apes. They're remarkably fragile, though, and our
hero easily dispatches them. As they die, they scream like wildcats,
and their bodies dissolve into nothingness.
Our hero, as he searches the arcade, is nearly killed by a sniper.
The sniper yells a threat at "Vincent," but doesn't take another
shot. Our hero sneaks out of the arcade's basement, jimmying open
a manhole and entering the sewers.
The sewers are blissfully quiet. In the sewer manager's office,
our hero finds the man's diary. He has written about his meeting
with Vincent, the cruel and vicious man who was promoted to the
post of the city's supreme commander. When the manager took a
picture of Vincent for a souvenir, Vincent got angry. As our hero
searches the manager's desk, he finds the picture of Vincent. It
is of himself. Clearly, our hero concludes, he must be Vincent. He
must be this cruel man that he keeps hearing about.
As he contemplates this, a young boy enters the manager's office
behind him. As Vincent turns around, the boy begs him not to
kill him. Vincent is confused, and tells the boy that he won't
hurt him, but the boy doesn't listen, and runs away. Vincent
gives chase.
The boy's exit route leads straight to the front doors of a place
that claims to be Paradise. It is, in fact, a prison. Inside,
Vincent kills several zombies, and finds the diary of the prison's
warden. He refers to the prisoners as "guinea pigs," and has
written that a "mass suicide" that had taken place in mid-October
was, in fact, an escape attempt. Vincent put down the escape
attempt by shooting down the fleeing boys as they tried to
escape. Vincent intimidated the prison's chief into reporting
the incident to Umbrella as a mass suicide.
As bad as that is, the cell block is worse. Vincent finds the diary
of one of the former prisoners on a bed in one of the cells. The
prisoner was a boy, abducted from the Congo in late August and
brought to Sheena Island. He and his fellow prisoners were all
young, between fourteen and twenty years of age, and were gathered
from all over the world.
According to the boy, everyone in Sheena Island was an Umbrella
employee, even the women and the children. While he and his fellow
prisoners weren't mistreated, the guards took one of them to a
factory, elsewhere on the island, every so often. Whoever was
taken would never come back.
The boy eventually found out why, by eavesdropping on a conversation
between some factory workers in the nightclub. For whatever reason,
the factory workers were ordered by Vincent to take the prisoners,
the "guinea pigs," and extract some kind of material from their
brains. The boy heard this, and immediately resolved to escape.
When word of the disaster at Raccoon City reached Steena Island,
the prisoners used the guards' uneasiness to stage their escape
attempt. One way or another, the boy writes, he's probably dead,
but he'd rather die trying to escape.
Vincent finds a coil of rope nearby, and uses the boy's planned
escape route by climbing down the side of one of the guard towers.
At the bottom of the tower, Vincent finds himself face-to-face
with a massive, trenchcoated figure. Clearly inhuman, it attacks
Vincent, and takes nearly three dozen bullets before it falls.
While Vincent has no idea what he's just killed, Leon would
recognize it as Mr. X.
Two more of the creatures are waiting for Vincent inside a nearby
nightclub. Barely evading them, Vincent bursts out the front door,
and finds himself across the street from a skyscraper bearing
the Umbrella logo. Clearly, he thinks, this is where Umbrella
controlled the island from. Memories flash through his mind as
he looks at the building, but they come and go too quickly.
The office is populated by zombies, Lickers, and the occasional
Hunter. Vincent blasts his way to the thirteenth floor, into
what would appear to have once been the office of the supreme
commander-- his office. There's been extensive fire damage
recently. A bank of security monitors is still active, and
he can see a little girl sitting at a security console elsewhere
in the building.
Vincent finds his own diary on his old desk. In it, he's written
about many things, such as the escape attempt that he thwarted via
gunfire, and a boy named Lott who told him about a spy on the island.
His final entries speak of a plot amongst his subordinates on the
island. Due to his brutal execution of the escapees, his subordinates
planned to gather evidence about the incident and report it to Vincent's
superiors at Umbrella. Vincent, in a fit of insane rage, unleashed
the T-Virus on Sheena Island, making it look like an accident. Now,
he intends to dispatch the spy and return to Umbrella for his reward.
Vincent's search is interrupted by a Mr. X unit punching through the
wall. After another intense gunfight, Vincent picks a keycard out of
the rubble. The keycard opens a door further down the hallway, to
the security office.
As Vincent enters the office, he hears an aged voice, claiming to
be his mother. His mother begs him to stop committing his horrible
crimes, and just come home. When he rounds the corner, he finds the
little girl, who's listening to one of Vincent's own telephone
conversations on tape. He tries to talk to the girl, who's upset
and crying, but someone nearly caves his skull in from behind with
a baseball bat. It's the boy from earlier, who threatens Vincent,
then grabs his sister, Lily, and runs for it.
On the security desk, Vincent finds yet more allegations against
himself. A document, apparently written by one of the leaders of
the conspiracy against him, says that not only did Vincent kill
one of his colleagues for a promotion before coming to Sheena
Island, but through tapping Vincent's 'phone, the conspirators
had unquestionable proof that Vincent killed the escapees and
hushed it up. If Vincent hadn't destroyed Sheena Island, he'd
probably have wound up in a prison somewhere. Vincent pockets
the document and runs after the children.
While he's waiting for an elevator, Mr. X catches up to Vincent
once again. Another volley of gunfire takes the creature down,
and Vincent takes the elevator back down to the first floor. He
pursues the children through a parking garage, and through an
overflowing rain gutter choked with Hunters.
Finally, Vincent finds his way out of the gutter, to a small,
well-furnished house. He finds Lott's diary, and in the same
room, he finds Lily hiding in a closet. She tells him that Lott
has gone to the nearby factory, hoping to find a way out, but
she's afraid that with all the monsters in the factory, Lott
will be killed. Vincent decides that no matter who he was in
the past, that's not who he is now, and tells Lily that he'll
save Lott. He leaves Lily in her house, and enters the factory.
Lily wasn't kidding. The factory is overrun with lickers, Hunters,
zombies, and dogs. Vincent barely manages to stay alive as he
activates a tram car, taking him to another part of the factory.
He dispatches yet another Mr. X, only to find himself dumped
onto a mountain path where *four* of the creatures are standing
guard. These creatures are smarter than the ones he's fought
before, shielding their faces from Vincent's attack, and rushing
forward to try and knock him off of the path. Vincent blasts
through them, fighting his way to the top of the mountain.
The factory's entrance is a once-palatial mansion, now falling in
on itself. As Vincent picks his way through the wreckage, he hears
Lott scream from somewhere below. He makes his way downstairs.
Yet *another* Mr. X is waiting to greet Vincent. He blows it away
and proceeds into a control room, where he finds a Magnum revolver,
the controls to an elevator, and a panicked confession written by
one of the factory workers. The worker is hysterical over his work
in the factory, which involves removing parts of the brains of the
"guinea pigs," the teenage prisoners, and using those parts to
create Tyrants. Vincent has ordered that this operation be carried
out without anesthetic, which is driving the factory worker insane
with guilt and grief. After reading this, Vincent activates the
elevator, which carries him deeper into Umbrella's factory.
More zombies, lickers, and Hunters, led by yet another Mr. X,
are waiting for Vincent. More of Umbrella's experiments in the
creation of plant life are stored in tanks in this area, and,
of course, they escape at the worst possible time. With luck,
stealth, and sheer firepower, Vincent avoids or dispatches them
all. Finally, he catches up to Lott, just in time to save the
boy's life.
Lott thanks Vincent, who starts to explain his actions. Lott
stares at him blankly, and tells him that he's not Vincent
after all. His name is Ark Thompson. Lott had told the real
Vincent about Ark's arrival; Ark was the spy Vincent mentioned
in his diary.
As Ark tries to digest this, a woman's voice comes over the factory's
speakers. Someone has triggered the base's self-destruct mechanisms.
Ark asks Lott how they can get out of the factory, and Lott says that
there's a railway system nearby. Ark says that he'll go there and set
it up. He tells Lott to go back and get his sister. Lott takes off.
As Ark heads through the next door, his memories suddenly return to
him in a rush. His friend, Leon Kennedy, had asked him to come to
Sheena Island and investigate it, and he'd posed as Vincent to do so.
That's how he had introduced himself to Andy, the sewer manager, and
how Lott had found out about the "spy."
Ark remembers what had happened, just before the helicopter crash.
He had been ransacking Vincent's office when Vincent himself snuck
up on him. Vincent had been ready to shoot Ark, but Ark overpowered
him and escaped. During the scuffle, Vincent grabbed onto a set of
dogtags Ark was wearing and pulled them off, which is why he had them
in his hand when Ark found his body. As Ark attempted to take off
in a helicopter, Vincent grabbed onto the landing gear and took a
shot at him, which made the helicopter crash.
Ark unlocks the way to the railway station, and finds himself in
a final laboratory. At the lab's end is a vaguely humanoid creature,
floating in a vat. It is roughly the size of a teenage boy, but has
blue skin, no visible gender, and short claws on its left arm. A
nearby document, written by the real Vincent Goldman, tells of how
the prisoners were to be used.
The process that creates Tyrants requires a chemical called Beta
Hetero Nonserotonin. The chemical can only be found in the brains of
pubescent human beings between the ages of fourteen and twenty, and
is secreted by the pituitary gland when the human in question is
extremely terrified or tense. Vincent's recommendation is to perform
the necessary operation without anesthesia, which will cause the brain
to secrete plenty of the needed chemical. Ark pockets this last file,
takes a key from the lab, and heads towards the railway station.
Unfortunately, some old friends have invited themselves to the party.
Ark is confronted outside the Tyrant's lab by the leader of the Cleaners,
who is surprised that Ark is still alive. Just before he can shoot Ark,
he is suddenly impaled from behind. The Tyrant, fresh from its storage
vat, pulls its claws out of the man's back and advances on Ark. Luckily,
it's still sluggish from its imprisonment, and Ark overcomes it with
relative ease. He leaves it in a bloody pile on the floor, and is
long gone when it stands back up and roars.
The Cleaners are waiting for Ark on the path to the railway station,
but compared to what he's been fighting, they're barely a threat at
all. He blasts through their ranks and finds Lott and Lily waiting
for him at the railway station. Ark opens the gate on the subway
tunnel, just in time for the Cleaners to spring one last ambush.
Ark foils their plans, and jumps into the train as it takes off.
The train takes them to an isolated helipad, and luckily, there's
still a helicopter on the ground. Lott and Lily climb into the
helicopter, but before Ark can join them, a large shape crashes
down in the middle of the helipad.
The Tyrant has returned.
===========================================================
5ii. A Summary of the Conclusion of RESIDENT EVIL: SURVIVOR
===========================================================
As one might expect, the Tyrant has mutated after its earlier defeat.
It is now much faster and stronger, and Ark can barely keep up
with it. He blasts it again and again with acid-laced grenades
and high-caliber bullets, dodging its claw swipes and mad lunges.
For once, the Tyrant's uncontrollable mutations work against it.
Ark's assault eventually triggers another mutation; the Tyrant's
muscles swell to an immense size, to the point where it can barely
move. It is still dangerous, but it's no longer able to dodge Ark's
gunfire. Eventually, his attacks wear the creature down, and it
collapses in a bloody heap.
Ark hastily scrambles aboard the helicopter and takes off. As he
flies away from Sheena Island, the factory detonates. The explosion
utterly destroys Umbrella's factory, and devastates the remainder
of the island.
Suddenly, the helicopter shakes. Ark looks out the window, and finds
that once more, he's acquired a stowaway. The Tyrant slowly pulls
itself on board the helicopter, towards Lott and Lily.
Ark banks the helicopter, putting the Tyrant in line with one of the
helicopter's onboard missiles. He fires, and the missile takes the
Tyrant in the stomach. It screams in rage as it's carried away
from the helicopter by the impact, right up until Ark fires his
second missile at it. The Tyrant disappears in a flash of fire.
In the helicopter, Lott and Lily hold each other. Finally, Lily
asks Ark where they're going. He says that he doesn't know, but
they can fly as long as they have fuel.
======================
5iii. Different Routes
======================
Survivor frequently makes you pick where to go, usually by offering
a choice between three doors or something like that. Most of the
time, the only real difference between routes is what you fight and
what you'll find. Please note that you can never double back and
choose another route once you've picked one, and that it's impossible
to collect all of the guns and files on a single run through the game.
The exception here is the second choice of direction, where you pick
between the Library, the Arcade, and the Hospital. Which of these you
pick determines what cutscene you see, and who shows up to get
slaughtered by the Tyrant at the end of the game.
If you enter the Arcade, you'll see a brief cutscene, as described
above, where the Cleaners descend upon the city. The leader of the
Cleaners is the lucky victim on this route.
Upon going into the Library, you'll meet Andy the sewer manager, who
will beg for his life right up until you hear the sound of an
approaching helicopter. Andy will suddenly turn on you, and try to
catch you in a deathtrap on the second floor. For his efforts, he
gets to be the Tyrant's victim.
Finally, if you choose the Hospital, Vincent will come back from
the dead. He watches Ark enter the hospital through the security
cameras in his office, and unleashes a Mr. X unit to track you
down. Vincent is the only one to hear the Cleaners' arrival, and
he muses aloud that Umbrella must be in a hurry. At the end of the
game, he gets to die again at the claws of the Tyrant.
Much like in my summary of RE3, I chose a route at random and went
with it. To duplicate my summary, go to the Church and the Arcade,
exit the Prison through the guard tower, run through Heaven's Night,
and take the door on the right when you leave the Factory.
=====================================
5iv. Conclusions about the Conclusion
=====================================
1. Ark Thompson, Lott, and Lily have survived.
2. Vincent Goldman is dead. Good riddance.
3. Nicholai Ginovaef survived Raccoon City.
4. Sheena Island has been destroyed, along with its laboratories
and its research. Umbrella has apparently lost a major facility
for production of its bioweapons.
5. Nicholai Ginovaef is currently working for Umbrella in some
kind of advisory capacity.
6. Leon Kennedy is alive and is still working against Umbrella.
7. Umbrella is a lot more depraved than we thought. Each Tyrant
that's created means that a teenager died screaming.
8. Umbrella isn't merely a powerful corporation. In some parts
of the world, it's a nation unto itself, capable of building
entire cities.
==================
5v. Random Musings
==================
1. Say what you will about how lame CV's ending is, but Survivor's
is much, much worse.
2. Separated at birth: Andy, and Chrono Cross's Sprigg?
3. I really don't care for this game. I can see how it'd be
a lot more fun with a light gun, but with a control pad, it
becomes incredibly frustrating.
4. Alert reader Phoenix notes that the endings of Survivor and
George Romero's _Dawn of the Dead_ are remarkably similar.
5. Johannes Lemken writes to point out that Goldman is also the
name of the villain in House of the Dead 2.
==================================================
6. Sibling Rivalries: RESIDENT EVIL: CODE VERONICA
==================================================
Code Veronica initially came out for the Dreamcast, but was
rereleased as Code Veronica X in September of 2001. It's
easily more than twice as long as any previous RE game, with
a surprisingly elaborate story, and as such, is going to
require the Plot Summary From Hell. You might want to go
get a drink or something.
The rerelease of CV contained a few new scenes and a much
longer ending. All new scenes will be enclosed in [brackets]
over the course of the summary.
Code Veronica, in brief, follows Claire Redfield as she
continues to look for Chris. She's captured in an Umbrella
facility in Paris and sent to an Umbrella-run prison camp
in South America. She manages to escape when the prison
is attacked by an unknown third party, and must contend
with Alfred Ashford, the insane descendant of one of the
original founders of Umbrella.
The last third of the game features the long-awaited return
of Chris Redfield, as he arrives on the island to try and
save Claire. Unfortunately, he's not only too late, but
an old enemy is waiting for him.
=====================================================
6i. A Lovely Island Hideaway: CODE VERONICA, Part One
=====================================================
In December of 1998, Claire Redfield travels to Paris and
infiltrates an Umbrella facility there, hoping to find clues
to the whereabouts of her brother Chris.
She's discovered, and a chase ensues. As she runs from a
pair of armed guards, she's blinded by a searchlight coming
in through the window. When her eyes clear, she sees an attack
helicopter hovering outside the building. As the helicopter's
chaingun begins to warm up, Claire doubles back and ducks into
the hallway as the helicopter opens fire. It shreds the two
guards who were chasing her, but Claire manages to stay one
step ahead of it.
The helicopter chases Claire the rest of the way down the
hall. Just before its gunfire catches up with her, Claire
jumps through an open door and down a flight of stairs. She
rolls to her feet and finds herself eye-to-eye with at least
two dozen of Umbrella's guards, all of whom are pointing guns
at her. As they walk forward, Claire sees that they're standing
in front of a tank full of flammable chemicals. Claire puts
her hands up, drops her gun, hits the floor, catches the gun
before it hits the ground, and puts her last three bullets
into the tank. The resulting explosion sends the guards flying.
Claire gets to her feet as another guard comes down the
stairs. Both she and the guard react at the same time,
shoving their guns in each other's faces, but the guard's
gun has bullets in it. Hers doesn't.
Ten days later, Claire is taken to an isolated prison by
helicopter. She spends most of the ride there with a bag over
her head. It's taken off as a guard tells her what her serial
number is, and welcomes her to her new home. Another guard
cracks Claire in the face with the butt of his rifle, and
she blacks out.
She wakes up in a dank cell, somewhere underground. As Claire
stands up, the cell shakes with distant explosions. It sounds
as though a war is being fought aboveground. The lights flicker
and die, leaving Claire alone in the darkness.
Slowly, someone clutching his stomach shambles into the room
and stands outside Claire's cell door. Claire uses her lighter
to see who it is, and is surprised to see the face of the man
who took her prisoner in Paris.
The man unlocks her cell and opens the door. As Claire
hesitantly steps outside her cell, he slumps into a nearby
chair and pulls an empty bottle of medicine out of his
pocket. He throws it against the floor in frustration. Not
looking up, he tells Claire that this place is finished.
They've been attacked by what he thinks is a "special forces
team." Claire's free to leave the prison grounds, but he
warns her that she has no chance of getting off the island.
Before leaving the cellblock, Claire picks up a knife and
notes that the man needs hemostatic medicine. A manifest on
the desk tells her that the man's name is Rodrigo Juan Raval,
and that he's a member of Umbrella's medical division.
It's raining gently when Claire gets outside. The cellblock
opens into a small graveyard. A truck has crashed through
the wall, and is burning merrily. Suddenly, it explodes. A
burning man climbs out of the driver's seat. One good look
tells Claire that the man's become a zombie. Somehow, the
T-Virus has been released. As Claire backs away from the
burning zombie, more emerge from open graves all around her.
Claire scrambles to her feet and runs through the nearest door.
Claire gets about two steps out of the door when someone
opens fire on her from a guard tower. Taking cover behind
the crashed truck, she grabs a handgun off of a dead man and
returns fire, shattering the gunman's spotlight and forcing
him to take cover. The man screams. Claire demands that he
tell her who he is. The man--a boy, really--is glad to
see that she's not a zombie like he'd thought, and hops down
from the tower. He introduces himself as Steve, another
prisoner, and says that he's looking for an airport that he'd
heard was on the island. Claire tries to follow him as he
leaves, but Steve claims that she'd only slow him down.
The prison is only lightly populated with zombies, so Claire
doesn't have much trouble as she searches the place. Inside
a nearby mess hall, she finds a map of the facility, as well
as one of the other prisoners' diaries. The prisoner had
managed to figure out that the island is south of the equator.
The prison's file room and computer lab is nearby. Claire
runs into Steve, who's playing with one of the computers.
Steve asks her if she's related to Chris Redfield. When she
says she is, he shows her that Chris is under electronic
surveillance by Umbrella. Claire uses the computer's Internet
connection to forward Chris's location to Leon Kennedy via
e-mail, hoping that Leon can figure out some way to help
her. Steve tells her that the latitude and longitude of the
prison is stored on the computer and, with a snort, suggests
that she have Leon forward that to her brother so he can
come help them out. Claire thinks it's a good idea and does
so, but Steve indignantly claims to have just been kidding;
Chris won't come to help them. Claire denies this. Steve says
angrily that other people will just let you down, and storms
out of the computer lab. Claire is left alone again, wondering
what Steve's problem is.
Using one of the machines in the file room to forge a key,
Claire lets herself out the prison's front gate. A recent
rockfall has blocked the main exit and destroyed the main
bridge, so Claire runs up a nearby staircase instead. To her
surprise, she's now standing in front of a military training
facility on one side, and a mansion on the other. She decides
to investigate the mansion first.
The mansion hasn't escaped damage in the recent assault, but
the interior is more or less intact. Claire finds an ornate
locked door in a study on the second floor, but instead of
keys, the door is molded so as to accept a pair of guns. In
the same room, she finds a diary kept by one of the servants
that lived here. The servant talks about his master, Alfred,
and how Alfred is incredibly secretive about his relationship
with his sister Alexia. No one is allowed near her, or has
even seen her except at a distance, sitting in the window of
Alfred's house.
Someone's private war museum is on the first floor.
Antique handguns and models of battleships line the walls.
Claire presses a button near a sculpture of a giant ant, and
an old movie begins to play on the room's screen. The movie
features two blond-haired, beautiful children, a boy and a
girl, obviously twins. Slowly, the boy plucks the wings off
of a dragonfly, and sets the helpless insect in an ant farm
to be devoured. As the dragonfly writhes, the boy turns to
the girl, and both share an innocent smile.
The end of the movie coincides with a secret door opening in
the corner of the room. Claire finds a pair of gold-inlaid
Luger handguns inside, but taking them from their wall mount
sets off a trap. The door slams shut, and hidden heaters turn
the secret room into a furnace. Claire quickly replaces the
guns and tries to leave the mansion, but as she reaches the
front door, she hears Steve scream for help. She returns to
the museum to find that he's fallen into the same trap, but
refuses to put the Lugers back on the wall. Claire quickly
figures out the room's computer systems and releases the
secret door, freeing Steve. Claire recognizes the Lugers
as what she needs to open the door in the study, but Steve
refuses to give them to her unless she gives him something
fully automatic. Once again, he runs off.
In the front hall of the mansion, Claire notices a laser
sight as it focuses on her head. She dives to the side and
hides behind a pillar. The gunman, a blond man dressed in a
blend of preppy fashion and military gear, demands that she
tell him who her friends are. He's convinced that Claire
deliberately let herself be captured so she could lead her
allies to his base to destroy it. Claire says that she
doesn't know what he's talking about, but he doesn't believe
her. His name is Alfred Ashford, he says, commander of the
base. Claire retorts that he must be one of Umbrella's
low-ranking employees if he's in command of such a small,
isolated facility. Alfred angrily tells her that his family,
the Ashfords, is one of the oldest and greatest in the world.
His grandfather was one of the original founders of Umbrella
Incorporated. Having said his piece, he leaves, telling Claire
that she's just a rat in a cage.
A strange setup outside the palace, when Claire plays with
it, brings a submarine to the surface. She goes inside, and
finds that the sub's a glorified underwater elevator. It takes
her to a hidden seaport, where a fueled-up cargo plane is
waiting. Even better, Claire's already found one of the three
proofs she needs to work its access elevator.
Claire finds a keycard inside an abandoned cargo bay, and heads
back to the military training facility to see what it unlocks.
The training yard is guarded by an enormous worm, which
tunnels under the ground and attempts to devour Claire. She
dodges it and runs into the facility.
Stairs just inside the entrance lead to a lab on the second
floor. The lab's experiment area is locked down due to
environmental pollution. As Claire walks by the lab's
observation window, a man in a biohazard suit desperately
beats against it, trying to get her to open the door. Claire
can't, and helplessly watches as something behind the man
grabs him. The man's skull is crushed against the glass.
As he sinks to the floor, a recording on the overhead
speakers alerts Claire that the area has been contaminated,
and will be locked down for ventilation. Claire barely makes
it out of the lab before it seals itself.
Claire finds extra ammunition in the facility's locker room,
then sets out to explore the rest of the first floor. As she
walks down a hallway, a steel gate silently shuts behind her.
In the next room, Alfred Ashford tries to ambush her, and
fails. Claire dodges his badly aimed gunfire and runs up to
the balcony where he's aiming from, but Alfred is already gone.
She chases him in the only direction he could've run in, but
he seals every door behind her from somewhere else in the
complex. As the final door locks, he jeers at her from a
hidden speaker, telling her that he's prepared a special
surprise for her. He hopes that she won't die too quickly.
The only door that Alfred's left unlocked leads to a
storeroom. A discarded pair of Ingram submachine guns lies
on the balcony with Claire. She picks them up, just in time
to watch a door on the other side of the room open. A new
creature makes it way in; it resembles a zombie, except it
only has one long arm. Its upper body is bulging with
muscle. As Claire watches in horror, the creature's arm
stretches to an impossible length, grabbing a pipe in the
ceiling and using it to swing over to her. Claire barely
manages to kill the creature.
As the rubber man falls dead, Alfred opens a door via remote
control. Claire tries to walk through it, but another rubber
man drops from the ceiling and seizes her head with its arm.
Claire struggles vainly against it as it hoists her into the
air, threatening to either crush her skull or suffocate her.
Suddenly, a window above the creature shatters. Steve
dives through it, blasting the rubber man with the Lugers.
Roaring in pain, the rubber man drops Claire. Steve drives
it backward with a barrage of gunfire, kicks it into the
corner, and finishes it off with a final gunshot to the
head. He walks over and greets Claire, claiming to be her
"knight in shining armor." Claire denies that he's any such
thing, but offers him the Ingrams she found in exchange for
his Lugers. Steve accepts the trade. Suddenly, the floor
they're on begins to descend.
When the floor stops moving, Steve runs ahead of Claire
through the nearest door, anxious for an opportunity to try
out his "new toys." Claire catches back up to him on a
bridge overlooking the facility's sewer system, probably by
following the long trail of spent shells and dead zombies
he's left behind him. Steve claims that this is why Claire
needs him around; he'll watch her back. He then contradicts
himself, saying that the Ingrams he's been using are more
reliable than any person. Claire, who's still confused by
him, asks him why he's on this island, and where his family
is. Steve's response is to yell that he doesn't want to talk
about it and to shoot at the wall. He runs into a nearby
elevator, and Claire follows.
The path Alfred has set for them leads to a balcony
overlooking a motor pool. As Claire runs up to Steve, the
balcony collapses underneath them. Steve falls free, but
Claire is pinned underneath a chunk of rubble. A zombie
shambles towards Steve, who raises his Ingrams, but doesn't
fire. Claire yells at him to shoot it, but Steve freezes.
The zombie turns towards Claire. Steve hesitates for a
single long moment, then levels both Ingrams at the
zombie and yells, "FATHER!" He empties both guns into the
zombie, and sinks to his knees, sobbing.
Steve explains to Claire that his father used to work for
Umbrella, but had begun stealing information and auctioning
it off to the highest bidder. Umbrella caught him. Steve's
mother was killed, and he and his father were sent to this
prison. He despises his father for being so reckless and
stupid. Claire comforts him, telling him to rest, and leaves
him alone to mourn.
Alfred has apparently given up on his "deathtrap." The only
other problems Claire encounters in the military facility are
zombies and the odd mutated dog. In a storeroom, she finds
a copy of the Ashford family crest, which depicts an eagle
clutching a halberd in its claws. The crest is forged of
some kind of blue metal, while the halberd seems to be inlaid
gold. Elsewhere in the facility, the crest opens a compartment
containing a copy of Alfred's personal keycard. Using that
and the card she found earlier, Claire is able to unlock
most of the doors inside the base. Among other things, she
finds a grenade launcher and the medicine that Rodrigo needs.
Claire unlocks another door to find a monitor room. The
screens are still lit up. Inside, she finds the second key
to the cargo plane's door, as well as data on a creature
called an "Albanoid," the result of injecting the T-Virus
into a salamander. The creature is capable of generating
powerful electric shocks, and reaches adulthood only ten
hours after being "born." One of the monitors displays
the access password to the contaminated lab she was in
earlier, as well as letting her know that the lab's systems
have finished the ventilation process.
Inside the lab, Claire takes a painting she finds on the wall.
As she does so, an infant Albanoid breaks out of one of the
nearby storage vats. Before Claire can do anything, the
insanely quick creature disappears into one of the ventilation
shafts. Claire is forced to escape from the lab a second time,
as the automated systems declare the lab contaminated and
permanently seal the area.
In the storeroom where Claire found the Ashfords' crest, she
uses the painting to solve a puzzle. The wall of the
storeroom slides back, revealing an elaborate diorama of the
facility and a golden key.
Heading back to the mansion, Claire uses the Lugers to
unlock the door in the study. The door leads to what looks
like Alfred's private office. Using his computer, Claire
discovers yet another secret passage, leading through an
abandoned aqueduct to an enormous house, sitting high up the
side of a mountain. Claire heads towards it as lightning and
thunder crash in the distance, and a woman's mocking
laughter echoes over the island.
The house has been hit fairly hard by the assault on the
island. It's guarded by rubber men, but Claire easily avoids
them and gets inside. The interior of the house is a twisted
parody of childhood, with either dolls or books covering
every available surface. A larger-than-life doll dangles
from the chandelier hook in the ceiling, eviscerated. Most
of the furniture is sized for children, or for dolls.
On the house's second floor, Claire walks in on a
conversation between Alfred and his until-now-absent sister,
Alexia. As Claire lurks outside her bedroom window, Alexia
asks an unseen Alfred what's taking so long, when his
opponent is only a little girl. Alfred's success is
necessary, Alexia continues, to restore the honor of the
Ashford family. Alfred insists that he doesn't need to be
reminded. He intends to raise Alexia to the position of
leader of the once-again-glorious Ashford family. Alexia
sees Claire, but chalks it up to her own imagination.
The twins, having finished their conversation, leave.
Cautiously, Claire enters the twins' bedrooms, but no one is
in either of them, and she didn't see either of them in the
hall. A locked secret door above the bed in Alexia's room
tells her why. Both rooms feature an ornate, locked music box,
both of which require yet another unique key. Claire finds a
silver key in Alexia's room and heads back to the mansion.
Claire uses the keys she's found to unlock several doors
inside the palace. One door leads to a boardroom, where,
after a frantic battle with a pair of rubber men, she finds
another copy of the Ashfords' crest. Another room, a private
casino, is apparently where Alfred goes for recreation.
The last and largest room in the palace is a shrine to the
past leaders of the Ashford family. An oil painting of a
twelve-year-old Alfred is in the place of highest honor. An
inscription tells the onlooker to find the family's real
master, with a history of the Ashfords lying underneath it.
When Claire solves the puzzle, the picture of Alfred
rotates, revealing a painting of an adult Alexia. Underneath
her picture, Claire finds an ant-shaped key that will fit
the music box in Alexia's bedroom.
With nowhere to go for now, Claire takes the crest back to
the prison, where it unlocks a door she saw earlier. The door
leads to the prison's medical facility, which is guarded by
a mob of zombies. Claire dispatches them handily. Inside the
medical facility, she finds stacked body bags and the journal
of the facility's doctor. The doctor is apparently just as sick
and crazy as everyone else who works for Umbrella, and Alfred
lets him use the base's prisoners to pursue his "studies." If
the base hadn't been attacked, Claire herself might've been one
of the doctor's guinea pigs.
Claire investigates the prison's crematorium, which has
little of interest besides a small chair in the corner,
sized for a child. When she comes back, one of the body bags
is empty, and a zombie in a lab coat is feeding desperately
on the dissected corpse. The doctor has apparently returned.
Claire shoots him dead, and finds a glass eye on his body.
The eye fits in the doctor's anatomical dummy, which opens
a secret passage to the doctor's private chambers, filled
with antique but well-used torture devices. Blood cakes
the floor. Claire finds a roll of piano music in this
hellish place, and leaves as soon as she can.
Rodrigo is still in the dark cellblock when Claire gets back
there. She gives him the vial of medicine. A surprised Rodrigo
thanks her, but refuses any further help. Claire lets him keep
her lighter, and mentions that it was a gift from her brother.
In gratitude, Rodrigo gives her a set of lockpicks, and urges
her to leave while she still can.
[Claire returns to Alfred's palace. As she puts her hands on
the front door, someone behind her says her name. She asks
who he is, and he claims he is a "ghost from the past, come
back to haunt your brother Chris." Claire recognizes the man
as Wesker. Wesker says that it's good to see her; he attacked
the island, but wasn't expecting Claire to be there. Now
Chris will definitely show up, he says with a smile. Claire
says that she doesn't know what went on between Wesker and
Chris, but Chris isn't the kind of person Wesker seems to
think he is. Wesker's response is to grab Claire by the
throat and toss her away.
[He walks up to Claire, who's struggling to move, and cruelly
puts one foot on her shoulder. It will pain Chris to see
Claire die, Wesker says. However, he's interrupted by a
radio message. Whoever it is apparently has new information,
and Wesker winds up walking away. Apparently, Claire may
still be of use to him, Wesker says. He looks back at
Claire, and his eyes glow red through his sunglasses.
Claire gasps, and Wesker, his body blurring with sudden
speed, jumps over the patio railing into darkness.]
The piano roll from the torture chamber fits in the piano in
Alfred's recreation room. As the piano plays the same song
that Alfred's music box did, a secret panel in one of the
slot machines swings open. Inside, Claire finds the key to
Alfred's music box.
The music boxes are the disguised keys to a secret door in
Alfred's bedroom. Claire goes through to find herself
standing on a full-sized merry-go-round with only two
horses. The room is filled with toys and keepsakes of the
twins' childhood. A golden dragonfly sits on a child's
chair, across the room from a painting of an ant. The ant's
mouth is a concealed keyhole. Remembering the movie in
Alfred's museum, Claire plucks the dragonfly's wings off and
puts it in the ant's "mouth." Behind her, the merry-go-round
starts up again and turns, orienting itself so Claire can
climb up to yet another level in the room.
The final tier of Alfred's hideaway is a well-cared-for
study. Thick, well-thumbed books on biology, chemistry,
and genetics fill the bookcases on the walls. A newspaper
clipping on a stool is about a 10-year-old girl, maybe
Alexia, who graduated from a university with top honors.
She was offered a job as a head researcher by Umbrella
Incorporated. On top of one of the bookcases, Claire finds
Alfred's private diary. He has written of his unwholesome
obsession with his sister; he regards Alexia as his queen,
a woman who the entire world must worship. Claire takes the
diary, and finds that it hides the final key to the cargo
plane. She can finally escape.
As she climbs down into Alexia's bedroom, Alexia herself
somehow sneaks up on Claire. Holding Alfred's rifle, Alexia
says that for the glory of the Ashfords, Claire must die.
Claire dodges Alexia's first shot, but she knows the second
won't miss. Alexia moves in for the kill.
Suddenly, Steve kicks in the bedroom door. He sees Alexia at
the same time she sees him, and each point their weapon at
the other. Alexia fires first, grazing Steve. As Steve
falls to the floor, he returns the favor with a wild burst
from one of his Ingrams. Alexia retreats into Alfred's bedroom
through a secret door.
Steve and Claire cautiously follow Alexia. At the end of a
trail of blood, Claire finds a blond wig on Alfred's music
box. As she picks it up, Alfred suddenly jumps from above
his bed, meaning to crush Claire's skull with the butt of
his rifle. Claire dodges, and as Alfred takes a second swing,
Steve kicks him across the room and holds him at gunpoint.
Alfred drags himself shakily to his feet, and accidentally
catches a glimpse of himself in the bedroom window. He's
wearing the same makeup that Alexia was. Screaming insanely,
Alfred runs, and a shocked Steve lets him go.
Steve, confused, asks what just happened. Claire, realizing
that she never did see Alfred during his "conversation" with
Alexia, concludes that there must never have really been
an Alexia. Alfred went to such extremes to hide Alexia from
everyone on the island because he thought he *was* Alexia.
This weirds Steve out, who decides that now they *really*
have to get out of this place (forget about the undead monsters;
it takes a *transvestite* to bother our man Steve). No sooner
does he say that than alarm klaxons start ringing all over the
factory. Alfred has activated the base's self-destruct system
by remote control.
Several cargo planes fly overhead as Claire and Steve leave
the mansion. Steve guesses that the other survivors are on
them. Quickly, Claire and Steve follow their example and run
for the underwater airport. Claire's keys unlock the cargo
plane's door, and Steve sets into the pilot's seat. He begins
to prepare the plane for takeoff, but the airport's maintenance
bridge is in the way. Claire volunteers to raise the bridge
while Steve gets ready to take off.
Claire dashes across the airport and throws a switch, raising
the bridge. This forces her to take the long way around to get
back to the plane. Claire uses the airport's cargo elevator to
return to the training facility's courtyard. A female voice,
almost exactly the same as the one she heard in William Birkin's
lab, tells Claire that the facility will explode in five minutes.
As Claire boards the elevator, Alfred has reached the training
facility's monitor room. Speaking in Alexia's voice, he swears
revenge on Claire. He types a series of passwords into a computer
and punches a red button.
A lab elsewhere in the facility suddenly powers up. Automated
systems defrost a storage tank marked T-078. It swings open, and
a new creature steps out. It looks nearly human, save for its
chalk-white skin and lack of gender. Both arms terminate in
clublike, spiked protrusions. A new Tyrant has been unleashed.
Claire starts running the moment the elevator opens. As she
turns the corner towards Alfred's palace, the Tyrant breaks
down a fence and steps into her way. It wades through a hail
of explosive bolts, only to collapse at Claire's feet. Claire
jumps over its body and takes off towards the airport.
Steve is anxiously waiting for her when Claire gets back to
the plane. He takes off just as the base begins to rock
with scattered explosions. They get into the air without a
hitch, and for a moment, Claire dares to think that their
ordeal is over. Steve tells her that he hopes she finds her
brother, because he now knows what it's like to be alone in
the world. After an uncomfortable silence, he changes the
subject, asking her where she wants to go. Claire suggests
Hawaii, and Steve sets a course.
Back on the island, Alfred runs to the antique tank he keeps
outside the military training facility. He opens a hatch on
its back and moves the tank forward, revealing yet another
secret passage. Using a special key, a minature gold halberd
like the one on his family crest, Alfred opens the door at
the passage's end, which leads to a hangar. Alfred climbs
into a Harrier jet marked with the Ashfords' crest, and
promises Claire to show her what real terror is all about.
A sudden impact shakes the cargo plane. Steve looks at the
plane's instruments, and somehow, the cargo bay's door has
come open. Claire volunteers to check it out.
Claire finds a stowaway in the cargo bay: the Tyrant. It
roars in anger, and one of its spikes grows into a vicious
claw. Claire's weapons only seem to slow the creature down,
but fortunately, the cargo catapult is loaded and ready to
fire. Claire leads the Tyrant near the open cargo bay door,
dodges one of its mad lunges, and hits the switch on the
catapult. A crate full of explosives is fired at the weakened
Tyrant, knocking it out the cargo hatch. Before they can hit
the ocean, the crate explodes.
As she walks into the cockpit, Steve asks Claire what was
wrong. Claire nonchalantly tells him that it was nothing. As
Steve grins, the plane's autopilot suddenly turns on. Steve
tries to turn manual control back on, with no luck. Alfred's
sneering face appears on a screen above the pilot's seat.
With a chuckle, he tells Claire and Steve that he's selected
a new destination for them.
Several hours pass. Steve is slumped against the side of the
cockpit, with Claire asleep on his shoulder. He turns to
look at her, and slowly lowers his face to hers. Just before
he can kiss her, Claire starts to wake up, and Steve jerks
away. Standing up, he looks out the plane's window and
realizes that the plane is descending. Steve looks at the
plane's instruments and sees that they're over Antarctica.
As the plane heads towards the ground, Claire sees a small
facility on the ground. Parked outside it are the cargo
planes that they saw leave the island. Apparently, Umbrella
owns this base as well.
The plane's autopilot apparently doesn't know how to land.
It descends to the base's runway, but goes into a skid. The
plane crashes into the side of the base. Both Claire and
Steve are knocked unconscious.
More time passes. Claire wakes up on the floor of the
plane's cockpit and wakes Steve up, who's surprised that
he's still alive.
Umbrella's base is constructed around a deep chasm of some
sort. Steve kicks the plane's door out and jumps down onto
the base's balcony. As Claire jumps out, he catches her, but
accidentally falls down with her on top of him. After a few
seconds' worth of cheap sexual tension, Claire gets to her
feet and offers Steve her hand. Steve ignores her and gets
up. At his suggestion, they split up to look for a way out.
Alone, Claire explores the base. In a barracks for
Umbrella's employees, she's caught in a crude ambush by a
quartet of zombies. The base may look deserted, but it's
still inhabited by its share of monsters.
The base appears to be both a mine, although Claire never
finds out what it's mining for, and a warehouse for Umbrella's
chemical shipments. One of the miners has left his diary
behind. He has written about both Alfred's tyranny
as a supervisor, and the creature that's rumored to haunt
the base. The miners call him "Nosferatu," and say that
late at night, you can hear him roar.
A richly furnished office on the base's second floor belongs
to Alfred, and inside, Claire finds a note written to Alfred
from his family's butler, offering Alfred condolences on his
sister's death. There *was* an Alexia Ashford, but according
to the letter, she died in an unspecified accident fifteen
years ago, soon after Alfred's father was killed. Alfred was
forced to assume the responsibilities of an adult at a young
age, and lost his beloved sister soon afterward. His insanity
starts to make a little more sense.
A second folder contains a report/confession by Alexander
Ashford, the twins' father and the original architect of
this base. His report concerns the founding of Umbrella, the
creation of the T-Virus, the death of his own father, and
the Ashfords' fall from grace. The most interesting revelation
is the fact that there's a great deal of competition in the
field of T-Virus research. Umbrella isn't the only company
in the world that deals in monsters.
After dealing with the base's meager population of zombies,
dogs, and giant spiders, Claire reactivates the base's
generator. Now that the lights are back on, Claire searches
Alfred's office again and finds a hidden switch. Pushing it
slides a door back, revealing a room with a mesh floor. Far
below this room, a screaming man is blindfolded, gagged, and
shackled to the wall. An ornate battle axe is embedded in the
wall with its haft across his chest. His scream is a completely
inhuman, bonechilling sound. This must be the "Nosferatu" that
the miner was writing about. Claire finds the key to the base's
machine room and leaves Nosferatu's prison.
The base's mining drill can be controlled from the machine
room. Claire meets back up with Steve, who tells her that
there's an Australian outpost seven miles from the base. If
they can use the drill to break out of the base, they might
be able to reach the outpost. Steve takes control of the
drill and starts to guide it towards the wall, but at a
crucial moment, he's staring dreamily at Claire instead of
watching what he's doing. He winds up smashing open a pipe
filled with toxic gas, which fills the mining and machine
rooms. Claire grabs him by the scruff of the neck and yanks
him out of the room.
Steve gets outside and immediately starts beating himself
up over being so stupid. Claire tells him to not blame
himself. (Not right *now*, anyway.) Whatever happens,
they'll escape, and they'll do it together. Steve is cheered
up by this, and runs off to find a way to fix what he's done.
Claire, using a gas mask and a reshaped valve handle,
proceeds to do it for him by shutting off the flow of gas
through the pipes.
The air clears in the mining room. Claire takes off the gas
mask and is immediately ambushed by a freshly arrived Alfred
Ashford. Steve arrives in the nick of time, and, after a short
gunfight, shoots Alfred in the chest. Alfred falls over the
railing of the machine room to the floor of the mining room,
next to one of the yawning pits that the base was built on top
of. He staggers to his feet, but the edge of the pit crumbles
underneath him. Alfred falls out of sight, screaming. After he
disappears, something at the bottom of the pit roars in rage.
Claire picks up Alfred's sniper rifle and gets into the
mining drill with Steve. Steve throws the drill into gear
and drives forward through the wall. The heat produced by
the drill melts the ice on the other side of the wall, which
in turn floods most of the base.
In his prison below Alfred's office, Nosferatu roars. His
chest splits open with a sickening crack, revealing his
oversized first-generation-Tyrant-esque heart. With casual
ease, he pulls himself away from the wall, snapping steel
shackles like spiderwebs. The axe across his chest is
thrown across the room and sticks in the floor. Nosferatu
staggers forward, still roaring...
Steve and Claire get out of the drill. They climb up to the
top of a nearby helipad, and find a staircase on the other
side. Claire is about to go down the stairs when she sees
Nosferatu at their bottom, coming up. Steve steps in front
of her and points his Ingrams at Nosferatu, yelling for it
to back off. Suddenly, an enormous mandible, like that of a
praying mantis, sprouts from the Nosferatu's back and swats
Steve, sending him tumbling off of the edge of the helipad.
Claire runs to where Steve fell, to find him clinging by one
hand to one of the helipad's support struts. Steve begs
Claire to run and save herself. Claire replies that she'll
help him up as soon as she (and I quote) waxes the monster.
Using Alfred's rifle, Claire puts a bullet straight through
Nosferatu's heart. (Claire really has started being blase
about this whole thing. It's cool.)
Claire helps Steve up. Steve apologizes; despite having
saved her life at least three times in the last day, he
feels that he failed her against Nosferatu. Claire claps him
on the shoulder and tells him to forget it. Steve stands up,
clutching the bullet wound Claire just accidentally hit, and
quietly promises that next time, he will protect her.
At the bottom of the stairs, Claire and Steve find a
snowmobile. Claire gets into the driver's seat and starts it
up. It'll easily reach the Australian outpost.
Somewhere in the base, Alfred Ashford drags himself down a
long hallway. He is mortally wounded. In his own voice, he
promises Claire that things aren't over between them.
Alfred collapses inside a laboratory, on a set of stairs
leading to a raised platform. In a faint voice, he says
Alexia's name. Suddenly, a series of computers and monitors
activate. A cylinder rises in front of Alfred and defrosts.
Fluid drains out of it, revealing the form of a naked,
blonde woman.
"Alexia... you're finally awake. Alexia..." Alfred says.
They are his last words. He dies.
The woman's eyes widen in anger.
Claire and Steve talk and joke as they drive towards freedom.
Something enormous, moving so fast that it's unidentifiable,
shatters the roof of Umbrella's Antarctic base and races
towards Claire and Steve's snowmobile. Steve sees it in the
rearview mirror just before it reaches them. Whatever it is,
it hits the snowmobile with stunning force. The snowmobile
is knocked onto its side. The thing that hit it lashes around
the snowmobile like a boa constrictor, slamming it again and
again into the ground.
The naked woman sits on the stairs where Alfred died,
cradling her brother's head. She hums to herself quietly
as she strokes his hair.
On one of the nearby monitors, she is watching the
snowmobile burn.
==========================================================
6ii. The Return of Chris Redfield: CODE VERONICA, Part Two
==========================================================
As Claire and Steve's snowmobile is destroyed, a small boat
drops a passenger off on Rockfort Island.
Slowly, Chris Redfield climbs hand-over-hand up a sheer
cliff, burdened by a heavy bag filled with equipment. He's
come to rescue Claire. As he hauls himself up, one of his
handholds breaks away, and Chris accidentally drops his bag
into the ocean. Grimly, he continues onward, finding a cave
on the side of the cliff.
The cave has been turned into a mausoleum. Chris has been in
it for a few seconds when the ground shakes. Something
nearby roars, and Chris's entrance collapses.
A man is slumped against the wall of the mausoleum. Rodrigo,
whose wounds haven't gotten any better, has made his way
here from the cellblock. He says that he had thought he was
the only man on the island who was still alive. Chris
replies that he's looking for a girl named Claire Redfield.
Rodrigo recognizes the name and tells Chris that he's
wasting his time; Rodrigo helped her escape, and he's sure
that she was on one of the planes that left the island.
Chris thanks him for helping out.
Suddenly, the worm Claire encountered returns. Chris is able
to get out of its way, but Rodrigo cannot. The worm swallows
him whole and disappears into the soft earth of the mausoleum.
Chris catches up to the worm in a large cave nearby. If he
hadn't dropped his bag, he'd have something more appropriate
to the job, but all he has is his Glock handgun. The worm is
soft-bodied, though, and the handgun proves to be enough.
After Chris shoots it a few dozen times, the worm spasms
and dies, spitting Rodrigo out onto the cave floor.
Mortally wounded, Rodrigo tells Chris to leave the island, and
gives him the lighter that Claire gave Rodrigo earlier. Rodrigo
says that it'll be good to see his family again, and dies.
An elevator has been cut into the cave wall. Sadly, Chris
leaves Rodrigo's body behind and takes the elevator down,
winding up in the military training facility's motor pool.
The military training facility has weathered the base's
self-destruct sequence surprisingly well. Chris finds his
way outside, to the courtyard where Alfred kept his tank.
Alfred's escape route is obvious, but he's puzzle-locked
it with an incomplete version of the Ashfords' crest.
Chris hooks up a battery to a lift system in the motor pool,
which takes him up to the balcony. He finds a document and a
key on a shelf, where they've apparently been discarded. The
document is a report on the properties of a new metal alloy
called Duploid. While Duploid is remarkably durable, a
combination of two common chemicals will dissolve it. This
metal is what the Ashford crests were made out of.
A door on the balcony leads to the hall outside the facility
control room. Inside, someone is singing. Chris runs in. The
main screen of the control room shows a woman in an evening
gown, cradling a dead man in her lap. (Alexia is dressed
exactly how Alfred dressed, when he was pretending to be
her.) Chris watches her sing, unsure as to how to react,
until the screen goes dark.
In the airport, near where Claire boarded the cargo plane,
a man in black curses as he watches Alexia sing; she's not
supposed to be fully conscious yet. Another security
monitor comes on, showing Chris. The man in black is
surprised to see Chris, but immediately arranges a surprise
for him. He activates a small hovercraft by remote control
and opens a large white storage device. Slowly, a reptilian
creature climbs out; although it looks different, it is
unmistakably a Hunter. As the hovercraft flies away, the man
in black laughs.
[CV Complete note: the man in black's monologue is slightly
different. It will also make you instantly lose all respect
for Wesker.]
In the room where Alfred ambushed Claire, one of the Ashford
crests is lying in plain sight. No sooner has Chris seen it
than it falls through a hole in the floor. Chris realizes
that if he dissolves the crest, he'll be left with a golden
halberd which'll unlock the secret door underneath the tank.
That means he has to figure out how to get into the base's
underground waterway.
He takes the elevator to the basement. Most of the basement
has been flooded with toxic gas after the failure of the
ventilation system, but a staircase that was raised when
Claire was here has now fallen. At its bottom, Chris
appropriates a shotgun and walks through a storage room,
right by the cylinder from which Alfred released the Tyrant.
The key from the balcony unlocks a storage locker, in which
Chris finds one of the chemicals he needs to dissolve the
crest. In a pile of wrecked transport crates on the facility's
cargo elevator, he also finds a doorknob, which he can use to
open a door on the second floor. He kneels to pick it up, and
a beam of red light shines on his back. Chris looks up to see
a small hovercraft, equipped with a spotlight. It sounds an
alarm. In response, a pair of Hunters leap down on Chris from
the top of the elevator shaft. Chris barely evades them.
The hovercrafts are suddenly everywhere in the base. If they
detect Chris, an alarm sounds, and a Hunter arrives almost
immediately. Chris carefully avoids the hovercrafts' motion
detectors, as well as a swarm of fresh zombies. These
zombies are dressed in black military gear and wearing
night-vision goggles. Obviously, the people who invaded the
facility, whoever they are, are having their own problems.
On the second floor, Chris finds a small model of a tank.
Earlier, Chris has seen the diorama of the facility, so he
heads back there.
The tank model fits into an empty space on the diorama. A
secret panel hisses open behind Chris, revealing a lever
guarded by laser beams, a trio of keyholes, a book, and a
key to the cargo elevator. The book is one of Alfred's
diaries, where he has written about his plans to build a new
bridge from the facility to his mansion, using the labor of
his prisoners. The entrance he uses now, which takes him to
his mansion via the facility's underground waterway, is
sealed by what Alfred calls the "diorama trick."
On his way back to the cargo elevator, Chris is walking
through the storage room when he hears chuckling behind him.
He turns to find the man in black... Albert Wesker. Somehow,
Wesker is still alive. Chris realizes that it must've been
Wesker who attacked the facility, which means Wesker attacked
his sister.
[CV Complete note: this dialogue is slightly different.]
Chris raises his gun to shoot Wesker. Suddenly, Wesker is
a blur. He covers the space between him and Chris in a
fraction of a second and knocks Chris across the room. With
superhuman speed and strength, Wesker races over to where
Chris landed and picks him up by the throat. As Chris
struggles to breathe, Wesker tells him that since Chris
spoiled his plans, Wesker has "sold his soul" to a new
employer. Furthermore, Wesker's figured out that Claire
isn't on the island any more; she's with Alexia, in the
Antarctic. Wesker begins to slowly strangle Chris. Chris
punches Wesker in the face, knocking off his sunglasses.
This reveals Wesker's eyes. To Chris's shock, they are
yellow. Their pupils are slitted like a cat's.
A screen by the storage cylinders lights up, showing Alexia
Ashford. She laughs, and the screen goes blank. Wesker,
surprised, throws Chris across the room and into one of the
storage cylinders. A rubber man is released into the room
from the broken cylinder, and by the time Chris has dealt
with it, Wesker has disappeared.
Chris takes the cargo elevator up to the first floor of the
facility. The side of the elevator shaft has been breached,
which leads to the partially collapsed front hall. Scattered
fires are still burning fitfully. Chris navigates through
what's left of the first floor and finds the controls to the
ventilation system. He turns it back on, clearing the toxic
gas from the basement. In the basement, by someone's work
desk, Chris finds the other chemical he needs. Mixing them
together, he creates a compound that'll dissolve Duploid.
The front door of the facility is unlocked and undamaged.
Chris walks outside, and while the door to the palace has
been blocked by rubble, the airport elevator still works.
Chris rides it down.
The airport is just about untouched, although it's now
populated by Hunters and a handful of zombies. Chris fights
his way to the bridge controls and lowers the bridge that
Claire raised. On the airport's control platform, Chris finds
the three keys that Claire used to open the cargo plane;
they'll also fit in the keyholes by Alfred's diorama.
When Chris uses the three keys, the diorama slides back into
the wall to reveal an escape hatch in the floor. The tunnel
to Alfred's mansion has partially collapsed, making access
to the mansion impossible, but the Ashfords' family crest is
lying in a pool of water. It's guarded by an enormous
creature that looks like a cross between a manta ray and
an electric eel. This is the Albanoid that Claire saw earlier,
and it has reached adulthood. Chris jumps into the water,
grabs the crest, and scrambles back out before the creature
can electrocute him.
The crest dissolves when Chris uses the chemical mixture on
it, leaving him with a golden halberd. Finally, Chris can
see what's at the end of Alfred's secret passage. The "key"
lets him into Alfred's private hangar. One of Alfred's
private Harrier jets is brought to Chris by automated
machinery. Chris smiles and climbs in.
Chris flies to Antarctica, and lands in an underground
hangar by Umbrella's base. He takes the elevator up to the
base's balcony. Claire and Steve's plane is still sticking
out of the wall, but to Chris's surprise, a pair of
tentacles are lying across the balcony, almost as if they're
standing guard over something. After he shoots them a few
times, the tentacles withdraw in a spray of green blood.
Most of the base's second floor has frozen into a solid
block of ice. Alfred's office is still untouched. Inside,
Chris uses the halberd key to open a locked bookcase.
Inside, he finds an old diary of Alfred Ashford's and an
oddly labelled paperweight. Alfred has written about, among
other things, the "secret" of his and Alexia's birth, the
experiment that turned his father into a monster, and
Alexia's decision to experiment on herself. Alexia Ashford,
after faking her own death, has been in cryogenic storage
for the last fifteen years. Alfred also writes that there's
a secret passage in the base, and he needs the three jewels
worn by each member of the Ashford family to open it. Chris
makes a note of this before he leaves.
Earlier, when Claire was at this base, part of the walkway
above the sorter had collapsed, keeping her from going through
the doors on the other side of the room. Now, Chris can just
jump off of the walkway and run across the ice to the other
half of the catwalk. A crane hook is stuck in the ice, but
Chris needs a key to work the hook's controls. He leaves
through the nearest door, but as he does, he doesn't see a
massive shape moving beneath him.
In a hallway, Chris finds two more of Wesker's hovercraft
waiting for him. Apparently, Wesker has come to Antarctica
as well. He adroitly dodges the hovercrafts' searchlights
and ducks into a nearby elevator. On the next floor down,
he finds a switchboard and turns the base's power back on,
reactivating a series of elevators.
The fifth floor of the base has a strange room that's
familiar to Chris; it's a near-exact replica of the front
hall of the Spenser mansion. (It is now more accurate to
say that it's a near-exact replica of the PSX RE's mansion;
it bears next to no resemblance to the REv.2 Spencer estate.)
A hall leading out of it, lined with biohazard suits, has
a statue of a tiger at its end that resembles one in that
other mansion's basement.
Chris steps out of the elevator onto the base's sixth floor,
and stops. An enormous anthill has been built here, towering
above the floor and surrounded by thousands of mutated ants.
Chris forges through the ants to the laboratories on either
side of the anthill.
One lab hasn't been used for a while. Chris finds Alexia Ashford's
research notes inside. The girl somehow fused the remnants of a
virus from the body of a queen ant with the T-Virus, creating a
new virus that she refers to as the "T-Veronica," after her
ancestor. This virus is what she used to turn her father into
a monster, and what she used on herself.
The other lab is cutting-edge and has been carefully maintained.
There's a trail of blood leading to it. The inside of the room is
lined with supercomputers, each one of which is hooked up to a
strange mechanism at the far corner of the room. Chris activates
it by solving another of Alfred's puzzles, and a cryogenic tube
shoots up behind Chris. Alfred's corpse falls out of the tube.
Chris recognizes Alfred's ring as one of the three proofs he
read about, and takes it.
Back on the second floor, Chris finds the key to the crane
in an aquarium, of all places. He starts up the crane, and
it breaks through the ice. Alexander Ashford's dead body is
impaled on the crane's hook. Chris recoils in shock and
disgust. Behind the body, Alexia Ashford is standing on the
other side of the room. She laughs at him, and asks Chris
how he wants to die.
A spider, bigger than any Chris has yet seen, bursts forth
from the hole in the ice. Chris throws himself out of the
crane's control room as the spider crushes it. Alexia has
disappeared. Fortunately, while her spider is huge, it isn't
smart or fast, and Chris can run circles around it. Before
he leaves, Chris takes an earring from Alexander's body.
Back in the replica of the Spencer mansion's front hall,
Chris finds a painting of the last generation of Ashfords,
with hollows at Alexander's ear, Alfred's finger, and Alexia's
throat. The jewels from Alfred's ring and Alexander's earring
fit perfectly.
Behind the mansion's staircase, Chris finally finds Claire,
unconscious inside a coccoon. He cuts her out of it and waits
until she wakes up. She hugs him, and tells him that she can't
leave until they find Steve. She explains who Steve is, and
says that they were separated.
From the balcony, Alexia laughs at Claire and Chris. Holding
Alfred's rifle, she promises to destroy the "genetically
inferior siblings" before disappearing through a nearby door.
Chris and Claire give chase, with Claire in the lead. As
Chris ascends the stairs, a tentacle bursts through the wall
and destroys the balcony beneath him. Chris falls to the floor,
and both he and Claire are knocked unconscious. The tentacle,
which looks like an eyeless snake, descends to the floor and
examines Chris before disappearing back through the hole in
the wall.
Claire is the first to wake up. She leans over the edge of
the destroyed balcony to look at Chris, who is awake and
clutching at his leg. From behind the door Alexia went
through, she hears Steve scream. Chris tells her to save
him, and that he'll be fine. With a final look at Chris,
Claire runs.
Two more tentacles try to ambush Claire as she runs after
Alexia, but she cuts them down with bursts of rifle fire.
She emerges in a cellblock, with Alexia nowhere in sight.
One of the cells has been turned into storage for antique
weapons, and underneath a cannon, Claire finds a blue
binder. A note inside, written by Alexander, tells the
reader how to arm the base's self-destruct system. The
password, of course, is "Veronica." Inside the cannon is a
keycard, suspended in a glass sphere. Claire shatters the
glass and takes the keycard.
The closest place where Alexia could've gone is an empty
room with a lowered gate. Claire opens the gate with the
keycard, but as she does so, the door to the cellblock
audibly locks. Beyond the gate is a hallway lined with suits
of armor. At its end is the room that once imprisoned
Alexander Ashford. It now imprisons Steve Burnside.
Claire hits a switch on the wall, and Steve's shackles open.
The battle axe across his chest refuses to budge, even with
both of them pushing it. Steve tells Claire that the crazy
woman, Alexia, said she was going to perform the same
experiment on him that she did on her father.
Suddenly, Steve's voice distorts. He clutches at his chest,
and screams for Claire to help him. Blood bursts from his
neck, cutting him off. He rumbles, deep and guttural, and
Claire backs away from him in horror. Steve's body begins to
expand and change, growing bone spurs and vicious claws. His
skin turns green and scaly, and he easily triples in size.
His head, grotesquely, is nearly unchanged. With no effort
whatsoever, he wrenches the battle axe from the wall and
stands up. Steve, or the creature that Steve has become,
roars, and swings the axe at Claire... and at the same time,
the gate at the end of the hall begins to lower.
Claire's weapons don't do more than slow Steve down. Ducking
Steve's axe, Claire rolls underneath the gate as it closes.
She can already tell that the gate won't hold for long, and
the door to the cellblock is locked. Steve begins to hack at
the gate with the axe.
A tentacle bursts through the wall next to Claire. With
impossible speed, it wraps around her and pulls her into the
air. Claire struggles helplessly.
Steve finally destroys the gate. He steps through the
wreckage and pulls his axe back. He swings it at Claire's
head... and stops. In a deep, guttural voice, he says
Claire's name. With a furious roar, he cuts the tentacle
holding Claire. Claire falls to the floor.
The tentacle thrashes, like a thing in pain. It lashes out
with its bloody stump. Steve is hit with bonecrushing force.
As the tentacle withdraws, Steve slowly becomes human once
more. Claire runs over to him, to find that he's been
mortally wounded. Claire begs him to hold on, and tells him
that her brother's come to save them. Steve says that he
can't keep the promise he made, to escape with her. He tells
Claire that he's glad to have met her, and that he loves her.
Steve dies. Claire, cradling his body, bursts into tears.
Back in the ruins of the mansion's front hall, Chris is
hiding amidst the rubble. Alexia stands regally at the top
of the staircase, while Wesker is at the bottom. Wesker, who
still isn't wearing his sunglasses, says that he has been
sent to obtain the T-Veronica virus, the only sample of
which is now inside Alexia's body. He demands that Alexia
come with him.
Alexia says that Wesker isn't worthy of the virus's power.
She descends the stairs towards him, and suddenly bursts
into flames. Her clothing burns away. In the middle of the
fire, Alexia changes. Her skin turns slate-gray, and parts
of her body begin to look like the chitinous exoskeleton of
an insect. At the top of the stairs, she was human; when she
reaches Wesker, she is anything but.
Wesker gawks at her. Alexia casually backhands him. Despite
his own superhuman strength, Wesker tumbles across the room;
one might guess that an ordinary man would've been killed
instantly. He shakily hauls himself to his feet. Alexia gently
hops off of the stairs, across the twenty feet that now separate
her from Wesker, and hits him again. Wesker goes tumbling into
the corner of the room. Alexia turns to smile at Chris, as if
she's known where he was all along.
Seeing that Alexia's distracted, Wesker runs for the mansion's
front door. Alexia gestures, and suddenly, a wall of flame
springs up in front of the door. She's not fast enough to stop
him. Chris makes his own move as Alexia attacks Wesker, dashing
towards and up the main stairs. Alexia makes another gesture,
and Chris is nearly incinerated by another wall of fire. He
tumbles back down the stairs, and Alexia steps in front of him.
[Or, in CVX:
[Wesker recovers in midair from Alexia's uppercut, landing on
his feet. Alexia confidently moves in for the kill, slinging
flaming ichor from her hands. Wesker, trying desperately to
avoid her, runs away from her... and *up the wall*. As fire
crawls up the wall behind him and breaks out on his clothing,
Wesker springs off the wall and delivers a powerful right
cross to Alexia's jaw.
[Alexia spins, dazed, and throws another spray of fire in
Wesker's direction. Wesker is standing in front of Chris,
so both men have to get out of the way. As they stand,
Wesker and Chris notice each other. Wesker grins faintly,
and says, "Chris, as one of my best men, I want you to
handle this." He then breaks for the door. Alexia is too
slow, and her offhand attempt to incinerate Wesker misses.
Chris tries to get away, as with the other version of
this scene, but he's a little too late.]
Chris runs from Alexia, whose every gesture sprays some kind
of ichor or blood across the floor. Where it lands, it burns,
creating a short-lived wall of fire. Chris retaliates with his
Magnum. After six rounds to the chest, Alexia falls.
In the ashes of her clothing, Chris finds a red jewel in a
choker--the final Ashford family proof. Putting it in the
painting, he opens Alexander's secret passage. As the door
shuts behind Chris, Alexia slowly climbs to her feet.
Alfred has remodeled Alexander's hideaway into a set of
children's bedrooms, which don't seem very well-suited to
an adult. (For all intents and purposes, these bedrooms
are identical to the bedrooms on the island facility.)
Chris finds little of interest in them besides another
pair of locked music boxes with parts missing from their
lids. Chris inserts two jewels he has found, and a secret
passage opens, just as it did for Claire in the prison's
mansion. Above the bedrooms, Chris finds an old dining
room, lined with portraits of the Ashfords. Alexander
Ashford's picture has been crudely defaced. An ant farm
is on the table, in which sits a golden dragonfly. Chris
pockets it. Although he has no way of knowing it, he's
standing in the room where, long ago, Alfred and Alexia
were filmed as they killed a dragonfly.
Fighting his way through a fresh swarm of zombies, Chris
finds an abandoned lab where Alexander Ashford must once
have pursued his research. A journal on the countertop
contains the secret that made Alfred and Alexia destroy
their father; they were never his real children. They
were the result of Alexander's experiments in genetically
determining intelligence. If the twins are Ashfords at
all, it's because Alexander's experiment used a sample
of Veronica's DNA. They're more her "children" than his.
Alexander's lab connects to the cellblock. Chris hears Claire
sobbing on the other side of a locked door, and tries to open
it. The door is electronically locked, and Chris can't break
it down. Claire tells Chris that Steve is dead, and pushes the
binder under the door with the keycard in it. She's read in
the binder that, once the self-destruct system to the base is
activated, all the locks in the base automatically disengage
to expedite an evacuation. Once she's free, the emergency
elevator to the base's hangar is close by. They can easily
escape before the base explodes.
The control room is locked, but the golden dragonfly serves
as a key. Discordantly, the floor leading up to the control
room is made of mesh, and if Chris looks down, he can see
the top of Alexia's anthill. Chris uses the keycard to gain
access to the control room's computers and inputs the
password: the final code Veronica. The base's nuclear
reactors decouple and prepare for detonation, while the
system releases the automatic locks. A countdown begins.
Outside the control room, Claire runs up to Chris and hugs
him. Before they can get to the emergency elevator, a
tentacle bursts through the floor. Its "mouth" opens wide,
and it regurgitates the naked body of Alexia Ashford. The
tentacle itself loses its cohesion, flowing onto Alexia's
body. The resulting substance covers her and hardens
into chitinous plates, like an insect's exoskeleton.
As Alexia transforms, Chris spots a nearby emergency locker.
The labels on the outside say that it contains an anti-B.O.W.
weapon called a "linear launcher." Chris and Claire hurriedly
open the locker. Unfortunately, the launcher isn't charged,
and slowly begins to power up.
Alexia turns and smiles at the Redfields, once again covered
in her gray armor. Chris tells Claire to get to the elevator,
while he keeps Alexia busy. Claire tells Chris not to die on
her, and breaks into a run. Alexia throws a wall of fire in
front of Claire, and advances towards her. Before Alexia can
kill Claire, Chris shoots her in the chest. Alexia crumples to
the floor and her fires die, giving Claire a chance to escape.
Alexia begins to undergo a terrible transformation. Her body
expands like Steve's, changing into something much larger.
[The following sequence is not in CVX:
[Chris looks away from Alexia and smiles at Claire, who is
watching through the glass wall of the elevator shaft. The
car descends, taking Claire out of sight and leaving Chris
alone with Alexia.]
Alexia's latest incarnation is a sickeningly pregnant cross
between an ant and a woman. As she finishes her transformation,
her face, the only part of her that's still recognizably human,
twists into a contemptuous smile. She attacks Chris with small
"soldier ants" and her ubiquitous tentacles, both of which spring
forth from her bloated torso. Chris returns fire with Claire's
grenade launcher, showering Alexia's body with explosive rounds.
After a vicious fight where the two seem to be evenly matched,
Alexia finally screams in pain. Her lower body begins to break
apart, dissolving into nothing.
Suddenly, swarms of winged ants burst from the anthill underneath
Chris's feet. They cover their queen, and Alexia seems to absorb
their mass into herself. She rises like a phoenix from the ruins
of her body, taking on the form of an enormous, winged ant.
At the same time, the linear launcher finishes charging.
====================================================
6iii. The Conclusion of RESIDENT EVIL: CODE VERONICA
====================================================
Chris pulls the linear launcher free from its housing. Alexia's
newest form buzzes around him, tossing spurts of flaming ichor,
but she's nowhere near as powerful as she was before.
Apparently, "linear launcher" is Umbrella-speak for "plasma rifle."
When Chris pulls the trigger, a burst of energy strikes Alexia in
the chest. It shines inside her for a moment like a star, and for
a moment, Alexia seems like she might survive even this...
...but then she explodes, nearly liquified by the force of the blast.
Chris drops the launcher and takes cover as the platform is showered
with gore. At the same time Alexia dies, the base begins to shake
with small explosions, as the self-destruct sequence enters its
final stage.
[Chris staggers down the staircase from the laboratory to find
Wesker... with Claire. He has Claire in a headlock, and tosses
her ahead of him through a hole in the wall. Chris gives chase,
following Wesker down a long, zombie-infested hallway. Chris
dodges the zombies, shoulder-blocking one out of his way, and
emerges in an underground seaport.
[Wesker is standing by a docked submarine with Claire. He tells
Chris that the T-Veronica virus turned out to be nothing, but
Wesker's revenge will be so much sweeter. Chris tells Wesker
to let Claire go, and Wesker tosses her across the room.
[Wesker tells Chris and Claire that he'd originally come to get
Alexia, but now that it's over with, he can get on to his other
job: revenge. Chris says that Alexia is gone, and Wesker's
response is that it doesn't really matter; now, he has Steve's
body. Steve still has enough of the "T-Alexia" virus in him to
work with. "Maybe he'll come back from the dead one day," Wesker
says, "like I did, to see your sister."
[Claire nearly attacks Wesker, but Chris holds her back and tells
her to go. It's his job to finish this. Claire tells Chris to
remember his promise, and leaves.
[Chris and Wesker face each other as Claire runs off. Chris tells
Wesker to "say hello to my teammates, who you killed!" Wesker
takes off his sunglasses and says, "I don't know where you get
your confidence, Chris." He drops them to the floor and walks
towards Chris, who hits him with an iron bar. Wesker takes one
shot across the face, blocks the second with his arm--bending
the bar--and hits Chris in the face. Chris goes sprawling, and
Wesker presses his advantage. He may not be human any longer,
Wesker says, but his newfound power more than makes up for it.
A final uppercut sends a dazed Chris sprawling.
[As Wesker prepares to finish Chris off, Chris notices a load
of steel beams, suspended overhead on a pulley. Wesker leaps
into the air for a final, killing blow, but Chris manages to
get out of the way. He hits a lever and drops the steel beams
on Wesker, who looks up just in time to intercept the first
I-beam with his face. Wesker gets buried underneath the pile
of girders. Unfortunately, it isn't enough.
[Wesker gets up, visibly staggering ("Nice try."), and Chris,
likewise, climbs back to his feet. As they prepare to start
the fight again, one of the smaller explosions suddenly takes
out a nearby bit of machinery, and a gout of flame separates
them. A massive pipe falls between them, and Wesker takes the
worst of it by far. Holding his horribly burned face, Wesker
promises Chris that the next time they meet, he'll kill Chris.
"Next time," Chris says, and runs out of the room. Wesker
stands amidst the wreckage, and laughs.]
Chris runs to the emergency elevator, hoping he's not too late.
Under the platform where Alexia died, her army of mutant ants
burst into flames, which in turn ignites her anthill. Chris
barely manages to get into the elevator before the entire
fifth floor of Alexander Ashford's hideaway is scoured clean
by flames. As Chris's car descends, flames chase him down the
elevator shaft.
Claire is in Alfred's jet, waiting for Chris, when the elevator
opens. Chris gets one step out of it before the firestorm hits,
blowing him off of the balcony and to an undignified landing on
the nosecone of the jet. Claire asks if Chris is all right. His
response is to say, with a smile, that she knows he always keeps
his promises.
The jet rises out of the base's hangar in a cloud of flame.
Claire puts her hand on Chris's shoulder, asking him to
never leave her alone again. Chris replies that he's sorry,
but they have a job to do. They've got to destroy Umbrella
once and for all.
As Chris and Claire fly away, Umbrella's Antarctic base and the
legacy of the Ashford family are consumed in an explosion.
====================================
6v. Conclusions About the Conclusion
====================================
1. Claire and Chris Redfield have both survived; as usual,
it was through the creative employ of self-destruct mechanisms.
(If Umbrella ever really wanted to kill Chris, all they'd have
to do is lure him someplace without a self-destruct device.)
2. Albert Wesker has also survived. By RE4, he's managed to
patch that unfortunate facial burn right up.
3. Steve Burnside may or may not be dead. While he did die
onscreen after a genuinely touching death scene, Wesker's
statement in CVX leaves the door open for him to return.
4. Rodrigo Juan Raval did not survive. ("I have a cool look,
a great voice actor, and lots of potential... which is why
I'll be killed after three lines of dialogue." Thanks, Nippy.)
5. Alexander, Alexia, and Alfred Ashford are dead. Unless a
distant relative shows up in a future game, the "proud
Ashford family" has died out.
6. Albert Wesker has a new employer. That employer is
apparently a competitor of Umbrella's in the field of
biological research and warfare, and is just as cutthroat
as Umbrella is.
7. Umbrella is not the only company performing research on the
T-Virus. As a matter of fact, they have vicious competition
in that particular field (as embodied by Wesker and his "new
employer").
8. Edward Ashford and "Lord" Ozwell Spencer founded Umbrella.
We don't know exactly how old this makes Umbrella, but it places
its founding within the last hundred years or so, as Edward was
Alexia and Alfred's "grandfather."
9. Ashford and Spencer also discovered the "mother virus."
10. Umbrella is still making Tyrants, and seems to have
ironed most of the kinks out of them.
11. Umbrella is far more powerful than was previously thought.
12. Albert Wesker stole Steve Burnside's body before he escaped.
Whoever Wesker's working for has a sample of Alexia's virus.
==============================
vi. The Ashford Family Diaries
==============================
The Ashford family is intricately linked with the history of
Umbrella, and thus with the background story of the Resident
Evil series. CV tells this particular story, but it does so
haphazardly; the relevant information is in files scattered
throughout the game, and at least one of them is very easy
to miss. Therefore, in this section, I've assembled the known
facts about the Ashford family and put them together in a
rough chronological order.
The noble legacy of the Ashford family begins with Veronica
Ashford, about five generations ago. They're constantly referred
to as "glorious" throughout the game, but we're never told why.
A nobleman named Lord Spencer (whose first name is given in
an RE2 EX File as "Ozwell") and Edward Ashford, Alfred and
Alexia's grandfather, discovered the "mother virus." That
virus eventually gave rise to the "Progenitor" virus, and,
from there, to the infamous T-Virus.
By the time RE begins in 1998, Umbrella's the kind of inescapable
megacorporation that drives most cyberpunk plots. It is noted in
RE0 to have grown particularly rapidly in the time leading up
to the Arklay outbreak. In addition to the bioweapons research
that drives RE's plot, Umbrella makes and sells various
pharmaceutical products. In RE3, we see Umbrella's commercials
for its name-brand painkillers, cold relievers, and whatever
the hell Aquacure was supposed to be. Umbrella also makes its
own equipment, as we've seen security systems (RE2), computer
OSes (RE, RE2, RE3, CV), industrial equipment (RE, RE2),
weaponry (RE, RE2, RE3), medical supplies (RE0), freaky food
(RE:O, the "Umbrella Noodles" SP Item), and a commuter train
(RE0) with the Umbrella label. Even your First Aid Spray is
an Umbrella product.
Edward had a son, Alexander, who got a degree in biogenetics
and assisted his father with his research. In 1970, Alexander
caused an accident which killed Edward. As a result, Spencer
rapidly gained more power over Umbrella, and Umbrella lost
ground to its competitors in the field of T-Virus research.
The next generation of Ashfords, and Alexander himself, trace
the Ashfords' fall from grace directly to the accident that
killed Edward, and to Alexander.
(In RE0 and REv.2, we get a bit of Umbrella's official history
of itself, and there isn't an Ashford to be seen anywhere in
it. Instead, James Marcus--an obsessive researcher who says in
his private diary that he didn't really get involved when
Spencer started Umbrella--is given credit as the co-founder.
Whatever Alexander did must've not just killed his father; it
must've pissed Spencer off. See below.)
In an attempt to gain back some respect, Alexander commissioned
the construction of a research facility in the Antarctic,
making it out of a transport terminal. Inside the facility,
he had a series of rooms built, patterned after the Spencer
mansion, where Alexander could cherish his memories in peace.
Finally, inside this replicated mansion, Alexander constructed
a private lab that only he had access to. He codenamed this
project "Veronica," after the legendary founder of the Ashfords.
Later, Alexander isolated the gene that controlled intelligence
within the human genome, and developed a way to deliberately
manipulate it. To test it, he impregnated a surrogate mother
with an embryo that he made using a sample of the genes of
Veronica Ashford. To his surprise, the woman gave birth to
fraternal twins, who he named Alfred and Alexia and raised
in his Antarctic hideaway. Alfred was smart, but Alexia was
a genius, and Alexander regarded her as the literal reincarnation
of Veronica. After she graduated from college at the age of
ten, Alexia soon had a job as a head researcher for Umbrella
Incorporated.
Early in their lives, the twins became fascinated by ants.
Alexia would later write that an anthill represented her ideal
version of society, with dull worker drones existing only to
serve the needs of their queen. The events depicted in the
movie in Alfred's war museum seem to have permanently left
their mark on him, as the motif of dragonflies and ants is
repeated endlessly inside his private chambers.
(Lemme English-major at you for a second here. I don't believe
for a second that this is intentional on Capcom's part, but
it's interesting to note how the dragonfly-ant theme plays
out over the course of the game. Early, to escape from Alfred,
Claire must recreate his torture of the dragonfly, plucking
the wings off of the dragonfly object and placing it in an
ant's mouth. Later, Alexia becomes, for all intents and
purposes, a queen ant, complete with an anthill and her own
swarm of mutant soldier ants. To kill her, Chris places a
set of wings back onto a metal dragonfly, and in so doing,
unlocks the path to Alexia's death. The dragonfly returns
to life, and plays a part in the destruction of the anthill.
(Furthermore, as someone else noted, Alexia writes in her
lab notes that she considers all other humans to be "ants,"
beneath her notice. In her final form, Alexia resembles
nothing so much as a dragonfly, and is killed by Chris,
who would presumably qualify as an "ant." Therefore, not
only has Chris symbolically undone the torture of the
original dragonfly, but Alexia, in her last moments, *is*
the dragonfly, maimed and struggling vainly to survive.
(...I just scared myself half to death. Let's move on.)
Alexia conducted private experiments on ants, assisted by
Alfred, who she refers to in her private diaries as a
"loyal but inept soldier ant." (Alfred, as an adult, seems
to have taken that comment to heart; he dresses like a toy
soldier, is obviously fascinated by war, and the man can't
shoot straight. He has a laser sight and a starlight scope and
he *still* misses everything he shoots at.) Inside the body of
a queen ant, perhaps the same queen ant that Chris finds dead
in the Antarctic base, she found traces of an ancient virus.
Mixing this with the T-Virus her "grandfather" discovered,
she created the virus that she named T-Veronica.
The twins grew to hate their "father." Alfred eventually
figured out how to get into Alexander's private lab, where
he learned the truth about his and Alexia's birth. Soon
afterward, Alexia deliberately infected Alexander with the
T-Veronica virus as an experiment, transforming him into the
homicidal mutant that would become known as "Nosferatu." The
twins somehow managed to imprison Alexander underneath the
base in the Antarctic. As far as anyone else was concerned,
Alexander Ashford simply vanished. (It doesn't seem likely
that many people missed him.)
Alexia continued her research, and decided to conduct
further experiments on herself. She theorized that cold
storage would slow down the infection, allowing an infected
organism to peacefully coexist with the virus and eventually
adapt to it. The process would take fifteen years. Over Alfred's
objections, she infected and stored herself in a secret lab
underneath Antarctica. Either Alfred or Alexia came up with
a cover story for this, saying that Alexia had died in an
unspecified "accident." (Of course, she would eventually
reappear, but she'd be rich, an adult, and theoretically
omnipotent. It didn't have to be a *good* cover story.)
No one learned the truth until Alexia woke up, although the
Ashfords' family butler at the time, Tom Dorson, came very
close to figuring it out. (Note that by the time of Code
Veronica, Scott Harman has been Alfred's butler for four
years. Tom Dorson may have gotten a little *too* close.)
Alfred was forced to assume Alexander's responsibilities at
a young age, and the problem was compounded by his sister's
"death." Umbrella gave him a meaningless position as the
commander of an isolated prison in the southern hemisphere.
Alfred became obsessed with returning the Ashfords to glory.
Alfred's obsession was the least of his mental problems. The
most obvious is, of course, how he coped with Alexia's "death";
unable to live without her, he simply constructed a delusion
in which Alexia was still around. (I could also add that
Alfred's version of Alexia is apparently far kinder towards
him than Alexia ever was.) The extent to which he went to
maintain that delusion is one of the more disturbing things
in CV. Even if you ignore his obsession and denial, it looks
like he consulted Alexia on the decoration of the Rockfort
mansion. (Would a ten-year-old biochemist prodigy *ever* be
that obsessed with dolls, or is that another facet of Alexia's
megalomania?)
The end of this story, naturally, is the story of Code: Veronica.
=====================================
6vi. Random Musings on CODE: VERONICA
=====================================
1. As was pointed out on the now-defunct Evil-Online message
boards, Claire looks *very* different than she did in RE2.
Moreso than any other character, I'd really like to know
what happened to her between games.
2. It's an interesting touch that Chris still wears gear
with RPD and S.T.A.R.S. insignias on it.
3. People were excited that CV would return to RE's
"tradition" of lousy voice actors, and they weren't
disappointed. Claire and Chris's actors are decent
and Rodrigo's voice actor is actually very good,
but the rest...
4. Alfred Ashford could change clothes faster than any man
alive. Somehow, he managed to change from an evening gown
and long gloves into his preppy-soldier outfit in about
twenty seconds with a 9mm slug in his arm.
5. Steve is annoying at first, but he does have his moments.
It's interesting to watch his character develop; at first,
he balances his anger at his father with his need to show
off for Claire, who's the only pretty girl around. After he
kills his father, he attaches himself to Claire, who's the
only friend he's got left. Some real thought was obviously
put into Steve's personality dynamic, and it's a shame that
a lot of it was shot down by a mediocre voice actor. (In his
defense, Steve's voice acting gets better the further you get
into the game, and improves markedly right after Steve is
forced to shoot his father. The actor does a great job with
Steve's death scene.)
6. Note the nods to Silent Hill (the crematorium) and Parasite
Eve (Alexia's shapeshifting).
7. The Resident Evil tradition of characters being far too
young to have the skills they're supposed to possess continues.
Chris is a former fighter pilot (he's had enough flight training
to handle the Harrier jet) *and* an ex-cop at 25; Jill is a
munitions expert, classical pianist, chemist, gunsmith, mechanic,
ex-cop, ex-Delta Force, *and* the god damn Master of Unlocking
at 23; Claire is a demolitions expert, burglar, motorcyclist,
locksmith, and a student of the John Woo school of physically
impossible gunfighting at 19; Rebecca is supposed to be a
trained medic, helicopter mechanic, and a member of an elite
police unit at 18; and Steve is a crack pilot, gunman, and
can operate any kind of heavy machinery at the tender age
of 17. Sherry must have been hiding her *true* power.
8. If I could get a biker jacket with the same design on the
back as Claire's vest, it'd be very cool. You finally get
to see what it says across her shoulders just before the
last fight with Alexia: "Let Me Live." This is the same
design that's on the back of her alternate outfit in RE2.
(See Easter Eggs, below.)
9. CV is the only Resident Evil game so far that hasn't ended
at sunrise. It's full morning when Chris arrives in the Antarctic,
and it looks like high noon when he flies out with Claire.
10. Watch _Mission: Impossible II_ and then play through CV.
See how many similarities you can spot.
11. The visual parallels between RE and RE:CV are as follows:
-- the shotgun rack/lever trick.
-- the general appearance of the front hall of Alexander's
mansion.
-- the rotating tiger statue.
-- the goddess statue holding a bowl, which contains a map.
-- the goddess statue room looks almost identical to the
same room in RE.
-- the hallway where Claire encounters the tentacles, while
she chases Alexia, is modeled after a similar hallway
in the east hall of the Spencer mansion, right down to
the extra ammunition hidden under the display cases and
enemies bursting from the right wall.
12. You can get a slightly alternate cutscene if you trigger
the Alexia/Wesker showdown fight before you use the Crane Key.
It's not a shocking revelation or anything, but it does spare
you one of the stupidest lines in the game.
13. Cinematic parallels in RE:CV:
-- the Bandersnatch is seemingly patterned after a similar
monster in _Return of the Living Dead Part 3_.
-- more _Return of the Living Dead 3_-referencing fun can be
had in the laboratory scene, where the man in the clean
suit meets a messy demise against the observation window.
-- much of Rockfort Island, particularly the mess hall, looks
like the military base in George Romero's _Day of the Dead_.
-- in _Dawn of the Dead_, Peter picks up a sniper rifle like
Alfred's and says, "Ain't it a crime? The only person who
could ever miss with this gun would be the sucker with the
bread to buy it."
-- alert pseudonymous reader "Clearman" points out that Alfred's
masquerade as Alexia would appear to be patterned after
Alfred Hitchcock's _Psycho_.
-- Steve's necklace looks like the monitoring devices/explosive
charges in Kenji Fukusaku's _Battle Royale_.
-- as many have noted, Steve's slaying of the Bandersnatch
and Wesker's fighting style would both seem to owe heavy
stylistic debts to _The Matrix_ (which, in turn, owes
heavy stylistic debts to wuxia). I didn't fail to notice
that; I figured it was kind of obvious.
============================================
7. Becky's Big Adventure: RESIDENT EVIL ZERO
============================================
RE0 could be described as the "behind the scenes" version of
REv.2. In the two days between the Bravo team's helicopter
crash and her meeting Chris Redfield in the Spencer mansion,
Rebecca Chambers, the field medic and lone survivor of the
STARS Bravo team, and Billy Coen, an ex-Marine and accused
murderer, find themselves in the middle of someone else's
revenge plot. A mysterious stranger, a man in a white robe
who holds some kind of strange power over a new kind of
bioweapon, is out for vengeance against Umbrella, and Rebecca
and Billy are simply in the way.
RE0 is the first game in the series where you can control
both characters at once, via a bizarre and surprisingly
effective "partner switching" system. There are occasions in
the game where you have to split Rebecca and Billy up. For
this summary, in the event that the player has a choice as
to which character goes where, I've simply gone with whoever
I wound up sending into a given situation in my game.
=====================================================
7i. A Summary of the Basic Plot of RESIDENT EVIL ZERO
=====================================================
July 23rd, 1998. A passenger train heading through the
Raccoon Forest is attacked by a swarm of hideous, mutated
leeches, as a man in white robes watches from a nearby hill.
A massacre ensues.
Two hours later, the STARS Bravo team--Enrico Marini,
Richard Aiken, Kenneth Sullivan, Ed Dewey, Forest Speyer,
and, on her first mission, new recruit Rebecca Chambers--
flies over the area by helicopter. They're in the middle
of the investigation of the recent murders in the suburbs
of Raccoon City. Rebecca, who's telling us this story
after the fact, muses that they had no idea what was
about to happen, and no chance of survival.
A sudden engine failure forces Kevin, the Bravo team's
pilot, to make an emergency landing. On the ground, the
STARS find they've landed near the wreck of a military
transport vehicle, which is surrounded by dead military
police, their faces twisted into painful grimaces.
Enrico investigates the truck, but Rebecca finds the
MPs' orders before he sees the slime dripping off of
the truck's windshield. The MPs were transporting
former lieutenant Billy Coen, age twenty-six, to a
nearby military base. Following his court-martial the
day before, Coen was to be executed.
Naturally, Enrico and Richard figure that Coen's to
blame for the dead soldiers. Enrico tells his men to
split up and survey the area, but to stay alert for
Coen. Rebecca goes off, alone, and discovers the train,
the Ecliptic Express, which has come to a full stop.
When she gets on board, Rebecca finds that all the
passengers are dead. Several of them are still moving.
The conductor's office and engine room are both locked,
and bloody papers found in a passenger cabin hint that
the passengers were up to something. Apparently, the
train held a cleanup team headed to an undisclosed,
previously abandoned location, with the intention of
reopening it, but bloodstains obscure the finer details.
On a ravaged body near the engine room, Rebecca finds
a key that'll open the dining car, but at the same time,
Billy Coen, splattered with blood and still wearing a
pair of handcuffs on one wrist, finds her. He holds
her at gunpoint, but soon discovers that Rebecca, an
unnerved and underconfident rookie, isn't much of a
threat. He puts his gun away and walks off, ignoring
her claims that she's arresting him.
Rebecca watches Billy leave, but before she can follow,
Edward Dewey crashes through a window. Edward, who's
been attacked by what looks like a pack of wild dogs,
tells Rebecca that "it's worse than... there are...
zombies and monsters in the woods..." He then succumbs
to his wounds. As Rebecca tries to get him to wake
back up, she's interrupted by a pair of undead dogs,
who crash through the windows after their prey. She
shoots them to death, then, realizing she can't help
Edward, goes after Coen.
Enrico calls Rebecca on her radio as she steps back
into the darkened passenger car. They've found out
more about Billy Coen; his court-martial was for murder,
and he may have killed as many as twenty-three people.
He's also been recently institutionalized. Enrico
tells Rebecca to be on her guard, as Coen wouldn't
think twice about killing her.
In the dining car, Billy manages, once again, to
sneak up on Rebecca. He suggests that they work
together, as there are "some freaked-out things" on
the train with them. Rebecca angrily tells him that
she doesn't need the help of a "wanted felon." Billy
condescendingly retorts that he'll wait right there,
in the entrance to the dining area, while she takes
care of everything.
Leaving Billy behind, Rebecca investigates the dining
room. Seated at one of the tables is an old man in a
ragged suit, his eyes open but unmoving. Rebecca touches
the man, and gently shakes him. He turns to look at
her... and his head falls off of his shoulders with a
dry crack. As Rebecca screams, the man's body writhes
for a moment, then dissolves into a mass of glistening
leeches. The leeches suddenly pile back atop each other,
reassembling into a new and twisted body with the old
man's face.
This "leech zombie" attacks Rebecca with its rubbery
limbs. Rebecca empties a full clip into the creature
without much obvious effect, until a lucky shot blows
off part of its head. The creature breaks back down
into a swarm of a thousand leeches, which rush onto
Rebecca's body, covering her in slime and dragging
her to the floor.
Suddenly, one of the leeches on Rebecca's body explodes.
Billy keeps firing, slaying a couple more leeches as
they leap to attack him, and the creatures finally
withdraw. As Billy checks on Rebecca, who's slimy and
out of breath but otherwise fine, they both notice a
strange man watching them from outside the train.
The train abruptly starts moving again. Billy suggests
that they should check out the engine car, and repeats
his earlier point: they need to work together. Rebecca
grudgingly accepts that, but tells Billy that she'll
shoot him if he tries anything funny. Billy not only
says that he's okay with that, but he tosses Rebecca
a box of bullets.
The train's automatic doors are locked, owing to a lack
of power. Rebecca, using a ladder at the back of the
engine car, crawls onto the roof of the train, where she
finds that something's disconnected the power coupling.
She reconnects it, and finds that this "something" is
yet another form of malevolent slime. It knocks her
through a hole in the roof, into the kitchen. Here,
Rebecca finds a key they need, but can't leave the
kitchen car because the door's lock is jammed.
Rebecca sends the key to Billy via a dumbwaiter. He
can now get into the lower floor of the kitchen. The
key opens the conductor's office, where Billy finds a
locked briefcase and a ladder leading up to the bar.
Here, he finds an icepick, which seems like just the
thing to unjam the door in the kitchen, and an old
hunting shotgun on the bed in a private cabin. When he
passes back through the bar to give Rebecca the icepick,
he's attacked by a giant scorpion, which tears through
the roof of the train and destroys the bar. Billy
blasts at it with his new shotgun until the creature
collapses to the floor.
Billy and Rebecca meet back up in the kitchen, and
find one of the keys they need for the briefcase in
the baggage car. They also appropriate a grappling gun
from its housing on the back of the car, which Rebecca
uses to climb back onto the roof.
In a passenger cabin, Rebecca finds the second key they
need to unlock the briefcase. She finds Billy again
outside the conductor's office, where they open the case
to find the keycard for the door to the control room.
As Rebecca unlocks the control room door, she overhears
half of a radio conversation between a gas-masked, armored
soldier and his commander. The soldier reports that "Delta
team" has gained control of the train.
The man's commander, unknown to Rebecca, is Albert Wesker.
He and William Birkin are commanding the Delta team from an
unknown location. Birkin, frustrated, says that he has no
idea how the lab *and* the mansion could've been contaminated.
Wesker covers the microphone and says that it doesn't matter
now. He orders the soldier aboard the train to destroy it.
That soldier never gets the chance. Both he and a nearby
confederate are abruptly killed by a swarm of leeches.
Billy and Rebecca step over the soldiers' bodies and
enter the control room.
Inside, they find that they've only got a few minutes
before the train, bereft of a conductor, is going to
crash. Rebecca takes a keycard off of the desk and
tells Billy to wait while she triggers the brake
at the rear of the train.
Rebecca blasts back through the train, and, in the
process, is forced to kill the zombie that was once
Edward Dewey. She and Billy manage to put the train's
emergency brakes on, but not in time to avoid slamming
into a blocked-off tunnel, well away from the train's
usual route. When Billy and Rebecca come to, they're
in an underground station somewhere, currently
destroyed and set aflame by the train's impact.
A nearby door leads to a sewer tunnel, which in turn
has a ladder leading up to a trapdoor. When Billy
pushes the trapdoor open, he and Rebecca climb up
into the front hall of a mansion. Weakly lit by oil
lamps and low-wattage bulbs, and so long uninhabited
that clouds of dust come up from the floors with
each step, the centerpieces of the decoration are
the Umbrella logo, set into the floor above the
words "Umbrella Research Center," and a cracked and
faded oil portrait of an old man. The plaque below
the portrait reads "James Marcus -- First General
Manager." Rebecca gasps; she's seen this man before.
His was the face the leeches took on when they formed
a human shape.
Wesker and Birkin watch Billy and Rebecca from their
surveillance station. Birkin asks who they are, and
Wesker tells him that Rebecca's a rookie member of
STARS. Neither of them know who Billy is, however.
Suddenly, an ancient public address system broadcasts a
message. It's from James Marcus, who requests that everyone
remain silent while he goes back over the three pillars of
Umbrella's motto: unity, discipline, and obedience. As
Wesker and Birkin try to figure out who played that message,
every screen in their station abruptly displays the man
in white. He laughs at them, and claims responsibility
for the contamination of both the lab and the train. His
motive, he continues, is revenge against Umbrella.
A mass of leeches appears in front of the man, and rises up
to form, once again, the semblance of a human: the old man
from the dining car, James Marcus. The younger man looks
into the camera and tells Wesker and Birkin that ten years
ago, they both helped assassinate James Marcus. Now, the
time has come for revenge.
Billy and Rebecca find out quickly that the training facility
isn't empty. Several cleanup crews have arrived here recently
to reopen the facility, and all of them have fallen victim to
the T-Virus. The front doors of the facility are blocked with
a strange barricade, so they're forced to further explore the
old house.
As they move throughout the facility, disposing of its undead
population and circumventing a series of obstacles, they
encounter two more leech zombies, and several documents
left lying around by the cleanup teams or the original teaching
staff. In a large open area that might've once been intended
to feed and house animals, Rebecca finds a required key, and
is then attacked and captured by an enormous, mutated centipede.
Billy manages to kill it with a volley of well-aimed pistol fire.
That key opens the doors to the meeting area and the surprisingly
clean office of the head of the training facility. An old entry
in the assistant headmaster's diary speaks of a given class of
trainees, and how the only worthwhile ones in the lot are
"scholar Will" and "practical Al." The headmaster further
notes that James Marcus had told him to constantly pit Will
and Al, who were already naturally competitive, against each
other. This is the first time Marcus has shown any interest
in the facility he's ostensibly in charge of.
A hidden piece of metal in the headmaster's office proves to be
the last part Rebecca and Billy need to fix the time clock on the
facility's third floor. Doing so unlocks the doors to a meeting
room on the second floor and a screening room, the latter of
which provides the security disc that undoes the locks on the
odd "knight barricades" that've sealed several doors. Naturally,
escape won't be as easy as simply walking through the newly
open front door, as the dilapidation that pervades the facility
has claimed the bridge that serves as the facility's front walk.
The training facility is on a cliff overlooking a river, and
it's a long way down.
They do have other options. One of those options is the facility's
observatory, which an old memo implies is an escape route.
A room on the second floor, the office of some strange chess
fetishist, once belonged to James Marcus himself. Billy solves
a puzzle on the floor, which opens a secret compartment in the
desk that hides Marcus's diary. The diary, which is at least
twenty years old, details Marcus's creation of a virus he
calls "Progenitor" and the synthesis of a virus he codenamed
"T," for "tyrant," by mixing the Progenitor virus with the
DNA of a leech. Marcus's personal experiments all involved
leeches, and shortly after he made some kind of breakthrough
owing to the use of experimentation on humans, Spencer began
to quietly investigate Marcus's research. Marcus's final entry
notes that if anyone interferes with his project, they'll be
his next test subjects.
Marcus's portrait in the front hall of the facility turns out
to be concealing a secret door, which leads into the facility's
basement. There, Billy and Rebecca find an isolated cell built
of stone. A nearby prisoner manifest suggests that this is a
detainment center for Umbrella's prisoners and test subjects.
Billy gives Rebecca a boost so she can reach an air vent. When
she crawls through and lands on the other side, she finds she's
landed in a bloody, often-used torture chamber, complete with
an iron maiden.
The facility's circuit box is also in this room. Rebecca turns
the power back on, which cuts off an inconvenient steam jet in
the facility's boiler room, but also alerts the strange young
man. He muses, watching Rebecca on the surveillance system, that
she's trespassing. Somewhere else, a cage opens, and something
snarls as it's unleashed.
Rebecca is warily examining the torture chamber when, suddenly,
something springs onto her back. When she throws it off, it turns
out to be a mutated, hostile baboon, its claws and teeth extended
into vicious hooks. The "Eliminator" pounces again, and Rebecca
dodges to the side. As she rolls to her feet, the floor gives
way underneath her.
On the top floor of William Birkin's private lab, Birkin pores
over a sheaf of paper. He asks Wesker if this is really the
identity of the strange young man. Wesker's response is simple:
whoever it is, if the conspiracy to expose Spencer's assassination
of Marcus is revealed, Wesker, Birkin, *and* Spencer's careers
are over. Wesker's reaction is simple: he intends to leave
Umbrella. All Wesker needs is some more combat data on the
T-Virus weapon, and for that, he's got the STARS. Birkin, on
the other hand, needs more time to perfect his G-Virus. He tells
Wesker that he intends to activate the facility's self-destruct
system, blowing the facility and all evidence within it to pieces.
Rebecca, hanging above a long fall into the river, radios Billy
for help. Billy runs back through the facility, blowing away
several Eliminators as he goes, and finally finds Rebecca on
the second subbasement. He grabs her arm just before she falls.
As Billy pulls Rebecca back onto solid ground, she thanks him.
He replies that he was just keeping his word. They agreed to
work together, after all. Rebecca's radio beeps, signaling her
of an incoming call from Enrico Marini. He asks her if she's
found Coen yet; while looking directly at Billy, she tells
Enrico that she hasn't, but she'll keep an eye out for him.
Rebecca smiles at Billy, and says that her great career in law
enforcement's probably over; it's her first mission, and she's
already disobeying orders. At least she probably won't live
long enough to regret it. She switches topics suddenly, asking
Billy if he really did murder twenty-three people. She doesn't
intend to judge him, but she just has to know.
Billy tells her that, around "this time last year," his unit was
sent into the African jungle on a mission to intervene in a local
civil war. Their target was a guerilla force's hideout. By the
time that his unit reached its destination, the heat and the
guerillas had cost them dearly. Only four of them were left.
They discovered that their entire mission had been based on
faulty information. The "guerilla hideout" was, in fact, just
a small village full of innocent people. Billy's commander
refused to cut their losses and head out; instead, he had his
men herd the villagers into a group and prepare to open fire.
In his flashback, Billy remembers trying to talk his leader
out of killing the villagers, but his leader wasn't listening.
He struck Billy with the stock of his rifle, and opened fire.
Billy shuts up. Rebecca asks if he really did kill all those
innocent people, but Billy's done with this topic: "That was
then, this is now." Rebecca tells him that now, her teammates
think he killed those MPs in the forest, but she doesn't
think he did. She thinks it was those zombie dogs. Billy,
once again, says that it doesn't matter; he's either got to
turn himself in and serve his sentence, or keep running for
as long as possible. That ends the conversation.
The second subbasement apparently served the facility's trainees
as a barracks and storage area. In a formerly well-furnished
bedroom, Rebecca and Billy find a large heavy plate in the
fireplace, which would fit neatly in a control panel in the
observatory. Further down, in the third and last subbasement,
Billy finds both the last key they need and a pair of Hunters
in a small maze, like the ones zoologists use to test the
intelligence of rats. The key is in a pile of human bones,
and is guarded by a pair of Hunters.
It opens a door on the second floor of the facility, leading
to the recreational area. The leech zombies have returned for
another go, but by now, Rebecca and Billy have discovered the
zombies' vulnerability to fire. Burning the leech zombies to
death with Molotov cocktails, Rebecca finds another plate caught
in a vise in the facility's machine lab, while Billy appropriates
a battery from the wine cellar. That battery fits into a makeshift
elevator, used by the cleanup crew, and provides them with the
stepping stone (or crate, as it were) they need to claim the
last plate from a column outside the facility.
When all three plates are put into the control panel in the
observatory, there's a sudden rumbling. When Rebecca and
Billy look outside, they realize that the observatory itself
has rotated. The door they came in through now leads to the
facility's second-floor balcony, and the locked door on the
other side of the observatory leads to an old chapel.
The chapel's front door is locked, but the lock is, for whatever
reason, connected to a floor plate in a nearby atrium. Billy
steps on the plate while Rebecca investigates the chapel, which
has become the new home of a gigantic, mutated bat. Rebecca
slays the creature with a bombardment of napalm-laced grenades,
and, using the hookshot that they picked up all the way back
on the train, rappels up to the roof.
>From the rooftop, Rebecca climbs down into the church's garden,
where she's able to activate an elevator. This elevator takes
her and Billy down into the secret facility beneath the chapel:
James Marcus's laboratory.
The laboratory was also targeted by Umbrella's cleanup team, to
judge by the relatively fresh corpses and zombies that shamble
around its halls. It's also, naturally, haunted by a couple of
leech zombies. Using the hookshot to circumvent a collapsed
stairwell, Rebecca climbs up onto the floor above, where Marcus
did his experimentation. Communicating via radio and sending
items to each other via the laboratory's dumbwaiter, Rebecca
and Billy work in concert to unlock the puzzles of the lab.
Finally, after discovering a pair of jeweled leeches in Marcus's
file room and study, Billy and Rebecca manage to open the door
to a newly-constructed cable car. While looking for the parts
they need to reactivate the car, Billy stumbles upon an old
black-and-white photograph in Marcus's old, yet spotless, study.
There's a note on the pack of the photo congratulating "James"
on his graduation from university in 1939. Billy concludes that
the young man they've seen controlling the leeches must be
Marcus's son, or grandson.
When they find the parts they need, Rebecca hookshots into the
cable car's control room via a hole in the floor, and reactivates
the car. As they prepare to board the train, disaster strikes. A
single Eliminator jumps from the roof of the cable car, onto
Billy, and both of them plummet into the abyss below the car's
track. As Rebecca rushes to the ledge, she's attacked by a
leech zombie, which she incinerates a moment later.
Alone, Rebecca reactivates the cable car once again, which had
been sabotaged by the leech zombie, and heads into the unknown.
The car takes her to an isolated warehouse somewhere, which
is attached to a freight turntable for railroad cars. (Two
months from now, Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy will use this
turntable to reach William Birkin's lab, while a motley group
of survivors will use it to escape the same place.) Appropriating
a Magnum from a dead man in the cable car, Rebecca finds a key
in a control room along the turntable's shaft, where the only
working monitor is displaying a picture of a twisted-looking,
white-skinned humanoid creature preserved in a storage tube.
Rebecca then brings the turntable up to meet her.
The turntable takes her to the top floor of an unknown complex.
A rockfall blocks progress from one direction, and Rebecca
decides against a full search of the area. When she approaches
a nearby elevator, she hears it start up. When the doors open,
Enrico Marini steps out.
Marini tells Rebecca that the rest of the Bravo team should've
met him here by now. If they go straight from here, he says,
they should reach an old mansion where Umbrella is carrying
out experiments. He tells Rebecca to come with him, but she
tells him she'll catch up with him later. She has to find
Billy. Enrico tries to persuade her to come with him, since
he's sure Coen won't make it, but Rebecca convinces him she'll
be all right. As Enrico walks away, Rebecca, in voiceover,
tells us that she never saw Enrico again.
A discarded key by Enrico's elevator works on the door of another
elevator, over by the rockfall. Rebecca takes the key and starts
up the elevator, but as she does so, something crawls out of the
rubble behind her.
A day from now, Wesker will tell the other STARS what this thing
is: a Tyrant. Now, all Rebecca knows is that it's enormously
powerful, incredibly ugly, and coming after her. It takes nearly
two full clips from Rebecca's Magnum before it falls.
The newly arrived elevator has several destinations, like the
train station underneath the training facility, but the only
place Rebecca hasn't seen yet is the fourth level. As she
takes the elevator down, the young man and his posse of leeches
watches her over yet another closed-circuit camera. He says
out loud, as though she can hear him, that she and her friends
no longer amuse him. Now, he says, nothing will stop him from
getting his revenge.
The elevator drops Rebecca off on a narrow bridge, over an
aquaduct or river. Below her, she sees Billy, unconscious but
alive, hanging off of a twisted chunk of concrete and rebar in
the middle of the river. Rebecca shouts his name, just before
something enormous slams into Billy from under the surface of
the water and dislodges him from his handhold. Billy yells
in pain as he's thrown downriver.
Rebecca's bridge leads to a power control room, which is currently
dark. A brief bit of computer work restores electricity to the
area, which lets Rebecca take a nearby lift downwards.
She finds herself in an abandoned sewage treatment plant, which,
like the training facility, is crawling with zombies and monsters,
including the occasional Hunter. Rebecca fights her way through
several levels of the plant, dispatching yet another leech
zombie en route, before finally finding Billy.
When Rebecca gets there, Billy is lying unconscious on a metal
grate, thrown there by the current of the river rushing by
below him. As he wakes up, coughing up water, Billy sees
something. Rebecca asks him what's wrong, then follows his
gaze over to a pile of stripped skeletons, brownish from
decay and age, lying in a puddle of slime so thick that it
has yet to filter down through the grate underneath it.
Billy, looking at the grinning skulls, has a flashback to the
dead villagers in Africa. Rebecca asks what could've done this,
and Billy's answer is that they must be the remnants of Marcus's
test subjects. "Marcus must still have been messing around with
the mother virus!"
Together again, Rebecca and Billy go back into the factory.
Like the facility, the factory is a maze of puzzles, broken
or near-broken machinery, monsters, and locked doors. As
Rebecca and Billy make their way through these obstacles,
the Tyrant reappears on the ninth level of the factory, only
to go down in a hail of shotgun and Magnum fire.
Rebecca separates from Billy for a short time, to unlock a
door and throw a switch. This lowers the floodgate on the
plant's dam, allowing Billy and Rebecca to reach the plant's
incinerator. When they do, they find it hasn't been used for
that purpose for quite awhile; instead, now it's the spawning
grounds for an army of leeches.
From the walkway above them, the young man in white welcomes
them to the "party," since it is, after all, their wake. Billy
demands answers, and to know who the man is.
The man's response is to change his face. He ages several
decades in a second, until the man is clearly James Marcus.
Ten years ago, Marcus tells Rebecca and Billy, Spencer had him
assassinated. He was hard at work on his pet project, the
leeches, when two men in full armor burst in and opened fire
with submachineguns. Through Marcus's mind's eye, we see his
last moments as a human: a young Wesker and Birkin standing
over him, Birkin promising to take over Marcus's research,
and then his last moments, as he sank into a watery grave.
Marcus's queen leech somehow found his dead body. It crawled
inside his mouth and began to spawn. Somehow, the T-Virus
inside the leech resurrected Marcus, as an inhuman monster,
capable of shapeshifting through the control of his army
of superintelligent leeches.
Now, Marcus says, he's returned, and "the world will burn in
an inferno of hate!" Billy shakes his fist at Marcus ("GEEEESE!")
and tells him that he'll pay for what he's done. Marcus keeps
laughing--
--right up until he vomits a stream of leeches. He gets a look
of horrified surprise on his face, and his body begins to expand
and run, like a marshmallow in the microwave. Marcus turns into
an inhuman creature, the ultimate expression of the "leech zombies"
Rebecca and Billy have been fighting all night. It leaps to the
ceiling, and from there, to the attack.
Marcus's claims come very close to coming true. He attacks with
vomited streams of acid and the stretching tentacles that now
serve him as arms. After enduring enough small-arms fire to
kill a dozen ordinary men, or a couple of Tyrants, Marcus screams
with the slithering voice of a leech zombie, and falls silent.
Two keys fall out of what were once Marcus's pockets. Billy
and Rebecca use those keys to open a final safety door on the
other side of the incinerator, to find a freight elevator that
leads up to the previously-unavailable fifth level. With a
sigh of relief, Rebecca throws the elevator's switch.
=========================================
7ii. The Conclusion of RESIDENT EVIL ZERO
=========================================
The elevator shakes suddenly, as something explodes near the
bottom of the shaft. Billy sees it first: it's Marcus's queen
leech, grown into a grotesque monster the size of a truck,
and it's heading up the elevator shaft after them. For a few
moments, it looks as though they might outrun it, but as the
elevator reaches the end of its track, the queen leech slams
into it. The elevator platform tips over, throwing Billy
and Rebecca into the treatment center's shipping dock; at the
same time, William Birkin makes good on his earlier threat.
A self-destruct countdown is initiated.
The leech slithers onto the floor, attacking Billy and Rebecca
with sprays of an unknown, noxious fluid and its bloated
psuedopods. It's soft-bodied and slow, but it's also enormous;
despite their best efforts, Billy and Rebecca's weapons can't
do more than slow the queen leech down.
Overhead, the ceiling of the shipping dock opens a bit, and
lets in the sunlight. The leech, still alive, shies away from
the light, and Rebecca realizes that the leech's somehow
vulnerable to sunlight. Billy volunteers to distract the
queen while Rebecca opens the shutters the rest of the way.
While Billy continues the fight against the queen, Rebecca
undoes the locks on the dock's ceiling. A couple of minutes
later, Rebecca hits the last lock and the ceiling of the dock
opens, bathing the queen leech in full, direct sunlight.
Enraged and in pain, it lashes out, knocking both humans
across the shipping dock.
As Rebecca gets back up, she notices a heavy revolver, hidden
behind a stack of crates. She seizes it, yells, and throws
the gun to Billy.
Billy catches the gun, takes aim, and fires, apparently finding
the one explosive round in the cylinder. The queen leech, wounded
and burning, has had enough, and the heavy bullet blows a hole
through its body the size of a truck tire. It screams and falls
apart, the pieces of its body plummeting back down the elevator
shaft, and into the rising fireball of the facility's imminent
explosion. Billy and Rebecca make a mad dash for safety.
The Umbrella training facility is engulfed in a thunderous
explosion a few minutes later. Billy and Rebecca watch it
explode from the safety of a nearby hill. Billy, before
collapsing onto the grass, pops his handcuffs off and
throws them into the woods.
Rebecca, from her new vantage point, notices the Spencer
mansion, which is only a couple of miles away. She takes
Billy's dogtags, puts them around her neck, and tells him
that "officially... Lieutenant Billy Coen is dead." She
salutes him, and heads down the hill, to meet up with the
rest of her team.
Billy watches her go. She doesn't look back. Billy finally
gives her a thumbs-up that she doesn't see, and says,
"Thank you... Rebecca," before going on his way.
======================================
7iii. Conclusions About the Conclusion
======================================
1. Rebecca Chambers, obviously, has survived. Her whereabouts
following the "mansion incident" are still unknown.
2. Billy Coen survived, and was last seen in the Raccoon Forest.
Thanks to Rebecca, he's been reported dead (cf. the Rebecca's
Report EX File in RE2). His current whereabouts are unknown.
3. James Marcus, the true creator of the T-Virus, *might*
be dead. Yes, he was punched full of holes and left bleeding
on the bottom floor of a vast underground complex that
exploded very soon thereafter, but this is Resident Evil,
and he's already come back from the dead once.
4. Another virus, the "Progenitor," was created by Umbrella
in the early to mid-seventies. James Marcus and perhaps
Ozwell Spencer were either its creators, or were at least
on the team that created it. The Progenitor is presumably
derived from Ashford and Spencer's "mother virus."
5. The T-Virus was derived from a combination of the Progenitor
virus and the DNA of a leech by James Marcus in 1978. After
Marcus's assassination, Birkin took over Marcus's projects,
which may be why everyone in RE2 thinks Birkin created the
T-Virus.
===================
7iv. Random Musings
===================
1. Would it have killed Capcom to have included *something*
about where Rebecca's been since the end of RE? A still shot
would've done the trick, or a couple of paragraphs of text.
2. Unless I missed something, it's rather strongly implied
that Billy was innocent of the crimes he was accused of, or
that there's more to the story than Billy bothers to tell
Rebecca. He's another character who knows a damn sight more
than he lets on, as his reaction to the bodies in the factory
attests. (Here's a point: we know Umbrella bails out soldiers
and mercenaries who've somehow screwed up their lives, and
gives them a "second chance" of sorts as members of the UBCS.
I find myself wondering if Billy's "prison transfer" was going
to go anywhere near a prison; that might explain why Marcus
bothered to kill a bunch of MPs who were theoretically
unaffiliated with Umbrella.)
3. The murder investigation in the Raccoon Forest was Rebecca's
first case as a member of STARS. She and Leon would have a lot
to talk about, I think. (This also explains why Chris had to
introduce himself to Rebecca in REv.2.)
4. Somehow, Enrico Marini got from Raccoon Forest to the labs
underneath Raccoon City without using the turntable or the
cable car. Personally, I'd like to know how he did it. (This
is not a request for "Resident Evil Negative One: Enrico's
Story," it's just a note about a particularly wacky bit of
geography.)
5. The final battle against the queen leech is like a demented
beerslam of all the final encounters in every RE game up to
this point, plus the movie. The fight takes place with a five-minute
timer, on a helipad, against a giant slithery "queen" that attacks
with gouts of disgusting fluid, and the main character must stay
alive until he's provided with the weapon he needs to win. The
final blow's dealt by someone's carelessly discarded revolver,
accompanied by a cheesy one-liner and gratuitous bullet time.
6. There are more new monsters in RE0 than in any other RE game
to date. The Eliminators, giant cockroaches, the giant centipede,
Lurkers, the giant bat, the leech zombie, the Stinger...
7. Marcus's assassination is carried out by a couple of gas-masked
goons with submachineguns. This means that Umbrella's black-ops
troops are now two for two on indirectly making their targets into
virus-fueled killing machines.
8. Is it just me, or does RE0's music sound a *lot* like
Silent Hill 2's?
9. If you're curious as to how Rebecca chose to deal with her
promise to Billy at the end of the game, her official report on
the Bravo team's investigation can be found in the N64 version
of RE2, in the "Rebecca's Report" EX File. (The EX File in
question is flawed, though, or else it's based upon a version
of the game's plotline that changed between 1999 and 2002.
In it, Rebecca misspells Billy's name as "Koen," and says he
was an Ensign, a rank that I'm pretty sure doesn't exist in
the U.S. Marine Corps.)
10. As "Nemesis Resident" notes, if the Alpha team landed right
next to the Bravo team's helicopter, they should've found the
wreck of the MP vehicle. That in turn makes me wonder if someone
found the time to move the helicopter or the MP vehicle between
RE0 and REv.2 (Billy? Wesker? Marcus?).
11. Daniel Weissenberger has a note that's sufficiently bizarre
to be worth sharing:
"James Marcus's death scene reminded me more than a little of
the fate of the Swamp Thing when Alan Moore took over writing
the comic. The fact that Marcus was very, very dead when the
Queen Leech entered him, along with the fact that the
less-advanced leech zombies have the habit of creating a
primitive humanoid 'skin,' suggest that the James Marcus Billy
and Becky encounter isn't actually James at all. Rather, it's
possible that, as in the ubiquitous 'planarian worm' experiment,
James' leeches devoured him and absorbed his consciousness,
turning them into a swarm of worms that think that they're
James Marcus."
The planarian worm experiment is, of course, the experiment where
a worm was taught to navigate a maze. That worm was then fed to
another worm; the second worm promptly displayed the same training
the first worm had received.
I suppose if there's a Queen fanboy over at Capcom, a Swamp Thing
fanboy's also a possibility.
12. You've got to wonder if the Lurkers and the Gamma Hunters
are at all related.
13. Cinematic references in RE0:
-- is Billy's tattoo a deliberate reference to Seth Gecko's
tattoo in _From Dusk 'Til Dawn_, or did someone with
a laundry pen get real bored? (Vincent Merken writes to
point out that if you turn the RE0 box counterclockwise
and look at Billy's tattoo, it looks like it says
"Mother Love." See "Easter Eggs," below.)
-- the Eliminators remind me of an obscure American horror
film, _Shakma_, about a killer baboon, but I kind of
doubt that's more than a coincidence. I am one of five,
perhaps six, people who've seen that movie.
==========================================
8. A Three-Hour Tour: RESIDENT EVIL GAIDEN
==========================================
Barry Burton is sent to board a cruise ship, where the T-Virus
has broken loose, in order to rescue Leon Kennedy, and a mysterious
survivor named Lucia.
====================================
8i. Coming Soon--Oh, To Hell With It
====================================
Once I play through RE:G, which will be hard, because I *hate
it like rats*, I'll add information on it to this document.
I appreciate the offers I've received to contribute analyses
of the game, but no thank you.
In the meantime, go read Efrem Orizzonte's analysis of Gaiden,
available at www.gamefaqs.com.
=============================================================
9. Ten Thousand *More* Bullets: RESIDENT EVIL: GUN SURVIVOR 2
=============================================================
Also known as Resident Evil: Fire Zone, this Namco/Capcom
collaboration is a retelling of sorts of Code Veronica. It
stars Claire, Steve, and a liberal helping of every monster
in the RE series. It's also a dream that Claire's having as
she's lying unconscious in the crashed plane in Antarctica.
As such, it has no bearing on the plot.
=====================================================
10. We Cover the Waterfront - RESIDENT EVIL: DEAD AIM
=====================================================
A PS2 title, Dead Aim is the latest in the Gun Survivor series.
In Japan, it's known as Biohazard Gun Survivor 4: Heroes Never
Die. Uncharacteristically for a game in the Survivor series,
it doesn't suck.
=================
10i. Introduction
=================
On September 18th, 2002, a vial of the experimental T-Virus
is stolen from a safe at the Umbrella facility in Paris.
On September 22nd, 2002, the Umbrella-owned ocean liner the
Spencer Rain is seajacked by the group responsible for the
theft of the T-Virus. This group turns out to be made up
of followers of a charismatic former Umbrella employee
named Morpheus Duvall.
The seajacking is part of a blackmail scheme by Duvall. He
contacts the governments of the United States and China,
and tells them that unless he's paid five billion dollars
by both governments, he'll fire T-Virus-laden missiles
at major cities in both nations. At some point, he also
unleashes the T-Virus against the passengers and crew of
the Spencer Rain, including his own followers, almost
literally transforming it into a ghost ship.
At some point, both Bruce McGivern and Fong Ling find their
way onto the Spencer Rain. McGivern is an American covert
operative working for an anti-Umbrella unit within the
United States Strategic Command. Ling works for China's
Safety Department in a similar capacity. Both have been
charged with infiltrating the Spencer Rain, and putting
an end to Morpheus's blackmail plot.
Hilarity ensues.
============================================================
10ii. A Summary of the Basic Plot of RESIDENT EVIL: DEAD AIM
============================================================
September 23rd, 2002: Bruce McGivern opens his eyes.
The man standing behind him has Bruce's own gun pressed against
Bruce's head, and comments on how Americans seem compelled to
use ugly weapons. They're both standing on the top deck of the
Spencer Rain. Bruce turns around and snarls, "Morpheus."
Morpheus prepares to pull the trigger, but Bruce sees something
he doesn't: the woman standing on the roof of the cabin, and the
grenade she tosses onto the deck. Bruce runs for cover, and gets
away without injury. After the explosion, Morpheus has disappeared,
as has the woman. Bruce reclaims his pistol, kicks open a vent
cover, and drops into one of the Spencer Rain's guest cabins.
The Spencer Rain normally carries a full load of rich and powerful
passengers; one of the crew notes in a letter to his brother that
he serves people he's seen on TV. Now, they're a full load of rich
and powerful zombies, slumbering now, but slowly waking back up
as they smell fresh prey.
Bruce uses a discarded key to get out of the guest cabins to the
VIP lounge, where he finds the keycard he needs to reach the
central stairs. As he steps through the latter door, his radio
beeps. It's his boss, telling him of Morpheus's demands: five
billion dollars by tomorrow at midnight.
The conversation is cut short when a woman--the same woman who
saved Bruce's life earlier--kicks the radio out of Bruce's hand.
It goes over the railing and shatters against the floor below,
as the woman slams Bruce into a wall. He manages to gasp out
that she must be the "Chinese security girl," so they're in
the same business. She lets go of him, and notes that the same
business does not necessarily mean the same side. She knows
Bruce's name, but he doesn't know hers. Bruce catches his
breath, then raises his hands, and the woman attacks him again.
Bruce loses his gun, but manages to kick the woman's legs out.
When she falls, Bruce holds her down, and asks for her name.
She introduces herself as Fong Ling, and presses Bruce's own gun
to his chin. He lets her up, and asks if they might not be able
to cooperate. She scoffs at the idea, drops his gun at his feet,
and takes off.
Bruce's new keycard unlocks two doors on the third floor, which
lead to the VIP suites. The VIPs apparently didn't go down without
a fight, as Bruce finds a silenced pistol and semiautomatic handgun
amidst the wreckage. Finally, he turns up a crewman's ID card, which
is needed to open another set of doors on the second floor.
Heading west, Bruce goes through the hall outside the dining room,
stopping to grab an abandoned shotgun from the kitchen. On the
pool deck, Bruce finds a hatch leading into the hold, and a key
sticking out of the control panel. The valve handle he needs is
back to the east, on the other side of the ship.
Fighting his way back across the passenger deck, Bruce finds the
storeroom he's looking for. The valve handle is inside on a shelf.
As Bruce leaves, an enormous, long-fingered hand bursts through
the window and punches him in the chest. He falls down, the wind
knocked out of him, just as Fong Ling arrives. She takes the
valve handle and runs back towards the pool deck, telling Bruce
that he should just go home.
The zombie population of the lower decks is now fully awake, and
Fong Ling has to fight for every step she takes. When she returns
to the pool deck and attaches the valve handle, Bruce is one step
behind her. As they trade quips, a critically wounded and furious
Morpheus watches via closed-circuit television. He snarls at Bruce
and Fong Ling, and presses a switch.
A garage-style door opens at the back of the pool deck, unleashing
two massive, hook-limbed reptilian creatures: a new, larger breed
of Hunters. They work as a team, dodging Bruce's bullets and trying
to catch him between them. Bruce manages to kill one by emptying
his new shotgun into it, then dispatches the other with a barrage of
pistol fire. As he fights, Fong Ling struggles with the rusty valve,
and gets the hatch open right as the second Hunter falls dead.
The two agents descend into the hold of the ship. Morpheus, dying
from his wounds, watches them go, and raises a syringe. Triumphantly,
he rams it home into his own body, and begins to crackle with
electricity.
The Spencer Rain's hold is populated by the undead remnants of most
of its former crew. They spring a couple of crude ambushes on Bruce
as he heads across the ship, through the boiler room, and up a lift.
A locked door requires another keycard, so Bruce heads in the other
direction. On the other side of the ship's cargo room, Bruce walks
into a richly furnished presentation theater. A crewmember's diary
mentions that the presentation room is off-limits to the crew, and
it's immediately obvious why. Four bioweapon storage tanks are up
on stage, on either side of a podium. One of the tanks is broken,
and the other three are empty.
Bruce picks up a crowbar. A binder near the podium contains
Umbrella's notes on their recent creations. After entries on the
new "Elite" Hunter and an improved, long-limbed Tyrant, Bruce reads
about the experimental TG-Virus, a blending of the T- and G-Viruses
that results in the carrier developing a powerful electromagnetic
field. That field can repel bullets, rendering the virus carrier
nearly invincible.
Bruce pockets the file and heads back to the cargo room. Before he
can leave, though, he hears the click of heels on metal; someone's
coming. He slides in next to the presentation room's door and waits
to see who it is.
It turns out to be a "what," not a "who." The creature--a chitinous,
clawed parody of a woman--slides through the door and grabs Bruce
by the throat.
The creature chides Bruce on still using an ugly gun. Bruce realizes
suddenly that this is Morpheus, infected with the TG-Virus.
Just as the file said, Morpheus is now completely immune to small-arms
fire. The virus has also lent him (her?) supernatural speed, strength,
and agility. Left with no other option, Bruce runs for it.
Morpheus has seemingly given up the chase when Bruce reaches the
cargo room. He pries open several crates before finding the keycard
he needs in one of them, then heads back towards the locked door.
Somehow, Morpheus appears again, in front of Bruce, and is hot on
his heels as Bruce sprints towards the engine room.
Fong Ling is already there, trying to open an electronically locked
door. Bruce runs into the hatch behind her and slams the door, which
is barely strong enough to keep Morpheus out. Fong Ling squirms
through the window above the locked door. While Bruce holds Morpheus
back, she restores power and unlocks the door.
As Bruce stumbles into the engine room, Morpheus gives up the chase.
He's suddenly gone. Fong Ling also leaves, cheerfully calling Bruce
a "don-gua." She says it means he's cool.
When Fong Ling unlocked the engine room door, she also unlocked
the door to a monitor room over by the presentation area. Inside,
Bruce finds a key to the recreation room, inside the bar on the
second deck, and a bloodstained, four-year-old reorganization
notice. Morpheus Duvall was blamed for the Spencer mansion
outbreak, and Umbrella fired him. The reasons for his attacking
the Spencer Rain become a bit clearer.
Heading up through the presentation room, Bruce finds himself
back in the main staircase in the ship's VIP area. His new key
lets him into the stairs behind the bar, and into the captain's
quarters. The captain himself has become a particularly tenacious
zombie. Bruce puts him out of his misery and takes his Magnum.
A door at the back of the captain's quarters leads up another
flight of stairs, to the ship's bridge. Fong Ling is, as usual,
one step ahead of Bruce, and is wrestling with the helm when
he arrives. At the same time, alarms go off. The ship is about
to crash into an island and the helm's frozen. They've got
five minutes.
Suddenly, the zombified bridge crew bursts into the room. Bruce
stays behind to deal with them, while Fong Ling sprints for the
exit. Dispatching the zombies, Bruce follows her outside to the
ship's helipad.
Bruce comes through the door as something strikes Fong Ling to
the ground. She cradles her arm and begins to stand, and Bruce
is standing protectively in front of her.
Fong Ling's assailant is the same creature that attacked Bruce
outside the storeroom, and was mentioned in the dossier Bruce
read: it is the new, improved Tyrant. Bruce tells Fong Ling to
go after Morpheus as he squares off against the Tyrant. It's
payback time.
In the dossier, Bruce read of a design flaw in the Tyrant.
He soon finds it for himself; every time he shoots the creature
in the misshapen hump on its back, it convulses and a spray of
blood douses the deck. Bruce concentrates fire on that hump,
dodging the Tyrant's mad dashes and flying axehandle punches.
After a few minutes of this, the Tyrant falls dead at his feet.
There's no sign of Fong Ling or Morpheus, and the ship is seconds
away from crashing. With no other choice, Bruce jumps over the
side. The Spencer Rain hits the island and explodes.
Bruce swims ashore, to find the island a burned-out, abandoned
husk. Walking through town, Bruce finds a hatch in the ground;
the chain-link fence that once protected it has melted, and is
still throwing off sparks. Morpheus has come this way. Bruce
follows him down, into the island's sewers.
Five years ago, this island was an Umbrella facility, meant
to store and dispose of their botched experiments. Morpheus
was in command here, but he was arrogant and botched the job.
All that remains of the place now are the surviving failed
bioweapons and an occasional zombie. A cave-in has sealed
part of the waterways; a scattering of spent shells and a
discarded grenade launcher hint at what might have caused
the destruction.
Some of those bioweapons include the planarian "Torpedo Kids,"
acid-secreting monsters that fly like missiles through the
sewers. Bruce avoids them and the old zombies that have
taken up residence here to find a working radio. He gets
in touch with his superiors, to find that if his demands
are not met, Morpheus intends to fire T-Virus-laden missiles
at several major cities. The Chinese government has already
given in, but the United States, as Bruce's superior says,
does not negotiate with terrorists. Bruce now has the safety
of the entire nation in his hands.
Meanwhile, in the waterways a level below Bruce, Fong Ling
has found her own way inside the facility. She remains
utterly still as an enormous creature, fat and stinking,
shambles by, never looking in her direction. It leaves
the area without incident, and Fong Ling sneaks off in
the other direction.
Traversing the waterways, Fong Ling dispatches several zombies
and finds her way outside onto the facility's heliport. Suddenly,
beams of red light appear from the sky, one of which focuses on
her forehead.
Bruce appears out of nowhere, shouts her name, and tackles
her to the ground. In orbit above the island, a Chinese satellite
focuses a laser blast on the ground where Fong Ling stood
a moment ago, leaving a smoking crater. Bruce and Fong Ling
run inside the nearest building.
Another blast strikes the roof of the building, and Bruce
pulls out a knife. He advances on Fong Ling, who asks him
what he's doing, right before he cuts into the tattoo on
her left arm.
Bruce pulls a microchip out from under Fong Ling's skin and
crushes it under his boot. Miles overhead, the satellite's
targeting beam flickers and goes out.
Looking out the building's window, Bruce says to Fong Ling
that apparently, the Chinese were willing to sacrifice one
of their best agents. Fong Ling replies that she still intends
to finish her mission. Then, with half a smile, she notes that
since he saved her this time, she supposes she should thank
him. Bruce brushes it off; he's a "don-gua," after all.
Leaving Fong Ling behind, Bruce heads deeper into the facility.
Dusty hallways and wreckage eventually give way to another maze,
this one of concrete and metal; a note Bruce finds in an old
storeroom says that this facility actually had another laboratory,
three hundred feet below the ocean's surface.
The only path Bruce can take seems to lead to that facility.
Older zombies and frog-like mutants that the scientists here
called Glimmers haunt the halls, as do zombies of a more recent
vintage. The facility on the island's surface may be abandoned,
but the one below the water has apparently been running until
very recently.
Bruce reaches that freight elevator in one piece, but as he
pushes the button to bring it back up, the fat mutant that
Fong Ling had seen earlier attacks him. Bruce has read an old
file on the creature, codenamed Alpha by the scientists that
had accidentally created it. They had blinded it and placed
a metal spike into its brain, as part of their study of its
reactions to stimuli. The result is an enormously powerful
creature that navigates entirely by its keen sense of hearing.
Bruce creeps away from the creature, which cannot find him
as long as he stays quiet. In a vicious game of hide and seek,
Bruce shoots the Alpha to death with his silenced pistol;
the creature dies, unable to find what's killing it.
Fong Ling catches up to Bruce as he steps into the elevator.
Unfortunately, so does Morpheus, who drops onto the roof of
the elevator car and severs its cable. Bruce hits the emergency
brake, which stops the car right near the topmost level of
the underwater facility. Morpheus's weight and the elevator's
velocity don't keep it stopped for long, and Fong Ling barely
escapes before the elevator plummets out of sight.
Alone, Fong Ling continues into the facility. Its staff has
succumbed to yet another T-Virus infestation. The lab is
running on emergency power, which has deactivated the executive
elevator. Fong Ling turns the power back on and proceeds down
to Morpheus's office.
Fong Ling runs into the room to find it empty, save for a live
monitor wall. A soothing female voice announces that the missiles
are being prepared for launch. Fong Ling freezes upon hearing
that news, which is more than enough time for Morpheus to get
the drop on her.
Meanwhile, Bruce wakes up, bruised but alive on the bottom floor
of the laboratory. A door has been padlocked shut, preventing
him from reaching the executive elevator.
Bruce is forced to take the long way around. He uses a digital
recorder and the facility's voice mail to get past a door with
a voice-triggered lock, only to encounter a swarm of mutated
wasps. The scientists called them "Halberds," and they've
infested the facility's incinerator. That's where Bruce finds
the Halberds' queen, which can barely move, and relies upon
its spawn to defend it. Bruce blasts it to pieces.
The incinerator is the only way into the facility's main lab.
Inside, Bruce discovers an open weapons locker that contains
a futuristic-looking rifle. The manual is on a desk; this
charged particle rifle was designed to penetrate the field
that surrounds a TG-Virus carrier. A dead scientist in the
same room clutches the key to the padlock.
In Morpheus's office, Bruce finds Morpheus's diary. Morpheus
had originally intended to use Umbrella's influence and money
to construct his greatest achievement, a kingdom in Africa
where "beauty is the absolute authority."
The chair also hides a switch, which reveals a secret door.
Bruce opens it, just as the monitor bank on the wall reveals
Morpheus, standing over the prone body of Fong Ling. Morpheus
taunts Bruce, just before destroying the camera.
Bruce runs down into the silo, to face off against Morpheus for
the last time. Morpheus is still far, far faster than Bruce, and
has mastered his new powers. He can now generate and throw bolts
of lightning.
This does him very little good. The particle rifle performs as
advertised, cutting through Morpheus's electromagnetic field.
After taking a few shots from it, Morpheus crashes to the floor
and lies still, seemingly dead.
Bruce runs to the platform where Fong Ling lies, and finds she
was only unconscious. She chastises him for seeing to her when he
has missiles to defuse, but he just chalks it up to his being a
"don-gua." Suddenly, the countdown starts. Bruce and Fong Ling
have five minutes to save the world.
They use a nearby console to call up a map of the missile silo,
which turns out to be a virtual maze. Fong Ling volunteers to
stay behind and call out directions using the facility's PA
system while Bruce runs to the silo. Bruce agrees and takes off.
Behind him, as he disappears through the door, Morpheus's body
convulses, and begins to change, before pulling itself upright.
=============================================================
10iii. A Summary of the Conclusion of RESIDENT EVIL: DEAD AIM
=============================================================
Bruce heads towards the missile silo at a full run, but he's
barely reached the first door when Fong Ling shouts a warning.
The G-Virus in Morpheus's bloodstream has done its work,
expanding Morpheus into a kind of quadrapedal blob. It shatters
the door and oozes along the bridge towards Bruce, roaring
with something that isn't a throat. The particle rifle's battery
is dead. Bruce makes a break for it.
The corridors of the silo are occupied only by the dead, the
last few survivors of the facility's staff. Bruce blows them
away, barely keeping ahead of Morpheus's newly pliable form.
Bruce heads across a narrow catwalk, to a door that winds up
being locked, and Morpheus bursts out of the hallways right
behind him. As Fong Ling frantically tries to remotely unlock
the door, Bruce turns to fight.
While he's lost his electromagnetic field, Morpheus's
sheer mass renders him nearly immune to small-arms fire.
It's only when Bruce manages to put a bullet into Morpheus's
head, which slides into and out of Morpheus's body like
a retractable tumor, that he's able to do any kind of damage.
Finally, Fong Ling unlocks the door, and Bruce runs through
it. Fong Ling guides Bruce the rest of the way, and then
abandons her console to catch up with him. The door to the
missile silo, unfortunately, is locked, and Morpheus is
still right on Bruce's heels.
Grimly, Bruce pulls out his pistol, and prepares for a final
showdown. Morpheus marches doggedly across the bridge, and
Bruce meets him with a hail of gunfire, directed against
Morpheus's exposed head. Just as the countdown reaches its
final minute and as Bruce is running out of ammunition,
Morpheus leaves himself open for one second too long.
Bruce takes one, final perfect shot, putting a bullet squarely
into Morpheus's forehead. Even this does not kill him, as the
G-Virus begins another mutation. As Bruce and Fong Ling look
on in shock, Morpheus's body swells into something enormous,
crackling with electricity.
Whether Morpheus's bioelectricity touches off an explosion, or
whether he crushed something he shouldn't've, he winds up doing
Bruce and Fong Ling's job for them. The entire lab facility is
destroyed, and the missiles go up with it.
A trio of helicopters race towards the site of the explosion.
Everything seems quiet for a moment, before a yellow pod breaks
the surface of the water. Its roof falls off, and a flare shoots
into the sky. Bruce and Fong Ling have somehow managed to escape.
Bruce says to Fong Ling that their mission's apparently over.
He says suddenly, like it's just occurred to him, that she should
come back to America with him. Fong Ling hesitates for a second
before declining. She belongs to China.
Bruce shrugs it off, and says that he really is an idiot.
Fong Ling smiles and asks him if he'd known what a "don-gua"
was the entire time. Bruce shrugs, and says he's been to
China before.
She kisses him softly, as the helicopters draw near.
=================================================================
10iv. Conclusions About the Conclusion of RESIDENT EVIL: DEAD AIM
=================================================================
1. Bruce McGivern and Fong Ling have both survived.
2. Morpheus Duvall probably didn't. (After Wesker, I now have to
add "probably" to every statement like this I make ever again.)
3. Four years after the Raccoon City outbreak, Umbrella is still
in business, although there's at least one American law enforcement
agency with a squad specifically tasked to destroy the company.
4. The American government knows that Umbrella makes bioweapons,
and that their virus was responsible for the Raccoon City outbreak.
5. While it hadn't been tested by the time of the seajacking,
Umbrella managed at some point to fuse the T- and G-Viruses
together. The resulting pathogen, when introduced into a human
body, creates something very much like an electrified Tyrant,
which is intelligent, agile, and completely immune to gunfire.
Granted, Umbrella had the foresight to create a weapon capable
of breaching a TG-carrier's electromagnetic field, and you could
probably poke it to death with a stick (David King would own
this thing), but *damn*.
6. Umbrella markets its bioweapons. Before Dead Aim, this was an
assumption; now we know for sure.
===================
10v. Random Musings
===================
1. Chris's dramatic statement at the end of Code Veronica seems to
have lost some of its impact. Here we are, four years later, and
Umbrella's still around. (Given the revelations in RE4, one would
assume that the events of Dead Aim are something like the death
throes of Umbrella, rather than the company's continued operation.)
2. Bruce's organization, the Anti-Umbrella Pursuit Investigation
Team within the U.S. Strategic Command, adds another name to the
list of parties that might have recruited Leon in his RE3 Epilogue.
It's by no means definitely them, but it's a possibility.
3. Dead Aim boasts the most sensible environments of any game in
the series so far. There're plenty of bathrooms, and the labs have
everything you'd expect a lab to have. The only sour note from
where I'm sitting is the oddly mazelike missile silo.
4. So the Spencer Rain sank into the ocean, where fish will no
doubt devour the tender flesh of all the dead T-Virus carriers.
Does this seem really, really bad to anyone else?
5. Fong Ling's kind of complex. I can see why she might've
warmed up towards Bruce, since he saved her from the satellite
and he's got this dogged habit of being nice to her regardless
of whatever else is going on, but Bruce's conversation in the
waterways radio room adds another wrinkle: the Chinese government
had capitulated to Morpheus's demands. That raises the question
of whether their laser strike was an attempt to destroy the
facility, or to assassinate their agent before she could defect
or be captured. I've got to say, I'm hoping we see her again.
(Her character design's pretty good too; she looks sexy even
though she's fully dressed and obviously loaded for bear.)
6. *Boy*, TG-Virus Morpheus looks like Alexia Ashford, doesn't
he? I wonder why... (For that matter, the blind fat thing and
the Insane Cancers in Silent Hill 3 look remarkably similar.)
7. The enemies in Dead Aim, while they aren't particularly
difficult to defeat, are still a particularly vicious lot.
Umbrella's bioweapons are apparently improving very rapidly.
(It is weird how the most dangerous monsters in the game are
the "mistakes" under the lab facility.)
8. Cinematic influences in Dead Aim:
-- before everyone e-mails me, yes, there's Matrix Morpheus
and Dead Aim Morpheus, but aside from the long black
coat, the two characters are nothing alike. One's a
big black guy with a slightly fanatical streak, and
the other's a vain, narcissistic Sephiroth cosplayer.
-- Fong Ling and Bruce's relationship reminds me of, like,
every James Bond movie there is.
================================================================
11. With A Little Help From My Friends: RESIDENT EVIL - OUTBREAK
================================================================
After William Birkin's death and resurrection, a megadose of
the T-Virus came up into Raccoon City and transformed everything
it touched. In the course of one night, the city was suddenly
under siege. Eight days later, a hundred thousand people would
be dead, and almost none of them would know why.
An online game for the PlayStation 2, Outbreak lets you play
through five stories from the Raccoon City disaster, in the
role of some of the potential survivors.
=================
11i. Introduction
=================
As the rats watch, William Birkin becomes something more, and
less, than human. He is more than a match for the team of masked
men who were sent to take his life's work. One of the men is
still alive as William moves on, but the rats are there to finish
the job. All he can do is writhe in agony as he's devoured...
Aboveground, later, an all-night bar is serving its six customers.
A seventh runs in, and goes straight to the women's room. She's a
skinny Japanese girl, who frantically cuts off most of her hair
with a pair of scissors.
A few minutes later, someone punches his way into the diner. He's
not alone. The bartender tries to reason with the newcomers, but
he's quickly dragged down and, to the horror of the customers,
eaten. The eight remaining survivors--Alyssa Ashcroft, a journalist;
Cindy Lennox, the bar's waitress; Yoko Suzuki, the girl in the
bathroom; Kevin Ryman, a police officer; Mark Wilkins, a Vietnam
veteran and security guard; George Hamilton, a surgeon; David
King, a plumber; and Jim Chapman, a puzzle fanatic who works on
the subway--are suddenly under siege.
============================
11ii. Scenario One: Outbreak
============================
The survivors blockade the door with some heavy barrels and rush
upstairs. The bar is being renovated, which allows the survivors
to improvise a barricade using some spare lumber and a nailgun,
but that doesn't hold the zombies back for long.
Pursued the whole way, the survivors fight their way to the roof
and knock down a weak section of the safety fence next to the
roof's edge. The survivors then jump to the next building, an
apartment complex, and take its elevator down.
When they reach the street, the survivors run into a couple of
frantic policemen who're trying to hold the zombies back, one
of whom is killed as they watch. The survivors push a police car
into place and lock the emergency brake, providing an improvised
barricade. With the surviving cop, Raymond, providing cover fire,
the survivors bust through a gate on the street.
A parked fuel truck gives Raymond an idea, but he dies at the
hands of the zombies before he can carry it out himself. The
survivors act on his plan, opening the valve on the truck and
flooding the street with gasoline. The survivors ignite the
fuel with Raymond's lighter and dive into a nearby canal just
before the inevitable explosion.
The survivors swim into a dry part of the sewer, then climb up
onto the streets near the Apple Inn. A few injured civilians
have gathered here for transport to a safe place, via a police
van. However, that transport's slowed down by the barricades
that've been erected throughout the city. Finally, the van
stops outside the Raccoon Mall, unable to go any further. The
survivors tool up from the police's store of weapons and keep
moving on foot.
At the Raccoon Mall, the survivors find a trio of policemen.
One, Harry, is struggling frantically with a bomb; two more,
Elliott and Eric, are firing at a group of zombies who're barely
restrained by a barricade. As the survivors arrive, the policemen
are overrun, and the last living cop retreats away from the pieces
of the bomb. At his request, the survivors fight off the zombies,
reassemble the bomb's detonator, and set it off, destroying most
of the street and blasting the zombies to kingdom come.
Following the explosion, the survivors report to one of the
RPD's trauma centers. As they muse on what they've been through
and what's to come, a police van carries them away.
Outside Raccoon City, the Army begins to erect barricades. As
a helicopter flies over their roadblocks, we can hear a report:
toxic waste has been spilled throughout Raccoon City.
=========================================
11iii. Scenario Two: Below Freezing Point
=========================================
A scared-looking Umbrella employee meets his death at the
hands of a woman with a pistol. The woman wipes his blood
off the window of a storage unit, and muses that there's
no turning back now.
The survivors, with Yoko's help, have found their way to a
secret subway station deep underneath Raccoon City. A large
gate opens, revealing a parked train. Nearby, the woman is
trying to get that train started, but it's not working.
As the survivors enter the facility, a warning shot caroms
off the ground at their feet. The woman brandishes her gun,
but stops when she sees Yoko. Her name's Monica, and she's
holding a briefcase that Yoko recognizes. Monica decides to
let Yoko live in exchange for Yoko's ID card. When Yoko hands
it over, Monica runs off, telling Yoko to "have a nice life...
what's left of it."
With little choice, the survivors explore the complex. The
subway station leads to a wrecked elevator shaft, which
allows them to enter the facility interior via a ventilation
duct. They've stumbled upon the secret labs of William
Birkin, deep underneath the Raccoon forest.
A massive, mutated plant blocks their progress up the lab's
central shaft, but that's easily solved when they find the
lab's chemical locker. A dose of V-Jolt shrivels the plant's
roots, allowing the survivors to go further into the complex.
Two floors up, Monica attempts to escape via the turntable
elevator. She turns the key, but the elevator won't budge;
the extreme cold is screwing with its systems. Monica mutters
darkly about how everything seems to be broken, just before
something attacks her from behind.
Meanwhile, the survivors find their way to the facility's
main power room. The topmost floors have been frozen solid,
and are strewn with icy statues of strange creatures: Hunters.
The survivors find one of the facility's researchers dead at
the controls to the climate control system, with a note
nearby explaining his motivation. Several of the lab's
test subjects had gotten loose and were killing the staff.
The researcher was mortally wounded, but managed to turn
the lab's temperature down to zero degrees, freezing the
Hunters in their tracks.
A bit of further exploration reveals an escape route: a
parked train on a large turntable, with the discarded
key nearby. Unfortunately, it's also frozen shut. In
order to activate it, the survivors are forced to defrost
the climate control system with a blowtorch and turn it
off. This, naturally, wakes the Hunters up.
Bloodied but alive, the survivors return to the turntable
and start its activation sequence. In the next five minutes,
they must battle the facility's remaining zombies, drawn by
the sound of the turntable's loudspeaker. In the middle of
the chaos, Monica reappears. Her specimen case is open.
She falls down near the turntable, dead or unconscious.
The survivors manage to hold the zombies off and take the
turntable up. Far below, Monica's body convulses and churns.
Something small and pink bursts out of her chest and crawls
up the elevator shaft.
By the time it reaches the turntable's stop, the creature
is strong enough to burst through plate steel. It rapidly
develops into a twelve-foot-tall killing machine: an immature
G-Type. It attacks the battered survivors with a pair of
wickedly curved claws and its wriggling spawn, and seems
to ignore their gunfire.
Finally, one of the survivors reaches the turntable's
control panel and activates the train. The G-Type is
struck head-on by the turntable car, which is the last
straw. It finally dies, dissolving to nothing.
The survivors activate the turntable train for a final trip.
They're safe for now, but the outbreak isn't over yet.
==============================
11iv. Scenario Three: The Hive
==============================
A group of the survivors have made it to the Raccoon
Hospital, where they've gathered in an empty room. Outside,
the street is crawling with hungry undead.
A doctor enters the room. He apologizes for startling the
survivors, and warns them that the hospital isn't as safe
as it might look. At the moment, the power's gone out, and
he's trying to find out why.
The survivors search the hospital for weapons and supplies.
They find that the hospital's staff has been killed almost
to a man, either by the few zombies inside the building or
by a new creature, a writhing mass of leeches surrounding
a human body. When this creature grabs a human, it inflicts
horrible wounds that stubbornly refuse to close, and feasts
on its victim's blood.
One of the dead nurses has written a final statement that
neatly describes the leech creature. It's almost unnecessary,
because it finds the survivors almost immediately.
The creature is traveling through the hospital's ventilation
system. Wherever the survivors go, it's not far behind. It
kills the doctor, not long after he's turned the hospital's
power back on.
The survivors' weapons have no effect on the leech creature,
but they soon find that it navigates almost entirely by its
sense of smell. They're able to distract it with transfusion
packs while they search for a more permanent solution. They
find it in a locked subbasement.
Raccoon Hospital houses a secret research laboratory for
the Umbrella Corporation. Umbrella's staff has not only
studied the leech creature's weaknesses, but their facility
contains a setup meant for studying subjects' vulnerability
to extreme temperatures. The survivors throw a blood pack
into the laboratory's test area, and when the leech creature
rushes to feed, they slam the door and turn up the heat.
The leeches quickly shrivel and die, leaving behind the
dead body of the luckless doctor.
The survivors use the doctor's keycard to unlock a door in
the second subbasement. Inside, they find a motorboat
parked on a flooded part of the city sewer. One of the
hospital's employees was also on Umbrella's payroll, and
insisted upon an more elegant mode of transport than
slogging through waist-deep sewer water. The survivors
pile into his motorboat and take off.
Their trip doesn't last long. They've made it about a hundred
feet before they find out where all the leeches are coming
from: a hideous spawning ground at the entrance to the sewer
system, complete with an enormous queen leech the size of
a large shark. The survivors fight it as best they can, but
in the waist-deep water of the sewers, they're at a serious
disadvantage. Finally, one of them lures the queen leech
further down the tunnel and fires at the sewer pipes,
sparking an explosion. The queen leech is caught full-on,
and goes down in flames.
With little choice, the survivors continue into Raccoon's
flooded sewers on foot. Yet again, they've managed to live
where so many others have died.
============================
11v. Scenario Four: Hellfire
============================
The zombies are closing in. With dozens behind them and
dozens in front, the survivors rush into the abandoned
Apple Inn, a three-story luxury hotel.
As the survivors enter the courtyard, a pair of firemen
are investigating the Inn's boiler room. They're preparing
to search for survivors when one notices that the boiler
is shaking dangerously. They're too late, however, and
both firemen are killed in the ensuing explosion. The
same explosion rips through several floors of the hotel,
setting it ablaze, and seals the courtyard door. The
survivors are now trapped in the Apple Inn.
The survivors split up. One group heads into the building
through the boiler room, where they find the unfortunate
firemen's bodies, and climb a ladder to the third floor.
The other group starts at the Inn's first floor and works
its way up.
The Apple Inn is on fire, but not yet falling down. The
survivors must contend with not only zombies and the
mutants that the RPD will soon name "Lickers," but
random gusts of superheated air. All of their potential
exit routes are blocked; the fire prevents them from
reaching the hotel's lobby.
After searching for and finding a pair of keys, the survivors
manage to open a secret door in the hotel's security office
and reactivate the power to the emergency system. They can
now reach the lobby via a safety ladder on its balcony.
The hotel's side door is unobstructed, but not for long. The
survivors' dash for safety is blocked by the appearance of
a more powerful breed of Licker, caught somewhere between
its human and inhuman forms. It hangs from the ceiling and
lashes out with its prehensile tongue, choking the life from
any human who gets within its range.
Fortunately for the survivors, they've found new weapons
as they've searched the hotel. The Licker goes down in a
hail of buckshot and acid-laced grenades. No sooner has it
died than a fireman hacks the hotel's side door open.
Outside the Apple Inn, the survivors watch as the Raccoon
City fire department tends to a very few living humans. The
fireman who rescued them says that the whole city's starting
to burn. Not only is this not over yet, but it's going to get
much, much worse.
=========================================
11vi. Scenario Five: Decisions, Decisions
=========================================
Somewhere in Raccoon City, a man with an Umbrella logo on his
shirt is working on a project. He muses to himself that an
organization is harmed by excessive growth. Apparently, someone
wants him to try and mass-produce his "masterpiece": a humanoid
figure sleeping inside a stasis tube. It looks slightly like
a hairless black man, but its external heart, yellow irisless
eyes, and claws put the truth to the lie: it's a new breed of
the Tyrant bioweapon.
Meanwhile, the survivors have made it to one of the refugee
centers within Raccoon City. It's nearly empty.
George walks by a brick wall that's been turned into a makeshift
bulletin board, and finds a note from his friend Peter Jenkins.
Peter's waiting for George at Raccoon University, and has news
that only George will understand.
Several hours later, in the grey hours before dawn on October
1st, George leads a group of survivors to Raccoon University's
administration building. They find that it's almost deserted,
inhabited only by a handful of zombies.
They explore the building and stumble upon a concealed study
in the lobby of the entrance hall. Inside, they find Peter,
dead and slumped over his desk. He's surrounded by notes on
a cure for the T-Virus that's infected them all, which he
refers to by the code-name of Daylight. As he says, in the
Daylight, you don't need an Umbrella.
Peter has developed this cure in conjunction with a biologist
named Greg (you find out in "Flashback" in File #2 that Greg's
last name is Mura), whose input was crucial to the successful
completion of the project. However, Greg is apparently still
employed by Umbrella, much to Peter's horror; Peter has written
in his journal about how Greg has effectively betrayed him. The
journal, as well as many of Peter's private notes, have been
partially destroyed.
There are three required ingredients for Daylight, according
to Peter's notes. The base is being kept in a storage tank in
the basement. The other two are going to be harder to get;
one is a sizable amount of bee poison, while the other is
blood from a creature infected by the T-Virus.
The survivors split up and look for the parts of the cure.
To get the poison, one group ventures into the old subway
tunnels below the university and goes hunting for mutant
bees. The other explores the purification center near the
waterfront, where Umbrella has stored several of its Gamma
Hunters. They recover a sample of the formula's base.
Both groups succeed, and head back towards the university.
En route, they see a number of armed men fighting a large
humanoid monster--Greg's "masterpiece," the Thanatos--in
the university's parking lot. While four gunmen keep up an
ineffective attack, a fifth--Nicholai Ginovaef--uses a scoped
rifle to fire a dart into the creature's shoulder. The dart's
an automated syringe, which takes a sample of the creature's
blood. This enrages it, and it makes short work of the gunmen
on the ground. Once they're dead, the Thanatos leaps into the
university. Nicholai watches it go, and muses aloud that it's
probably on its way to "that man."
By the time the survivors reach the lot, the creature's gone
and the soldiers are dead. An inspection of their bodies
reveals the name of their organization--the Umbrella Biohazard
Counter-Measures Service--and their orders: to destroy the
creature, remove all traces of its presence, kill any witnesses,
and get a sample of its blood. If they cannot move or destroy
the creature, they're to destroy the area where they found it.
The survivors find their way back to the university's entrance
hall, just in time to be the Thanatos's next victims. Their
guns prove to be useless against it. Thinking fast, one of the
survivors lures the creature into a back hallway and zaps it
with some faulty electrical wiring. This stuns the creature,
albeit briefly, and allows the survivors to grab the autosyringe
that's still sticking out of its shoulder.
Quickly, they head to the third floor of the university,
where the Thanatos cannot follow, and place the ingredients
for Daylight into the reagent generator. It begins to work,
but five minutes later, the power shuts down. The survivors
search for a way to turn it back on, and in so doing, find
a pair of nearly empty rooms. One is a makeshift morgue,
containing a sizable arsenal, two dead humans, and two dead
Hunters; the other contains several computers, which are
wired into the building's security systems. He's been watching
their progress.
He greets them cordially as they enter, and says that he
appreciates their help. Daylight is the only hope against
the scourge of the T-Virus. As a backhanded thank you for
gathering Daylight's ingredients, Greg tells the survivors
that they're going to get to play with his ultimate creation.
His evil villain speech is cut short by Nicholai Ginovaef,
who's lurking in the ventwork overhead with a silenced pistol.
He fires once, killing Greg, and leaves. The survivors use
Greg's computer to open all the locks in the administration
building, but at the same time, they find that while they
were waiting on the reagent generator, Greg's assassin planted
demolition charges throughout Raccoon University. They have
seven minutes before the building explodes.
The survivors grab several doses of Daylight from the reagent
generator, and easily make it outside before the bombs go off.
The Thanatos is still inside when the university collapses,
burying it under tons of rubble.
A pair of firemen in a rescue helicopter see the explosion
and fly down to see what happened. They see the survivors,
and one of them shouts through a megaphone that they'll pick
the survivors up, but they have to hurry. The pilot shines
a spotlight on the gate to the university's back lot.
The survivors make one final run for safety. Unfortunately,
the Thanatos has also survived, though it's seriously injured.
One of its arms is gone, torn from its body, but the trademark
resiliency of a Tyrant has allowed it to survive. Its remaining
arm has mutated to compensate, and has sprouted an enormous claw.
A frantic battle ensues. The survivors employ every weapon
they have and every weapon they can find, from the dead
mercenaries' guns to clubs and knives. The Thanatos seems to
be able to take anything they can dish out, but finally,
their assault has an effect. It collapses onto its face and
stops moving.
The firemen land nearby, in a clearing surrounded by wrecked
tanks. This, too, is liberally stocked with ammunition and
weapons, including an ampoule shooter. This comes in handy
shortly thereafter, as the survivors are attacked yet again
by the Thanatos. This time, they're ready for it, and load
the ampoule shooter with a dose of Daylight.
A single shot is all it takes. A red light appears from cracks
in its torso, and the Thanatos screams as it falls to pieces.
================================================================
11vii. A Summary of the Conclusion(s) of RESIDENT EVIL: OUTBREAK
================================================================
Six months later, a fighter jet flies high over the crater that
was once Raccoon City. It takes a few photographs of the wreckage,
then flies on quickly.
Amidst the wreckage, in a small office suspended high above the
ground, a balding man in a lab coat is brought a copy of the jet's
surveillance photos. Raccoon City looks vaguely like a pawprint
on the ground, and the man concludes that nothing human could
still be alive in the wreckage.
Just then, he receives a phone call. Whoever's on the other end
tells him that they're scheduled to begin soon. The balding man
agrees; they intend to drop the experiments in groups of four,
beginning with the T-4 units.
We pan out from the office, past the blasted wreckage of the
buildings and streets, to see that the ruins of Raccoon City
are surrounded by a fence. It's marked with a biohazard symbol.
==================================
11viii. The Remain Hopeful Endings
==================================
Outbreak has quite a few endings, determined by what characters
are still alive following the fight with the Thanatos and what
you've done with the Daylight vaccine. The only scenario that
matters here is "Decisions, Decisions."
After Greg's death, you can use his computers to reactivate
the reagent generator. It'll produce doses of Daylight at
thirty-second intervals, apparently indefinitely; I've gotten
as many as five, although if you stick around too long, you'll
get caught in Nicholai's blast. What you do or don't do with
the Daylight determines what ending you get.
If you cure your active character with Daylight and you've
got at least one other dose of it in your inventory at the
end of the game, you'll get the character-specific "Remain
Hopeful" ending.
Alyssa:
Alyssa leans back in the helicopter's seat. Just thinking
about the column she has to write is giving her a headache.
Noticing Alyssa's discomfort, one of the firemen offers her a
bottle of painkillers. She notices the Umbrella logo on the
box, and refuses with a wan smile.
Cindy:
With Raccoon City destroyed, Cindy smiles faintly and realizes
she's out of a job. She sees that one of the firemen is wounded,
and bandages his leg with a strip from her skirt. Cindy concludes
that there are any number of things she can do now.
David:
Just as David's about to relax, the fireman in the helicopter
with him opens his eyes, which are covered with a milky film.
He's a zombie, and so's the pilot. They come towards him...
and David wakes up with the pilot's hand on his shoulder.
He's having a nightmare in the helicopter.
George:
George is about to close his eyes and rest, but he realizes
he has one last duty to perform. His friend died to get the
secret of Daylight out to the world, and it's George's job to
make sure it happens.
Jim:
"Does it really work?" Jim wonders, as he flips the sample
of Daylight over in his hand. He accidentally drops it, and
it nearly tumbles out of the helicopter. Jim leaps to grab
it, and is only prevented from falling out of the helicopter
himself by the fireman's quick reflexes. Jim thanks him, and
cradles the sample of Daylight in his shaking hands.
Kevin:
He closes his eyes and lets out a relieved sigh. Kevin
reaches into his vest pocket, produces his last STARS
exam, and rips it into shreds. Tossing the paper out of
the helicopter, Kevin decides that he'll figure out what
he'll do with the rest of his life after he takes a nap.
Mark:
Mark prays aloud that nothing like that ever happens to him
again. "It's us," he says aloud, to himself. "Mankind."
Yoko:
She remembers what Greg said to her, and wonders what it is
she's forgotten. If there's a secret hiding inside her, Yoko
realizes she can't run away from it. Holding the sample of
Daylight, she resolves that whatever happens next, she'll
see it through to the end.
Note that to get the Remain Hopeful ending, you'll need
to have cured yourself of the T-Virus *and* to have a
sample of Daylight in your character's inventory at the
end of the game.
=========================
11ix. The Special Endings
=========================
On the other hand, if you don't have an extra Daylight
but you're virus-free, or if you're still afflicted but
you've got the Daylight in your inventory, you'll get
the Regretful Ending.
Alternatively, if you don't have a Daylight in your
inventory at all and you're still infected with the
T-Virus, you'll get the Chopper Zombie ending, where
your character succumbs to the virus in the helicopter.
Four characters in the game can earn a special ending
under those circumstances. In singleplayer mode, you
must be playing as Alyssa, Mark, Jim, or George. To get
the special ending, you must make sure that Yoko, David,
Kevin, or Cindy, respectively, are still alive after the
fight with the Thanatos. Your character will voluntarily
remain in Raccoon City, rather than run the risk of
infecting anyone else.
Alyssa, with Yoko:
Inside a building near the university, Alyssa sets to work.
Yoko helps her get onto the Internet with a laptop, where
she emails a report on, and photos of, the zombies to an
unnamed colleague. Finally, Alyssa throws the laptop to the
ground and says, laughing bitterly, that was her final
contribution. She and Yoko walk to the window to watch the
missiles come in. Just before the moment of impact, Alyssa
says, "We win, right?" Yoko says, her face blank, "Sure."
Mark, with David:
Unable to leave the city, Mark and David do the next best
thing. David fixes the abandoned police tank in the courtyard,
and Mark settles in behind the wheel. David mans the turret,
and they charge the hordes of zombies that've gathered in
the streets.
Jim, with Kevin:
We fade in on Jim whining. He understands why he can't leave
the city, but he would've preferred to get stuck with a woman,
rather than with Kevin. Kevin quietly reloads his gun, and
when he notices Jim's stopped talking, he looks up. Jim is
paralyzed with fear, as he's seen the Thanatos getting back
to its feet. Kevin smiles, and takes aim. As it prepares to
charge, Kevin says, "Let's finish this like men." He fires
at the Thanatos as the first missiles hit.
George, with Cindy:
They hold hands and watch the missiles come down.
=====================================
11x. Conclusions About the Conclusion
=====================================
1. Odds are good that the Daylight vaccine escaped the
death of Raccoon City.
2. There are no known survivors, with the exception of the
two firemen who were piloting the helicopter. The best
endings in Outbreak aren't about survival; they're about
good deaths. (That being said, if any of the Remain Hopeful
endings were to become official, I'd figure it'd be Yoko's;
she has plot-related reasons to be around for "Decisions,
Decisions," as opposed to "End of the Road" in File #2.)
3. The explosion that destroyed Raccoon City wasn't nuclear.
There's actual wreckage as opposed to dust and glass, and
the ruins don't appear to be radioactive.
4. Despite the military blockade, there were apparently
surviving rescue crews that were making a last-minute effort
to get people out of the city before the bombs hit. Presumably,
this means that there were far more survivors than RE2 and RE3
would indicate.
=====================================
11x. Scenario Branches and Side Notes
=====================================
1. Among all the eight main characters, only Yoko has anything
like a real, character-driven storyline. Several NPCs in "Below
Freezing Point" know her and will reveal some plot information,
and there's a special cutscene if Yoko is in the group when the
survivors meet Greg in "Decisions, Decisions."
2. If George isn't a PC or AIPC during "Decisions, Decisions,"
you'll find him mortally wounded near the manhole that leads
down into the abandoned subway system.
3. If Yoko isn't a PC or AIPC during "Below Freezing Point,"
she'll show up as a zombie either in the chemical locker or in
the B8F office.
====================
11xi. Random Musings
====================
1. Outbreak, to my mind, is something of a failed experiment.
It does a lot of things right, such as item switching, melee
attacks, unarmed actions, and group interaction, but it
torpedoes itself with limited item capacity, short scenarios,
extremely long load times (they're much better if you have
a PS2 hard drive, but there are still quite a few of them),
and the lack of headset compatibility. (The stated reason
for that lack is to enhance the atmosphere of terror within
the game, but it really does make multiplayer harder than
it has to be. I could understand it if headsets only worked
on people who're in the same room as you are, or if you had
to find a radio before they'd work...)
2. The Raccoon Today file ("An Eerie Voice From Underground")
refers obliquely to Brian Irons. I originally thought it was
about Lisa Trevor, but the long blonde hair was a big clue.
3. I've gotta know; is the Valve Handle some kind of running
gag with the developers?
4. I wonder if the sabotaged tram in "Below Freezing Point"
is the work of Brian Irons. He mentions in the Chief's Diary
file in RE2 that he's deliberately making sure no one can
escape via the "lower levels."
===================================================
12. Everything Old Made Dead Again: RESIDENT EVIL 4
===================================================
The Resident Evil series gets dragged kicking and screaming out
of its rut with the fifth game in the core series, which turns
the familiar gameplay into something not unlike a third-person
shooter. Featuring amazing graphics, context-sensitive commands,
the ability to target any given part of an enemy, and a great
big somethin'-or-another with a chainsaw, Resident Evil 4
represents a new beginning for the series.
=================
12i. Introduction
=================
Umbrella has been destroyed. Despite their efforts, it came
to light that they were to blame for the destruction of
Raccoon City. The government proceeded to suspend Umbrella's
accounts, crashing its stock and driving it out of business.
It's been six years since Leon Kennedy survived the Raccoon
City outbreak. He's spent those years in training as an agent
of the American government, and is now assigned to protect
the President's family. However, shortly before Leon was to
start his new job, the President's daughter Ashley is
kidnapped.
American intelligence soon picks up a lead as to where
to find Ashley, and Leon's sent to investigate. She was
last seen in a small, rural village in Spain...
======================================================
12ii. Village of the Damned: RESIDENT EVIL 4, Part One
======================================================
Leon gets a ride into the countryside from a couple
of bumbling Spanish cops, who seem amused by the whole
thing. None of them notice that they're being followed.
The cops decide to wait in the car, near the rickety
rope bridge that separates the village from what passes
for its main road. Leon gets out to start his
investigation, and gets an introductory call on
his GRVT visual radio from Ingrid Hunnigan, another
agent who's monitoring his progress.
A nearby signpost simply says "Pueblo," "village,"
as though nothing else in the world could be known
by that name. The road's blocked by a parked truck,
so Leon checks out a nearby house. Inside, he finds
one man, who curses at him in Spanish. Leon apologizes
and tries to leave quietly, but when he turns his
back, the man nearly brains Leon with an axe. The
villager ignores Leon's warnings, and forces Leon to
shoot him. He withstands far more punishment than an
ordinary human could before he pitches over dead.
Outside, the truck's engine starts. Leon heads to
a window in time to see it tearing down the path
towards the police car. He hears gunshots, then a
crash. At the same time, more villagers have arrived.
Several are holding the front door shut.
Leon searches the rest of the house, and finds a stack
of withered body parts underneath the stairs. Clearly,
these people have been preying on travelers for some
time. He dives out a window, and gets attacked by more
villagers. Like the first, they instantly attack; like
the first, they absorb an amazing amount of punishment
before dying.
The crash Leon heard earlier was from the truck hitting
the parked police car. The crash has broken the rope
bridge and sent both cars into the river below. With
no way back, Leon heads forward, towards the village,
and through the villagers' gauntlet of armed men and
crude booby traps.
When Leon reaches the village, he hangs back for a
second and studies it through binoculars. Calling
it a village may be giving it too much credit; it's
a collection of rickety shacks. The villagers are
tending farm animals and harvesting hay, with
neither electricity or running water.
The villagers have impaled one of the policemen and
burned him at the stake in the center of town. When
they see Leon, they attack him en masse, using their
farming tools or their bare hands. Oddly, though the
villagers have access to more potent weapons, such
as grenades or firearms, they're not using them.
Leon is forced to take shelter in one of the larger
houses and barricade the door. The villagers come
through the windows, and climb up ladders to reach
the second floor. Worse luck, one of them fires up
a chainsaw. Appropriating an old shotgun, Leon defends
himself as best he can, killing a dozen villagers or
more. They only stop when, out of nowhere, a church
bell begins to ring from somewhere nearby. The
survivors retreat through a metal door in the town
square. Leon is left alone in an empty village.
A note in one of the cabins, written by "Chief"
Bitores Mendez, is a message to the villagers
telling them to stay alert. It warns the villagers
to watch out for an American agent, and has a
recent photo of Leon attached to it. It also says
that their captive is being held in a building
past the farm.
His course set, Leon heads down a side trail. The
retreating villagers have taken the time to set up
more traps and ambushes to defend the building, a
fire-damaged old house. The villagers' prisoner is
a Spanish man Leon's age, bound and gagged inside
a wardrobe. Leon frees him, and finds that unlike
the others, he's still lucid.
Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival
of two more farmers, accompanied by a large bald
man wearing a heavy overcoat. The prisoner says
bitterly that the latter's the "big cheese": Chief
Bitores Mendez. Leon rushes Mendez and throws a
powerful roundhouse kick. Effortlessly, Mendez
catches Leon's foot and throws him backward. Leon
crashes through a rotten table and falls unconscious.
While he's out, someone injects something into
Leon's neck. When he wakes up, he's in some other
building, chained to the prisoner. The villagers
took Leon's jacket, but not his guns. Leon wakes
the prisoner up, and asks him if he's seen Ashley.
The prisoner's heard about the President's daughter,
who's being kept in the village's church.
The prisoner introduces himself as Luis, a former
Madrid police officer and current "ladies' man."
Leon says that he used to be a cop himself, and
mentions that he was involved in the Raccoon City
outbreak. Luis recognizes the name, and says he's
seen a sample of the T-Virus in a laboratory.
Suddenly, a villager toting an axe barges into
the room. Neither Luis nor Leon can get free,
but when the villager swings, Leon manages to
use the descending axe to break their bonds. On
the villager's next lunge, Leon breaks his neck.
Luis runs away, and Leon checks in with Hunnigan.
Leon blasts his way across a bridge, back in the
general direction of the village. He finally comes
to the first modern-looking house he's seen yet.
He enters through the back door, and finds a
modest bedroom. Leon takes a key from the dresser,
and reads a note that's been left on the bed. The
Chief of the village was ordered to leave Leon
alive by a "Lord Saddler."
Leon overhears a muted conversation through the
bedroom door, and slowly pushes it open. Mendez
grabs him by the throat again and begins to slowly
strangle him. As Leon helplessly tries to escape
his grip, Mendez inspects his face. Finally, he
drops Leon, saying that Leon shares their blood.
He returns to his bedroom, leaving Leon to wonder
what he was talking about.
Hunnigan calls Leon, and tells him what she's
learned. A religious cult called Los Illuminados
is apparently involved with the situation. Leon
tells her what's just happened, and she urges him
to find the church.
Leon rushes back into Mendez's bedroom to get
some answers, but gets ambushed. The only thing
that saves him is the sudden intervention of a
woman in a red dress, who fires at Mendez from
outside. Mendez leaps out the window to deal with
her, as she climbs up onto the roof. Once again,
Leon's left with more questions than answers.
With little else to do, Leon leaves the house
and heads back to the village. His new key fits
the door in the town square, allowing him to
reach the village church via a cave tunnel.
The front door of the church is, of course,
shut and locked. Leon sets out to find the key.
The path behind the church leads him across a
rope bridge, where he finds another of Mendez's
notes in a cabin. The villagers are currently
all occupied trying to track Luis down, as he's
stolen something from them that could somehow
render Ashley "useless." Mendez writes that
"the agent," Leon, will never make it across
the lake alive; their "Lord" has awakened
something called Del Lago.
When Leon reaches the lake's shore, he's just
in time to see two villagers dump the other
policeman's body in the lake. As Leon watches,
something enormous comes up out of the water
and devours the corpse. With little choice in
the matter, Leon steals a motorboat and heads
across the lake.
He's nearly knocked out of the boat by the
monster, a hideous mutant the size of a whale.
In the wake of its passing, the boat's anchor
falls out and hooks onto Del Lago's back,
forcing Leon to follow after it. Fortunately,
the boat contains a stock of harpoons. After
Leon sticks a couple of dozen spears into it,
Del Lago retreats to the bottom of the lake.
Leon manages to cut himself free before he's
dragged down with it.
Leon takes the boat to the other side of the
lake. He barely makes it onto land before
something in his chest starts to spasm. He
staggers into a cabin and passes out.
He wakes up later, after a nightmare, to find
that night's fallen. A slightly worried Hunnigan
contacts him and tells him she's been trying to
reach him for six hours. Leon shrugs it off and
says he'll continue with his mission.
There's a note on a bed near where he passed out.
It's unsigned, but tells him that if he wants to
get Ashley, he'll need an item that's hidden in
the waterfall, but he'll also need to watch out
for something called "El Gigante." The anonymous
writer concludes that what's happening with Leon's
body is beyond his/her power to fix.
As Leon heads towards the waterfall, he runs into
yet another pair of villagers on the road. One of
them, as he advances, shudders and twitches. Finally,
his head explodes and is quickly replaced by a
shaking mass of razor-sharp tendrils. This new
creature is dangerous, but fragile, and one seems
to be hiding inside most of the villagers' heads.
Leon fights through the rest of the waterfall's
guards and uses the villagers' dam to divert the
river's current. In a cavern behind the waterfall,
Leon finds a round insignia that'll fit in the
church's door. Taking it opens a secret passage
that leads to the other side of the lake.
Leon quickly finds out just what El Gigante is. A
group of villagers drag it into a clearing near
the church, where it promptly snaps its bonds and
kills the lot of them. It's a large ogrish thing,
vaguely humanoid and nearly invulnerable. After
it absorbs a few slugs to the face, however, one
of the tendriled creatures emerges from between
its shoulder blades. Leon hits the Gigante with
everything he has, and when it's stunned, he
carves at the growth with his knife. When the
parasite dies, so does El Gigante.
Leon runs back to the church, where he finds
that the round insignia opens the door. Inside,
on the second floor, he finally finds a scared
Ashley Graham. Leon explains who he is, then
radios Hunnigan for extraction.
As they try to leave the church, a robed man steps
in front of the altar and tells Leon that he'll take
Ashley. He introduces himself as Osmund Saddler, the
leader of Los Illuminados. His plan is to show the
United States that it can't police the world, while
simultaneously shaking it down for some much-needed
cash. He also tells Leon that Ashley's been injected
with the same thing he has: their "power," a.k.a.
their "gift." Leon and Ashley are less than enthused
by this. When a pair of crossbow-wielding monks burst
in through the front door, Leon grabs Ashley and dives
through the stained-glass window.
Their designated extraction point is a clearing past
the farm. Leon and Ashley make a run for it. Along
the way, Leon finds a new note by one of the Illuminados,
possibly Saddler himself, about Luis. Somehow, Luis is
not only evading pursuit, but he's managed to remove
the "egg" that the Illuminados injected him with. The
note's author points to this as proof that a third
party is involved.
Leon and Ashley manage to make it past the farm
before Hunnigan calls with some bad news: their
evac chopper's been shot down. Hunnigan tells
Leon to proceed to the extraction point regardless.
As they cross a bridge, Ashley sees a mob of
villagers with torches on the road behind them.
They run away, only to find another mob in their
path. With no other choice, Leon and Ashley run
into a nearby cabin and barricade the door. Luis
is already inside, and introduces himself to a
somewhat offended Ashley.
The villagers attack soon afterward, laying siege
to the cabin. Leon and Luis fight a losing battle,
slaying dozens, but the villagers keep coming. Just
when it seems as though the cabin will be overrun,
the villagers withdraw.
Luis claims that he "forgot something," and casually
goes off on his own. Leon and Ashley, for their part,
leave the cabin and open a new gate. It leads, via a
roundabout and dangerous route, to a long bridge over
the river, a large door with yet another strange lock,
and an old ski lift. Leon finds a note in a house,
written by Mendez and dropped by a villager, that says
there's an ambush waiting for them at the bottom of
the lift. Mendez is down there, and the gate will
only open "before his gaze."
Leon takes care of a few carloads of villagers as
he and Ashley ride the lift down. The path at the
bottom of the lift terminates in a dilapidated barn:
the perfect place for an ambush. Leon tells Ashley
to hide while he investigates.
Somehow, once Leon's inside, Mendez still manages
to get the drop on him. Mendez throws Leon across
the barn, then turns around and casually twists
the steel doorhandles into origami.
Leon manages to roll away from Mendez's next
attack, and kicks an oil drum at Mendez. Despite
Mendez's contemptuous smile, Leon detonates the
drum, setting the barn on fire and revealing
Mendez as inhuman. His spine elongates, pulling
his upper torso free from his legs with a wet
tearing sound; his arms lengthen and sprout long
claws. This new Mendez advances towards Leon.
He promptly catches thirty-seven shotgun blasts
straight to the face. His exposed spine snaps,
forcing Mendez to pull his upper body around
with a strange, monkeylike gait, attacking Leon
without warning from virtually any direction.
Leon continues to pour buckshot into the twisted
thing that was once Bitores Mendez, until Mendez
finally falls dead. His glass eye falls out, and
Leon pockets it.
The eye proves to be what Mendez meant when he
said his gaze would open the next gate; a scanner
attached to the lock recognizes a code etched onto
the eye's iris. Leon and Ashley walk through, onto
a wide path leading to a well-maintained, ancient
castle. This is their backup extraction point, but
the sudden arrival of a posse of villagers, too many
to fight, forces them to take shelter in the castle.
The castle's crawling with white-skinned men in
black robes: Illuminados. As Leon enters, he receives
another call from Hunnigan, but her signal dies.
One gunfight later, Leon and Ashley are crossing
the castle's battlements when Luis catches up
to them. He claims to have a drug that'll stop
their convulsions, but finds that he's lost it
somewhere. Luis tells Leon and Ashley that he
knows they're infected, and asks if they've
been coughing up blood. They both nod, and
Luis curses; this means their eggs have hatched.
Luis turns around to leave, saying he'll go back
and find the drug. Ashley offers to go with him,
but Luis brushes her off. Leon asks why Luis is
helping them. His answer: "Because it makes me
feel better. Let's just leave it at that."
Leon and Ashley, alone again, progress further
into the castle. In a torchlit antechamber, they
meet the castle's lord, Ramon Salazar, who appears
to be a pasty and withered old man. He offers them
the chance to surrender, as they're his "brethren";
Leon, predictably, refuses the offer. Salazar points
out that they'd rather take the girl alive, but
Leon's marked for death. As he leaves, Leon
reassures a distraught Ashley that they'll find
a cure for their infection.
After Salazar's departure, a large stone plinth
rises into Leon and Ashley's path. It's marked
with a fresco that's conspicuously missing a few
pieces. With no way to get through it, they're
forced to take a detour through the castle's prison.
There, they find another note on the wall, another
dispatch from Saddler or Salazar about Luis Sera.
Apparently, Luis stole several vaccines and an
unnamed sample. The note's author takes this as
further proof of his theory that another agency
is somehow involved, and urges the note's readers
to make the sample's reacquisition a top priority.
Leon investigates the prison, and finds a switch
he needs inside one of the cells. To reach it, he
must defeat a blind, armored prisoner who wields
a pair of wickedly sharp claws. Fortunately, Leon's
able to exploit its blindness by shooting at a
pair of bells in the prison; while it swings wildly
at the ringing sound, Leon blasts at the parasite
on its back. It dies when the parasite does.
After dispatching a sizable number of Illuminados,
Leon and Ashley reach an enormous ballroom. Suddenly,
Ashley begins to cough helplessly, drenching her hands
with her own blood. When Leon tries to help her, she
pushes him aside and runs, straight into one of
Salazar's traps. Ashley winds up strapped to a secret
door, which promptly revolves out of sight, while
Leon is prevented from reaching her by several sets
of spring-loaded spears. As she disappears, Leon
yells that he's coming for her.
He receives a call on his radio from, of all people,
Salazar. They've jacked into his transmissions. Salazar
tells Leon that he's unleashed some of his "pets" into
the castle's sewer, just to keep him company.
These "pets" turn out to be large mutated insects,
capable of camoflaging themselves and of sticking
to walls. Leon will later find out they're called
"Novistadors." For right now, he's hard-pressed
to stay alive as he passes through the castle's
dungeon, which has been repurposed into an archaic
sewer system.
In the old cellblock, Leon finds a set of notes
signed by Luis, who's written the beginning of a
biological treatise on parasites called "Las Plagas"
and their victims, the "Ganados" - the Spanish word
for "cattle." The Plagas are a species of parasite
with the ability to control their hosts.
When Leon finds his way out of the sewer, he's above
an Illuminado prayer meeting. Leon disrupts that
with violence, then heads deeper into the castle.
In a lushly furnished gallery, he has a shootout
with one of Salazar's red-robed lieutenants, who
attacks Leon with a mounted machine gun. This is
an unwise decision, as Leon can run faster than the
turret can rotate.
Leon also finds documents in the gallery written by
Ramon Salazar. Salazar writes about the Illuminados,
who were once a powerful local religious group.
Salazar's ancestors had oppressed the Illuminados,
but Salazar, as a member of the cult, felt the need
to make it up to them. To do so, he and Saddler have
released Las Plagas, which were once sealed away
underneath the castle, and somehow "rejuvenated"
them. Salazar sees the Plagas' powers as a way to
save people's souls, as a man without free will
cannot sin.
Leon promptly catches up to Salazar on the other
side of the gallery. Salazar reveals two interesting
things: one is that despite his appearance, he's only
twenty years old. The other is that unlike the Ganados
and Illuminados, Salazar isn't a "puppet of the
parasites." He's in complete control of them. He
demonstrates this by siccing a small army of
Illuminados on Leon, including several that're armed
with anti-tank weapons. When the smoke clears, Leon's
found one part of the fresco puzzle: an ornamental goat.
His next encounter with Salazar comes in the castle's
gardens, a hedge maze inhabited by infected hunting
dogs. Again, Salazar calls to tell Leon his death is
imminent; at the end of the call, Salazar mentions he
has another "rat" to chase down.
Leon blasts his way through the hedge maze and finds
the keys he needs to escape. His exit door leads to
a luxurious guest bedroom, and an ambush. A woman
pokes a gun into his back from behind. Leon whirls
on her, disarming her and putting his knife to her
neck. Leon tosses her pistol away, as she takes off
and drops her sunglasses. Leon instantly recognizes
her as Ada Wong.
She smiles and says, "Long time no see." Leon's not
as glad to see her, as he's heard that she's been
working with Wesker. Ada, still smiling, doesn't
deny it, and compliments him on having done his
homework. Leon tries to ask another question, but
just then, Ada's sunglasses explode in a flash of
white light. When Leon's eyes clear, Ada's rearmed
herself and jumped out the bedroom window. Leon,
still half-blind, has no choice but to let her go.
The bedroom apparently belongs to Salazar, or perhaps
even Saddler himself. A note on a table speaks of the
female intruder, and has several pictures of Ada
attached. Since they've discovered her, the note's
author concludes that she's responsible for removing
Luis's egg, she's after the sample, and she's probably
working for someone else. The focus of the Illuminados'
operation has switched to Ada, and Luis is now expendable.
Leon receives a gory demonstration of this shortly
thereafter. Luis catches up to Leon in a large ballroom,
just after Leon's captured a rocket launcher from yet
another ill-fated squad of Illuminados. He has the
Plagas sample, but doesn't get the chance to say much
before something slams into his back. A tendril rips
through his chest and throws him into the air. Luis
drops the sample, and Saddler is there to catch it.
Saddler leaves, promising Leon that Salazar will
deal with him. Luis, still clinging to life somehow,
makes a confession: he was one of Saddler's researchers.
With his last bit of strength, he gives Leon a drug
that'll slow down the development of the Plagas inside
him, and begs Leon to get the sample back from Saddler.
Then, Luis dies.
With the drug in hand, Leon hears a familiar voice.
He's standing directly above Ashley, who's still
strapped down. Leon carefully shoots her bonds, and
continues to defend her from above as the Illuminados
storm the room. Ashley grabs a key off one of the
dead Illuminados and escapes through a nearby door.
Ashley finds herself in a dusty, little-used part
of the castle, used mostly for storage. She evades
a couple of unarmed monks and finds her way into
several unlit storerooms; fortunately, someone has
left a flashlight near their entrance.
In the oldest and dustiest of these rooms, Ashley
finds a crest marked with the Salazar family's emblem,
and a serpent ornament that serves as another piece
of the plinth fresco. At the same time, she also finds
that Las Plagas are not limited to infecting human or
even living hosts; some of them have taken up residence
within ancient suits of plate armor. Ashley manages
to dodge the Plagas and make her way back to an
earlier room, where the Salazar family's crest opens
a secret door. Within is a ladder, leading upstairs.
Ashley rejoins Leon, and the two of them renew their
attempts to escape, despite Salazar's acidic commentary
via radio. Leon backtracks briefly so he and Ashley
can work together to access a locked treasure room,
inside which is a Magnum revolver.
In another room, where clockwork gears and chaindriven
flamethrowers guard a narrow path over a constant flow
of lava, Leon finds the final piece of the plinth fresco.
Nearby, a small tram carries Leon and Ashley back across
the castle grounds, to the ballroom with the plinth.
Another tram is waiting for them. This one carries
them to a slightly newer part of the castle, where
Leon finds another note on a table. It tells of
Luis's death at Saddler's hands, the recaptured
sample, and a renewal of purpose for the Illuminados;
with the sample back in their hands, they can focus
their efforts on capturing Ada and Ashley.
Salazar springs yet another pair of traps on Leon
and Ashley, neither of which prevent Leon from getting
a golden cup: the Queen's Grail. The King's Grail is
guarded by several of the armored Plagas Ashley
encountered earlier. Both items are needed to open
the next door. It leads, unexpectedly, to an enormous
antechamber dominated by an equally enormous, pulsing
green egg sac: the spawning grounds of the Novistados.
Suddenly, one of them swoops down and grabs Ashley,
flying off with her through the tower's open ceiling.
Leon's left to contend with several flying Novistados,
and once again, to rescue Ashley. Leon manages to get
outside onto the battlements just in time to see Ashley
being escorted into one of the towers by a retinue of
Illuminados.
Leon fights his way across the battlements and through
the castle's clock tower. Salazar is holding Ashley in
a sort of throne room, where he's got yet another trap
waiting for Leon: an old-fashioned pitfall. Fortunately,
Leon has a grappling hook with him, which he uses to
arrest his fall. Salazar, growing increasingly frustrated,
sends one of his robed companions, his "right hand,"
after Leon.
The depths of the castle are apparently where Salazar's
ancestors had sealed the Plagas away; ancient stonework
eventually gives way to the trappings of a modern
industrial project. Leon finds an elevator that's been
powered down, and goes to reactivate it.
When he does, something attacks him. It strikes without
warning, swinging at him from random directions with a
barbed tendril. Leon manages to stay a step ahead of it,
and retreats into the power room. It follows him, and
when Leon flips the elevator's circuit breaker, it's
trapped inside with him.
Leon knocks over a handy tank of liquid nitrogen,
freezing Salazar's "right hand." This slows it down
long enough for Leon to use his rocket launcher,
blasting it off the face of the planet.
At the same time, somewhere else, Saddler tells a man
dressed in military fatigues to get "the girl" (Ada,
presumably) and dispose of Leon.
Meanwhile, Leon's elevator takes him down into some
mining tunnels, where a squad of Ganados are hard at
work. They appear to have found some gold, but the
focus of their exploration is Las Plagas. They've
even found some Plagas fossils, suggesting that the
parasites are much older than previously suggested.
The mining tunnels eventually yield to a series of
natural caves, used as a breeding ground for the
Novistadors and a storage area. A bizarre-looking
elevator at the caverns' end takes Leon up to a
set of ruins. Ada's left a note for Leon pinned
to the door of a small cabin. She's learned that
drugs can neutralize a Plaga before it hatches;
otherwise, it can be removed from its host via
extraordinarily risky surgery. She cautions Leon
that Ashley was injected well before he was, and
her time is running out.
Leon moves through a series of ruins, which begin
to paint a disturbing picture. The area around
Salazar's castle must've once been a moderately
large village, if not a town in its own right,
but what hasn't been burned down looks like it
was blown up.
One of the burned-out shacks has a gate in its
floor, leading down into an ancient set of catacombs.
These, too, are being excavated by Ganados, leading
to Leon fighting off most of the mining crew over
the course of a hell-for-leather cart ride. At its
end, he claims the key he needs to get back into
the castle.
Inside, Leon finds himself at the feet of a giant
clockwork statue of Salazar, operated by a squad
of Illuminados. As he tries to leave, the statue
comes after him, smashing the castle as it goes.
Leon barely manages to stay one step ahead of it,
and leaps to safety as the statue destroys the
bridge outside.
Inside the tower, Salazar sardonically applauds.
He congratulates Leon on being alive to join them.
Salazar reaches for another lever, to catch Leon
in yet another trap, but Leon pins Salazar's hand
to the wall with his knife. Salazar screams like a
girl and runs for safety. Leon gives chase.
Their final showdown comes at the top of the tower.
Here is apparently where Las Plagas are bred; a
massive broodqueen drops the parasites by the dozen,
while Salazar looks on. When Leon runs into the room,
Ashley's nowhere to be found; as Salazar tells him,
sneering, they've just taken her to a nearby island.
He just missed her.
Meanwhile, Salazar has one last trick up his sleeve.
The broodqueen's tendrils envelop and draw him into
it, mutating a new war form before Leon's eyes. This
new creature is built around a core that's still
recognizably Salazar, and lashes out at Leon with
its head and tendrils.
Leon dodges its attacks and blasts at its head.
When a lucky shot strikes home, the creature roars,
and Salazar is left vulnerable. Leon takes the
opportunity to put half a dozen .45 slugs into
Salazar's chest. With its guiding intelligence dead,
the rest of the creature quickly follows.
Leon quickly climbs back down to the base of the
tower, where he finds one last motorboat parked at
the docks. Ada Wong is behind the wheel, and offers
him a ride. Leon hesitantly agrees.
======================================
12iii. The Trick is to Keep Breathing:
RESIDENT EVIL 4, Part Two
======================================
Ada and Leon drive to the island in silence, Leon
pensive, Ada smiling enigmatically. As they reach
the coastline, Ada stands up and fires a grappling
hook up to the cliff face. She claims she has some
business to take care of, and bails out of the boat.
Leon's left to bring it back under control and dock
it; as he does, Saddler calls him on the radio. He
and Leon exchange barbs before Saddler signs off.
The island facility is heavily guarded by a new
breed of Ganados, dressed in fatigues and armor,
and wielding a generally higher quality of weapons.
One even attacks Leon with a Gatling gun.
Fortunately, despite their fortifications and
weaponry, Ganados don't really work well as a
group. That and some fast thinking are all that
keeps Leon alive as he mounts his assault on the
facility. He manages to stay a few steps behind
Ashley's captors, but the heavy resistance slows
him down.
Leon blasts his way into the island's lab complex
via its kitchens. In the facility's security room,
a closed-circuit camera feed shows a cell elsewhere
in the building. Ashley is being held prisoner
inside by a pair of Ganados. They turn off the
camera, but they're too late: now Leon knows
where Ashley is.
As he gets closer to that area, the opposition
begins to thin out. Leon enters a much quieter,
dimly lit part of the facility, where very few
Ganados remain to oppose him. He's forced to
search the area for a keycard before he can get
any further.
One room is a crude operating theater. Leon finds
the keycard he needs on the body of a dead doctor,
apparently killed in the middle of implanting a
Plaga into an unwilling host, and another of Luis's
notes. This one is about a creature called a
"Regenerator," one of Saddler's experimental
bioweapons. As Leon tries to leave the room, he
gets to see one up close. It's a slow, grey-skinned
humanoid, and when it's shot, it heals almost
instantly. Leon is forced to run.
His new keycard opens the walk-in freezer, which
the Ganados have been using for storage purposes.
Inside, he finds several frozen corpses, both
human and Plagas; a keycard rewriter; and an
infrared rifle scope. Using the latter, he's
able to target the leechlike Plagas that live
inside Regenerators and destroy them, thus
killing the Regenerator. After rewriting the
keycard, Leon sets out for the waste disposal
facility, and Ashley's cell.
It is, of course, locked when Leon gets there.
He goes a bit further into the facility, alone,
to find its key. Neglected corridors give way
to a clean, well-used state-of-the-art research
laboratory, complete with a watchdog: a mutated
Regenerator bristling with spikes. It's also got
the keycard to Ashley's cell, forcing Leon to
destroy it. Thus equipped, he returns to the
storeroom and sets her free.
A paper airplane marked with a lipstick kiss
sails in through the storeroom window. It's a
note from Ada, suggesting that they escape via
the waste disposal ducts. Leon takes her advice,
and with an unwilling Ashley in tow, leaps down
the disposal shaft.
The Ganados catch up to them quickly, starting
a running fight that ends when Leon and Ashley
commandeer a bulldozer. The Ganados' attempt to
destroy the 'dozer with a truck is foiled when
Leon puts a .45 slug into the truck's engine
block, which forces both the truck and the
bulldozer into a fiery crash. Leon and Ashley,
luckily, are separated from their pursuers by
a wall of rubble.
They've crashed into the heart of Saddler's
research complex, a blend of the castle's Old
World architecture with high-tech defenses.
Saddler himself is waiting for them, and with
contemptuous ease, demonstrates the control of
which the late Ramon Salazar spoke; he halts
Leon's attack with a word, and compels Ashley
to follow him deeper into the complex. Leon
barely has enough presence of mind to attach
a bug to Ashley before he passes out. When he
comes to, he's alone.
Elsewhere in the complex, Krauser toys with a
knife and asks Ada how Leon's doing. Ada's
response: "He's not making it easy." Krauser
continues the conversation by noting that
Saddler's wise to their little game, and has
the sample. Further, he says, neither he nor
Wesker trust Ada. If she tries anything "fancy,"
he'll kill her. Ada, unimpressed, leaves.
Leon continues to brutalize Ganados as he pursues
Saddler. As he enters the boiler room, some gut
instinct makes him stop and draw his knife.
Suddenly, Krauser leaps at him from the ceiling,
blade extended, and Leon barely parries in time.
Krauser greets Leon, who recognizes him from
two years ago, when Krauser supposedly died in
a helicopter crash. Leon makes an intuitive
leap: Krauser must have been the "insider" who
kidnapped Ashley. Krauser congratulates him
for catching on so fast.
As they fight, Krauser lays out his plan. He
kidnapped Ashley to buy Saddler's trust, which
would let Krauser get close enough to steal the
unique Plagas sample. Further, he's done all
of this for the sake of Umbrella. Krauser feels
very comfortable telling Leon this, as he's
winning; Leon's only saved by Ada's intervention.
She shoots Krauser's knife out of his hand just
as he's about to drive it into Leon's chest.
Krauser makes a tactical withdrawal by leaping
about thirty feet straight up from a standing
start. Shortly thereafter, without admitting
to much, Ada does too. Leon picks up Krauser's
knife and receives a call from Saddler, who
promises to introduce him to... "it."
Krauser was guarding Saddler's throne room. Leon
evades a series of laser barriers, and uses a
lift behind the throne to descend deeper, into
another set of caverns that the Illuminados are
using for storage. Here, atop a stack of crates,
he finds another of Luis's notes on Las Plagas.
Luis's studies showed him that Las Plagas were
a sort of collective intelligence, regardless of
the species of a given Plaga's host. Therefore,
they could quickly form communities upon infection.
Luis concluded that he let his fascination with
Las Plagas blind him to what Saddler had planned,
and thus he felt that he shared the responsibility
for Saddler's crimes. He knew he had to do something,
but he didn't think he could do it alone.
Leon pockets the file and keeps going, to a vast
chasm bridged by a trio of shipping containers.
In a puddle near the shipping crane's control
booth, he finds the bug he attached to Ashley.
Shortly thereafter, something enormous and
vaguely serpentine crashes through the wall
behind him; Leon rolls with the impact, and
falls into one of the shipping containers. This
is "it": a bizarre and resilient cross between
a human and a snake.
A frantic game of cat-and-mouse ensues. Leon
stays out of "its" grasp long enough to hit
the emergency switches on each shipping container.
Each time, it falls; each time, "it" leaps to
safety at the last moment. Leon hits the last
switch and runs for safety, grabbing into the
crane's hook as the last container plummets
into the chasm. "It" falls with it.
"It" can also cling to walls, and comes storming
up after Leon. Without having to worry about the
emergency system, Leon's free to unload into its
face. After a dozen Magnum slugs, "it" falls to
the ground and crumbles into nothing.
A nearby ladder leads back up and outside, to where
the mercenary Ganados have set up camp. Leon uses a
mineshaft as a shortcut, and winds up at another
ruined city street. This one is mostly built out of
sandstone, and provides a handy spot for Krauser
to ambush him.
Ashley's been taken beyond a gate at the end of
the street, which is currently locked with three
insignia. Krauser's carrying one of them, and has
placed the other two throughout the area. If Leon
wants to go further, it'll be over his dead body.
The problem is that Krauser is now clearly more
than human, moving so fast that he blurs and
appearing from nowhere to attack with his knife.
When Leon reaches the roof and claims the second
insignia, Krauser returns for a final showdown.
Triumphantly, he throws his gun away and holds up
his left arm, which elongates into a glowing claw.
He knocks Leon off the roof. While Leon's hanging
off the edge, he sees that Krauser's placed charges
around the tower they're standing on top of. Leon
has three minutes to beat Krauser before the whole
street explodes.
Krauser's new claw is bulletproof, and he takes
full advantage of that. It does not, however,
protect his knees. Leon blasts Krauser's legs out
from under him repeatedly, punishing Krauser when
he falls. Finally, Leon's assault wears down
Krauser's resistance; Krauser's heart explodes
out of his chest, and he falls lifelessly to the
rooftop. Leon grabs the insignia and escapes.
What Krauser failed to mention is that the gate
also leads to the Ganados' last lines of defense,
a fortified encampment protected by dozens of
armed guards. Leon thinks he's in trouble for a
second, until a searchlight washes across the area;
Hunnigan's second chopper has finally arrived.
Leon produces an earpiece from his belt and gets
in touch with its pilot, Mike, who's happy to even
the odds. He begins by knocking over a nearby water
tower, and follows up by raking the assembled Ganados
with a hail of bullets.
Leon heads through the fortifications on foot,
shooting anyone who gets in his way while Mike takes
on the Ganados' mounted guns. As they reach the other
side of the ruins, Mike takes out the remainder of the
Ganados' forces in the area, shredding them with
chaingun fire. Leon thanks Mike, just before a
surviving Ganado blows Mike out of the sky with a
rocket launcher. Leon sees Saddler disappearing into
the ruins with the Ganado, and swears that Saddler
will pay for Mike's death.
Ada catches up to Leon shortly thereafter, just as
Luis's drugs start to wear off. For a moment, Saddler's
control exerts itself, and Leon grabs Ada by the throat.
Leon smiles coldly as he chokes her. Ada draws a slim
switchblade from a sheath on her leg and slams it into
Leon's thigh, breaking Saddler's control. Leon pops
another of Luis's pills and apologizes. Ada says that
they have to get the parasite out of his body, but Leon's
not willing to do it until he finds Ashley. Ada, slightly
frustrated, agrees to his terms, and suggests that they
split up. Without waiting for Leon's answer, she leaves
the room.
Saddler's main laboratory is built within an old prison
that's fallen into disrepair. Leon dispatches the Iron
Maidens that prowl its cellblock, then takes on the last
few guards. Finally, in the center of the building, Leon
finally finds Ashley, sealed within a womblike device of
unknown purpose. As he runs into the room, Saddler steps
behind Leon and comments on his audacity. Leon prepares
for a fight, but before he can react, Saddler moves
forward with amazing speed and punches Leon squarely
in the chest. Leon's thrown backward, stunned.
Saddler prepares for the final blow, but is interrupted
by a stream of bullets. Ada, standing on a catwalk above
the laboratory, empties a submachinegun into Saddler, who
staggers back. This gives Leon the chance he needs to free
Ashley, but doesn't actually hurt Saddler; before their
eyes, Ada and Leon watch as his body rejects the 9mm slugs.
They slide through his veins and bloodlessly fall from his
fingertips onto the floor.
Leon grabs Ashley and makes a break for the nearest door.
Ada covers them by blowing up a nearby stack of fuel drums,
preventing Saddler from following Leon and Ashley, but
trapping her in the room with Saddler.
Their newest escape route leads Leon and Ashley down into
a newer laboratory, where Luis's last memo is lying by the
side of the path. It turns out that part of his research
was to find a way to safely remove Las Plagas, but Saddler
was using his work to make Las Plagas nearly incurable.
Luis's lab is nearby, complete with a machine he designed
to destroy Las Plagas. Without hesitation, Leon straps himself
into the device and has Ashley operate on him.
The device probes Leon's sternum with powerful, visible beams
of radiation. As Leon writhes in pain, the radiation vaporizes
the Plaga attached to his spine, without doing any immediately
apparent, lasting harm to Leon. Encouraged, Ashley also submits
to the operation.
Leon says it's time that they went home. They head
upstairs, out of Luis's lab, and wind up at the base
of a construction platform. Suddenly, the entire island's
gone ominously silent. Leon, suspecting a trap, has Ashley
stay behind while he boards a personnel elevator.
=====================================================
12iii. A Summary of the Conclusion of RESIDENT EVIL 4
=====================================================
The lift leads to a construction site. The first thing
Leon sees is Ada, unconscious and dangling from a rope.
Saddler laughs and chides Leon for being too American
to believe he'll lose.
Leon throws Krauser's knife, cutting Ada's rope and
dropping her to the ground. As she runs for cover,
Saddler promises to thrash the cliches out of Leon,
and begins to mutate into a new and terrifying form:
half spider, half scorpion, all giant multiclawed
killing machine.
Its only weak points are its eyes, which bulge out
from its limbs and from Saddler's grotesquely mutated
face. Leon opens up on it with every weapon in his
arsenal, stabbing at Saddler's eyes whenever he
has the chance.
Finally, Ada tosses a rocket launcher to Leon; some
things never change. Leon grabs it and fires, wiping
Osmund Saddler from the face of the planet. Luis Sera's
sample of Las Plagas falls from Saddler's dead hand.
Leon picks up the sample, and immediately, he feels
the barrel of Ada's pistol against his head. She
smiles, and demands the sample. Leon gives it to her.
Ada takes it, then dives off the edge of the platform.
Naturally, she comes right back up, seated comfortably
inside an escape helicopter. She tosses Leon a keychain,
then presses a button on a pocket computer. A three-minute
countdown starts.
Leon runs back to the elevator. At its bottom, he
grabs Ashley and runs for the nearest tunnel, which
links up to a sea cove with a parked jetski.
With ninety seconds to go, Leon revs the motor and
heads for daylight. Halfway down the river, a
series of explosions levels the island, and the
cavern begins to collapse. As rubble rains from
the ceiling and a tidal wave chases them down the
river, Leon and Ashley barely escape the tunnel
before it collapses.
As they move away from the crumbling ruin of Saddler's
island, Ashley, smiling, offers Leon some "overtime."
Leon quietly refuses, and guides his jetski back towards
the mainland. All he wants to do, he says, is get her
back home.
=============================================
12v. So Much For Being Subtle: ASSIGNMENT ADA
=============================================
In the coves of the island, Ada Wong receives a radio
transmission. The voice on the other end of the line,
Wesker, asks if there's a problem; Ada tells him that
Saddler "knows." Wesker orders her to complete the mission
as planned, and lets her know that an extraction helicopter
is on its way.
Her mission is to find five samples of Las Plagas, which
are scattered throughout the island's research facility.
Ada mounts a one-woman assault on the Ganados' island
complex, shooting it out with the survivors of Leon's
attack. He's left all the doors open and dealt with the
more powerful mutations, such as the Regenerators, so
all Ada has to do is dispatch the stragglers. A couple
of Ganados with chainguns make that difficult, but Ada
manages to win through.
Four of the five Plagas samples are exactly where Ada's
intel said they were. The fifth is missing.
As Ada runs across the walkway towards the facility's
radio tower, Jack Krauser suddenly appears behind her,
already mutated into his powerful combat form. Ada
manages to stay one step ahead of him, and much as
Leon will, fires underneath and around Krauser's shield.
Finally, Krauser's had enough punishment, and drops a
flash grenade. When Ada's eyes clear, Krauser's gone,
but he's dropped the final Plagas sample. She takes it,
rides the lift up to the radio tower, and calls for evac.
Seated safely in her helicopter, Ada seals the Plagas
samples in a suitcase. A screen unfolds from the ceiling
and displays Wesker, who congratulates Ada on her punctuality.
He asks about Krauser; Ada says that he's dead. Wesker
doesn't seem surprised, as Krauser was "an expendable grunt."
Ada, on the other hand, is praised for her service, and for
bringing Wesker's plans a bit closer to fruition. She smiles.
Wesker says that Umbrella will soon return, and it will
change their world. He breaks into maniacal laughter.
==================================
12v. Puppet Masters: SEPARATE WAYS
==================================
There are no coincidences in RE4's plot. From minor details
to major plot points, everything traces back to one person:
Ada Wong.
From the moment Leon enters the Ganados' village, Ada is
working behind the scenes to make sure his mission succeeds.
Despite Wesker and Krauser's plots to assassinate Leon, and
the threat posed by Los Illuminados, Ada is determined to
ensure Leon's survival... but why?
Separate Ways is five vignettes from throughout RE4, shown
from Ada's point of view. Using her grappling hook, the
player can access new parts of the game, and find out what
Ada was doing while Leon was fighting his way through Los
Illuminados.
=======================================
12vi. Chapter One: Ring the Church Bell
=======================================
The only reason Ada's taken on this mission is to get closer
to her main objective. It's not her style to hide in the shadows,
though; she notes that she'll have to reveal herself to Leon
and offer advice every once in a while.
Just before Leon enters the Ganados' village, Ada infiltrates
it herself. She knocks out a couple of Ganados who notice her
arrival, then accepts a call from Wesker.
Wesker is watching the village via satellite from some undisclosed
location. He reminds Ada of the specifics of her mission; she's to
rendezvous with the scientist they planted among Los Illuminados
and acquire a master Plaga sample. He further advises her that if
the natives are getting restless, ringing the church bell should
quiet them down.
Ada hangs up on Wesker just before Leon enters the village and
starts a fight with the Ganados. Ada joins the battle on Leon's
side, although she never lets him see her. Ada dispatches a few
of the Ganados on her own before finding the key to the large
metal door.
The Ganados continue to hinder Ada as she moves through the
underground passage to the churchyard. When she reaches the
church itself, Ada must solve the sundial puzzle behind it to
claim the strangely-shaped key to the front door, then use
a catseye gem to defuse a pressure plate within the sundial.
Inside the church itself, Ada takes out a few extra villagers
before using the church's console to ring its bell. At the same
time, inadvertently, she closes the portcullises around the
room where Ashley is being kept.
After she escapes the church, Ada records a report on what
little she knows of Las Plagas and Los Illuminados. The cult's
somehow resurrected the Plagas, parasitic organisms which seem
to communicate via a unique frequency of sound waves, much in
the same way that dog whistles work. These hypotheses have been
developed after study of a tissue sample Ada's organization
retrieved at some point; Ada notes that she's seen several
cultists carrying ceremonial rods, and wonders if the rods
emit the sounds that control Las Plagas. Ada also notes that
the Salazar family is able to control Las Plagas, although
she doesn't say how.
Ada's organization needs samples of Las Plagas to prove or
disprove their theories, and Saddler's "occult activities"
were considered worthy of investigation. Ada's also here to
prove her loyalty to the organization.
"The opening moves in this chess game have been played. There's
no turning back now."
===============================
12vii. Chapter Two: Rescue Luis
===============================
As Ada's reading a book in Mendez's bedroom, Wesker contacts
her via her PDA. He informs her that their double agent, Luis,
is being held captive nearby. Ada must stop what she's doing
and rescue him.
Ada rushes to the burned-out house where Luis is imprisoned,
but arrives just in time to watch the Ganados carrying Leon
and Luis, both unconscious, out the door. Ada watches them go,
and resolves to follow them.
She pursues the Ganados back through the village to Mendez's
house, where she arrives just in time to prevent Mendez from
killing Leon. That comes at a price, though; Ada winds up in
a confrontation with a squad of armed Ganados. One of them
gets the drop on her with a tranquilizer rifle, and Ada is
knocked out.
Ada wakes up some time later lying on the bloody altar in
the tunnels just outside Salazar's castle. She barely manages
to avoid being the Ganados' next sacrifice.
After activating the ski lift, Ada rides it up to the castle's
gate. Using her grapple gun, she enters the pen where one of
the Gigantes is lurking in ambush. Defeating it, Ada reaches
the clearing outside the cabin just at the end of the siege.
As Luis leaves, Ada is waiting for him.
She rebuffs his attempts to flirt with her and asks Luis
where the sample is. He says he's just about to go and get it,
then asks where she stands on "all of this." Ada tells Luis
that there are some things he's better off not knowing, and
who she works for is one of them. Luis shrugs and leaves,
saying that he doesn't care who she is, as long as she gets
rid of Saddler and his "religious friends."
Shortly thereafter, Ada records a report on Luis. She muses
that Luis has the least entanglements of any player in the
current scenario; he's a "brilliant scientist," and he has an
enthusiasm she once shared. Ada likes him.
She first became aware of Luis's importance when she intercepted
an e-mail he sent a friend from college pleading for help. Luis
didn't think he could trust the police, but when Ada revealed
herself to him, he begged her to take him into custody. Instead,
Ada ordered him to secure a master Plaga sample for her, as
evidence. Fortunately, Saddler trusted Luis once... but now Luis's
"snooping" has made Saddler suspicious.
==========================================
12viii. Chapter Three: Retrieve the Sample
==========================================
Ada detonates her sunglasses and uses the distraction to escape
from Leon. She easily loses him in the hedge maze, but then she
gets another call from Wesker.
Wesker informs her that Luis has successfully recovered the
Plagas sample. In addition, if Ada encounters Leon, she's to
take him out; Wesker reasons that they don't need the distraction.
Ada notes that Leon doesn't really know what's going on, and as
such, is harmless. Wesker retorts that Leon's a survivor of
Raccoon City, and repeats himself; "Take him out." Ada appears
genuinely distressed by the order.
Despite the sudden arrival of a squad of Illuminados, Ada finds
her way back out of the hedge maze and through an ambush in the
castle's dining hall. She catches up to Leon at one point as he's
dispatching a squad of Illuminados; to her obvious regret, Ada
realizes she can't be seen with him.
Ada enters the hall where Ashley's being held a few steps ahead
of Leon... and ahead of Luis. She's hiding nearby when Saddler
kills Luis, but her cover's nearly blown when Wesker contacts
her. As Leon grieves over Luis's dead body, Ada tells Wesker
that Luis has just been killed, she hasn't been able to claim
the sample, and that she hasn't yet had the chance to eliminate
Leon. Wesker receives the news without visibly reacting, aside
from tapping his fingers on his armrest, and says that they
might be able to capitalize on the distraction that Leon
represents. Ada, who's been doing that all along, makes a mild
sound of agreement.
Her next report concerns Jack Krauser, who Ada has to admit is
one of the best soldiers she's ever met. He is just a soldier,
though, and if he presents any serious problems, Ada's confident
she can deal with him; she's studied his combat style and knows
she can handle "that arm of his."
Krauser takes his orders directly from Wesker, but Wesker also
sent Ada along; she wonders if it wasn't so she could keep an eye
on Krauser. She wouldn't be surprised if he's already fallen prey
to the temptations of Las Plagas, but it doesn't matter. Krauser's
role in the play is that of a patsy, the one who takes the blame
when everything comes crashing down. Ada notes that everything
must continue exactly as it has been up until now.
=============================================
12ix. Chapter Four: Stop Leon's Assassination
=============================================
Krauser and Ada have their meeting atop the radio tower on
the island. As Ada leaves the room, she receives another call
from Wesker. Wesker informs her that Leon's made "quite a
jolly mess," and the Ganados have fallen into a panic. Ada
notes that once Leon's found Ashley, his job is over and he'll
just leave without a fight; Wesker says calmly that he's already
told Krauser to kill Leon, then breaks the transmission. Ada
says out loud, even though Wesker can't hear her, that he's
forgotten she doesn't always play by Wesker's rules. She
breaks into a run.
A short time later, Ada's found her way into the shipping
lane Leon and Ashley used to escape from the waste disposal
facility. It's half-wrecked and burning, but it's still
mostly clear, and it's an easy trail to follow.
Ada blasts her way through the Ganados in the area, and takes
a side passage into a previously-undiscovered underground
harbor. Saddler's ambitions apparently extended even further
than anyone thought; he's not only acquired a battleship
somehow, but he's recommissioned it. Ada finds this out the
hard way, when Ganados use the battleship's turrets to open
fire on her.
She returns fire with a pair of defense turrets of her own,
fighting a running battle throughout the harbor and on the
deck of the battleship itself. Her final salvo, delivered
with the help of an anti-aircraft gun, hits the battleship's
magazine; Ada barely manages to make it to a safe place before
the ship explodes and sinks to the bottom of the harbor.
Ada continues battling through the processing center, past
the wrecked trucks that tried to stop Leon and Ashley's
bulldozer run, and eventually kicks her way into the area
where the bulldozer crashed. She enters the warehouse just
in time to shoot Krauser's knife out of his hand.
The next report Ada files is about Leon, and his "formidable
survival skills." She speaks at length about his good qualities:
she says he's "practically a genius," and that he "has smarts
and knows how to use them." He's the most important part of Ada's
plan, but he wasn't a part of it at all until a couple of months
ago. Ashley's kidnapping forced Ada to rapidly adapt to Leon's
presence, but she has faith in him. His consistent luck and his
ability to survive despite overwhelming odds both have Ada
convinced that everything will go exactly as she's planned.
====================================
12x. Chapter Five: Obtain the Sample
====================================
Ada, occupied with other matters, reaches the dirt road past
Krauser's ambush site just as Mike the helicopter pilot arrives.
She fields another call from Wesker, who orders her to take on
whoever proves to be the victor in the final battle between Leon
and Saddler. Ada, almost wistfully, notes that it's not as easy
as it sounds, but Wesker is strangely insistent that neither
Saddler nor Leon live to see tomorrow.
Leon and Mike have nearly obliterated the Ganados' defenses, but
Ada still encounters plenty of resistance as she follows Leon.
She takes out the last few mercenary Ganados in the area and
catches up to Leon just in time to nearly die at his hands. When
the dust clears, Ada runs ahead, giving Leon time to get ahold
of himself.
She disposes of the token Ganado resistance in the old cellblock,
but as Ada reaches the prison yard, a thrown girder nearly takes
her head off. She looks up to the watchtower's roof to see a
bloodied and burned Jack Krauser, half-dead and still wearing his
monstrous form. With a small smile, Ada pulls out her grapple gun
and hurls herself onto the tower's roof. As she's just reported
Krauser's death, Ada tells him, his suddenly turning up alive
would mean she'd have to fill out *far* too much paperwork.
While Ada fights Krauser on the rooftops of the prison yard, Leon
can be heard dispatching the guards below. Krauser's lost little
of his sheer power, and he's chosen the battlefield very well; the
narrow confines of the towers' rooftops work in his favor. Ada's
come too far to lose now, though, and Krauser's wounds have weakened
him. She leaves him in a bloody heap.
Ada rappels onto the side of Saddler's laboratory and crawls
inside via a ventilation shaft. She winds up on the catwalk
above Saddler's lab just as Saddler punches Leon across the
room. Ada takes Saddler on with her TMP, giving Leon the crucial
moment he needs to escape the laboratory with Ashley. At the
same time, though, Ada winds up trapped inside the laboratory
with Saddler.
If anything, Saddler's far more dangerous as a simple human.
He attacks Ada with the tentacles that killed Luis Sera, as well
as a devastating chokeslam that takes advantage of his unbelievable
speed. Bullets don't seem to bother him much, and he's actually
capable of rejecting them from his outstretched hand fast enough
to injure Ada with her own gunfire. She bombards him with grenades
and explosive crossbow bolts, occasionally getting close enough
to stab Saddler in the eye that emerges from his mouth.
At the end of the fight, Saddler falls face-first to the floor,
seemingly dead, and Ada finally claims the sample. She doesn't
notice Saddler's tentacle moving of its own violition, though,
and it knocks her unconscious.
When she comes to, Saddler's strung her up on the construction
site, and Leon's caught up with them both. Once he frees her,
Leon moves to engage Saddler while Ada rappels up onto the catwalks
above the construction site. Ada notices a rocket launcher lying
on the other side of the area, but she also notices a series of
demolition charges that a squad of angry Ganados have planted
throughout the construction site. A two-minute timer starts.
Ada frantically races for the rocket launcher, reaching it with
a few seconds left to go, and tosses it to Leon at the crucial
moment. He fires, wiping Osmund Saddler off the planet... and Ada
is finally able to accomplish her mission.
As Ada flies away in her escape helicopter, she writes her final
report. As requested by her organization, she's acquired the
sample... but she's given Wesker something else entirely. She
was only pretending to work for him all along.
To Wesker, Ada notes, Umbrella represented sanctuary; he could
hide behind it while he made his own plans. Without it, he's
got to open a new one, and he's not alone in that. There are
those in power who need something like Umbrella to hide their
own deceit. Wesker will stop at nothing to open a new one.
Wesker's been in contact with another pharmaceutical corporation
called S, which "maintains medical and drug facilities the world
over." Ada doesn't doubt that he'll next turn up in conjunction
with them. The organization, she thinks, must remain vigilant.
=====================================
12x. Conclusions about the Conclusion
=====================================
1. Leon S. Kennedy, Ashley Graham, and Ada Wong have survived.
2. Leon is no longer carrying a Plaga inside his body. Ashley,
however, may be. (See Random Musings, below.)
3. Luis Sera, Ramon Salazar, Osmund Saddler, Bitores Mendez,
Mike the helicopter pilot, and most if not all of the Ganados
and Illuminados are all dead.
4. Jack Krauser may or may not be dead. He was killed twice,
but the first one looked pretty final and it didn't take.
5. Ada has delivered several samples of Las Plagas to Wesker,
including the special parasite meant for Ashley Graham.
6. Wesker is planning to bring back the Umbrella corporation,
and to use it to change the world. Umbrella and those who work
for it are involved in some kind of deeply covert war.
7. Wesker does *not* have a sample of a master Plaga. He
may think he does, but Ada's given him something else in
its place.
8. Ada Wong is still human. (In other words, it would appear
that she did not, as occasionally theorized, use any viral
methods of survival at the end of RE2. Ada exhibits no
superhuman abilities at any time during RE4.)
9. Ada Wong is a double agent, working for an undisclosed
organization that appears to be opposed to Wesker and his
unnamed backers. She was only pretending to work with Wesker,
but she may have blown her cover by helping Leon.
10. Leon is currently employed as a government agent,
answerable only to the President.
11. Umbrella's true role in the modern world has nothing to do
with its pharmecutical enterprises. Instead, what it "covers"
is the activity of immoral men. It provides a necessary service
for criminal enterprises the world over.
12. Leon has no luck with women whatsoever. The only one who's
interested in him is jailbait. (Yes, Ashley's 20, but her dad's
the President. She could be in her late forties and she'd still
be jailbait.)
====================
12xi. Random Musings
====================
1. When Leon shows the photo of Ashley to the Ganado in
the first cabin, he snarls something in Spanish. A rough
translation is, "What the fuck are you doing here? Get
out of here, asshole!"
2. Other translations:
"Cojelo!" = "Get him!"
"Muerete..." = "Die..."
"Morir es vivir..." = "To die is to live..."
"Ganados" = cattle, livestock
"Mátelo!" = "Kill him!"
"Cabron!" = a general-purpose vulgar insult
3. Unless Saddler's death finished off the surviving
Ganados somehow, you have to figure there are a few
survivors of Los Illuminados. Leon couldn't've gotten
them all.
4. When you consider Dead Aim, Umbrella's destruction
couldn't've been as quiet or civilized a process as
RE4's introduction makes it out to be.
5. I wonder if Las Plagas infection weakens the human
skull. Ganados' heads seem to pop or deflate given the
slightest provocation.
6. Did anyone else think upon first seeing Krauser that
somebody had sewn Mikhail back together?
7. RE4 highlights something interesting about the series
that I hadn't realized until now: nobody in the history
of RE has ever actually *made* anything. The T-Virus
was derived from long research into a virus that Spencer
and Ashford discovered, Birkin found the G-Virus inside
Lisa Trevor, Salazar dug Las Plagas out of his basement,
and all the other bioweapons have been made via combining
those viruses with each other or something else.
8. Many readers have written in to note that in 5-4, Luis's
device gives a different readout for Ashley than it does for
Leon. Ashley may very well still be hosting a Plaga.
9. Cinematic references in RE4:
-- that damn laser corridor is all Paul Anderson's fault.
-- there's a deer head mounted on a wall in the art gallery,
complete with a gem hidden in its eye. This dates back
to the original Resident Evil, where it was a shout-out
to the creepy deer head mounted on the wall in the 1990
remake of _Night of the Living Dead_.
-- the initial village area reminds me of, as I've said
before, Lucio Fulci films, with the random grossouts,
rural environment, and occasionally shocking gore.
-- the Illuminados' design reminds me of an old German
movie called _Mephisto_. Then again, it also makes
me think that I'm being pursued by albino clones
of Maynard James Keenan, so I may be high.
-- Duncan Brown notes that the unlockable Mathilda
handgun is not only Leon's old custom handgun from
RE2, but it's named after Natalie Portman's character
in _The Professional_ (who was, of course, a young
girl being protected by a man named Leon).
-- Another note from Duncan Brown: the Plagas are
vaguely reminiscent of the parasites from the X-Files
episode "Darkness Falls."
-- Franck Grasset writes in to note Salazar may be named
after Miguel Salazar from _Day of the Dead_. (Either
that, or after that guy on "24.")
10. Differences between the GameCube and PS2 versions:
-- When Leon and Krauser are speaking during your final
fight with him, Krauser's answer to Leon's second response
has changed. Before, it was "I see you've honed your
skills." Now, it's "Hmph! Umbrella."
-- The cage ambush in the dining room has a short intro scene
now, featuring the prisoner leaping down into the cage from
above you.
-- All cutscenes are now cinematics, as opposed to being
rendered with the game's engine. Thus, any changes you've
made to an area or to Leon won't carry over to the movies;
Leon will always be unarmored and in his default costume,
and parts of a room that you've just smashed will be whole
and intact during a movie.
============================================================
13. My Favorite Apocalypse: RESIDENT EVIL: OUTBREAK - FILE #2
============================================================
Outbreak File #2 continues the story of the fall of Raccoon
City, as seen through the eyes of eight would-be survivors.
As with the first game, you can take Outbreak File #2 online
and cooperate with up to three other players.
Several small improvements have been made to the game, such
as the new ability to walk with a weapon readied, automatic
targeting, and unique starting items for each of the eight
original characters.
=================
13i. Introduction
=================
It took eight days for Raccoon City to go from normalcy
to martial law to a bloodsoaked crater. There were a
hundred thousand people in the city during the outbreak;
very few got out alive.
This is another look at five stories within the disaster,
and what some of the survivors had to do to get out of
the city alive.
===============================
13ii. Scenario One: Wild Things
===============================
The Raccoon Zoo is now the site of a massacre. Many of the
animals lie dead in the street, with zombies feasting on
their remains. Some of the animals, however, have fallen
prey to the T-Virus, and have become something else entirely.
Near the back entrance of the Raccoon Zoo, Cindy Lennox
finds a note on a memo board. It's been left by the Raccoon
City police, who've set up an extraction point in the trainyard
near the zoo's front gate. If the survivors cut straight through
the zoo, they'll make it to the extraction point with plenty of
time to spare. Cindy muses that she has a bad feeling about this,
but they really should check this out.
The Elephant Restaurant's been left unlocked. The survivors
break into its back room and steal a chain cutter. It makes
short work of the padlock on the zoo's back gate.
For a moment, the zoo looks peaceful enough, and is surprisingly
empty. Suddenly, the gate they came through is destroyed, as
a massive, mutated elephant crushes it into rubble. The
elephant, made into a killing machine by the T-Virus, pursues
the survivors throughout the zoo's concourse.
At the same time, many of the other animals have fallen prey
to the virus. The survivors must contend with zombified hyenas,
tropical birds, insects, and plants.
The survivors duck into the main office building, where they
find a wounded zoo employee and a key they need. That key
opens the door to the elephant stage, where they find one of
the zookeepers' diary. The elephant, it seems, has developed
a violent reaction to the parade music they use for his show.
More importantly, the survivors find documents detailing the
Raccoon Zoo's bizarre new security measures. As a reaction to
some unnamed incident, the zookeepers have installed a new
security system. In order to open the zoo's front gate, two
lion emblems must be placed within statues in the zoo's
Front Gate Plaza.
After the survivors reactivate the zoo's power, they lure
the elephant onto its stage by playing the parade music
and shut the gate behind it. They run out of the staging
area just before the elephant crashes through the gate.
The survivors arm themselves from the zookeepers' stash of
firearms and proceed through the zoo's attractions, dealing
with undead female lions, bees, and crocodiles. Along the
way, they ransack the area for the emblems they need. Just
as advertised, installing them in the statues in the Front
Gate Plaza opens the way out.
There's a parked train right in front of the zoo, and
miraculously, it's intact. Before the survivors can get
on board, however, the mutated elephant suddenly returns.
It crashes through the fence surrounding the Front Gate
Plaza with terrifying ease, and prepares to trample the
survivors into the street.
Once again, the survivors are able to use the elephant's
Achilles' heel against it. There are a pair of cassette
players on refreshment stands outside the zoo, and one of
the survivors had the foresight to dub the elephant's hated
parade theme onto cassette. When it hears the music, the
elephant immediately charges the tape player, destroying
the refreshment stand and injuring itself. The survivors
are able to finish it off with a couple of rounds from the
zookeepers' high-caliber hunting rifle.
Weary, the survivors climb onto the train, anxiously awaiting
their chance to reach safety. Just as they relax, the train
stops suddenly; it's crashed into something. Outside its
window, the survivors see a burning helicopter, surrounded by
the dead and dying bodies of police and National Guardsmen.
The evac chopper crashed upon landing, with no survivors, and
the entire ordeal in the zoo has been for nothing.
Raccoon City continues to burn.
===============================
13iii. Scenario Two: Underbelly
===============================
The streets have grown too dangerous. Several of the survivors
dodge a small mob of zombies and head into the only shelter
they can find: the subway station where Jim Chapman works.
The station has a few zombie inhabitants, but it's otherwise
calm. A parked train offers an avenue of escape, but there
are several complications. The street above the subway tunnel
has collapsed, which has blocked the westbound tunnel and
crushed all the cars in the train except for one. It's also
dropped enough debris on the tracks to trigger the automatic
shutdown system. To get the train moving again, the survivors
must turn the power back on and separate the last intact car
from the wrecked ones.
They venture into the employees' section of the station,
dispatching the undead remnants of its staff, and manage
to reactivate the system's emergency power supply. Using
a valve handle found near the generator, the survivors
drain the pump room and reactivate the breakers, which
also opens the storage closet. Inside that, they find a
roll of vinyl tape, which they use to repair the subway's
fire suppression system.
The survivors return to the subway platform, just in time
to see another train crash into the station. The sprinklers
immediately go off, drenching the survivors and dousing
the resulting flames. As a happy side effect, the survivors
are able to find the last piece they need in the wreckage
of the train. They install it, which decouples the last
intact subway car from the rest of its train.
They get into the car and hit the switch, but a new
enemy has entered the picture: T-Virus-infected fleas,
which swell into immensity if supplied with enough fresh
blood. A larger specimen suddenly smashes through the
window of the subway car, abducting one of the survivors.
The others go to rescue him, and find that the subway's
eastern tunnel's become the lair for an enormous, mutated
flea. They manage to bring it down with sustained firepower,
but when it dies, the tracks are no longer obstructed. The
subway car's automated systems prepare the car to move.
Thanks to the fleas, some of the survivors miss their ride.
Using a key found where the subway car used to be, they
return to the generator room and open a passageway into
the subway's ventilation tower. The ladders on its sides
lead the survivors, weary but alive, onto the empty
streets of Raccoon City.
===============================
13iv. Scenario Three: Flashback
===============================
Several of the survivors, including Alyssa Ashcroft, have
managed to make it out into the Raccoon Forest, using some
of the forest's old hiking trails.
They gather in a cabin that belongs to Ed, an old man who
lives in the woods by himself. His cabin is covered with
notes in his illegible handwriting, and decorated with
several photos of him and a woman. The photos are labeled
"Ed & Dorothy."
Ed volunteers to lead the survivors out of the woods to
safety, using an old path that he says leads to the next
town over. He sets off at a brisk pace, but cautions them
to be careful. "It's not like there's a good hospital
around here," he says, and laughs disturbingly.
While it's not as monster-infested as the city, there are
still a few zombies on the back paths through the forest.
These zombies are a bit older than the ones in the city,
and many have bizarre, plantlike roots sticking out of
their bodies. When injured, they emit a cloud of green,
poisonous gas.
Just before the survivors reach an old suspension bridge,
Ed disappears. Alyssa has a sudden flash of memory; near
the suspension bridge, she remembers seeing a wounded man
lying on the ground.
Crossing over, the survivors find the ruins of an old
hospital. If the local plant life is any indication,
it's been abandoned for decades, if not longer. At the
same time, there's an old newspaper in the corner of
the courtyard from September 8th, 1998: earlier this
month. The article speaks of a strange masked figure
that's been mutilating dogs and crows in the Raccoon
Forest, thus causing hysteria among the locals. Alyssa
can remember seeing two cops standing in the hospital's
open gate, at some point.
The survivors warily enter the hospital. The inside is
as dilapidated as the outside, but it isn't abandoned.
They're barely more than a few steps inside the building
when a door opens, and a man wearing a black hood comes
after them with an axe. He's shirtless, wearing dress
slacks, and the side of his chest is disfigured by what
looks like some kind of fungal infection. Gunfire seems
to injure him, but it doesn't stop him.
The Axeman continues to pursue the survivors throughout
the building, as do the strange, poisonous zombies. The
hospital is falling apart, only held up by the huge,
unnatural vines that've grown throughout the building.
Several people have come to investigate this growth,
including an ill-fated botanist who's left his notes,
and his last words, in the hospital's locker room. In
the hospital's examination room, an equally unlucky
journalist has written of his intention, to defy the
power of money by investigating a scandal at the hospital.
In the hospital's basement, the survivors find a large
tank of a noxious, yellow solvent. It's capable of
making the vines and growths throughout the hospital
wither and die. The survivors fill syringes and bottles
with it, using it as a weapon against the plants. This
allows them to clear off several doors, and thus further
explore the complex.
During the survivors' investigation, they hear a massive
crash from outside. The rope bridge that let them reach
the hospital has suddenly, conveniently collapsed.
(Those survivors who're caught on the opposite side of
the bridge when it falls are stuck in the forest. The
zombies disappear, replaced by gigantic mutant insects
that leap upon their prey. After reuniting a wounded
survivor with her young daughter, the survivors manage
to find a bridge that will, unfortunately, take them
back to Raccoon City. Their excursion into the forest
has been a total waste of time.)
It doesn't take long for them to find another way out of
the hospital; a side door in the first-floor storage
room leads back into the forest. When they try to open
it, a large tendril ensnares the doorknob, as though
guided by some malevolent intelligence.
Finally, with the Axeman hot on their heels, the survivors
duck into the administrator's office. A patient record
in the administrator's files tells two disturbing stories.
One is that patients were being admitted to this hospital
as early as this month, September of 1998; the other is
the list of the symptoms of a sick woman, Dorothy Lester.
Her disease, while unidentified, is clearly a slow-acting
case of the T-Virus.
Ed has left part of his diary in the administration
office, and another hospital executive who's tormented
by his conscience has hidden a letter of confession
inside a secret room. Reading them, the survivors begin
to understand what's going on in the hospital.
Through a shell corporation, Drugs Incorporated, Umbrella
provided the hospital with untested drugs as a way of
avoiding costly and potentially unsuccessful clinical
trials. Some if not all of these drugs were based on the
T-Virus, to judge by the patient records; at least one
patient was given a fast-acting cancer "cure" that killed
him shortly thereafter.
The data the hospital generated was then used to
construct bioweapons. A colleague of Alyssa's, Kurt, had
come to this hospital to investigate and expose this
practice, but he's since disappeared.
Ed Lester, the hospital's administrator, knew all of this,
but he was motivated to work with Umbrella by his wife's
terminal illness. Having been told that medicine could not
help her, Ed was willing to turn to anyone or anything that
could, including Umbrella. His grief became twisted, and
he allowed Dorothy to be transformed into a blood-drinking,
plant-based bioweapon. He treats this creature as if it
were a reincarnation of his wife, and happily feeds it
whatever prey he manages to catch.
The survivors realize that if they're to escape the hospital
alive, "Dorothy" has to go. They've seen her roots already,
in the hospital's intensive-care ward, but her body's
protected by a near-impenetrable core. Fortunately, the
survivors' destruction of several of Dorothy's larger
nodules throughout the building has had an effect on her.
When they inject solvent into a third nodule, it further
injures Dorothy and cracks the core. She's now vulnerable.
The main body of the plant is in the hospital basement,
where its intensive care ward used to be. "Dorothy" is
immobile, but she's grown several plants to defend herself
with, such as vines that whip out from the floor and
blood-drinking tendrils in the ceiling. The survivors
fight back with bottles of solvent, an old axe, and a
grenade launcher loaded with flame rounds.
Finally, the plant dies. As it falls to pieces, its core
pops like a zit, and the withered body of a dead woman
slithers out.
The hospital lets out an ominous rumble. The plant life
throughout the building was the only thing keeping it
up. With "Dorothy" dead, the heavily damaged hospital
is ready to collapse.
In the ashes of her corpse, one of the survivors finds
another fragment of Ed's diary. At least three of the
vicious murders in the Raccoon Forest in recent days
can be attributed to Ed Lester, who's lured at least
three hikers into the hospital and fed them to Dorothy.
One of the hikers figured out Ed's plans and attempted
to fight him off with a shotgun, but to Ed's surprise,
it didn't hurt him at all. Living with Dorothy in the
virus-rich ruins of the hospital, Ed's become some kind
of mutant himself.
As the survivors race back to the storage room, they
encounter the axeman again. This time, when they try
to drive him off, their weapons actually have a distinct
impact; either the axeman's resilence was somehow linked
with the plant, or his repeated clashes with the survivors
are taking their toll. The axeman drops his weapon and
retreats into the intensive care ward. The survivors let
him go, and escape via the storage room exit.
The axeman peels off his hood; he's Ed, of course. He
cradles Dorothy's withered body in his arms, and promises
her that he'll never leave her side again. A large chunk
of the ceiling promptly crushes them both, as the hospital
collapses in on itself.
With the hospital destroyed, an ominous and total peace
once again descends upon the Raccoon Forest. There are
no paths that lead further into the woods, and no one's
left to be a guide. The survivors are forced to return
to Raccoon City, and the horror that awaits them there.
===================================
13v. Scenario Four: Desperate Times
===================================
The RPD has fallen. Their fortifications and traps have
failed, the west wing of the RPD has been overtaken by the
undead, and only a handful of policemen are still alive.
In the RPD's east office, Marvin Branagh has pulled out
an old map of the building. He points out an old ventilation
shaft to one of the surviving officers, a blonde woman named
Rita. If they can figure out how to reopen the shaft, Marvin
says, Rita's small enough that she could use it to escape
the building and bring them help. Rita agrees to the plan.
Some of the survivors are already in the RPD, while others
have just arrived. One of them talks with Marvin and Rita
in the lobby, who're trying to open their planned escape
route. Marvin tells the survivors to help each other out.
One of Brian Irons's less brilliant ideas during the siege
has been the implementation of an automatic defense system
throughout the building, with the exception of the cellblock
and the main hall. At regular intervals, the halls will flood
with a toxic nerve gas.
The gas doesn't disturb the zombies at all, but it aggravates
the survivors' T-Virus infection. They can briefly neutralize
the gas with special canisters found throughout the building,
but that never lasts long.
One of the survivors happens across a note, which suggests
that the goddess statue in the RPD lobby is a potential
escape route. As they search the building, they find a series
of five plates, each decorated with a gemstone, which fit into
the goddess statue's base in a fleur-de-lis pattern.
When the final plate is placed in the statue, it rises slightly,
revealing a narrow crawlspace. Rita crawls inside, swearing to
Marvin that she'll return with help.
Some time later, Rita radios Marvin to tell him that she's
about to return. She'll pull a van up outside the RPD's front
entrance. All he has to do is gather the survivors together
and wait for her.
The survivors follow Marvin out into the courtyard, to find
him under attack by a zombie. Critically injured, Marvin
tells the survivors to gather outside. He goes inside to
use the RPD's intercom, while the survivors ransack the RPD
for ammunition and supplies. They find that most of the
surviving police officers besides Marvin himself have been
killed. They and Marvin are now the only living people left
inside the accessible part of the RPD.
With a few minutes to go before Rita returns, the survivors
head to the RPD's courtyard. It's at this time that the
RPD's front gate, weakened by the zombies' constant assault,
gives way, and a small army of the undead spills into the
courtyard. The survivors hold off the siege with every
weapon at their disposal, slaying dozens of zombies, but
there are always more.
At the last second, an RPD van backs through the front gate,
flattening the last couple of zombies. Rita opens its back
door and helps the survivors climb inside, but Marvin's not
with them. Instead, he's clutching at his wounds and battling
the zombies that've made it into the RPD lobby. He tells Rita
to go on without him.
Rita isn't listening, and is prepared to leap out of the van
to get Marvin. Unfortunately, Harry's driving the van, and
he has other ideas. When a zombie gets close to his window,
Harry panics and drives away, leaving Marvin behind.
In the lobby of the RPD, Marvin Branagh, not dead yet, has
managed to dispatch the last of the zombies. Clutching at
his wounds, he staggers into the west office.
The survivors are left with a sobbing Rita in the back of
the van, as it speeds off to some unknown part of the city.
They've managed to live for another day, but they're all
quite aware of the horrible price that's been paid.
====================================
13vi. Scenario Five: End of the Road
====================================
In the wreckage of Raccoon City, a woman in an Umbrella
uniform is arguing with a man wearing dark gray body armor.
Both of them are standing near a parked heavy-lift helicopter,
which has a large cargo crate chained to it. The woman needs
the pilot to wait for her, while she goes back and gets
something "very important." Reluctantly, the pilot agrees,
and she runs off. As she leaves, he says what he's thinking;
if the choice is between his life or hers, he's going to be
the first one out the door.
Several blocks away, Umbrella's corporate headquarters in
Raccoon City has weathered the outbreak mostly intact...
until now. Blood sprays across the walls of the lobby as
David King beats a zombie to death with an iron pipe. A
scared man in an Umbrella uniform watches in horror from
the floor nearby.
Once he's done, David offers the other man a hand up. The
man thanks David, but the front doors suddenly open. David
almost brains the woman before the man points out that she's
human. She's shocked, but has the grace to shake David's hand.
Five minutes later, David, his surviving allies, and the
Umbrella employees are in a waiting room. The man, Carter,
asks the woman, Linda, if she's after "the sample"; apparently,
this refers to the small plastic case he's holding in his
hand. Linda says she is, and suggests to David that he might
want to get moving. She offers to give him and his friends
a lift, since she's got a chopper waiting for her.
Suddenly, alarms go off, and a steel shutter slides down over
one-half of the room. Linda locks herself inside the nearby
examination room, while Carter heads into the hallway beyond.
The survivors follow him, and instead, they find a Hunter.
Umbrella's BOWs are loose in the building, and have already
killed several of the remaining scientists.
The survivors dispatch the Hunter and search the building.
Most of it's locked down tight, and several areas have
caught on fire. They find a key to the examination room
and return there, to find Linda working on a computer
terminal. Her plan is to leave the building via the east
exit, using her key, but Carter had some other plan. She's
waiting to see what it was.
Near Linda, the survivors find a file that mentions an
inhibitor agent for the T-Virus, codenamed AT1521, or
simply "AT." An unlocked door leads further into the complex.
After fighting several Hunters, the survivors catch up to
Carter, who's busy at another terminal.
His big idea, such as it is, is to fight fire with fire. He'll
defrost and activate a Tyrant bioweapon and set it against
the Hunters. To do that, he's going to need the survivors
to decrypt a MO disk and bring it to him.
When they return with it, Carter unleashes the Tyrant: a
Mr. X. He claims to have reprogrammed it to take out the
Hunters. It sets to work, easily dispatching the first of
the three monsters in the room below. Linda arrives in
the room and notes that while she wouldn't've chosen the
Tyrant for this, it'll get the job done. Carter boasts
that the Tyrant will do what he tells it, but in case it
doesn't, he's arranged a special surprise. He holds up a
detonator, and claims that if the Tyrant does anything he
doesn't like, it'll be "ground zombie meat."
Watching the Tyrant kill the Hunters, Carter's boasts
take on a strangely psychotic quality; where the survivors
see a monster, he seems to see an artistic statement.
Linda picks up on Carter's instability, and suggests
that they escape while they can.
Linda uses her keycard to unlock the doors in the east
passage, while the Tyrant dispatches the Hunters that
get in their way. It fights like a pro wrestler, favoring
powerful if clumsy punches and kicks.
When the survivors and Linda reach the east elevator,
Carter's right behind them with the sample. He's pleased
with how the Tyrant's performed.
The arguably inevitable happens immediately. The Tyrant
turns on Carter and Linda, crushing his skull, destroying
the sample, and sending both Linda and the detonator flying
into the darkness below. The survivors grab Carter's keycard
from his corpse and make a run for it.
One of the survivors steals a crowbar from the facility's
"nursery" and uses it to pry off a chunk of the wall.
The hole leads into the lab's sealed special research room,
where Carter's keycard opens a second elevator.
This elevator takes the survivors down into an underground
waterway underneath the city. It's dry, but choked with
garbage and refuse. As they walk along the balcony above
the drainage area, they catch sight of Linda lying on a
pile of garbage down in the waterway. She's unconscious,
but alive.
Due to the garbage in the waterway, the survivors are
forced to take the long way around to get to Linda. En
route, the Tyrant punches through the ceiling and drops
onto the balcony with the survivors. It continues its
attack, battering the survivors with its fists.
The survivors barely manage to stay ahead of the Tyrant
as they progress through the waterway, but one of them
makes a lucky find. Somehow, Carter's detonator survived
the fall from above intact. When it's activated, it sets
off a small but powerful explosive charge in the Tyrant's
neck. It crashes lifelessly to the floor.
Shortly thereafter, the survivors reach Linda, who's none
the worse for wear. When she wakes up, she explains that
the capsule the Tyrant smashed was a possible cure for the
virus that Umbrella's spread throughout the city. She
thinks she can reproduce the sample on her own, but first,
they've got to get out of town.
Suddenly, the waterway's flooded with rancid water. Linda
disappears, carried out of the waterway by the current.
The survivors find a valve handle in the debris near where
she landed, and use it to lower a pair of escape ladders.
When they climb it, they emerge onto the blasted shards
of Raccoon City's main street.
So does the Tyrant. It's survived Carter's bomb, but in
so doing, it's mutated into something else. It casts its
coat aside and roars as its torso swells and its hands
lengthen into vicious claws.
This new version of the Tyrant is incredibly lethal, but
the survivors have scrounged up new weapons on their
trip through the waterway. It takes almost all the ammo
they've found, but they're able to put the Tyrant down.
At roughly the same time, several blocks away, Linda
limps painfully towards the side entrance of the Apple
Inn. A distant UBCS sniper takes aim at her and fires,
putting a bullet through her leg. Linda screams in pain,
and the sniper realizes that she wasn't the zombie he
was expecting. He opts not to finish her off.
He's promptly accosted by a thin man wearing a business
suit, who whines that he--the thin man--is supposed to
be in charge of this mission. The sniper is shooting at
zombies when he should be trying to find "that capsule."
The sniper ignores him for a short time, then receives
a radio call. A minefield's been set down around their
position, which'll block off any ground-based methods
of escape. The thin man continues to whine, right up
until the sniper fires a shot over the thin man's
shoulder. A zombie drops dead, the thin man cowers,
and the sniper, satisfied, walks away.
Meanwhile, the survivors have found Rodriguez, who's
waiting impatiently inside his helicopter. He tells the
survivors that if they've run into Linda, they should
bring her to the helicopter. He's not sure how much
longer he can wait.
A pile of papers inside the helicopter sheds some light
on Linda and Rodriguez's situation. The cargo crate next
to Rodriguez's helicopter is an unnamed experiment that's
supposed to be transported to an undisclosed location.
The survivors grab a mine detector off the body of a
dead mercenary, and use it to navigate the minefield.
Once they see the mines, it's a simple matter to blow
them up with small-arms fire.
They cut through a burned-out office building to reach
the next street over, and as they do, they overhear a
conversation between the sniper and the thin man. The
sniper is furious; someone has declared the situation
a "code double-x" and no one told him. Apparently, the
entire city is about to be sterilized with a volley of
missiles. The thin man protests that he'd told the
sniper to hurry. Disgusted, the sniper drops the thin
man and leaves the office. Even if his mission hasn't
been accomplished, the sniper doesn't intend to die
in the explosion.
The survivors race back to the Apple Inn, near where
the entire outbreak started. They find Linda in the
hotel's lobby, but she can barely walk. The survivors
lend her a shoulder and head back to Rodriguez's
helicopter with all due speed.
They're too late. Rodriguez has already left. As he
lifts off, the thin man emerges onto the roof of the
office building, toting an anti-aircraft missile.
Rodriguez sees the thin man just as he fires, and is
able to steer out of the missile's way. Doing so snaps
the restraints on Rodriguez's cargo, and Rodriguez
curses as it crashes to the highway below.
A squad of UBCS troops goes to investigate the crate.
They seem to recognize it, and are treating it with
the utmost caution. Suddenly, something smashes into
the crate from the inside, puncturing the heavy metal
plate. A second later, countless pink tendrils shoot
out from the crate. The mercenaries open fire, but
it doesn't do them much good. One by one, they're
impaled or crushed by the tentacles, and their bodies
are slowly dragged into a writhing pink mass.
Down on the street, the survivors try one last bid
for escape. Thanks to Raccoon City's typically crowded
city design, the office building they passed through
earlier is leaning up against the highway overpass.
If the survivors can reach the highway and get their
hands on a car, they may be able to simply drive out
of town.
With Linda in tow, the survivors return to the office
building and enter its stairwell, dispatching a few
final zombies as they climb.
Finally, they emerge onto the roof. The thin man has
made his escape, but he's dropped a copy of his orders.
His name is Tommy Neilson, and he was in Raccoon City
to try and track down Rodriguez. Apparently, Rodriguez
was involved in an unnamed conspiracy to steal the
experiment he's transporting. Neilson's job is to track
down Rodriguez and reclaim the experiment.
The survivors pocket the notes. A hole in the overpass's
concrete divider will let them reach the street, but
they'll have to jump for it. That means they'll have to
leave Linda behind.
========================================
13vii. A Summary of the Conclusion(s) of
RESIDENT EVIL: OUTBREAK - FILE #2
========================================
When the survivors make the jump, they find the overpass
deserted. The UBCS has left a small arsenal and a couple
of trucks behind, and one of the trucks has the keys in
the ignition.
Suddenly, the Tyrant returns, leaping onto the overpass
with terrifying ease... and with equally terrifying ease,
it's set upon and devoured by the unknown creature that
devoured the UBCS squad. The Tyrant roars as it's engulfed
into the seething mass of the Nyx.
This new creature's body is comprised largely of the
corpses of the unfortunate UBCS mercenaries, and now,
of the Tyrant. Its newfound mass is slowing it down,
but its raw strength and durability are still formidable.
It attempts to kill the survivors by generating and
hurling massive chunks of decaying flesh, or by absorbing
them into its body.
It's also chosen the worst possible battleground. Thanks
to the dead mercenaries and the vehicles they've parked
nearby, the survivors find an arsenal of high-powered
firearms simply lying around the area. With minutes to go
before the city is destroyed, they hold nothing back,
bombarding the Nyx with every weapon they can find, from
9mm bullets to antipersonnel grenades.
The survivors soon realize that the Nyx's only real weak
point--the only part of its body that's legitimately a
part of *it*, rather than a dead corpse--is the enormous
staring eye on its torso. They step up their assault, and
finally, the Nyx goes crashing to its knees. In its moment
of vulnerability, one of the survivors grabs an abandoned
rocket launcher and fires it directly into the Nyx's eye.
That proves to be the last straw. The Nyx liquifies and
"dies," letting the inert corpses of its victims fall
lifelessly onto the overpass. Even the Tyrant seems to
have finally been killed.
One of the survivors rushes back to the divider, and uses
a chunk of wreckage to create a makeshift bridge for Linda.
She limps carefully across the gap and, with the rest of
the survivors, piles into the truck. The engine starts with
the first turn of the keys.
The survivors put the pedal to the floor and take off down
the highway as fast as the truck will go. They make it into
the tunnel that separates Raccoon City from the outside
world with seconds to spare, just as the first missile hits.
In a command center somewhere, a severe-faced general watches
as his personnel report the status of the missile strikes.
No sooner has the first missile hit than a second, more
intense barrage starts, delivered from a distance by fighter
planes. At least a dozen explosions register on the general's
computer simulation of the bombardment, with more on the way.
The survivors have pulled over sixteen miles outside of
Raccoon City, where a number of other refugees have gathered.
They all rush to the side of the road to watch Raccoon burst
into flames.
========================
13viii. Multiple Endings
========================
There are four possible endings for "End of the Road,"
depending on how you escape the city and whether you
rescue Linda.
If you escape via the helicopter with Linda, which is
difficult to do, you get the "Up and Away with Linda"
ending. Rodriguez gets out of Raccoon City seconds
ahead of the missiles and Neilson never attacks him,
so the Nyx is never released from its crate.
If you simply return to Rodriguez's helicopter after
the countdown starts, you'll get the "Up and Away"
ending. The Nyx is never released and you escape the
city, but you've left Linda to die in the explosion.
If you destroy the Nyx and escape Raccoon City via the
UCBS's truck with Linda in tow, you get the Engrishy
"Run Like the Linda" ending. In order to get Linda to
the truck, you must use a chunk of wreckage near the
broken concrete divider to create a makeshift bridge.
If you leave Linda to die in Raccoon City and escape
in the truck, you get the "Run Like the Wind" ending.
In the event that Linda survives, there's an extra scene
during the ending. Rodriguez leans casually against his
helicopter as Linda throws her Umbrella ID badge into the
foliage by the side of the road. The only gift they really
have, she says, is that they can rebuild.
Regardless of how you escape Raccoon City, you'll see
the missile bombardment, and your character will offer
a short soliloquy as Raccoon City explodes. After the
game's closing credits, you'll be shown an extra movie
as determined by your ending. Getting out with Linda
in tow earns you the good ending, whereas if you leave
her to die, you'll get the bad.
Alyssa:
She muses that life isn't worth living without risk. The
smart thing to do, Alyssa figures, would be to try to play
it safe... but she's never been that kind of person.
Shortly thereafter, as she's working out, Alyssa watches
a news report about Umbrella. She takes a break and opens
a newspaper, which has her photo on the front page. She
smiles, and continues her workout.
Cindy:
She tries to take solace in the fact that surviving the
disaster has made her a stronger person, although the
events of Raccoon City will haunt her dreams for a long
time to come. When she gets back to civilization, she
decides to "start something new" by buying a house.
David:
David reacts to the disaster with his trademark stoicism.
We next see him talking on a payphone, then getting aboard
a large boat named the Silver Star. He looks over the
railing with a faint smile on his face.
George:
This can't be called just retribution for humanity
attempting to play God, George thinks, because he can't
think of an action so foul that what happened in Raccoon
City would've been the appropriate consequence. Still, he
figures, this has taught him that mankind must learn from
its mistakes, himself included. We next see him working
on a laptop while chatting on a cell phone; he says that
he's intending to drop by "the university's research lab."
George figures he'll be quite busy.
Jim:
The Raccoon City disaster seems to Jim to be more than
a little like a movie, complete with a nail-biter of an
ending. He's half-expecting a narrator to say that their
fight is just beginning, but Jim isn't interested in that.
He intends to spend the rest of his life having fun, and
we next see him doing just that, shopping for a new pair
of sneakers while talking to somebody on his cell phone.
Kevin:
As he watches the explosion, Kevin notes--apparently
narrating this at some later point--that he can't quite
remember what he felt as he watched Raccoon City vanish
in flames. He hasn't forgotten what he went through,
but he chooses to focus on the now, rather than what
he describes as "ancient history." Kevin goes on to
accept a new job in Miami.
Mark:
Mark muses that Raccoon City taught him things he didn't
even learn in Vietnam. His duty, he thinks, is clear: he
survived to tell the story of the last days of Raccoon
City. The next time we see him, he's at home with his
family, kicking back on the porch of an enormous suburban
home. His wife and son are setting the table for dinner.
Mark's talking on the phone, and tells whoever it is that
things are as dull as ever. He leans back with a smile.
Yoko:
As Raccoon City burns, Yoko's memory suddenly comes back.
She realizes she has no time for or right to self-pity;
there are things that only she can do.
At some later point, Yoko and Linda walk into a courthouse.
Yoko takes the witness stand, and says in narration that
she finally feels like she's making some progress.
The Bad Ending:
A narrator notes that in time, people stopped talking about
the Raccoon City disaster. As he speaks, we see a scene of
night in some other city, as two men unload newspapers from
the back of a van; the newspaper's headline is "Worldwide
Bloodshed." It may be, as the narrator says, that history
will repeat itself, and humanity is helpless to prevent the
events of Raccoon City from happening again.
======================================
13ix. Scenario Branches and Side Notes
======================================
Much like Resident Evil 3, many scenarios in Outbreak have
branch points or multiple endings.
1. In "Wild Things," the zombie elephant (a.k.a. the Titan)
may not be able to break through the gate in the Elephant
Stage. If you trap it in there, or somehow manage to kill
it on the Concourse, you'll fight the Stalker, a mutant
lion, instead. On higher difficulties, it's accompanied by
a couple of female lions.
2. After you kill the Gigabite in "Underbelly," you've got
a surprisingly short window in which you can catch the subway
car. If you make it there in time, the scenario's over, and
you've gotten the "Railway to Tomorrow" ending.
Otherwise, you'll need to grab the Ventilation Tower Key
off the subway tracks and use it to unlock the door in
the facility's generator room. Climbing the ventilation
tower to reach the street earns the "Cold Comfort" ending.
3. There are five endings, all told, for "Flashback."
3i. If you simply kill Dorothy and escape without
fighting the Axeman, you'll receive the
"Leaving the Mystery Behind" ending. Your
character has survived, but feels as though
the mystery of the hospital now cannot be solved.
(*What* mystery? Ed's practically wearing a T-shirt
that says "I'm the Axeman. Ask me how!")
3ii. Kill the Axeman and read three files throughout
the hospital. One, Kurt's Notebook, is in the
crate in the reception area; the two Administrator's
Diary files are in the secret passage behind the
administrator's office and the crack in the wall
in the hall outside the intensive care unit,
respectively. The latter file only appears after
you've destroyed Dorothy. You'll receive the
"A Glimpse of the Truth" ending.
3iii. When playing as Alyssa, you'll have sudden
flashbacks in the administrator's office,
the hospital courtyard, the far end of the
suspension bridge, and Room 202. After having
all four flashbacks, kill Dorothy, read all
the files listed above, and finally, kill
the Axeman on your way out. You'll get the
"A Glimpse of the Past" ending, where Alyssa
swears that Kurt's death will not have been
in vain.
3iv. Stay on the far side of the suspension bridge
until it collapses. This'll repopulate the
forest with giant mutant bugs, and open a
couple of new paths in the forest. One of
them will take you straight back into Raccoon
City. You'll never see the hospital or its
inhabitants. This is the "Illusion Ending,"
and is mostly notable for the (crappy) secret
character, Regan, that you can unlock along
the way. The "Illusion Ending" is unique,
but cannot be unlocked in the gallery.
4. Kevin has a special ending for "Desperate Times,"
where he consoles a despondent Rita. A police car
drives by outside during this scenario; ostensibly,
it's driven by Leon and Claire. See FAQs, below.
You'll also get a different reaction if you, as Kevin,
speak to Marvin or Rita in the RPD lobby. Tony, the
K-9 cop who's initially in the reception area, will
speak to Kevin if you find him dying in the kennel.
5. "End of the Road" unfolds slightly differently
depending on whether or not you've killed the Tyrant
by the time you reach Linda. If you've killed it,
events unfold as listed in the summary above. If you
haven't, the waterway will flood, washing all the
characters in it into the canals near the Apple Inn.
(I opted to use the former scenario for the summary
because it seems to have the more logical progression
of the two. In it, you can find the Mine Detector
*before* you have to deal with the mines.) If you
dodge the Tyrant in the waterway and never visit
Raccoon City's main street, you never have to fight
the Tyrant at all.
6. On Normal difficulty or higher, if Cindy isn't a
PC or AIPC during "Wild Things," she'll be killed when
the Titan demolishes the zoo's entrance.
7. If Alyssa isn't a PC or AIPC in "Flashback," on Easy
or Normal modes, she'll simply stop in a clearing near
the suspension bridge. On Hard or Very Hard modes, you'll
find her dead along the path to the hospital. She'll
subsequently animate and come after you as a zombie.
8. If David isn't a PC or AIPC in "End of the Road," he'll
leave the waiting room and subsequently disappear. If you
then use the emergency ladder to escape the waterway, you'll
find David, as a zombie, lurking nearby.
9. The guy with the cap in the Raccoon Zoo inner office
will carry on a short conversation with Mark if you emote
a few times.
10. The cop on the roof of the RPD will talk to Cindy if
you emote a few times.
=====================================
13x. Conclusions about the Conclusion
=====================================
1. At least one of the original eight survivors made it
out of Raccoon City alive, with Linda in tow. The bad
ending for Outbreak makes it clear that if they hadn't,
the world would've gradually become infected with the
T-Virus, and the world's in pretty good shape during
Dead Aim and RE4.
===================
13x. Random Musings
===================
1. In RE2, Raccoon was a small city. In RE3, it got a little
bigger, but not unrealistically so, although the cable car
system was a bit much. In the Outbreak games, we find out it
had a large zoo, its own university, eight miles' worth of
subway, and a trainyard. If this keeps up, Raccoon City will
be the size of San Francisco by Outbreak 4, despite only
having a population of a hundred thousand.
2. Not only was the explosion that destroyed Raccoon City
distinctly non-nuclear--you don't outrun a nuclear explosion
in a truck--but the American government pounded Raccoon with
at least a dozen missiles.
3. There's a brand-new cast of voice actors in File #2, and
they're almost all pretty good. Of particular note are Wendee
Lee, who voices Alyssa, and whoever plays David. (He makes
David sound almost psychotic, which is kind of cool.)
4. It took nine years and thirteen games, but Capcom finally
thought to include an Umbrella employee who *isn't* a
completely one-dimensional evil sociopath. Good job, guys.
Granted, she's almost certainly a conspirator intending to
steal from and/or betray the corporation, but whatever.
5. Between the two Outbreak games, it's now possible for
all eight of the original survivors to have escaped Raccoon
City. George leads the group to Raccoon University, and
David, for whatever reason, is prominently involved in
"End of the Road."
6. I'd like to see a few of the characters from Outbreak
return in more character-driven, singleplayer REs, either
as supporting characters or as protagonists. Alyssa or Yoko
would seem to be the most likely candidates, although Mark,
Kevin, or David could probably work as well.
7. Unlike the first Outbreak, there are a lot of incidental
survivors in File #2. Rita, Harry, Lloyd, Austin, Patrick,
Regan, her daughter Lucy, Rodriguez, Arnold, and Linda all
survive the scenario they're introduced in, which is weird.
One wonders if they might be seen again in the future.
8. *Two* valve handles this time! What the hell?
9. It's possible to access a brand-new set of characters
in File #2, by using a GameShark code on the first game and
importing the save data. These characters are ostensibly
from File #3; one of them is Hunk, shown both with and
without his mask.
10. "Wild Things" bears a superficial resemblance to one
of the stupider stories in the old Wildstorm _Resident Evil_
comic book.
11. An interesting side note: all of the male characters
are shown talking on a phone in their good endings.
12. There's a broken briefcase in the west concourse during
"Underbelly" that has the initials "BB" on it. When looked
at in conjunction with the Commuter Pass SP Item, it would
appear that Ben Bertolucci was in the subway at the start
of the outbreak.
13. At this point, Kevin, Mark, and Jim are the only characters
who haven't died onscreen in some way. All of the others will be
killed or zombified at some point in one stage or another if no
player has chosen them. Since Kevin and Jim share a bad ending
in the first Outbreak, fan theory has it that Mark will wind up
as the "official" survivor of the games.
14. Cinematic references in Outbreak File #2:
-- "Flashback" is pretty much one long homage to
_Little Shop of Horrors_.
-- I get a real old-school _Assault on Precinct 13_
vibe off of "Desperate Times," but that might
just be me.
-- Cindy's D outfit makes her look suspiciously like
Uma Thurman, with her hairstyle from _Kill Bill_
and her leather outfit from _The Avengers_.
========================
14. Unanswered Questions
========================
This section is for the questions that remain about the
Resident Evil series. This deliberately does not include
small plot holes; this is only for plotline elements
that Capcom has deliberately left unsolved, or for plot
holes that could easily be plotline elements. If a question
is in this section, there's *nothing in any game* that
answers it. Don't send me your speculative comments.
====================
14i. RESIDENT EVIL 2
====================
1. Who does Ada work for? (No, actually, *not* Umbrella.
See the FAQs for RE2, below.)
2. (from "JRMShutout") Who was the "suspicious individual"
from the Patrol Report file? (It's entirely possible that
this was a member of Hunk's team, but it's never said.)
3. The question has finally arisen enough times for me to put
it in here: if Raccoon City was being overrun by zombies, how
did both Leon and Claire manage to avoid hearing anything about
it? Was the government keeping everything that quiet, and if so,
why did they let Leon and Claire into town in the first place?
(It's worthy of note that the military quarantine mentioned in
RE3 has apparently either been lifted or had its focus altered
by RE:O2, because the survivors are able to commandeer a truck
and drive all the way out of the city.)
4. (from Michael Conroy) How did Mr. X know to go after the
pendant? (Could it smell the G-Virus or something? Was it simply
smarter than it looked?)
5. What's with Jill's boyfriend? (See the FAQs for RE2, below.)
==============================
14ii. RESIDENT EVIL 3: NEMESIS
==============================
1. Why did the U.S. government attack Umbrella's factory on
October 1st? (Did they want to destroy the T-Virus, or did
they want it for themselves? As a corollary, how did they
manage to get the rail cannon into the factory's power room?)
2. Why did the government order a bombing run on Raccoon
City? (The issue here isn't how the government knows about
the outbreak; that's obvious. The issue is what they know that
made them decide upon sterilization of the area, as opposed
to sending in the CDC. This is a B-movie, yeah, but it could
be an interesting plot point. Conspiracies abound...)
3. If there was a military blockade in place around Raccoon
City, how did both Claire and Leon manage to drive right
into town? (It's entirely possible that the quarantine was
lifted on the 29th due to the imminent bombing, but even
then, there should have been police, military, and press
stacked three deep in every direction around Raccoon.)
4. (from Jim Stevenson) Why does Carlos wait for two days
before going to find an antidote for Jill? What does he
do in that time?
5. For that matter, what did Carlos "have to take care of"
when he left Jill in the chapel? (What could have possibly
been so important that he'd leave a convalescing Jill alone
with Nemesis so close by?)
6. What did Leon and Claire fight about, why did Sherry stay
with Leon, and why did they split up in the first place?
==============================
14iii. RESIDENT EVIL: SURVIVOR
==============================
1. What were the Cleaners? Why did they dissolve upon death?
(Alert reader Andrew Fernando writes in to say that the official
Brady strat guide for Survivor says that the Cleaners are "robotic
special forces troops," set to disintegrate so as not to leave
any evidence behind.)
2. What's up with Leon? How does he know Ark, and why did he
send Ark to Sheena Island?
3. Who *is* Ark? Is he a cop, a detective, a government agent,
a military operative, or something else? (Some people have said
that he's a reporter, but he never says any such thing. Lott
calls him a detective, but how would Lott know?)
4. Why did Ark think it'd be a good idea to pose as Vincent?
(Alert readers have noted that Ark said it was to collect
information on Vincent. However, this is still pretty lame;
what did he do, walk up to people and ask them to tell him
about himself?)
5. Who set fire to Vincent's office? (It's the only place in
the entire city that's sustained fire damage.)
6. Who the hell names their kid "Lott"?
==================================
14iv. RESIDENT EVIL: CODE VERONICA
==================================
1. Who are Wesker's new employers, and exactly what are they
up to? (This is also known as the "HCF question," after Wesker's
logo in Battle Mode; as noted below, the CV artbook indicates
that HCF stands for Hive Capture Force.
(Speculations run rampant about who Wesker's working for now,
running the gamut from the American government to the Lord of
Darkness himself, but there aren't any solid answers just yet.
Wesker's Report suggests that Wesker's working for an unnamed
competitor of Umbrella's, which is a different competitor than
the one he was trying to get in good with in RE. Six years
later in RE4, he'd appear to be self-employed.)
2. Where did Alfred get the idea that if he killed Claire,
it'd restore the glory of the Ashford family? Does Umbrella
really consider Claire that much of a threat? (Alert reader
Chris Armour points out, and rightly so, that Alfred is
crazy, and, as such, plays by his own rules.)
3. Exactly what was Alexia capable of? She could secrete that
burning ichor, she controlled all those enormous tentacles
that came seemingly out of nowhere, she apparently managed to
spawn and/or control a legion of mutant ants, she changed shape
every so often, she was stronger and faster than Wesker, she
cocooned Claire, and she was still fairly intelligent and
logical. More to the point, she comes out of cold storage early
with no obvious help from Alfred, she activates the computers
in her storage room without touching them, and when she sends
the tentacle to smack the crap out of Claire and Steve, she
has no way of knowing that they're responsible for what
happened. (As a corollary, how did Alfred survive the fall
from the drilling room?)
4. What has Chris been doing for the last three months? For
that matter, what has *everyone* been doing for the last
three months, besides sitting around being prequel bait?
5. This is just an idle question of my own, but what did
Claire do or see inside Umbrella's Paris facility that had
Umbrella going after her, in public, in downtown Paris,
with an attack helicopter?
6. Here's another of my own questions: what was it about
Alexia's appearance that stopped Wesker from killing Chris?
All she does is appear on a viewscreen and laugh. (All
attempts to explain this issue simply attribute various
motives to Wesker, all of which are theories and none of
which actually involve solid information about his goals.
Besides, I refuse to believe that if Wesker hates Chris
that much, he wasn't going to take a quick minute to stomp
on Chris's neck before he ran off to steal Alexia.)
7. As was rightly pointed out by "Utopia" on the Evil-Online
message boards, how did Claire manage to infiltrate Umbrella's
Paris facility? (She's described in both RE2 and CV as an
inquisitive college student who loves riding motorcycles.
The words "master spy" were nowhere in that description.)
8. What does D.I.J. stand for?
=======================
14v. RESIDENT EVIL ZERO
=======================
1. What happened to Billy Coen in Africa, and what did it
have to do with the mother virus? (I initially thought that
Billy's exclamation in the factory was simply an RE2-style
plot dodge; it's assumed that the player knows what a given
virus is by now, if only from files, so the character does
too. However, Billy says "mother virus," and no file in
RE0 mentions that. They're all about the Progenitor.)
2. Did James Marcus somehow *intend* to free Billy Coen?
(Leaving aside the convenience of the Bravo team's helicopter
crashing near the train in the first place, the train and
truck being so close to each other to begin with is either
a massive plot contrivance or it's somehow deliberate. One
wonders if Billy's captors were affiliated with Umbrella.)
3. Why didn't Marcus go after Wesker and Birkin when he had
the chance? (He knows they're there, he has the means, and
they're two of the three people that Marcus is really,
genuinely pissed off at.)
4. Where in the chrome-handled, double-barreled, fuel-injected
special limited edition *hell* has Rebecca *been*?!
5. Where's Billy been since the end of July?
6. Why did the Bravo team's helicopter crash? (Several people
have noted the panicked scream of "Engine failure!" before
the crash, but one might justifiably wonder if there might've
been more to it than that. That helicopter seems to have homed
in right at the center of the plot. Kevin Maskornick writes
to point out, and rightly so, that in the original RE, Rebecca
claimed to have serviced the helicopter right before the crash.
No such claim is made in the remake.)
7. (from Steven Collins) Billy's MP vehicle disappears between
RE0 and REv.2. Where'd it go? It should be right next to the
wrecked Bravo helicopter.
=============================
14vi. RESIDENT EVIL: DEAD AIM
=============================
1. How did Bruce and Fong Ling get onto the Spencer Rain in
the first place?
==============================
14vii. RESIDENT EVIL: OUTBREAK
==============================
None.
=======================
14viii. RESIDENT EVIL 4
=======================
1. What's been going on for the last *six years*? Where
are Chris, Claire, Jill, Barry, Carlos, Billy, Rebecca,
and anyone else you care to name?
2. Here's an interesting point: why does Wesker want
Leon's body (cf. Krauser's Notes)? (Yeah, it could just
be hyperbole, but this is Resident Evil and Wesker's
got a thing for body collection.)
=======================================
14ix. RESIDENT EVIL: OUTBREAK - FILE #2
=======================================
1. Why did the Tyrant turn on Carter? Could it hear what
he had been saying?
2. How does Alyssa know what happened to Kurt in the hospital?
===============================
14x. Imported Headaches:
A Look At Wesker's Report
===============================
A special-issue DVD was packed in with the Japanese release
of Code Veronica: Complete. Meant to celebrate the fifth
anniversary of the release of the original Biohazard, this
disc contained some bonuses, such as an interview with the
games' directors and Shinji Mikami.
One of those extras is Wesker's Report. This lengthy movie
is stitched together out of footage from the original RE
and RE2. It tells the story of the series from Wesker's
perspective, and in so doing, attempts to fill some plot
holes and solve some mysteries.
In this section, I'll be examining and summarizing Wesker's
Report, to break it down into useful information and useless
information, and I will do so while popping an aspirin every
thirty-two seconds, because this damn thing makes my head hurt.
Wesker, in narration, tells us about how he'd begun his career
intending to become a researcher for Umbrella. After meeting
William Birkin, he made a different choice. Instead, he wound
up becoming a police officer. Due to its illegal activities,
Umbrella had quite a few employees working within the Raccoon
police department for the purpose of covering up their mistakes.
Wesker rose to become the captain of the Raccoon STARS unit
(which, according to the RE manual, he'd founded in the first
place, so no big surprise there).
In July of 1998, Wesker was told to keep the STARS away from
the Spencer estate, but the murders eventually forced his hand.
The STARS could no longer be kept out of Raccoon Forest. Wesker's
orders promptly changed; instead, he was to lead the STARS into
the mansion to their deaths, and send the resulting combat data
to Umbrella. That way, Umbrella got rid of a thorn in its side,
and it got an idea of how its monsters did against trained
opponents. Wesker followed his orders, and most of the STARS
were killed by Umbrella's monsters.
Unfortunately for Umbrella, Wesker had plans of his own. He
intended to doublecross Umbrella by stealing its ultimate
achievement, the Tyrant, and using it to buy his way into
one of Umbrella's competitors. All he needed was a bit of
combat data in order to expedite the process. To do that,
he needed one of the surviving STARS to fall prey to the
Tyrant. Wesker blackmailed Barry Burton to "play the Judas,"
and Barry led Jill straight into the Tyrant's lab.
(While I'm at it, Wesker's narration seems to imply that he
blackmailed Barry into killing Enrico Marini; the scenes
shown of Enrico's death feature Jill, alone, and Wesker
says that he "used Barry to get to Enrico." I'm not sure
whether this is sloppy narration, or if it's deliberate.
In REv.2, we see Enrico's assassin's leg, which *looks*
like it belongs to Wesker, but there's no way to be sure.)
Furthermore, Wesker had planned ahead. He had gotten a virus
from William Birkin earlier which induced a deathlike state
in its user. The user would awaken eventually from this state,
with the added bonus of superhuman power. Wesker knew that
Umbrella was a lot less likely to come after him if the company
thought he was dead, so he used both the virus and the Tyrant
to fake his own death. As Jill watched, horrified, the Tyrant
turned on Wesker, stabbing him through the chest. Wesker slumped
to the floor, confident that everything was going according to
plan. (And what a plan it was, Got-No-Lungs Boy.)
(It's worth mentioning here that this part of Wesker's Report
has already been made obsolete by REv.2, in that Wesker can
now escape. In Jill's best ending, Wesker quietly vanishes
after the fight with the Tyrant.)
Wesker made one mistake, and that was seriously underestimating
both Chris and Jill. Jill managed to come out the winner in her
match with the Tyrant, and when Chris destroyed it on the roof
of the Spencer mansion, Wesker's entire plan was neatly derailed.
Upon waking up, Wesker swore revenge against the STARS.
Two months later, after the botched raid on William Birkin's lab,
Wesker returned to Raccoon City. He was there to gather data on
the Nemesis, sent by Umbrella's European branch to assassinate
Jill. While he was at it, he joined forces with Ada Wong, another
agent sent to spy on Umbrella, in order to lay his hands on a
sample of Birkin's G-Virus. Ada was able to operate in the open,
while Wesker, the "dead man," had to stick to the shadows. Wesker
sent Ada undercover to try to find and capture Sherry, and her
pendant containing the G-Virus sample.
Unfortunately, in a way, Ada betrayed Wesker. She fell for Leon,
failed to obtain a sample of the G-Virus, and wound up nearly
dying in a fall from the lab walkway. She still had some value to
Wesker, however, and he saved her life.
(The version of RE2 shown in the Report has any number of minor
inconsistencies. Sherry is shown talking to Claire, but she
doesn't have her pendant; meanwhile, Leon is shown destroying
Mr. X, as well as in Ada's Leon B death scene. Wesker claims
that Mr. X was sent to dispatch Leon and Claire, who were
trying to uncover Umbrella's secrets, but that doesn't make
any sense; when Mr. X shows up, neither Leon or Claire know
what's happened in *Raccoon*, let alone anything about Umbrella.
James Livingston writes to point out that Wesker may simply
have gotten some bad information, or is leaping to conclusions,
but that's not in character for a man who is telling us all
about how he's been the puppet master for the entire series
up 'til now.)
Somehow, Wesker had managed to get "[his] people" into Raccoon
City. They rushed to get the sample of the G-Virus that Leon
threw away (apparently intending to vacuum it up off the floor
or something), but Hunk beat them to it and escaped. Finally,
Wesker tried to capture Birkin alive, but Leon and Claire had
already killed him. Wesker wound up getting samples of the
G-Virus from Birkin's corpse.
(There's an odd dichotomy here. As Wesker tells the above story,
about capturing Birkin, the Report is showing the final battle
between Leon and Mr. X. I think someone may have gotten confused.
(Furthermore, Wesker talks about the bombing of Raccoon City at
one point, and the Report shows the final movie from RE3. The
movie, however, shows Barry's helicopter from the outside, and
on the inside, it shows the scenes from the third ending, where
Carlos is flying the chopper.)
The Report concludes with Wesker saying that Sherry is "safely in
our hands." He would never underestimate Birkin, and muses that
"there's something about this little girl."
If you've spotted any plot holes in the above narrative, you're
not alone.
(Vincent Merken writes to point out the biggest plot hole, one that
I'm kicking myself for not noticing on my own. In a nutshell, it's
this: "...basically Wesker is retrieving inferior products for his
current employers." If Wesker is infected with a virus that lends
its host superhuman strength, speed, and resilence, *and* lets
the host *keep* their human intelligence, why the hell did he want
the G-Virus or the Tyrant? Couldn't he have just bought his way
into one of Umbrella's corporations with this wonder virus he
carries around in his bloodstream? If he *did*, and that's why
he's working for whoever he's working for in CV, then why do they
want the T-Veronica virus at all? Wesker's virus works within days,
while Alexia's takes *years*.
(Oh, and by the way...? SHUT UP. I'm not looking for you to try
and justify Capcom's enormous plot hole. Those are *theories*.
You're actually *using* the word *theory* when you write to me
about this. I grow weary of your tiresome illiteracy, Internet.)
Quite frankly, the Report is a quick fix, a series of hastily
improvised plot points that doesn't hold up to any kind of
scrutiny. Fortunately, certain events in the Report have already
been addressed by REv.2, and we can only hope that more's to come.
================================
14x. The Woman Who Wouldn't Die:
Wesker's Report 2
================================
Wesker's second report was first made available on Capcom's
Japanese website, as a series of still images divided into
five parts. Each part represents a report written by Wesker,
supposedly to Ada Wong, over the course of the twenty years
he spent as a researcher for Umbrella. It's decidedly more
interesting than the first Report, and actually does a great
deal to solidify the series's chronology. (I'm using the
translation from rehorror.com. Thanks to Chris Bound for
sending me the link.)
Wesker was first assigned to the Arklay mansion laboratory
at the age of eighteen, on July 29th, 1978. He and William
Birkin, who was sixteen, were assigned to the facility by
Ozwell Spencer himself, and appointed the chief researchers.
(Note that in 1978, not only was Ozwell Spencer, the co-founder
of Umbrella, still alive, but the T-Virus had already been
invented. Also note the appearance of another traditional
RE theme: child prodigies.)
At that time, the Arklay laboratories were performing
research on the Ebola virus. Ostensibly, the research
was meant to provide countermeasures for Ebola in the
event that someone used it as a weapon, but Umbrella
was really studying it for use as a bioweapon. At this
time, William Birkin also intended to combine the
T-Virus with Ebola, to create a new, enhanced virus.
On their first visit to the Spencer mansion, Wesker and
Birkin had their first encounter with an unidentified woman,
who was then twenty-five. For the last eleven years, the
woman had been a test subject for the research on the T-Virus.
No one knew her name, or how she had come to be there.
Three years later, Alexia Ashford was appointed the chief
researcher at Umbrella's Antarctic facility, which caused
Wesker a great deal of grief. Respect for Edward Ashford,
the late founder of Umbrella and the "first one to find the
original virus," still ran high among the older researchers
at the Arklay facility, and as a result, they couldn't stop
talking about Edward's granddaughter. Wesker decided, out of
irritation with the "old fools" who worked for him, to use
them as test subjects.
Wesker had two bigger problems, though. One was that Birkin's
ego was wounded by Alexia's appointment. His work suffered
as a result. Another was a snag they'd hit in their research.
At this point, Wesker and Birkin were working at Spencer's
behest on making the T-Virus into a fully effective bioweapon.
They had managed to get it to the point where 90% of the
subjects infected with the T-Virus became zombies (the remaining
10% simply died), but Spencer would settle for nothing less than
100%. That bothered Wesker, as Spencer was apparently throwing
good money after bad; he had suddenly stopped caring about the
project's profitability. Wesker began to wonder what Spencer was
planning, even as he and Birkin started work on the bioweapon
that would eventually be known as the Hunter.
Wesker's final report for 1981 deals with the aforementioned
mysterious woman. The Arklay lab went through human "test subjects"
at an incredible rate, but they were quickly replaced. The only
test subject who had managed to survive was the woman, who clung
to life despite being ravaged by the Ebola virus. Wesker couldn't
figure that out, either, as the data he gathered from her wasn't
any different from that of any other test subject.
Wesker's next report came two years later, in the winter of the
sixth year he spent at Arklay. Since his last report, the research
at Arklay had come to a virtual halt, but the dry spell was broken
by news of Alexia Ashford's death. She had apparently made a
mistake while working on the T-Veronica virus, one of her personal
projects. It was rumored that Alexia had injected herself with it,
but Wesker disregarded those stories. With Alexia dead, William
Birkin changed back to the driven scientist he'd been when he first
arrived at Arklay.
(There's a slight discrepancy here, as CV implies that the
T-Veronica virus was a secret project, while Wesker's Report
2 implies that most people knew about it. On the other hand,
Wesker says that he'd meant to find out more about Alexia's
research all along, but had to put that project aside for
later. Wesker may have independently learned Alexia's secret.)
Wesker began to have suspicions about Ozwell Spencer's motivations.
Wesker's private studies of the T-Virus had revealed that it could
infect most forms of life, from plants to insects and larger animals.
If that was the case, then why was the Arklay mansion situated in
the middle of such a large forest? In the event of a breakout, the
mansion's solitude wouldn't prevent the spreading of the virus. If
anything, the plant and animal life in the Raccoon Forest would
spread it further and faster. It almost seemed to Wesker as though
Spencer had set up this laboratory because he *wanted* the virus
to spread... but why?
Wesker resolved to gather more information, and he couldn't
do that as a simple researcher. Quietly, he continued his
work with Birkin, to conceal his true motivations from Spencer.
Birkin married another researcher at the facility, and they had
a daughter in 1986. Two years later, Wesker and Birkin's research
ran into a new set of problems. They had begun planning the
creation of a powerful bioweapon, the Tyrant, but Birkin's
method of creating the Tyrant, which utilized the T-Virus,
had almost no chance of success. In their simulations, only
one subject in a hundred million would actually become a Tyrant
after being subjected to the process. The rest would simply
become zombies.
An Umbrella facility in Europe had come up with a plan to
circumvent this problem, known as the "Nemesis Project," and
with their help, Wesker managed to get a sample of their work
from the French facility.
(1988: Wesker wrings a virus sample out of a French laboratory.
1998: an assault team is sent after the Raccoon City labs on
orders from the head of Umbrella's French division. 2002: a
crazy bastard who might be French takes the fall for the
Arklay outbreak. Coincidences are not useful. See the RE2
FAQs, below.)
The Nemesis itself was a parasitical life form. It would take
over a host and create a bioweapon with enhanced intelligence
and incredible power. The problem that the European branch had
encountered was that the Nemesis parasite invariably killed
its hosts. Wesker theorized that if they could prolong the
survival time of a host, he and Birkin could get the credit
for the Nemesis Project.
It just so happened that Wesker had access to a perfect test
subject. The mysterious woman was still alive, despite the
tortures inflicted upon her, so she seemed a natural candidate
for the Nemesis parasite.
When Wesker tested the parasite on her, it entered her brain and
disappeared. After further testing, Wesker discovered that the
woman had somehow consumed the parasite. This occasioned a new
series of tests on the woman, which would in time give rise
to a new bioweapon: the G-Virus project.
The next report was written seven years later. Wesker had been
transferred to Umbrella's secret service, while Birkin's work
on the G-Virus was authorized in 1991. Neither of them spent
much time at Arklay anymore, as Wesker wasn't a researcher
anymore and Birkin did most of his work in the labs underneath
Raccoon City.
Apparently, Birkin first discovered the G-Virus inside the body
of the woman who wouldn't die in 1988. The G-Virus, like the
T-Virus, mutated its hosts, but unlike the T-Virus, would keep
mutating the host on its own. While those infected with the
T-Virus might change if they were exposed to another stimulant,
like radiation, the G-Virus caused constant changes inside its
subjects. That was why the woman had been able to survive anything
the Arklay researchers had thrown at her, from the Nemesis parasite
to Ebola; the G-Virus simply mutated her to accomodate the new
virus in her system. Birkin's stated intention with the study of
the G-Virus was to take this mutation to its furthest extent,
to see what would happen.
(A frequent question that's come up in my e-mails is exactly how
the G-Virus came to be inside Lisa's body in the first place.
You know as much as I do, folks, but let's be fair here. Lisa
was apparently a guinea pig for bioweapons research for, what,
twenty years? During that time, according to Wesker, she was
hit with every virus and mutagen to come through Arklay, just
to see what it'd do. We don't really *need* to speculate as
to where the virus came from; with that many unstable
mutagens and experimental pathogens in her system, it's a
wonder she didn't turn into a rutabaga or something, let
alone become the host for a whole new virus.)
Wesker was dumbfounded that Spencer had actually allowed Birkin to
pursue the research. He cynically noted that Spencer hadn't shown
up at Arklay for years, almost as if he was expecting something
bad to happen there. Even with Wesker's move to the secret service,
he hadn't been able to get any more insight into Spencer's plans.
Wesker came to the mansion in 1995 to try and kill the unkillable
woman. The consumption of the Nemesis had made her slightly more
lucid, although her behavior was erratic. When she had first been
injected with the "mother virus," all those years ago, she had
been known to rip the faces off of other women and wear them
herself. She had recently resumed that behavior, and had killed
three researchers. Since she wasn't needed anymore for the G-Virus
research, the order came down to get rid of her. While it took
three days, she was finally declared dead, and the president of
Umbrella disposed of her body.
(One of the pictures of the woman in the final report confirms
that she was Lisa Trevor, but her hideaway underneath the cabin
in REv.2 raises an interesting question: what was really done
with her supposedly dead body, and why?)
Wesker left the Arklay labs in 1995, still wondering what Ozwell
Spencer had in mind.
==============================
15. Frequently Asked Questions
==============================
"You can't spell analyze without anal."
-- Ben Plante
Before you e-mail me to ask me a question for this section,
please take the following items into consideration:
1) the Resident Evil games are essentially a series of Japanese
B-movies, and as such, reflect many of the characteristics of
Japanese pop culture: biology as an inherently black science,
vague conspiracies with undefined participants, tentacles
everywhere, several stock characters, a slightly insane degree
of youth worship, and so on.
Most importantly, it doesn't feel the need to explain anything.
It's a tendency, in Asian cinema, to simply say that a thing is;
in Western cinema, we tend to say that a thing is, and then
explain what it is, how it works, and why it's there. A lot of
my more confused correspondence comes from people who're expecting
the latter half of the equation from RE, not understanding that it
simply isn't going to come. There are zombies; there are mutants;
they are both created by a virus. Thus endeth the justification.
2) also remember that these are, first and foremost, video games.
Cinematically, for example, it makes no sense that a police
station would be a strange maze of puzzles, traps, and intricate
locks, but in a video game, it's expected. Very few games, in
any genre, make perfect sense if taken on their own merits as
a realistic or dramatic narrative.
3) furthermore, also note that Resident Evil games are notorious,
and justifiably so, for their utter lack of attention to
realistic architecture. I am fully aware that there are never
enough bathrooms, that Raccoon City's street plan makes no
sense at all, and that Umbrella's shipping and manufacturing
plants were designed by a schizophrenic. I don't know why,
either.
4) there is an article of applied philosophy called Occam's Razor
that, in a perfect world, would be taught to all students
alongside their ABC's. The Razor is the principle that the
simplest solution to a given issue is often the correct one;
it serves as a warning to a would-be philosopher to not think
too damn much about the answer to a given problem. While it's
arguably the most impious use of the Razor ever devised, I'd
urge would-be RE problem solvers/conspiracy theorists to keep
the Razor in mind at all times. In other words, if your idea
or explanation for a given issue requires more than two
sentences of explanation, it involves the word "might," or
it hinges entirely upon a hypothesized action by one of the
characters, not only is it a theory, but you are putting far
too much thought into it and it is probably untrue. (This
message brought to you by the Society to Make More People
Use the Damn Razor.)
5) please consider your question carefully. I've been getting a
lot of questions that could only be answered by a member of
the development team (i.e. where did Nemesis get the rocket
launcher, why does Character A carry out Action B, etc.), which
I obviously can't answer. I may *look* as though I have access
to more information than you do, but I really don't.
6) *please* check the entire document for the answer to your
question before you e-mail me. I'm not your research assistant.
=======
LEGEND:
=======
RE = the original Resident Evil
RE:DC = Resident Evil: Director's Cut (PSX)
RE1.5 = the canceled beta version of RE2
REv.2 = the Gamecube remake of RE
RE0 = Resident Evil Zero
RE:O = Resident Evil: Outbreak
RE:O2 = Resident Evil: Outbreak - File #2
BOW = Bio-Organic Weapon; an Umbrella in-house acronym used in
several files. Here, it's used as a catch-all term to refer
to any monster created by Umbrella.
deus ex machina = Latin; "ill-educated catamite"
==================================
15i. Document and Series Questions
==================================
Q. Why'd you write/update this?
A. First, I'm a pretty big Resident Evil fan, despite my
well-publicized loathing of the original game. Second, I was
getting a lot of e-mail about RE2's various plot holes, and
immediately thought of the previous version of this document.
I was reading it to confirm a couple of things, and it occurred
to me that it could use an update. As I had a lot of free time
that semester, I wrote to Dan and volunteered to update it for
him. He said "yes" and, little suspecting what I was about to
endure, I set to work.
Since then, it's gotten to be a habit. I kind of like fitting
all the pieces together. It's like a jigsaw puzzle, but about
three hundred thousand people are helping me with it.
Q. How long did this take you to write?
A. The first update (where this first appeared on gameFAQs.com
with my name on it) took me two or three weeks, most of which
was spent on the RE3 and CV plot summaries.
The considerably more in-depth version you're reading now
is the result of years spent adding to and editing that
original document, with near-constant feedback from readers.
It's gotten to be a habit.
Q. What's with all the disclaimers and their general tone?
A. When people start reading the disclaimers, I'll stop
sprinkling them irritatedly and liberally throughout the
analysis. My feedback for this document is something like
40% theories, and 20% questions from people who can't be
bothered to look for their own answers. I don't have a
hell of a lot of patience with anyone who can't read
for content.
Q. I found a magazine article that sounds a lot like this
plot analysis. Have you heard about this?
A. If you mean the November 2004 issue of NGC magazine, then
yeah. I wrote it. Buy six copies. If it's anything else, then
tell me about it so that I may take blood vengeance.
Q. You're missing a certain part of the plot analysis. May
I write it up and send it to you?
A. No, that's quite all right, but thank you. This is my pet
project; I don't see any real need to farm parts of it out.
Q. Why don't you want to hear my theory? Don't you have a sense
of humor?
A. I should think it's obvious that I *do* have a sense of humor,
given even a casual perusal of this analysis or any of my other
work. My rationale for not wanting to hear anyone's theories is
simply this: Resident Evil fans are *crazy*.
I hung out on RE fan boards regularly before, while, and after
I initially updated the analysis, and it seems like every third
RE fan has a vast overarching conspiracy theory, founded upon
the most specious evidence, that Explains It All (tm).
While I can certainly understand a certain degree of speculation
about the next game in a popular series, particularly one that's
as rooted in conspiracies as RE has become, RE fans take it to
extraordinary extremes. The fan community isn't as bad today as
it was a couple of years ago, but it still has the occasional
startling moment of insanity. (There's a guy in Britain who used
to keep me updated on his attempts to replicate the G-Virus. I
did not ask him to do this.)
In short, my desire to not hear about your &*$%ing *theory* is
largely born of a desire to not become the sounding board for
every lunatic in the RE fan community. It's nothing personal.
As a general rule, if your letter contains the words "theory,"
"speculation," "hypothesis," "idea," "rumor," or "Trent," I
don't want to hear about it. Go join an RE fansite's forum
and talk to them.
I'm also not in the business of validating your theory, so
if you write me a letter asking me if something "could" be
possible, I probably won't respond to that, either. (Yes, it
*could* be possible, unless the facts blatantly contradict it.
It also *could* be possible that the sun won't rise tomorrow.
Possibility covers a lot of ground.)
Q. Could you send me a copy/notify me when you update?
A. Nope. You see, I'm basically unpleasant.
Q. Why do you change e-mail addresses so often?
A. It's my mutant power. I kill POP3 accounts.
Q. Will you put [something from the previous version of the
Thesis] back in?
A. Not likely. This thing is big enough as it is, and if I
start including stuff like Dan's comparison of _Aliens_ and
RE2, then I'll start talking about Code Veronica and the
literary Gothic or go into more detail about Paracelsus or
something, which will draw the weirdos out of the woodwork,
which in turn will inevitably lead to my becoming even more
of a damn fanboy than I already am, and frankly, no one
wants that. Despite what you may think, I do have something
which I laughingly refer to as a "life."
Q. Here's a joke that implies that the green herbs are in fact
marijuana! Aren't I entertaining?
A. No, you're not. I have heard that joke thirty thousand times.
Q. How many RE games are there, and what systems have they been
released on?
A. The original Resident Evil was released for the PSX, Saturn, and
PC, with the Director's Cut and Dual Shock editions following soon
afterward for the PSX.
Resident Evil 2 has come out for the PSX, Dreamcast, N64, Gamecube,
and PC. The PSX hosted the original version, as well as the Dual
Shock edition which included the Extreme Battle Game (see below).
The N64 'port is a highly-compressed version of the original, which
includes some extra files and the Randomizer gameplay option (again,
see below). The Dreamcast version is a Windows-CE-powered 'port of
the PC version, which includes the Extreme Battle Game, two extra
difficulty settings, and two unlockable image galleries.
There is also a Resident Evil 2 for the game.com, but let's be
honest. It doesn't count.
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, a.k.a. Biohazard 3: Last Escape, is
available for the PSX, PC, Dreamcast, and Gamecube. The latter
versions have a couple of extra outfits for Jill, and the
Mercenaries game is permanently unlocked. They're otherwise
identical to the PSX version.
Survivor is exclusive to the PSX. I've heard rumors of a PC
version, but never seen it for myself.
RE:CV originally came out for the Dreamcast. A year and a half
later, Capcom released RE:CVX for the PS2 (and, in Japan, the
Dreamcast), which is the same game with about ten minutes of
additional cinemas. CVX was later ported to the GameCube,
virtually unchanged.
Gun Survivor 2, a.k.a. Fire Zone, is a PS2 and arcade game that'll
probably never make it to the United States. (Gun Survivor 3 was
released in the US as Dino Stalker, and is a Dino Crisis sidestory.)
Resident Evil Gaiden is for the Game Boy Color.
Resident Evil 2.0 and Resident Evil Zero are GameCube exclusives.
Resident Evil 4 is out for the GameCube, and will be released
on the PlayStation 2 in September 2005.
Resident Evil: Dead Aim, also known as Biohazard Gun Survivor 4:
Heroes Never Die, is a PS2 exclusive, as are the Outbreaks.
Q. Where can I read the games' files online?
A. You can find transcriptions scattered around various FAQ sites,
like gamefaqs.com.
Q. Do you have any Game Shark or other cheat codes?
A. No. As a card-carrying member of the Survival Horror Elite(tm),
I don't need them.
Q. Why is the series called Biohazard in Japan and China, and
Resident Evil in North America and Europe?
A. Because the heavy-metal band Biohazard has copyrighted that
name in North America and Europe.
Q. Who does the voice acting?
A. Claire Redfield (RE2/RE:CV)........Alyson Court
Leon S. Kennedy....................Paul Haddad
Ada Wong (RE2/RE4).................Sally Cahill
Sherry Birkin......................Lisa Yamanaka
William Birkin.....................Diego Matamores
Annette Birkin.....................Jennifer Dale
Ben Bertolucci.....................Rod Wilson
Brian Irons........................Gary Krawford
Jill Valentine (RE3)...............Catherine Disher
Carlos Oliviera....................Vince Corazza
Mikhail Victor.....................Ben Campbell
Nicholai Ginovaef..................Roger Honeywell
Brad Vickers (RE3).................Evan Sabba
Dario Rosso........................Tony Rosato
Chris Redfield (RE:CV).............Michael Fipowich
Steve Burnside.....................Bill Houston
Rodrigo Juan Raval.................Victor Roach
Alfred Ashford.....................Peter Oldring
Alexia Ashford.....................Leila Johnson
Albert Wesker (RE:CV/RE0/RE4)......Richard Waugh
Chris Redfield (REv.2).............Joe Whyte
Jill Valentine (REv.2).............Heidi Anderson
Barry Burton (REv.2)...............Ed Smaron
Rebecca Chambers (REv.2)...........Hope Levy
Albert Wesker (REv.2)..............Peter Jessop
Richard Aiken......................Joe Whyte
Brad Vickers (REv.2)...............Adam Paul
Forest Speyer......................Ed Smaron
Joseph Frost.......................Adam Paul
Enrico Marini......................Dan Hagen
Yoko Suzuki (RE:O).................Alyson Court
Leon S. Kennedy (RE4)..............Paul Mercier
Ashley Graham......................Carolyn Lawrence
Luis Sera..........................Rino Romano
Ingrid Hunnigan....................Salli Saffioti
Ramon Salazar......................Rene Mujica
Bitores Mendez.....................Jesse Corti
Osmund Saddler.....................Michael Gough
Alyssa Ashcroft (RE:O2)............Wendee Lee
All of the live-action actors from RE are identified in the credits
by a single name; for example, Chris was played by "Charlie," and
Jill was played by "Inezh."
With the exception of Richard Waugh, whose Wesker voice is uniquely
recognizable (he makes Wesker sound like a snooty New England
upper-crust type, which I find strangely fitting), I don't know
who played who in RE0, as they aren't given any attribution in the
credits. The cast is Anthony Tullo, Cyrus Lane, David Webster,
Ian Downie, James Arnold, James Kee, Lyon Smith, Marcia Brackett,
Natasha Martina, Riva Dipaola, Stanley Mwalawanda, Steve Kishewitsch,
and Tim Grimes. (I apologize, Hope Levy fans, but she isn't in the
credits for RE0, and so, the IMDB notwithstanding, she probably
didn't voice Rebecca.)
In the Trivia Corner (tm), only three characters have been voiced
by the same actor in two or more games (Claire, Wesker, and Ada),
and only two characters have been voiced by the same actress in
all the games they've appeared in (Claire and Ada).
Q. What else have these people done?
A. You can consult the Internet Movie Database for many of these
actors' filmographies. A warning, however: the IMDB is based on
readers' submissions, and as such is not infallible.
Q. What movies are the games based on?
A. George Romero's "Dead Trilogy" of films are the first and
most obvious influences. I'd also point to the _Return of the
Living Dead_ series, Lucio Fulci's 1970s splatter flicks, and
numerous other action, horror, and scifi films.
Q. T-Virus, G-Virus, T-Veronica virus... what's the scoop?
A. All of Umbrella's viruses spring from the "mother virus,"
which was discovered by Ozwell Spencer and Edward Ashford at
some point in the early twentieth century. We know almost
nothing about the "mother virus" except that for some reason,
Billy Coen thought of it when he saw a pile of skeletons.
The "mother virus" was further refined in the mid-twentieth
century into the "Progenitor" virus (cf. Marcus's Diary 1,
RE0), which was tested on animals. Its effects are largely
unknown, but Marcus's diaries in RE0 note that a Progenitor
creature is uncontrollable, living only to feed on other
living things. The Eliminators, Lurkers, and cockroaches
in RE0 are all Progenitor-virus creations.
(It is my contention, based upon my interpretation of the
Marcus' Diary [sic] files in RE0, that the Progenitor
virus is another iteration of the "mother virus." I base
this conclusion upon the simple fact that they have
different names. A few people have written in to point
out that "mother" and "Progenitor" would seem to be at
least thematically related and thus might be the same
virus, but I'm trying not to assume anything.)
James Marcus created the T-Virus on September 19th, most
likely in 1977, by mixing the Progenitor virus with leech
DNA and through lots of illegal human experimentation.
William Birkin then studied the virus for years, using it
to create bioweapons such as the Hunter and Tyrant. As noted
above and below, Birkin seems to have done more with the
T-Virus than Marcus ever did, which may explain why Annette
thinks William created it.
When the T-Virus infects an organism, it mutates the creature
into a monster. Humans turn into zombies or Lickers, while
animals grow, mutate, and/or become killers. The T-Virus
can be transmitted aerially, despite the claims made in the
Reporter's Memo file in RE3, as well as via contact with
the blood or saliva of a T-virus carrier.
Its effects beyond that are best described as dramatic
convenience; the virus does whatever the plotline needs
it to do, so its onset time, symptoms, effects, targets,
and lethality all vary. Some characters have succumbed
to the infection almost instantly, while others--such as
the cast of Outbreak--drag the process out for days.
The T-Virus is also a part of the creation of monsters such
as Hunters and Tyrants. The exact method in which the T-Virus
is used has never been explained, but it's apparently what
makes these creatures possible. If the T-Virus in a BOW is
suppressed or eliminated, the creature is lethally wounded
or killed outright.
Umbrella possesses a number of methods by which the T-Virus
can be suppressed or inhibited. Many of Umbrella's employees
are given access to an unspecified "antibody," which frequently
but not necessarily prevents T-Virus infection. There's also a
reagent which will, if given to a T-Virus carrier who's yet to
exhibit any physical symptoms, prevent the infection from
progressing any further. Presumably, this is the "vaccine" that
was given to Jill Valentine.
Very few outright cures for the T-Virus exist. One was the
experimental serum codenamed "Daylight," created by a college
professor and a renegade biologist. The other was being produced
in-house by Linda, a scientist working for Umbrella. Daylight may
have been destroyed with Raccoon City, but RE:O2's bad ending
makes it quite clear that Linda survived the outbreak and
escaped the city.
Albert Wesker and William Birkin discovered the G-Virus in
Lisa Trevor's body in 1988. The virus differs from the T-Virus
in that it causes constant mutations in its host; while a victim
of the T-Virus may mutate further with appropriate stimuli, the
G-Virus simply continually mutates its host until the host's
death, which will require some serious effort on the behalf of
who- or whatever would kill it. In Lisa Trevor's case, the G-Virus
enabled her to survive exposure to Ebola, the T-Virus, *and* the
Nemesis parasite, among other things, although it cost Lisa her
humanity, intelligence, and sanity.
By the time of RE2, William Birkin had spent ten years working on
the G-Virus. A creature infected by Birkin's G-Virus is a rapidly
mutating killing machine. It possesses incredible strength, can
heal very quickly, and is nearly impossible to kill. Disturbingly,
a G-Type can also generate small embryos, which it'll try to
implant in any suitable host that it can corner.
If these embryos reach maturity, they'll quickly kill their hosts
and crawl off on their own, usually to metamorphose into another
unique monster. The exception here is if the G-Type impregnates
a blood relative; we don't know exactly what would happen next,
but the process takes a lot longer and doesn't produce any
immediately visible results. There was an effective G-Virus
vaccine, codenamed "Devil," but it may have been lost when
William Birkin's labs were destroyed. (Whether or not it was
lost will largely depend on whether Claire A is the official
scenario for RE2 or not.)
Hunk and Wesker both got away from Raccoon City with samples of
the G-Virus, although Ada Wong may not have been as lucky. Alert
reader "Knave" points out that according to the Vaccine Synthesis
file in RE2, Devil does not destroy the G-Virus, but simply arrests
its development. Sherry Birkin may be a viable G-Virus sample.
The Nemesis parasite was also created in 1988 by one of Umbrella's
French laboratories, as an attempt to circumvent the low survival
rate of test subjects for the Tyrant. While the Nemesis parasite
killed 100% of its hosts in 1988, that problem has apparently been
solved by 1998. A Nemesis is smarter, faster, and far more durable
than a Tyrant, though it lacks its predecessor's raw strength.
The T-Veronica virus was created around 1983 by Alexia Ashford,
by combining the T-Virus with a dead virus that Alexia found in
the body of a queen ant. If it's used on a human, it'll quickly
create an uncontrollable mutant with homicidal tendencies, as
evidenced by both Alexander Ashford and Steve Burnside. If the
infected human is placed into cold storage for about fifteen
years, her body is able to cope with and adapt to the T-Veronica
virus. T-Veronica's host thereby gains an obscene amount of power.
Alexia Ashford went through this process, and in so doing became
the meanest mother in the valley. The only surviving sample of
the T-Veronica virus is in Steve Burnside's body, and as of the
new ending for CV, Wesker's got it.
The NE-T virus is mentioned in one of RE3's files. We don't know
anything about it other than that it exists, although its name
has led some to believe that it has something to do with the
creation of Nemesis.
By 2002, Umbrella's experimentation has yielded the TG-Virus,
a mixture of the T-Virus and Birkin's G-Virus. Those infected
by the TG-Virus become powerful bioweapons, much like a Tyrant.
These creatures are protected by an electromagnetic field that
can repel bullets, which is only breachable by a special
particle rifle. Further, a TG-Virus carrier retains his human
intelligence and reasoning. (Well, theoretically, anyway.
Morpheus Duvall is, for various reasons, not the ideal test
subject.) Should a TG-Virus carrier be killed, the G-Virus's
effects kick in, creating an enormous globular fiend much like
the final form of the G-Type.
Finally, a discussion of the viruses wouldn't be complete without
mentioning the Plot Device Virus, which is what let Wesker survive
the end of RE (see below).
Note that Las Plagas aren't viruses. They're covered in the first
FAQ for RE4, below.
Q. Why doesn't your character ever catch one of these viruses?
A. There are a lot of fan theories about this, ranging from the
anti-viral effects of tasty green herbs to the RE protagonists
somehow possessing natural immunities to a lot of pseudoscientific
gobbledygook about the T-Virus's infectiousness.
The simplest answer, I think, is that in a game where the object
is to survive, playing a zombie would be counterproductive. That
being said, RE3, Outbreak and RE4 all feature infection subplots.
Q. So how about these monsters, huh?
A. Many of the creatures you encounter in an average RE game
are escaped bioweapons, monsters deliberately created by
Umbrella's scientists for combat and ultimately profit. (The
Spencer Rain, in Dead Aim, is a mobile auction block for
Umbrella.) These monsters are usually made with the T-Virus.
The most successful bioweapons are arguably the Hunter (which
has come in four varieties: Hunter, Gamma Hunter, Sweeper, and
Elite) and the Tyrants. We've also seen a variety of Umbrella's
near-misses, such as the Eliminators and Torpedo Kids. Other
deliberately-created monsters include the Cerberus, Neptune,
and the mutated blooddrinking plant codenamed 42.
The most frequently encountered enemies in a Resident Evil
game, however, are accidentally-created zombies, made when
a human or animal catches the T-Virus.
If a human is infected by the T-Virus, he's in trouble. The
human in question may be able to hold out against it for quite
a while, but unless he's cured, he'll eventually die and become
a zombie. The T-Virus also works on dogs, sharks, bats, crows,
and many other animals in much the same way as it does a human:
death, followed by a homicidal desire for living flesh. Some
animals may continue to mutate or grow, becoming giant monsters
or entirely new species.
Rats, on the other hand, are either mostly immune to the T-Virus
or just don't go crazy when they're infected with it. With the
obvious exception of Outbreak's opening movie, we've yet to
see attack rats make the scene in any RE. They're one of the
"monsters" in RE:O2's gallery, where you can see that they've
mutated slightly, and they appear occasionally throughout the
Outbreak games, but they aren't antagonists.
For some reason, a carrier of the T-Virus can comfortably ignore
the loss of much of its vital bits, with the exception of the
brain. A body that's sustained serious brain damage cannot
reanimate; a carrier that incurs a major head wound usually
dies. Carriers can also be killed via typical methods, but
it takes a considerable amount of firepower.
As of REv.2, the T-Virus also has long-term mutagenic effects.
After a long period of infection, a T-Virus carrier who "dies,"
unless incinerated or decapitated, will get back up as a faster,
more durable creature. The Arklay scientists called this a
"Crimson Head." One could presume that any T-Virus carrier
would eventually mutate into a Crimson Head, given time, but
the process apparently takes a couple of months.
When the T-Virus hits the nonmammals, things start to get
a little weirder. Spiders become enormous, worms grow to the
size of snakes, snakes start attacking anything they can reach,
fleas swell into immensity, and a few lucky animals evolve into
enormous killing machines. The giant worms in RE3 and CV, the
huge spider and giant snake in RE, and the sewer 'gator in RE2
are all examples of this. One might also lump RE3's drain deimos
into this category, as well as the Mega- and Gigabites in RE:O2.
Another example of an accidental creature is the Licker, which,
as noted below, is the result of a zombie getting a fresh dose
of the T-Virus. One might observe that a Crimson Head seems like
a sort of halfway point between a zombie and a Licker.
The Tyrants, the creatures that traditionally serve as bosses
or sub-bosses in RE, are difficult to construct. The T-Virus
is an integral part of their creation, as is a chemical called
Beta Hetero Serotonin that's found in the brains of frightened
teenagers. Other details are as of yet unknown, but Umbrella
has been constantly working to improve the Tyrant since its
creation. The Tyrant-001 was created at the Arklay mansion,
and died at the hands of Chris and Jill; five months later,
Alfred sics the T-78 on Claire.
Tyrants are sort of self-explanatory. They're big, strong,
exceptionally hard to kill, and tenacious. Tyrants also have
a tendency to react to major damage by mutating in some way,
usually by growing claws. We've seen multiple variations on
the basic model, each of which has differed from the others
in its intelligence, capabilities, and resilence. Outbreak's
Thanatos monster can be considered a Tyrant variant.
The Nemesis project is an offshoot of the Tyrant research,
and dates back to 1988. An organism hosting the Nemesis parasite,
if he or she survives the infection, becomes the intelligent,
monosyllabic killing machine we all grew to know and love in
RE3. While a Nemesis lacks some of the Tyrant's raw power,
it's far more resilient and intelligent.
The G-Type is discussed in the section on the G-Virus, above.
Las Plagas aren't viruses, and are discussed in detail
elsewhere in this document. All permutations thereof, such as
Novistadors, Gigantes, and Regenerators, are the result of
Osmund Saddler's experiments. As far as we know, they're
totally unrelated to Umbrella's research.
Q. Where do the "naked zombies" come from?
A. The "naked," skinless zombie is usually wandering around
in the final level of any "classic" RE game. They're a bit
tougher than ordinary zombies and do a lot more damage. No
game's ever gone into the specifics of their creation, but
personally, I think they're a reference to the flayed zombies
in the _Return of the Living Dead_ films.
Q. I'm confused by the timeline. How can RE3 take place *during*
RE2? What's up with the whole Ashford/Marcus/Spencer thing?
What's going on?
A. The official order of events can be approximated thusly:
generations ago: the Salazar family imprisons Las Plagas in a
tomb far underneath their castle. They're able to do so because
they can control Las Plagas in some unspecified way. (cf.
Castellan's Memo, RE4; Ada's Chapter 1 report, RE4:SW)
early to mid-20th century: Edward Ashford and Ozwell Spencer
discover or create the "mother virus." (cf. RE2 EX, CV)
mid-20th century: the "mother virus" is refined into the
virus codenamed "Progenitor" by a research team. Both
James Marcus and Ozwell Spencer are members of this team.
One would presume that Edward Ashford was also present.
(cf. files in CV and RE0)
November 13th, 1967: George Trevor, a famous architect from
New York, is invited to see the mansion he built by Ozwell
Spencer. George arrives with his wife Lisa and daughter
Jessica, and finds that the invitation is a trap. Jessica
and Lisa Trevor are kidnapped, and George is imprisoned
beneath the mansion. (Trevor's Letters, REv.2)
November 14th, 1967: Jessica Trevor is killed during an
escape attempt. (Family Photos, REv.2)
November 15th, 1967: Lisa Trevor, following an injection
of the Progenitor virus, begins to lose her humanity.
(Family Photos, REv.2)
December 1st, 1967: George Trevor's attempts to escape lead
him to an inescapable room, where Spencer has helpfully
left him a tombstone. George starves to death in that room.
(Trevor's Letters, REv.2)
1968-1969: Spencer, Ashford, and possibly Marcus found the
Umbrella corporation, apparently by investing their own
fortunes. (cf. CV) In addition to its secret purpose of
bioweapons research, Umbrella maintains a lucrative cover
as a pharmaceutical megacorporation.
1970: Alexander Ashford accidentally kills his father Edward,
discrediting the Ashfords and handing the reins of Umbrella
to Ozwell Spencer.
(Spencer's obviously in complete control by the time Wesker
comes to work at Arklay in 1978, as per Wesker's Report II.
Alexander becomes the head of the Ashford family in 1970,
according to the history of the Ashford family in CV.)
1968-1978: the Arklay facility is founded underneath Ozwell
Spencer's mansion.
September 19th, 1977 (inferred from Marcus' Diary 1, RE0):
James Marcus creates the T-Virus.
1978: As teenagers, Albert Wesker and William Birkin are
assigned to the Arklay research facility, located in the
Spencer mansion outside Raccoon City. (Wesker's Report 2)
1981: Alexia Ashford graduates from university at the age of
ten and is made a head researcher at her father's Antarctic
laboratory. (Newspaper Clip, CV)
1983: Alexia and Alfred test the T-Veronica virus on Alexander
Ashford, creating the Nosferatu. Alexia subsequently enters
cryogenic storage. At some point thereafter, presumably very
soon after Alexia's "death," Alfred's obsession with Alexia
becomes reinforced by his own subconscious roleplay. (Alfred's
Diary and Virus Research Report, CV)
1987: Michael Warren is elected the mayor of Raccoon City,
and will remain mayor up until its destruction. During his
administration, Umbrella makes "vast" donations to Raccoon
City, funding the construction of many of its facilities.
In turn, many of these facilities, such as the hospital they
build in 1992, have secret research laboratories or storage
areas built into them. (City Guide, RE3)
(It's actually easier to list the buildings in Raccoon City that
*don't* have something horrible locked in the basement than
it is to go over the ones that do. I'm still surprised that
the Raccoon Zoo didn't have a few Hunters boxed up somewhere.)
1988: The invention of the Nemesis parasite. William Birkin
discovers the G-Virus in Lisa Trevor's body. James Marcus is
assassinated. (Wesker's Report 2; Investigator's Report 1, RE0)
1995: Wesker gets transferred to Umbrella's secret service.
Ozwell Spencer takes Lisa Trevor from the Arklay lab, under
the pretext that he's going to kill her. He is either lying
or unsuccessful. (Wesker's Report 2)
1996: Wesker forms the STARS in Raccoon City, to combat a
recent increase in local domestic terrorism. Most of its
members are former military personnel. (Manual to original
PSX RE; see below)
May 14th, 1996: Yoko Suzuki is one of the participants in
an unspecified T-Virus experiment. The results of the
experiment are "horrible," and Greg Mura operates on Yoko
to suppress her memories thereof. (Greg's cutscene, RE:O;
Experiment Participants file, RE:O2)
1997: Lieutenant Billy Coen's unit of Marines is sent to
Africa. Whatever happens next, at least twenty-three people
die and Billy is charged with their murder. (Court Order
For Transportation file; Billy's flashback, RE0)
May 11th, 1998: the T-Virus outbreak at the Spencer mansion.
Ignoring the movie, the resurrected James Marcus takes credit
for the outbreak while Morpheus Duvall, for whatever reason,
will eventually take the blame. (Keeper's Diary, RE v.2;
dialogue, RE0; Dismissal Notice, RE:DA)
June 22nd, 1998: By this point, all of the researchers
and staff at the Arklay laboratory have succumbed to the
T-Virus. The last survivors opt to kill themselves rather
than become zombies. (Researcher's Will, Keeper's Diary,
Letter to Ada, RE)
June, 1998: the first cases of the "zombie disease" appear
within Raccoon City. Many of the infected work in or around
the Raccoon sewer system. (cf. M. Watchman's Diary, Sewer
Manager's Diary, RE2)
A series of bizarre murders are committed in the Raccoon
Forest, spurring the involvement of Raccoon City's STARS
unit. The murders are never solved, but the blame can
readily be placed on the packs of undead dogs, Cerberii,
that have escaped from the Arklay mansion since the outbreak.
July 23rd, 1998: Umbrella sends a cleanup team to the old
training facility in the Raccoon Forest via the Ecliptic
Express passenger train, presumably to join the teams that
are already at work in the facility. James Marcus, restored
to a semblance of life by his leeches, attacks the train
and kills almost everyone aboard. At some point, the train
is stopped.
Marcus also inadvertently (?) frees Billy Coen, whose police
escort stops or is stopped near the train. Billy manages to
escape into the train, while his police escort is killed.
The STARS Bravo team, conducting aerial reconaissance of
the forest, has helicopter trouble and crashes near the
parked train. Rebecca Chambers and Ed Dewey investigate
the train; soon afterward, Ed is killed and Rebecca is
forced to cooperate with Billy for the sake of survival.
Rebecca and Billy spend the next few hours being chased
around the training facility and the subterranean network
underneath the Raccoon Forest.
July 24th, 1998: Rebecca and Billy's final showdown with
James Marcus, in the treatment plant below the training
facility. Marcus is shot to death, and the queen of his
leech colony is subsequently slain. Rebecca leaves Billy
in the Raccoon Forest and goes to the Spencer mansion.
July 25th, 1998: The Alpha team begins its search for the
Bravo team. They're promptly chased into the Spencer mansion,
where the real fun starts.
July 25th, 1998: at or around daybreak, Wesker's betrayal
is revealed, the Tyrant is disposed of, and the remaining
members of the Alpha team escape via helicopter just before
the Spencer mansion explodes. When the dust settles, Wesker
is missing and presumed dead, Lisa Trevor has disappeared
into the caverns below the forest, the Tyrant's been
obliterated, and the mansion is a smoking crater.
late July to mid-August, 1998: with no real evidence, an
admittedly ridiculous story, and Brian Irons working against
them, the surviving STARS are unable to persuade anyone in the
RPD to believe their story of what happened in the mansion. The
police and media of Raccoon City conduct an investigation into
Umbrella's affairs; Umbrella reacts by briefly suspending their
activities. Chris Redfield continues his investigation into
Umbrella alone. (Mail to Chief, Mail to Chris, Sewer Manager's
Diary, RE2; Chris's Report, RE2 EX; Jill's Diary, RE3)
Rebecca Chambers submits a report that claims Billy Coen is
dead and his body has disappeared. (Rebecca's Report, RE2 EX)
August 17th, 1998: Strange monsters begin to appear in
Raccoon City. (Chris's Diary, RE2)
August 24th, 1998: Chris and Barry both leave Raccoon City
to go to Europe. Jill elects to stay behind, intending to
investigate William Birkin's underground laboratory. While
she's at it, she quits the RPD and drops out of sight;
according to Marvin Branagh in RE2, Jill "disappeared" at
the same time that Barry and Chris did. (Chris's Diary, RE2;
Jill's Diary, RE3)
Around September 22nd, 1998: A team of soldiers is sent,
possibly by Umbrella's French division, to William Birkin's
laboratory to get a sample of the G-Virus. One of them is
trigger-happy, and hilarity ensues. After the subsequent
massacre, the G-Type munches on a number of virus containers,
including the T-Virus. (The date comes from several files,
such as the Chief's Diary in RE2.)
The local population of sewer rats carries a megadose of
the virus up into the streets. When combined with the mild
T-Virus infection that's been leaking into the city since
May, the virus has an immediate and horrifying impact. As
seen in RE:O, there are dozens of zombies in the streets of
Raccoon City within minutes of the attack on William Birkin.
September 23rd-27th, 1998: the long death of Raccoon City.
The survivors of the outbreak take increasingly draconian
measures in attempting to hold the zombies back, such as
instituting martial law and using high explosives. Between
the zombies themselves and the survivors' attempts to fight
them, the city begins taking heavy damage.
At some point during this period, the outside world places
Raccoon City under a military quarantine, surrounding the
city with troops and barricades. Officially, no one is allowed
in or out, but several exceptions are made.
September 24th, 1998: Brian Irons begins a process of deliberate
sabotage. For no reason other than his own psychosis, he does
his best to make sure that no one can escape the city via any
means, including the use of Umbrella's tunnel system. (Chief's
Diary, RE2)
September 26th, 1998: the police muster their remaining forces
and mount an all-or-nothing counterattack against the zombies.
(RE3's opening movie)
Irons begins to hunt down the remaining survivors within the city.
(Chief's Diary, RE2)
Umbrella drops a sizable number of hired mercenaries into Raccoon
City, as members of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasures Service.
Many of the mercenaries are told their job is to rescue civilians,
but others are tasked with gathering data, destroying evidence, or
rounding up Umbrella's surviving employees. The UBCS takes serious
losses almost immediately upon landing. (Mercenary's Pocketbook
file, RE3)
September 27th, 1998: By this point, the Raccoon City police have
been decimated; their final offensive has failed. The survivors
pull back to the RPD's precinct house, which has already withstood
at least one serious zombie attack, and attempt to find other ways
of escaping. Most of the cops and civilians in the RPD die one by
one over the course of the next day, at the hands of zombies,
Lickers, or Brian Irons. (Operation Report 1, Operation Report 2,
Chief's Diary, RE2; the opening movie, the Photos, RE3; "Desperate
Times," RE:O2)
Daytime, September 28th, 1998: The siege of the RPD ends when
a small group of survivors escapes the building in a police van.
A wounded Marvin Branagh is left behind, as are the few cops and
civilians who've gotten stuck in the building's west wing. Rita
is thus left as the lone survivor of the siege of the RPD.
("Desperate Times," RE:O2; Operation Report files, RE2)
Across town, Jill shoots her way out of her apartment building,
witnesses the death of Brad Vickers, meets the Nemesis and the
surviving UBCS soldiers, and fixes the cable car. Mikhail promptly
breaks it again, crashing the car and knocking Jill unconscious.
Nighttime, September 28th, 1998: Jill wakes up at the St. Michael
Clock Tower. She signals the UBCS extraction chopper, which is
promptly shot down by the Nemesis. Jill faces off against and
"kills" the Nemesis, but it infects her with the T-Virus. Jill
passes out, and Carlos takes her to the chapel.
At some point, Ada Wong arrives at the RPD building and begins
a room-by-room search, looking for Ben Bertolucci.
Late at night, September 29th, 1998: At this point, the
quarantine of Raccoon City is apparently getting thin on the
ground, for whatever reason. Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield
don't encounter any resistance as they drive into town. Claire
meets Leon outside Emmy's Diner, and they head to the RPD.
After murdering Michael Warren's daughter Eliza, Brian Irons
dies at the hands of what was once William Birkin. Claire, Leon,
Ada, and Sherry escape the RPD via the sewer system and Irons's
secret passageways, then take the tram car to William Birkin's
laboratory. This trip may take as long as a few hours; later
games (RE0, RE:O) establish that Birkin's lab is a fair distance
away from Raccoon City.
Early morning, September 29th, 1998: the "death" of Ada Wong
and the final encounters with the G-Type and Mr. X. Leon,
Claire, and Sherry make their escape from Raccoon City via
William Birkin's train. Behind the scenes, Wesker saves Ada.
(Wesker's Report)
September 29th, daytime: Claire and Leon have their unexplained
argument, and Claire vanishes into the Raccoon Forest. Leon and
Sherry are promptly picked up by the U.S. military. Leon is
approached by an "underground anti-Umbrella group," while
Sherry is captured by people working for Wesker. (RE3 Epilogue
Files; Wesker's Report)
October 1st, 1998, the middle of the night: Jill finally wakes
up. Carlos finds the T-Virus vaccine for her, learns that
Nicholai is still alive, and encounters the "new" Nemesis.
October 1st, near daybreak: Carlos cures Jill, who makes her
way to the Dead Factory. Nicholai systematically eliminates
many of the UBCS's supervisors.
George Hamilton leads a small group of survivors into Raccoon
University. They find Peter's body, fight off the Thanatos,
and synthesize the "Daylight" vaccine. Nicholai assassinates
Greg Mura, the Thanatos's creator, and blows up Raccoon
University's administration building. The explosion catches
the attention of a rescue helicopter, which some or all of
the survivors may have used to escape the city.
Another group of survivors follows David King into Umbrella's
laboratories, where they meet Linda and Carter. Following
Carter's ill-advised attempt to exploit the Tyrant, the
survivors escape into the city. Later events in the RE timeline
suggest that *someone* saved Linda and made it out of Raccoon
City, but not who. (The obvious candidates are Alyssa Ashcroft
and Yoko Suzuki, as their endings have more plot significance
than the rest. Mark Wilkins is another popular choice in fanon.)
Nicholai returns to the Dead Factory to attack Jill, but
opts to leave her to die instead. Jill destroys the Nemesis.
Hunk's departure from the RPD takes place at night, at some
point after Claire and Leon have vacated the RPD. It could be
set on either September 30th or October 1st.
Dawn, October 1st, 1998: Raccoon City is blown off the map,
seconds after Jill, Barry, and Carlos escape the city via
helicopter.
The end of RE3 makes it look as though Raccoon was destroyed
with a low-yield nuclear weapon, but the Outbreak games make
it quite clear that such was not the case. Instead, it had
the holy bejesus blown out of it with conventional explosives,
possibly including a fuel-air bomb.
early October, 1998: Leon Kennedy agrees to become an agent
of the American government. (RE3 Epilogue)
Sherry Birkin is captured by unknown agents in Wesker's
employ. (Wesker's Report)
Nicholai Ginovaef submits several reports to Umbrella regarding
what occurred in Raccoon City. As he is the only survivor among
the UBCS's supervisors (and perhaps the only survivor of the UBCS
that's still working for Umbrella), his conjecture about the cause
of the outbreak is more or less accepted as fact. (files, Survivor)
November, 1998: Ark Thompson's investigation of Sheena Island
ends with an explosion. Ark, Lott, and Lily escape.
December 17th, 1998: while investigating Umbrella to find leads
on her brother's whereabouts, Claire Redfield is captured in Paris.
December 27th, 1998: shortly after she's taken to Rockfort
Island, Claire is knocked unconscious. While she's out, Wesker's
assault team attacks the facility. Rodrigo frees Claire, who
saves Rodrigo, discovers Alfred's secret, and escapes with Steve.
December 28th, 1998: thanks to Alfred, Claire and Steve's plane
crashes into Alexander Ashford's Antarctic hideaway. Claire
manages to find an escape route, and Alfred's clever ambush
fails. Claire and Steve's second escape attempt is foiled by
Alexia's sudden awakening.
At roughly the same time, Chris Redfield arrives at Rockfort
Island. (Since the Albanoid's grown to adulthood, it's been
at least ten hours since Claire was on the island.) He talks
to Rodrigo, runs into Wesker, and steals one of Alfred's jets.
December 29th, 1998: Chris touches down in the Antarctic, saves
Claire, kills Alexia, and survives his ill-advised fistfight
with Wesker. Chris and Claire escape the Antarctic in Alfred's
jet just as the base explodes.
April, 1999: An unknown agency, presumably Umbrella or a
similar corporation, begins secret, unspecified field tests
in the ruins of Raccoon City. The American government remains
unaware of this, despite aerial surveillance.
2000-2003: At some point, Ramon Salazar assists the surviving
Los Illuminados in recovering Las Plagas and administering it
to the villagers who live near his castle. (RE4 never says when
Salazar joins the cult, but since he's only twenty, it's safe
to assume that it hasn't been very long.)
2002: during a mission with Leon, Jack Krauser appears to die
in a helicopter crash. (dialogue, RE4)
September 18th, 2002: Morpheus Duvall's followers steal some
of the T-Virus from Umbrella's Paris facility.
September 22nd, 2002: the Spencer Rain is seajacked.
September 23rd, 2002: Bruce McGivern and Fong Ling kill
Morpheus, thwarting his scheme to fire T-Virus missiles
at several American cities.
2002-2004: the United States government puts Umbrella out of
business by freezing its assets and preventing its continued
operation. (RE4's introduction)
Fall, 2004: Ashley Graham, the daughter of the president of
the United States, is kidnapped. After she's sighted in a rural
village in Spain, Leon Kennedy is dispatched to follow up on
the lead. He encounters resistance.
Q. Who is Ozwell Spencer?
A. Spencer figures rather prominently into RE's plot, especially
for someone who's never so much as written a file. He's a figure
of some small fascination for new RE fans, so let's talk about
him for a moment.
Ozwell Spencer was one of the original founders of Umbrella,
alongside James Marcus and Edward Ashford. In 1970, with
Ashford dead and Marcus off playing with leeches somewhere,
Spencer became the only founding member who cared about the
company. Presumably, this would make him the CEO.
As of 1995, the date of the final dispatch in Wesker's Report
II, Spencer was still alive and still active in Umbrella's
affairs. Past that point, there's nothing. Spencer hasn't
issued a memo, spoken a word, or fired a shot in any RE game
to date. For all we know, he died in his sleep in 1996.
Like everyone else who was involved with Umbrella's creation,
Spencer appears to be nuts. Spencer, after all, is responsible
for the slow death of George Trevor, the architect of Spencer's
mansion near Raccoon City, and the subsequent imprisonment of
Jessica and Lisa Trevor. George's murder and Lisa's torture
may be the worst things that've happened to anyone in any RE
game, made all the moreso because we don't know why Spencer
did it. He has no stated motive.
Spencer's also responsible for the insane decision to put the
Arklay laboratory in the Raccoon Forest. It's also worth
mentioning that according to Wesker, Spencer took Lisa Trevor
from the Arklay lab in 1995, saying he was going to get rid
of her. Lisa's well-lived-in lair underneath the Arklay
mansion would suggest otherwise. The question then becomes
whether Spencer left her there on purpose, or whether she
escaped from him.
Ozwell Spencer's an important character in the RE story, but
he's not an active participant. He could be dead, imprisoned
following Umbrella's demise, or hiding somewhere to cook up
a brand new plot. We simply don't know anything else.
Q. Why don't any RE games ever take place in daylight?
A. You may as well ask why so few horror movies ever take place
in daylight. Nighttime is scarier.
Besides, a couple of games have started during the day, such
as RE3 and RE4.
Q. Where the hell is Raccoon City?
A. Right now, it's in the middle of that blast crater.
Before the bomb, it was somewhere in "America's Midwest," and
there's nothing in any RE game that would place it anywhere more
specific (i.e. the police cars in RE2 have "Raccoon" license
plates). Since Raccoon is located on a river, within visual
range of a mountain range and a large forest, there are only
a few places in the Midwest where it could be. Some fans place
it in Illinois, since Ada mentions Umbrella's branch office
in Chicago during RE2, but I'd personally put it in Colorado.
Q. Are you *sure* it was a T-Virus outbreak in RE2/3/O?
A. Some people still seem to be confused about what virus
escaped and caused the zombie plague in Raccoon City. Let
me address that confusion.
A) The G-Virus doesn't create zombies. It creates G-Types.
B) The T-Virus is far more communicable than the G-Virus.
The G-Virus only works via direct injection of the pure
stuff, so the rats couldn't've transmitted it. (Note
that in RE2 Claire A, Claire and Annette are both
within a few inches of a puddle of G-Virus, and neither
of them start mutating.)
C) further, Hunk apparently pocketed the G-Virus well
before Birkin had a chance to smash that vial, since
he has it during 4th Survivor.
D) Just about every narrator in the history of the series
has called the Raccoon City incident a "T-Virus outbreak."
So, yeah, it was a T-Virus outbreak. Several noncanon sources
confuse the T-Virus and G-Virus, such as the old Wildstorm
magazine, but in the games, the T-Virus is the zombie juice.
Q. What is Resident Evil 1.5?
A. I quote Dan Birlew, from the first version of this thesis:
When the original Resident Evil topped the videogame sales
charts, Capcom realized two things: they needed a sequel,
and they should have put more quality into the first game.
Reprogramming it, they re-released it as Resident Evil:
Director's Cut in 1997. The package contained a second disk
this time, a demo version of Resident Evil 2. The demo was
met with extreme confusion, however. Capcom had previously
released to the press screenshots of a prototype for the
sequel. The demo, although definitely not the finished
version, was nothing like what had been previously advertised.
Internet Resident Evil fans have taken to calling this scrapped
prototype game Resident Evil 1.5. Leon appeared in the game,
but the earlier version of Claire was an unrelated college girl
named Elza [Walker]. With blonde hair and red biking gear, she
was similar to Claire only in her love of riding Harleys.
The game was developed with the same map as the game that
was eventually released, but the graphics were steeped in
atmospheric blues and neon lighting. Evidence of widespread
chaos in Raccoon City was far more plentiful and severe in
this game's scenery than in the final version. The Birkins,
Chief Irons, and Ada Wong were all missing from the
ambivalent plotline of this game. Resident Evil 2 in this
version threatened to be too much like the original. The
planners wanted something that would take the storyline
further. What the fans had been shown and told to expect
from the sequel was not what they got.
[Thomas adds: Dreamcast and PC owners can unlock a special
image gallery, containing development sketches of RE2 and
RE1.5, including a picture of Elza Walker and a group shot
of the cast of RE1.5. Several of the same pictures appear
in the Capcom Design Works artbook.
[There are four movies of RE1.5 in action on the second disc
of the Japanese Dual Shock Edition of RE:DC; I don't know
if that's the case for the American version, or even if
there is an American version. The movies show brief gameplay
sequences from various points in the game, featuring scenes
set in the sewers, the RPD, and an underground complex of
some sort. I recognized the RPD morgue and the elevator
hallway in Birkin's lab from RE2. Also, a creature that
looks a bit like the G-Type is present in several scenes;
at one point, it's shown thrashing another monster.]
Q. Where can I get the RE1.5 ROM/ISO?
A. Fantasyland. It doesn't exist, as the game wasn't completed.
A while ago, an .iso of the RE2 beta appeared on various
file-sharing services. This isn't RE1.5; instead, it's an
incomplete preview build, such as what would've been given
to the gaming press in 1998.
Q. Hey, my friend says he has a copy of Resident Evil 1.5.
A. Your friend lies. Destroy him.
Q. Will Resident Evil 1.5 ever be released?
A. Probably not. Most sources say that Mikami wasn't happy with
the way the game was going, so he canceled it and started over.
Many of its environments, situations, innovations, and themes
have been recycled into later games.
Q. How did [character] in [game] get from [place] to [place]?
There's no way for him to leave/get there! How did [character]
in [game] survive in [dangerous area] with only a [weak weapon]?
A. Well, Timmy, it's time for us to have a little talk.
You see, in the fun-packed thrill ride that *is* Resident
Evil, there are two kinds of people. We control one kind
of person over the course of a game, such as Jill, Chris,
Claire, or Leon. They are bound, largely, by human limits.
If they get hurt badly enough, they die; if they encounter
a locked door, they'll need to find a way to open it; if
they go up against a Tyrant with a 9mm handgun, they are
screwed beyond the telling of it. Aside from a few obvious
differences, such as Jill's ability to catch an anti-tank
rocket to the face without disfigurement, Claire's black
belt in Gun-Kata, how Chris can take a good four shots
to the face from Wesker and yet still retain enough basic
motor skills to fly an airplane, and their tendency to
declare a door permanently closed and thus unimportant
if there's a rock on the floor in front of it, they are
much like you or I.
Then... then, Timmy, there are the *other* people.
These are the NPCs. The NPCs are a strange and wondrous
lot, possessed of powers beyond mortal ken. These are your
"helpers," and note the sarcastic quotes; these are the
other, uninfected humans who assist and/or hinder you over
the course of the game. I speak of Sherry, Ada, Carlos,
Rebecca (the REv.2 version), Nicholai, Steve, Wesker, Barry,
Annette, Alfred, and the rest of their fell breed.
(It should be noted for the sake of accuracy that NPC
powers are not unique to the Resident Evil series.
They are, in fact, possessed by all NPCs in virtually
any story-driven game on the planet. As of this writing,
Mayu Amakura is their undisputed queen.)
An NPC can move around behind the scenes of reality, to
reach inaccessible areas or sweep ghostlike through roomsful
of bloodthirsty Hunters. Unless they briefly *lose* these
mighty powers--they pass into the realm of being controlled
by the player--an NPC can do whatever the hell he or she
wants, even if that means already being in a room that
took you an hour to open, surviving the kind of punishment
that would kill your character twice, leaving an area without
using the only exit, or getting through a difficult part of
the game without a scratch while armed with an empty pistol
and a cocktail straw.
(Even the AIPCs in the Outbreak games have NPC powers, but
theirs are slightly less potent. An AIPC can do just about
anything, but he or she has to be offscreen. You know how
an unarmed AIPC Yoko in "Decisions, Decisions" can get
from the university to the beehive and back without a
scratch? It's because her NPC powers kicked in.)
Their powers are mighty, but they're limited by the plot.
NPCs may be mortally wounded by a single attack, or lie
in a bleeding heap despite being surrounded on all sides
by powerful medical supplies. It's unfortunate, but that's
the price they pay.
Whenever an NPC does something that simply does not make
any sense, these powers are to blame. How did Enrico get
from Birkin's lab to the Spencer mansion without using
the training facility elevator? His NPC powers. How did
Ada escape from the treatment facility? Her NPC powers.
How did Carlos get back into the chapel from the courtyard?
NPC powers. How come Steve can fire the Lugers that fast
in the Disc One Bandersnatch-killing cutscene, but his
rate of fire slows down considerably in the Battle Game?
The loss of his NPC powers. It all makes sense.
Q. So why *don't* they ever go for the headshot?
A. It may be a sort of backhanded Lucio Fulci reference.
Fulci directed the infamous Italian _Zombie_ movies,
where a zombie always seemed to take half a clip or more
to the gut before someone thought to shoot it in the
face, because, quite simply, it was more gory that way.
That said, headshots have been in RE since RE: Director's
Cut on the PlayStation. It's simply that unless you're
using a shotgun or Magnum, headshots are usually random.
Q. The Mystery of the Phantom MP5: why is it that when
[throwaway NPC] dies in [game], their gun disappears?
A. With the exceptions of Richard Aiken and Robert Kendo,
you will never get to take a weapon from a freshly dead
NPC. You can claim quite a few weapons from old corpses,
but if somebody is carrying a nifty gun and then gets
capped before your eyes, the gun evaporates. This trait
appears to be strongly identified with machine guns, such
as the MP5s or H&K 9mms carried by Hunk and his men.
Many of us have learned to live with this sad state of
affairs, but I used to get a fair amount of e-mail from
people who'd *really really like* to be able to grab an
SMG from those dead guys on Team Delta or take Irons's
Magnum or something. My answer for this is simple, yet
contains all the wisdom of the ages: I blame gnomes.
Q. Hey, have you read any of the novels?
A. Yeah, all of them. For those who don't know, there are
seven Resident Evil novels, all written by S.D. (Stephani
Danielle) Perry and published by Pocket Books. _The Umbrella
Conspiracy_ is a novelization of Resident Evil (it's a mix
of both games, where Chris explores the dormitories while
Jill encounters the Tyrant), _City of the Dead_ covers the
events of RE2 (Leon A/Claire B), _Nemesis_ adapts RE3
(ending #3, where the Nemesis kills Nicholai and Carlos
swipes Nicholai's helicopter), _Code: Veronica_ is a
novelization of CV (note: *not* CVX), and _Zero Hour_
recaps RE0.
Two of the novels, _Caliban Cove_ and _Underworld_, are
original stories. The former features Rebecca Chambers
and a bunch of original characters, while the latter stars
Claire, Leon, Rebecca, and the original characters who
survived _Caliban_. The books are all right, as pulp-horror
young-adult novels based on a video game go, even if--
--*my God, she uses italicized inner monologues more than
she uses her omniscient viewpoint! After all, why bother
with a concise narrative when you can have characters do
the narration instead, even if they do it in unbelievably
stilted prose*--
--Perry's writing style gets on my nerves. In the United
States, the books are in surprisingly wide circulation, and
can be found in any decent-sized bookstore's science-fiction
section. I don't know if they've been translated into any
other languages, but one reader has told me that the books
are available via catalogue in the UK.
Q. Do the novels mean anything to the plot?
A. Not really. The novels exist in their own sub-continuity,
a point that was driven home by RE3. In point of fact, it almost
looks like RE3 was deliberately made to contradict Perry's
novels at every turn. I'll touch upon the high points:
Capcom | Perry
----------------------------------+-------------------------------------
Raccoon City is in the "American | Raccoon City is in Pennsylvania, an
Midwest." It had more than a | hour's drive away from New York City.
hundred thousand people in it, | It had a population of eight thousand.
and boasted utilities and public |
services far out of proportion |
to its size. |
----------------------------------+-------------------------------------
On the morning of October 2nd, | Raccoon City was destroyed by a
Raccoon City was bombed off the | massive fire on October 4th. Its
map by the American military. | ruins are being investigated by
Despite the quarantine, rescue | the CDC, with "help" from Umbrella,
personnel were operating in | and the surviving S.T.A.R.S. are
Raccoon right up until the end; | being (ineptly) framed for the crime.
it's possible that there may be |
more survivors than we thought. | In addition to Leon, Claire, Ada,
| Sherry, Jill, and Carlos, there were
As of this writing, there are | about a hundred known survivors of
ten known survivors of the | the "fire."
Raccoon City outbreak: Leon, |
Claire, Ada, Sherry, Jill, |
Carlos, Nicholai, Linda, and |
Wesker (as per Wesker's Report). |
RE:O and RE:O2 have added |
several unnamed survivors to the |
list, such as the firemen in the |
helicopter at the end of RE:O |
and the crowd of refugees in |
RE:O2's endings, but as of |
this writing, none of Outbreak's |
main cast have been officially |
added to the list. At least one |
of the Outbreak cast did survive,|
however, as is made clear by the |
bad ending of RE:O2. |
----------------------------------+-------------------------------------
Jill Valentine is ex-Delta Force.| Jill Valentine is an ex-thief and
She is twenty-three years old | the daughter of notorious cat
and a girl. This is somewhat | burglar Dick Valentine, hence
implausible. | explaining why she's the "master of
| unlocking." She joined the S.T.A.R.S.
| because her father pressured her
| to go into a line of work that
(For more on our girl Jill's | wasn't patently illegal. While
military career, be sure to | this makes a little more sense
check out the Mistakes section.)| than Capcom's version, it's still
| ridiculous.
----------------------------------+-------------------------------------
The S.T.A.R.S. are a unique | There are multiple S.T.A.R.S.
counterterrorism force that only | units existing within several
exists within the Raccoon City | other towns, such as Exeter. They
police department. | maintain close ties with the RPD
| S.T.A.R.S.
----------------------------------+-------------------------------------
Jill stays in Raccoon until she | Jill leaves town with Barry and
blasts her way out of town on | Chris on September 26th, well
October 1st, a day after Claire | before the T-Virus outbreak, then
and Leon forcibly renovate | reenters town and leaves again on
Umbrella's underground labs. | the thirtieth with Carlos.
| Claire and Leon don't get anywhere
| near Raccoon City until the night
| of October 4th.
----------------------------------+-------------------------------------
Claire and Leon don't part on | Claire and Leon are picked up
the best of terms. Claire runs | outside Raccoon by Rebecca Chambers
off, while Leon and Sherry are | and her posse from _Caliban Cove_.
taken into military custody. | Leon and Claire immediately head off
Leon joins "an underground anti- | to have more anti-Umbrella adventures
Umbrella group," and Sherry is | together in _Underworld_, and later
captured at some point by | join Chris and Barry in Paris. Claire
Wesker's new organization. | gets captured at the start of _CV_
Claire continues looking for | as part of a botched operation by
Chris on her own. | the STARS. Sherry now lives with
| her Aunt Kate, the *scariest
| lawyer in the world*.
----------------------------------+-------------------------------------
Rebecca Chambers doesn't really | Rebecca is the heroine of _Caliban_
do much, aside from setting the | Cove_, where she saves the world
self-destruct charges, looking | and stuff. Perry is fixated on
fiercely jailbait-cute, and | Rebecca, and displays this unhealthy
occasionally tossing some free | obsession by having EVERY CHARACTER
healing your way. (This is even | conduct lengthy interior monologues
half-true in RE0, the game that | about how smart, funny, clever, cute,
Becky is ostensibly the star of.)| and brave little Becky is. It's
| really kinda disturbing, when you
| get right down to it.
----------------------------------+-------------------------------------
Chris, Jill, Claire, and Leon | An enigmatic man named Trent, who
survive their adventures by | is secretly a member of the board
being smart, tough, clever, and | of directors for Umbrella, has been
lucky. They're rarely given any | feeding the STARS cryptic information
outside help, outside of the | since just before the Alpha Team
occasional last-minute save from | went into the Spencer mansion. He
a friend or fellow survivor | is also responsible for Carlos's
(i.e. Carlos, Steve, Ada, etc.). | involvement with the UBCS and
| generally pulls all the strings.
| Despite Trent's unofficial nature,
| he continually shows up in fans'
| conspiracy theories. I hate Trent.
----------------------------------+-------------------------------------
The exception to this is _Nemesis_, which comes with a disclaimer
regarding this lack of continuity. _Nemesis_ follows RE3's plot
fairly faithfully, albeit with a few additional twists (Nicholai's
motivations and actions are explored further, and Carlos stays
with Jill as they explore the clock tower) and a couple of minor
appearances by Trent. For the record, _Nemesis_ is far and away
the best of the books, while _Code: Veronica_ starts fairly well
but ends in a tangled mess. (In Perry's defense, she does do
some interesting things with Steve, but it looks like she hit
her wordcount early.)
Q. Will you be summarizing the novels in this document?
A. Nope. There's no point, as they're practically unrelated to
the games.
Q. What about the comic books?
A. Avoid the Wildstorm comic books if you have to chew off your
own leg to do it. Carlos D'Anda's art is great (he draws a very
nice Claire), but they're otherwise horrible.
Q. ...and the manga?
A. The only RE manga I've ever seen were either short and jokey
one-shots ("Nicholai Ginovaef," on Evil-Online, used to have a
translated eight-page manga on his website which was all about
Jill running around the mansion, being stupid and getting killed
repeatedly), or, more rarely, h-doujins. If you find one of the
latter, treat it as though it were radioactive.
On the other hand, there are some nice-looking RE manshua. You
can see a couple of dozen pages of the BioHazard 3 manshua on my
website, thanks to alert reader "Rogue TM." They are still in
Chinese, however. Point your browser to:
http://www.dimfuture.net/elsewhere/junkdrawer.html
Four translated collections of Code Veronica manshua were published
in the US by DC WildStorm. I've seen them in Borders and Barnes
& Noble, and while they aren't the height of literature ("TIME
to TRY OUT my NEW LUGERS!"), they're still an entertaining read.
They have kung fu!
Q. Where can I find Resident Evil hentai?
A. I have no idea. You know how you can tell that I haven't gone
looking for RE hentai? *I still have my eyes*. (A disproportionate
amount of it has actually come looking for *me*. I will never be
clean again.)
Q. Why aren't there any bathrooms in Raccoon City?
A. Vincent "Guns Are For Sissies" Merken has the answer:
"...there might be a *secret passage* somewhere... that leads to
the toilets. Since about every room in [Raccoon City] is initially
locked and requires the fetching of numerous objects in previously
unlocked areas, why shouldn't the can be the same? But due to
memory shortage, the necessary items weren't included in the [games].
"So the cops never had to 'hold it.' They did have to plan in
advance though... 'Hey, Charley, there's a chance that I might
need to go to the little boys' room in about 45 minutes. I better
quit and head for it right now. You cover me.'"
Q. Why are the games becoming less bloody?
A. At the same time RE4 is setting new records in the field of
interactive decapitation, the Outbreak games are about as gory
as a really good rugby match. I'm not sure why that's the case.
Q. RE should be exclusive to the PSX and PS2! Why isn't it?
A. The only reason that RE was exclusively on the PSX for so
long was because it was the only viable system at the time. N64
cartridges don't hold enough data for an RE game (it took months
for Angel Studios to compress RE2 to fit on an N64 cart). An
enhanced version of RE featuring a combat-based minigame was
released for the Saturn, but the system was dead by the time
RE2 came out. One would presume that the Saturn would've hosted
the rest of the series if it had survived.
Q. ...*Gamecube*?
A. What? Nintendo likes money, Capcom likes money... it's a
business decision. You don't *have* to play the damn games,
you know.
Q. Why on Earth would Capcom sign an exclusivity contract with
Nintendo? Isn't this a betrayal of their core fanbase? Will
RE/RE0/RE4/etc. be ported to the PS2?
A. I've been getting way too much of this.
I'm not privy to Capcom's decision-making process concerning the
exclusivity contract. I have a few informed ideas, but I don't
care to explore them in this venue.
I've been seeing a lot of this "betrayal of the core fanbase"
nonsense lately, too, possibly owing to Capcom's announcement
a couple of years ago that it was going system-agnostic. However,
please note that the true "core fanbase" for RE picked up
Dreamcasts in order to play Code Veronica, and made it a hot
seller right up until the DC's demise. (If I remember the
figures correctly, Code Veronica was the #4 or #5-selling DC
game in the history of the system.) The "core fanbase" for RE
is apparently willing to drop the money on a new console to
follow their favorite series, and so, lo and behold...
Finally, the RE series's move to the Gamecube was the result of
an exclusivity contract of indefinite duration. The contract
either ran out or was opted out of as of October 2005, when
RE4 was released for the PlayStation 2.
Q. Will there ever be a Dino Crisis/Resident Evil crossover?
A. As fun as that sounds, probably not. I've read a number of
interviews with Shinji Mikami where that question has come up,
and the answer is always "no." This is further reinforced by
the revelation in DC2 that Dino Crisis took place in 2009.
While it'd be entirely feasible to work something out involving
DC's Third Energy reactor, RE is strange enough without time
travel being added to the mix.
Q. Who's Shinji Mikami?
A. The series' producer. He calls the shots.
Q. What other games have RE characters appeared in?
A. Several, actually.
-- Jill's a (solidly mid-tier) playable character in Marvel
vs. Capcom 2.
-- for one of Chun-Li's Flash Combos in Pocket Fighter, she
dresses up like Jill.
-- Cerberuses appear in one level of Cannon Spike.
-- in Card Fighters' Clash for the NGPC, Claire, Leon, and
Jill have Character Cards, while Sherry, Chris, and
Rebecca are on the Escape and Cover Fire Action Cards.
You can also challenge "Mikami" and a number of zombies
in an area that's patterned after the front hall of the
Spencer mansion.
-- according to alert translator Nicolas Falduti, and confirmed
by myself courtesy of alert employee Nicholas Eckert, Chris,
Jill (wearing her RE3 outfit), and Nemesis get Character
Cards in the import-only Card Fighters' Clash 2.
-- there's a code in Trick'n Snowboarder to play as Leon,
Claire, or a zombie cop in Free Mode.
-- A full stage of Under the Skin is set in Raccoon City, with
the player forced to take on the rampaging Nemesis. Jill and
Carlos are running around the stage.
-- Bruce McGivern and Fong Ling are in Namco x Capcom, although
they aren't on the same team.
Q. Any other amusing cameos?
A. I've run across one or two.
-- in the Scarab TPB for David Mack's Kabuki comic book, there's
a two-page layout of cutout paper dolls so you can clothe the
heroine as you see fit. One of the cutouts is Jill's RE3 outfit.
-- in Static Shock #1 from DC, one of the main character's friends is
apparently playing RE3, and doing very poorly.
-- in episode #4 of Excel Saga, when Excel finds a mysterious clue
on the wall of a toilet stall, the ADV Vid-notes say that it
"must be a Resident Evil game."
Q. What's in the future for Resident Evil?
A. Lots, usually. Check your favorite videogame website for the
latest information. This, being a plot summary, isn't really a
good place for all your RE news.
Q. How long will the series continue for, anyway?
A. I've read articles where Shinji Mikami claims to want to make
as many Resident Evil games as there are James Bond movies, and
hell, this is Capcom we're talking about here. If RE games
keep selling well, the series will probably continue for quite
some time.
=======================
15ii. RESIDENT EVIL v.2
=======================
Q. Why does it take three shots from Barry's Magnum to kill the
first zombie?
A. Sunspot activity, poor aim, underpacked bullets, a bulletproof
*super* zombie, the planetary alignment at the time, low blood
sugar, psychological trauma, the capricious whims of a mischievous
God, and/or because it's "Barry-style." Pick your favorite!
Q. When does everything take place?
A. According to Nicholai's notes in Survivor, the initial
biohazardous outbreak occurs on May 11th, 1998. Late at
night on July 24th, the Alpha Team is forced to take
shelter in the mansion. Stuff happens, people die, and the
mansion is destroyed. The final showdown with the Tyrant
and the escape via helicopter both occur at daybreak on
the 25th.
Q. What's the official ending?
A. There isn't one. RE2 states in the Mail to the Chief file
that all five possible survivors of the "mansion incident" made
it back to Raccoon City alive, which is impossible in-game.
So we're right back to where we started, which is relying
on Wesker's Report. According to Wesker, the "real" version
of RE is a blend of the two scenarios, with a strong nod
towards Jill's game (she's Shinji Mikami's favorite character,
you know). Both Chris and Jill spend most of the game free,
running around the mansion accomplishing things. While Jill
gets to watch the Tyrant spear Wesker like a cocktail olive,
Chris gets to blow it into tiny pieces on the helipad. Jill
kills the giant snake, while Chris is the first to encounter
Hunters. To judge from Barry's RE3 Epilogue, he was convinced
to betray Jill, but doublecrossed Wesker. And so it goes.
The problem with Wesker's Report is that it was written for
the original RE, and thus a few things in it don't really
apply to REv.2. It's also worth mentioning that Jill's best
ending, in the remake, does allow Wesker to get away clean,
with no impalement required. (In the original, Jill's best
ending had Wesker escape from the Tyrant's lab, only to get
cacked by a Chimera in the power room. In REv.2, Wesker
disappears in the confusion while Jill fights the Tyrant.)
Q. How many endings are there?
A. According to the official strategy guide, there are five
endings for each character, dependent upon who's still alive
at the end of the game. If your supporting character dies,
you'll get a different ending depending on whether they died
before or during the final fight with the Tyrant.
Q. Who captures Chris/Jill at the beginning of the game?
A. Wesker, presumably. There's no one else around to do it.
Q. Why does a Midwestern city have a special anti-terrorism
unit in the first place?
A. In the original manual for RE for the PSX, it's mentioned
that Wesker formed the STARS. Why he did that, or how he was
able to do it, are two separate and unanswered questions.
Given how Umbrella likes to do business, with the black-ops
troops and the random explosions, it's not infeasible that
Raccoon might've had a problem with domestic terrorism.
Further, the idea of an anti-terrorist unit in a Midwestern
city, as pointed out by alert reader Travis, makes a bit more
sense if you consider the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Q. Where did all the Hunters come from?
A. It's a subject of slight irritation with RE fans that
there's nowhere in the Spencer mansion where any monsters
could've escaped *from*. With the exception of the Aqua Tank,
there aren't any containment facilities, broken or otherwise,
on the mansion's grounds; we're left to assume that the BOWs
were either allowed to roam free for some reason, or they
were kept in the pits underneath the courtyard.
Now, thanks to RE0, we know that the BOWs were kept and
experimented upon in the complex underneath the training
facility's chapel, which was only a few miles away from
the Spencer estate. When James Marcus freed the Hunters
and Eliminators to deal with Rebecca and Billy, the
implication is that a few of the Hunters just ran off into
the woods, and they show up at the Spencer estate looking
for prey at right about the same time you're finished with
the dormitories. It's intensely convenient, yes, but not
unreasonably so.
Q. How do I get Rebecca killed before the second Tyrant fight?
A. When you use the Helmet Key to open the office in the west
wing, Chris will hear Rebecca scream. She's in the study on
the second floor, where you found the Dog Whistle, being
menaced by a Hunter. Wait for a good ten minutes before you
go into that room, and the Hunter will kill Rebecca.
Q. How do I get Barry killed before the second Tyrant fight?
A. In Jill's final bout with Lisa Trevor, either don't give
Barry his gun back, or let Lisa hit Barry. He'll be knocked
off of the edge of Jessica's crypt, and will drop Barry's
Photograph.
Q. Can I save Richard or Enrico?
A. Apparently not.
Q. How do I view Kenneth's film?
A. You can use the equipment in the secret area in the laboratory
visual room to watch Kenneth's tape. It depicts, unnervingly, the
last couple of minutes of Kenneth's life.
Q. What's this about Jessica's skull?
A. There are two ways to defeat Lisa Trevor in the crypt. One
is to shoot her until she falls off the edge of the platform;
the other is to shove all four of the locking stones into the
pit. (If you're playing as Jill, it's very difficult to do
this *and* save Barry.) Once the sarcophagus is open, Lisa
will grab her mother's skull and leap into the pit.
Q. What happened to Rebecca Chambers after RE?
A. We know she was there, because of RE0, and we know she
survived RE, because she's mentioned in RE2's Mail to the
Chief file. Beyond that, Becky's missing in action.
Rebecca is listed as dead in Brady's Resident Evil Archives
book. This is something of a mistake on their part.
Q. Have you heard about the researcher John?
A. Actually, yes. In brief: in RE2, Ada Wong says that she's
looking for her boyfriend John, who works for Umbrella. In RE,
one of the files is written by a researcher named John, who's
set up the mansion's security computer with his girlfriend
Ada's name as a password. John mentions that he's turning
into a zombie. Therefore, he did exist, he wasn't just Ada's
cover story, and by the time Ada comes looking for him, he's
been dead for four months.
However, when Annette meets Ada in the waste management plant
in RE2 (a meeting that takes place in either scenario), Annette
tells Ada point-blank that her boyfriend's dead and that he
became a zombie. It's not really that obscure an issue.
======================
15iii. RESIDENT EVIL 2
======================
Q. Why are Claire and Leon carrying combat knives? Where did
Leon get his uniform if it was his first day on the job? Why
does Claire know how to use a grenade launcher? What's a hunting
crossbow doing in a police station? Why does a secret biology
lab have a smelting tank and a subway? Why why why why why why?!
A. Look, it's a video game. Calm down, take a deep breath, and
remember: it isn't really that important.
Q. Why doesn't Leon's uniform look like anyone else's?
A. Leon isn't dressed like an RPD beat cop, but he does look
like Roger and Peter from the 1978 _Dawn of the Dead_. That may
explain it. (Kevin, in Outbreak, is dressed in much the same way.)
Q. What's the official ending of RE2?
A. According to Wesker's Report, it's some kind of mutant version
of Leon A/Claire B where Leon did everything. He's shown both
tossing the G-Virus into the pit after Ada *and* blowing away Mr.
X. In the meantime, Sherry isn't wearing her pendant in Wesker's
Report, which would seem to indicate that Ada has it, but she
doesn't; apparently, *Leon* has the pendant, because Wesker says
Leon got the sample of the G-Virus from Sherry, even though Leon
doesn't meet Sherry at all until the end of Leon A, when Sherry
doesn't have the pendant anymore. In addition, the excerpt of
RE2's ending that Wesker shows is from Claire B, so William
apparently never infected Sherry. Furthermore, whoever tosses
Leon the rocket launcher in Wesker's Report isn't wearing
Sherry's pendant, and...
I've got a headache.
Q. Why does the plot summary still cover Claire A/Leon B?
A. Because I want something a little more substantial than
Wesker's Report before I go to that much trouble. Wesker's
Report is, as I said, lame.
Claire A/Leon B, as noted above, is also the more internally
consistent and dramatically sound of the two possible options.
I mean, come on, Annette getting brained by a random falling
pipe? Lame. It also feels more like the game is meant to be
played that way, as it puts the slightly tougher character
with better weapons into the more difficult scenario.
Aside from that, I can only think of one thing in the games
that indicates which combination of scenarios is the correct
one, and it's really tenuous. In Ada's RE3 Epilogue, she's
nursing a wound on her back, but she's otherwise fine. In
Leon A, Annette shoots her in the shoulder.
Like I said, it's tenuous. It's also all we've got.
Q. How did Ada survive?
A. In Wesker's Report, Wesker says he saved her because
she was still of use to him. Remember, when in doubt,
Wesker was somehow responsible for it.
Q. Who threw the rocket launcher?
A. If you ask me, and quite a few other RE fans, it was
Ada. If you mention this on an RE message board, though,
someone will probably try to correct you. That someone,
incidentally, needs to get out more. (And if *I'm*
saying that...)
Q. It couldn't've been Ada. Ada died onscreen.
A. So does almost everyone else. It's only a minor setback.
Q. If she didn't actually die, then how was Leon fooled?
A. It's not like he stopped to check her pulse. In Leon A,
Ada conveniently falls into a bottomless pit. Leon B's a
little trickier, since she "dies" in his arms, but you
could chalk it up to Leon being a freaked rookie and Ada
being a good actress.
Leon B has a larger problem, though, and that's how Ada
survived her impact against the control panel. However,
as a counterpoint, we don't know what the panel was made
of and we don't know how much damage she actually took.
(If I was being snarky, I could also mention here that
the RE series routinely allows its protagonists to
survive a damn sight more damage than Ada took without
any visible sign of impairment. Nobody's ever written
in to ask me how Jill survived taking an anti-aircraft
missile to the face.)
Q. If Ada threw the rocket launcher, how did she escape
the base before it exploded?
A. Wesker.
You know, I'm just going to start answering all these questions
like that. It's always Wesker.
Q. How do you know when RE2 takes place?
A. Wesker! ...wait.
Check the chalkboard on the wall in the west office of the
RPD. It'll say that "it's today's date, September 29th." Taking
this into account with RE3's timeline and Wesker's Report, this
would indicate that RE2 starts late on September 29th, and ends
on the morning of September 30th.
Q. At the beginning of the game, don't Claire and Leon get out
of the wrong sides of the police car?
A. I thought so too, until alert editor Ben Plante pointed out
that the burning truck in the first scene is facing to the right,
when I thought it was facing left. In either scenario, Claire and
Leon do, in fact, get out on the correct side of the car.
Q. How come that truck driver became a zombie so quickly?
A. The aforementioned dramatic infection pattern of the T-Virus.
(Also, as the Outbreak games tell us, the T-Virus works faster if
its carrier is seriously wounded, which almost makes sense.)
Q. What are the RE2 EX Files?
A. RE2 was rereleased for the Nintendo 64 in late 1999. (It's
a very good port, oddly enough.) Several features were added to
this new version, such as the EX Files.
There are sixteen EX Files, and none of them are anything to get
excited about. Several are taken straight from RE3, and others
hint at developments in RE, RE3, CV, and RE0. While some of them
are interesting, they're mostly intended to provide background
on the series for N64 owners. You can read transcripts on the
N64 RE2 page on gamefaqs.com, or on my website.
Q. Why are some of the N64 files different than the PSX's?
A. Some minor mistakes were fixed for the N64 port. Check out
the Timeline FAQ for details.
Q. Are there any other differences between the N64 and PSX
versions?
A. The N64 version has the following changes:
-- the "guest access" password in the Umbrella lab is now
"NEMESIS."
-- the safe in the corner office in the RPD building has a
different combination.
-- Claire and Leon get new alternate costumes.
-- there's now a dead Hunter lying in the corner of the double-locked
room in the Umbrella lab. When you examine it, you get the same
message that you get if you examine the tank it's lying next to:
"It looks like the remains of a failed experiment."
-- after winning the game once, you unlock an option the game calls
a "randomizer." At the start of a new game, most of the ammo
and health items turn into something else at random. Because of
the randomizer, I'm comfortable calling the N64 version the
best available port of RE2.
-- the Fourth Survivor minigame has a timer.
Q. Where'd that dead Hunter come from?
A. There are quite a few Hunters running around Birkin's lab
during the "Below Freezing Point" scenario in Outbreak, which
is set a few days before RE2.
Q. What's the Extreme Battle Game?
A. An extra game found in the Dual Shock edition of RE2 for the
PSX, PC, and Dreamcast, the Extreme Battle Game is sort of a
prototype of RE3's Mercenaries minigame. It lets you pick an
armed-to-the-teeth character (in descending order of difficulty:
Ada, Claire, Leon, and Chris), and battle from the lab's monitor
room back to the police station. Your goal is to find four bombs
that are hidden in the RPD and use them to incinerate the train.
The Extreme Battle Game is unlocked, like any other secret in RE2,
by finishing a scenario with an A rank.
Q. (from Jim Stevenson) If the T-virus outbreak starts on the 22nd,
then why are there reports of the "cannibal disease" before this?
A. As noted in Wesker's Report II, the Raccoon Forest is one big
transmission vector for the T-Virus. It was slowly working its
way into the city even before the spill at Birkin's lab, and
the fresh outbreak accelerated the process.
Q. Who did Ada Wong work for?
A. It's a common misconception that Ada worked for Umbrella.
As noted by alert reader Justin Kitt, at the end of Leon B,
Annette tells Leon that Ada works for the "Agency." She was
using John to gather information on Umbrella.
So who did Ada work for? There's nothing in RE2 to say who
that is, one way or another, except for the mention of the
Agency (which, in cheap espionage fiction, is shorthand for
the CIA).
In Wesker's Report, Wesker refers to Ada as another agent,
while Wesker's Report II is written to Ada. She's working
directly for or with Wesker during RE4, but reveals in the
epilogue for Separate Ways that she's apparently employed
by some unnamed organization that opposes Umbrella.
Q. Why do you call it "Mr. X"? It's a Tyrant.
A. Because the first RE2 FAQ I ever read called it "Mr. X."
It's force of habit. S.D. Perry also calls it Mr. X, and
that's the name on the box containing its action figure.
Besides, it's easier to say "Mr. X" than to constantly have
to specify which Tyrant I'm talking about. Give me a handle,
and I'll use it.
Q. Where did all the Lickers come from?
A. According to the Umbrella Top Secret File in Survivor,
they're what happens when zombies get hit with a second dose
of the T-Virus. As speculated upon in the RE writeup, the
existence of Crimson Heads lends a bit more credence to the
Survivor file than it previously had. Further, in Outbreak,
the boss of the "Hellfire" scenario is a zombie that hasn't
quite finished mutating into a Licker.
As Rob McGregor helpfully notes, various files in RE2, RE3,
and RE:O2 indicate that many people in Raccoon City were
succumbing to T-Virus infection even before the outbreak
on the 22nd, particularly those who lived in the forest or
worked in the sewer system. So far, we've only seen Lickers
in buildings that're close to the sewers.
Q. How did Chief Irons survive the helicopter crash on the
roof of the RPD building?
A. By not being the guy who caught the helicopter with his
face. That was somebody else.
Q. What the hell is with the RPD building? The ammo's all over
the place, all the equipment is hidden, all the keys are hidden...
A. Chalk it up to Brian Irons. As he says in his diary, he did
his best to make sure no one would survive the siege of the RPD
building. In Operation Report 1, Elliot Edward writes that Irons
had just scattered the RPD's weapons supply around the building
out of concern over an unspecified terrorist threat. Further, in
RE:O2, Irons has rigged the building up with a series of toxic
defense solutions that're only lethal to humans, and do not
bother zombies or Lickers at all.
The short version: if something doesn't seem right to you about
the fall of the RPD, you can usually blame it on Irons.
Q. So what explains the statue puzzles/sewer entrance/secret doors?
A. We can also blame Irons for the puzzles in the RPD. Apparently,
he wasn't just on the take; the maniac was also letting Umbrella
do the decoration. There are some lines you just shouldn't cross.
The sewer entrance, on the other hand, is the work of Thomas, the
chess fanboy who hung out with the RPD's night watchman. There
must be some crazy in the water down Raccoon way. (Do you realize
that it's easier to access the weapons locker in the RPD than it
is to get into the sewers?)
Q. (from Michael Conroy) If Irons was out to kill everyone, how
did Ben Bartolucci manage to survive?
A. Irons couldn't get at Ben, presumably. During RE2, Ben's shut
up in the cellblock with a conveniently wrecked van blocking him
in, and before RE2, Irons's hunt for survivors encompassed the
entire precinct. He wasn't limiting his activities to the RPD.
As an added bonus, Irons might not even know Ben's there. He
was busy, what with cops to hunt, the mayor's daughter to kill,
being stuck inside a monster-infested deathtrap, getting
pinned down by a flaming helicopter...
Q. (from Michael Conroy) If Ben was merely hiding in jail and
hadn't actually been arrested, how did Ada know he was there?
A. She didn't. She'd checked everywhere else, and couldn't
check the cellblock without someone else to help her push the
wrecked van out of the way. She tells Leon as much.
Q. (from Michael Conroy) Why did Irons leave Marvin Branagh alive?
A. Probably the same reason Jill didn't try to help him in RE3.
Marvin looked as though he was already dead, and by the time
he was conscious enough to move around, Irons was trapped.
Q. What happened to Elliot Edward?
A. That's a pretty good question. According to the Operation
Report files, Elliot was one of the last survivors in the RPD,
and participated in a last-ditch effort to escape via the sewers.
The second Operation Report file contains his final message,
left in the RPD to help anyone who might happen across it.
We know Elliot isn't the "Ed" that Irons claims to have shot in
his diary, because Elliot's final entry in the Operation Report
is set two days after Ed's death in Irons's journal. We also
know that Elliot is apparently trapped on the west side of the
building, because of where his reports are found, and that side
of the building is sealed off in "Desperate Times."
After that, Elliot passes into legend. There's a cop costume that
shares his name in Outbreak, but the actual character dies during
the first scenario, so it's probably not him. There's no telling
what happened to Elliot next.
Q. {from "NYPlayboy1080") Why did Umbrella attack William Birkin
to begin with?
A. To come up with any sort of answer, we must turn to the Mail
to the Chief file, one of the RE2 EX Files, Wesker's Report 2,
and certain files in Survivor.
Birkin says to Irons in the Mail to the Chief file that "I am
certain that I will be appointed to be a member of the executive
board for Umbrella Inc." in return for the completed G-Virus.
He clearly wasn't planning to go outside of the company.
(In his reports, which are available as a file in Survivor,
Nicholai theorizes that the Raccoon outbreak had to have been
deliberate, and blames William Birkin for it. This explains
the other files in Survivor, in which Birkin's responsibility
is already being treated as unquestioned fact.)
In the Operation Instructions EX File, Hunk is told to get a
sample of the G-Virus "by any means necessary." These orders
come from Christine Henri, the R&D manager of Umbrella's
French division.
Now, we flip back to Wesker's Report 2, in which we're told that
Wesker had Ozwell Spencer lean on the French division's labs to
get the Arklay facility access to the Nemesis parasite. More
importantly, Wesker says outright in the second Report that
he had every intention of swiping the credit for the Nemesis
from the French division.
With this, everything else falls into place. Birkin and Wesker
steal the French division's big discovery and make a bigger one
with it. Years later, after Wesker's supposed death, a group
of mercenaries come to steal Birkin's big discovery on orders
from the head of Umbrella France. This would appear significant.
Q. When did Ada reach the RPD?
A. We don't know for certain, but she's had time to conduct a
thorough search of the building. That suggests that she was
around for at least a few hours before Leon and Claire arrive.
Q. How did Ada and Sherry get out of the sewage treatment facility?
A. Ada got out via the ventilation shafts, if her sudden arrival
when Leon reaches the sewers is any indication. If Ada could've
done that, Sherry could've, and Sherry's a past master of Vent Fu.
Q. Did any of the other police officers survive?
A. Leon is identified at the start of his B scenario as the lone
survivor of the Raccoon City police department.
The Outbreak games may yet contradict this, if anyone ever gets
around to declaring an official ending for them. Potentially,
they could increase the survival count to three, by including
Kevin Ryman and/or Rita.
Q. (from Michael Conroy) If Leon was the only survivor, what about
Chris, Barry, Jill, Rebecca, Wesker...?
A. Chris and Barry can be assumed to have quit and are long gone,
Jill quit, Rebecca's AWOL, and Wesker was supposedly dead and
definitely off the RPD roll call. They were all also STARS agents,
which means they technically weren't rank-and-file police officers.
Granted, that distinction is packed with delicious sophistry, but
it's a valid way around the narrator's generalization.
Q. Why did William Birkin "impregnate" Ben Bertolucci/Chief Irons?
A. Couldn't tell you on a bet. We know that li'l Willy was out
to perpetuate his species, but we don't know what if any criteria
he was using to pick and choose victims. Alert reader Logan Rapp
notes that at the time William comes after either man, they're
both relatively defenseless, uninjured, and alone, which is kind
of rare in post-outbreak Raccoon. It may be that simple.
Q. How did William get into Ben's cell?
A. No one knows for sure, but it looks like he tore the door open.
Some fans believe William sent one of his li'l wriggly embryos
on a seek-and-destroy mission, but you'd think Ben would've been
able to do something about that. G-embryos are kinda squishy.
Q. (from "ReBiohazard6587," paraphrased) If William infects
himself with the G-Virus on the 22nd, why hasn't he changed
more in the intervening week?
A. That's a good question, particularly since Wesker's Report
2 tells us that the G-Virus causes constant mutation. William
does munch on a number of other viruses from the briefcase
immediately after becoming the G-Type, which may play a role.
Another point that's frequently made is that William's really
*big* metamorphoses usually take place as a reaction to Leon
or Claire beating the hell out of him. If nobody was shooting
William between the 22nd and the 29th, his mutation may have
slowed to a crawl.
Alternatively, he may be shapeshifting back and forth from one
form to another, as his progression of forms throughout RE2 is
a little inconsistent.
Q. Why is it that William changes instantly upon injection, but
Sherry never changes at all?
A. It's the difference between being exposed to the raw virus
and being injected with an embryo. That much is apparent from
the Vaccine Synthesis file in Claire A. The embryo institutes
a "gradual cellular metamorphosis," as opposed to a sudden and
no doubt incredibly painful complete takeover of the body.
Q. What escaped from the holding tank in the double-locked lab?
A. No one's really sure. I tend to agree with Rob MacGregor, in
that the tank in the Umbrella lab is the same one that's shown
in Film B, which would mean that there was a Tyrant in there.
Q. Where did that Tyrant go?
A. You know. Out. Around.
Seriously, there is an answer, but it's sort of a stretch. In
RE0, as Rebecca's passing through the top floor of Birkin's lab,
one of the monitors in the turntable's control room shows her
a Tyrant in a storage tube. A few minutes later, as she's on
the top floor of Birkin's lab waiting for an elevator, that
Tyrant appears and attempts to kick her hairstyle in.
As I've said before, coincidences are not useful. Tyrants are
kind of rare under the best of circumstances (unless one happens
to be on Sheena Island, in which case one can find the damn
things in vending machines), so this rogue Tyrant in Birkin's
lab would seem to be our escapee. (Some people object to this
and point to the storage containers on the eighth floor of the
sewage treatment facility, but that tank used to hold one of
the cockroaches.) In that case, we can attribute its escape
to James Marcus, and this Tyrant's been dead for two months.
Case closed.
The biggest problem with this is that if it's true, and it
looks as though it might be, we're also expected to assume that
William Birkin's the worst housekeeper in explored space. The
Tyrant in his lab escaped in late July. While he's done some
minor cleanup by the time the Outbreak crew drops by, the place
is still trashed. Maybe Birkin just put a new, really big door
on the room--sort of the mad-scientist equivalent of kicking
dirty socks under the bed--and called it a day, I don't know,
but it's still a flaw in the plan.
Q. Who are the people in the S.T.A.R.S. group photo?
A. Back row: Kevin Dooley (?), Forest Speyer, Kenneth Sullivan,
Richard Aiken, Albert Wesker, Barry Burton, Brad Vickers.
Front row: Ed Dewey, Enrico Marini, Chris Redfield, Jill
Valentine, Joseph Frost. Rebecca Chambers is absent.
As of RE:CV, the only people in this photo who are still alive
are Chris, Barry, Jill, and Wesker. Brad, Forest, and Ed have
all been killed twice, or at least found dead and then killed.
Brad holds the distinction of being the only character to
spread his deaths out across two games.
There used to be a considerable amount of confusion between
Kevin and Ed. The original RE's manual had Ed listed as the
Bravo team's helicopter pilot, which left an unidentified guy
in the STARS photo. RE0 clarified this by sticking Ed onto
the Bravo team, while the helicopter pilot was renamed Kevin
Dooley in REv.2.
Q. Why isn't Rebecca in the photo?
A. The photograph was apparently taken before Rebecca joined
the STARS. RE0 was her first mission with the Bravo team.
Q. Who's Jill's boyfriend?
A. If you check Jill's desk in the STARS office, your character
will remark that there's a photo of a man on it, "probably her
boyfriend." This mysterious stranger has captured the hearts and
minds of many obsessive RE fanboys and -girls, even though we're
probably never going to find out who he is. If you check Jill's
desk as Jill, in RE3, she doesn't mention the photo.
Q. (from "ChronoDK16") How would you explain the door that
won't open on the second floor of the police station?
A. The door in question, which is in the same room as the
statue puzzle, would lead to the second-floor lounge if it
wasn't boarded up. Check the map.
Q. How do you find the "secret gate" to the RPD building?
A. Check the wall across from the front door to the RPD in
Scenario A. When you find it, you'll see three zombies on
the other side of a gate that won't open. Jill uses this
gate in RE3, and Rita backs a van through it in RE:O2.
Q. What's the point of the P-Epsilon Gas Report file?
A. It hints at something which isn't widely known about
RE2. If you don't activate the anti-BOW gas using the
dorm computer in scenario A, the Ivies aren't poisonous.
Q. (from Michael Conroy) At the end of RE2, who sets the
Umbrella headquarters computer to self-destruct--and why?
A. In a way, Mr. X does. In either B scenario, Mr. X wrecks
a console in the power room. That console's destruction
triggers the lab's obligatory self-destruct sequence.
Q. How did Hunk manage to survive in the sewers?
A. Yeah, that's a little irritating. William Birkin's lab
is attacked around the 22nd, but Hunk doesn't escape the
sewers until the morning of the 30th, at some point after
Leon and Claire have left the RPD. This means that Hunk
somehow survived both a beating from Birkin *and* at least
eight days of wandering around in the post-outbreak Raccoon
sewer system, while carrying a vial of the G-Virus. In short,
we must assume that either Hunk was extraordinarily lucky
and is extraordinarily tough, or he doesn't actually spend
that entire period in the sewers.
Wesker's Report seems to say that Hunk isn't carrying the
G-Virus sample from Birkin's lab; he's carrying the sample
that Leon had and abandoned. Mm-hm. Scraped it up off the
floor, did he?
As a side note, there are five dead Umbrella agents in the
sewer, even though there are only four of them in Annette's
FMV. It's possible that Hunk survived Birkin's rampage by
being conveniently absent ("Hey, guys, I brought the
sandwiches--OH MY GOD!"), and something else decked him
before Leon and Claire's arrival.
Q. Why don't any of the assassins come back as zombies?
A. Alert reader Duncan Brown writes in to note that there's an
antibody for the T-Virus, as mentioned in RE3's Mercenary's
Pocketbook file, and that Umbrella gives it to many, but by
no means all, of their employees.
Q. If Hunk and Mr. X both work for Umbrella, why does Mr. X
attack Hunk?
A. Because Mr. X wants, and Hunk has, the G-Virus. Mr. X isn't
all that bright. There's also a fair chance that Hunk and Mr. X
aren't working for the same people.
Q. (from Pedro Luchini) How did Mr. X manage to get back to the
RPD in time to attack Hunk? He should be dead.
A. The Fourth Survivor minigame itself shouldn't be treated as
part of the game's plot, since it has any number of continuity
errors when compared to the main game (such as the missing
bookcases in the library). For our purposes, we only care about
its end and its beginning. Don't worry about anything else.
If you're really losing sleep over it, there were five other
canisters on that helicopter, later games will establish that
there are multiple Mr. X units in production, and nobody ever
said it was the only helicopter. Chalk it up to that.
Q. A perennial favorite: was Hunk [Wesker/Billy/Enrico/Richard/
anyone at all in the RE series]?
A. Okay, for the last time: Hunk gets an Epilogue File in
RE3. His is the last one you unlock. In it, he is shown without
his mask, and is an ordinary-looking blond white man. Hunk,
whatever his true identity might be, is a unique individual,
and is not simply the current pseudonym for someone else.
==============================
15iv. RESIDENT EVIL 3: NEMESIS
==============================
Q. Why the hell is Jill dressed like that?
A. I'd imagine that it's an attempt at fanservice that backfired.
I'm really glad that, of the RE fans that I've heard from, they're
irritated by Jill's miniskirt/tube top combo, and aren't, ahem,
ogling her polygon count. (It does lend itself to some truly
nice-looking Jill cosplayers, though.)
Q. How come Jill can blow away zombies by the dozen, but the
RPD was completely wiped out?
A. The RPD didn't know what they were doing. They simply stood
in one place and attempted to drive off the zombies as if they
were fighting normal people, and by the time they realized
that wasn't going to work, they were overrun. (Alert reader
Piccolo writes in to note that one of the cops yells "Stun
'em!" during the opening cutscene, which suggests that some
of the cops were using nonlethal riot weaponry. Oops.) The
survivors of that fiasco withdrew to the RPD building, where
they had to undergo a lengthy siege. At the same time, Brian
Irons was deliberately undercutting the RPD's efforts. They
really never had a chance.
Jill, on the other hand, knows exactly what she's up against.
If you pay attention to RE3's level design, it's set largely
in back alleys, side streets, and deserted tunnels, suggesting
that Jill is deliberately staying away from the most infested
parts of the city. She also doesn't fight when she doesn't
have to; note that whenever Jill encounters zombies in a
cutscene or movie, she almost always runs away.
Q. (from Angela Gray) How did Nemesis know to go after Jill,
since no one seemed to know she was in town? How did he find
Jill to begin with? How did he keep finding Jill?
A. The first and most obvious point is that Umbrella has a
very good surveillance network. Furthermore, as Michael Conroy
notes, Nemesis wasn't after Jill at all to start with. He's
after Brad, and Brad leads him right to Jill.
As for tracking Jill later in the game, what people seem to
forget is that Nemesis is obviously intelligent. He springs
ambushes, uses a firearm, opens doors, dodges grenades, shoots
down the helicopter at the clock tower, and, by Jill's own
admission, toys with her throughout most of the game. With
that in mind, and Jill's habit of leaving spent shells, dead
monsters, smoking craters, and burning buildings everywhere
she goes, it wouldn't be difficult to track her.
Q. How did Jill know that there wasn't going to be a rescue?
A. Call it an educated guess. There's supposedly a military
blockade surrounding the city and enforcing a quarantine,
which gives one the impression that people aren't going to
be allowed out of Raccoon. (Granted, this isn't a very
effective blockade, but I've ranted about this before.)
Q. What happens to the [construction equipment in the RPD
courtyard/boarded-up doors in the RPD building/movable statues
on the RPD's second floor/the red jewel in the statue/the
inscription on the goddess statue] between RE3 and RE2?
A. They were whisked away by elfin magic.
Q. What?
A. By "elfin magic," I mean, of course, dramatic necessity.
Capcom put in a few subtle visual cues that you weren't going
to be able to run off and play through RE2 again. Relax, kid.
It ain't nohow permanent.
(Note that as jarring as you may find the boarded-up doors,
the game still isn't as goofy as Extermination. Dennis Riley
treats boarded-up doors the same way, but he's got a crowbar.)
Q. Well, then, why is the window that Nemesis jumps through
still there in RE2?
A. Storyline-wise? Couldn't tell you. Maybe it was fixed by
the same guy who steals the corpses while you're not looking.
Reality-wise, Capcom wasn't expecting there to be a Resident
Evil 3 (or, more accurately, Code Veronica was supposed to
be RE3; I remember seeing very early screenshots of CV that
were distinctly polygonal and PSX-esque), so RE3 and RE2 don't
agree on a wide variety of relatively minor points. Examples
include the broken window, the boarded-up doors, the absence
of Lickers from the RE3 RPD, and the general layout of Raccoon
City (such as how the locations of Uptown Raccoon and the RE2
sewage treatment plant overlap). As with many things in RE,
you have to take this with a grain of salt.
Q. How do I get Nicholai to show up at the gas station?
A. Escape from Nemesis via either the restaurant basement or the
window in the press office.
Q. Who's Murphy?
A. He's another member of the UBCS. You'll always see him at
the sales office, but who he's there with depends on how you
and Carlos dealt with Nemesis. If you killed it or knocked it
out before running, Nicholai will have just killed Murphy
when Jill arrives. If you escaped from Nemesis, you'll see
a brief scene with Murphy and Carlos.
Q. Who's Tyrell?
A. Tyrell's the Cool (Doomed) Black Guy from the hospital.
Q. Can I open the wall safe in the hospital basement?
A. Even if you could, you wouldn't want to. If you visit the
hospital's basement first, Tyrell will open that safe for you.
Doing so sets off a bomb. Thanks, Nicholai!
Q. (from Michael Conroy) Since Umbrella had already sent Nemesis
to do its dirty work, why did it then send a slower, stupider
Tyrant (Mr. X) just to retrieve the G-Virus?
A. They have different missions, and Nemesis has its hands full
right up until the moment the missiles hit.
(Of course, there is the realistic answer--Nemesis was only
conceived by the developers when they were making RE3, and
as such didn't exist in RE2's time--but realistic answers
are rarely entertaining.)
Q. (from "ReBiohazard6587," paraphrased) How was Brad changed
into a zombie? Did Nemesis's tentacle do it? Is that why his
corpse goes missing after the second encounter with Nemesis?
A. Brad could've gotten the T-Virus in a number of ways, from
Nemmy's tentacle to the zombie gnawing on him in the Bar Jack.
He shows up as a zombie underneath the RPD in RE2, thus
explaining why his body vanishes in RE3.
Since Brad died from a major head wound, he really shouldn't
have become a zombie at all. See Mistakes, below.
Q. Why does Umbrella have secret labs in almost every building
in Raccoon City?
A. Because Umbrella donated the money to build almost every
building in Raccoon City, cf. the City Guide file. Raccoon
was apparently not so much a city as it was the world's most
extensive shell corporation.
Q. Why is Marvin Branagh dead, when he's in RE2 a day later?
A. He isn't dead. Next time you play the game, check that
office on your way out of the RPD building. Marvin disappears
when you take the Lockpick.
Q. Why did Umbrella send Nemesis after Jill, when all they
did was keep Chris under surveillance?
A. For all we know, Umbrella *did* send something after Chris.
Jill finds a trashed hideout of Chris's in her Epilogue.
At the same time, Nemesis wasn't specifically after Jill. At
the start of the game, Nemmy's after Brad, but starts pursuing
Jill once he becomes aware of her presence.
Q. (from Michael Conroy) Why does Nicholai wait until the end of
RE3 to claim the bounty on Jill's head? He had three previous
opportunities to bump her off when no one else was around. Why
didn't he?
A. Why would he? If Nicholai's actions over the course of RE3
tell you anything about him, it's that he's a schemer. Jill's
a heavily armed, highly competent fellow survivor who thinks
Nicholai's on her side, and when they first meet, Nicholai
doesn't have an escape route. When he finally *does* go after
Jill, he's accomplished all his other goals, secured his own
way out of the city, and attacks her with an assault helicopter.
Nicholai gives you the impression that he doesn't leave much
up to chance.
Q. Why is the rail cannon called "Paracelsus's Sword?"
A. Theophrastus Bombastus "Paracelsus" von Hohenheim was
a German alchemist who lived during the Renaissance. He
was among the first Westerners to experiment with drugs
as a method of curing diseases, and is frequently referred
to as the "father of medicine." Given how the rail cannon
was made for the express purpose of blowing large holes in
virally created monsters, calling it Paracelsus's Sword makes
some sense. (For more on Paracelsus, I refer the reader
to Lewis Spence's _Encyclopedia of Occultism_, or virtually
any book about alchemy ever written.)
Q. Who made Paracelsus's Sword, and how did it get there?
A. According to the Classified Photo file, an unspecified
agency created the Sword specifically to combat Umbrella's
creations. Since the Sword is found amidst the bodies of
U.S. Special Forces and the file is written by someone who
identifies himself as a colonel, one would assume that the
cannon was made by the American government. How they managed
to get that cannon there, on the other hand, is a mystery.
Q. How do you get the cutscene from the summary, where Barry
calls over the radio?
A. Opt to jump off the bridge before you get to the Dead
Factory. After the Live Choice involving Nicholai in the
control tower, don't try to use the hatch. Instead, leave
through the door, then immediately go back inside. Carlos
will receive a garbled radio transmission from Barry. (If
you do this, Barry's arrival seems much less like a _deus
ex machina_, which is why it's in the summary.) This also
changes the dialogue before the ending.
Q. How do you know that Jill was infected with the T-Virus?
A. It's the only virus that makes sense. We've no reason
to think it was anything else.
Q. So why didn't she turn into a zombie right away?
A. Because it was more dramatic if she didn't. Repeat after
me: the T-Virus does whatever the plot wants it to do.
Q. Who was Nemesis?
A. A snappy dresser, a hit with the ladies, and a good friend.
We mourn his passing.
Q. No, really, who was Nemesis?
A. Okay, from the top: the way I heard it, this question
started because someone at Capcom, probably Shinji Mikami,
said that Nemesis was actually someone we knew from the past
or something. I figure that he was quoted out of context,
mistranslated, or was screwing with people's heads. (Alert
reader Stonewolf suggests that Mikami might've been alluding
to the fact that Nemmy's design was one of the rejected models
for Mr. X.) Ever since that quote made it across the Pacific,
literal-minded RE fans have been wracking their brains, trying
to figure out who Nemesis could have been.
A few die-hard RE fans, though, had come to the conclusion that
Nemesis must've been Wesker, since every other major RE character
except Rebecca was accounted for, and the idea of Becky "Useless"
Chambers being turned into a killer bioweapon was (and is) just
silly. These people could usually back the theory up pretty well.
Wesker's return in Code Veronica kinda screwed them. Now, they
have to explain how Wesker could've (deep breath now) survived
RE, gotten cloned (optional, dependent upon theorist), become
Super Wesker, gotten turned into Nemesis, survived being shot
to "death" at the clock tower, taken a long nap in a gasoline
fire, mutated into Tentacle Nemesis, gotten his head burned
off his body, survived being thrown into the Dead Factory's
waste dump, mutated into Kinda-Looks-Like-William-Birkin Nemesis,
gotten beat up by Jill again, gotten blasted twice by Paracelsus's
Sword, gotten to a minimum safe distance from Raccoon City in
less than five minutes despite being dead, gotten turned back
into Wesker, quit his job at Umbrella, joined up with whatever
organization he's working for in CV, invaded Rockfort Island,
ran away before Alexia turned him into Aztec barbecue, swiped
Steve's body, beaten the pudding out of Chris, fled the Ashfords'
Antarctic base via a convenient submarine, and still managed
to find the time to get that *great* haircut. The answer is,
of course, that Wesker couldn't and that he wasn't Nemesis,
but some people just refuse to give up on something once they've
spent that much time on it. Not even Wesker's Report is stopping
some of these dedicated conspiracists. Hell, after writing this,
*I* want him to be Nemesis.
There was a slight clue to Nemesis's identity in the first
movie, but that's been pretty much obliterated by the events
of the second. At this point, we're forced to assume that
Nemesis is just some random schmuck who beat the odds and
didn't die.
Q. Was Nemesis a G-Virus creature?
A. No, it wasn't. You know, a lot of people seem to have an awfully
personal stake in this question.
According to Wesker's Report 2, the Nemesis parasite was created
around 1988, before William Birkin discovered the G-Virus in Lisa
Trevor's body. Furthermore, no one besides Birkin had access to
the completed G-Virus before Hunk's escape on the 29th or 30th,
which is at least one full day after Jill's first encounter with
the Nemesis. (While corporate espionage is a realistic possibility,
and is even hinted at in Outbreak, there's no mention of such
having been done. Occam's Razor.)
Wesker's Report 2 also notes that a characteristic of creatures
infected with the G-Virus is that they constantly mutate without
any external stimuli. As Nemesis's only real mutation takes
place after he's thrown into the waste dump at the Dead Factory,
which I would count as "external stimuli," it would appear
that he's G-Virus-free.
Q. Was Tentacle Nemesis a mutation, or what?
A. I'm of the opinion that Tentacle Nemesis is just Nemesis
without the trenchcoat, since in your first encounters with Nemmy,
you can see the tentacles writhing around underneath his outfit.
However, fan opinion is markedly split on this issue, so your
mileage may vary.
Q. (from Michael Conroy) Nemesis, who was designed to kill
S.T.A.R.S. members, ends up hunting Umbrella mercenaries Carlos,
Nicholai, and Mikhail. What's going on here?
A. Nemmy never goes after Nicholai, except in the Mercenaries
game, which doesn't count, and in the Ending #3 trash room ambush,
where Nicholai is biting Nemmy's style. ("Hey! That's *my*
victim!") Over the course of the game, he attacks Mikhail, who
was shooting at him at the time, and Carlos, who's a friend
of Jill's and has a long, sordid history of shooting at Nemmy.
Even then, Nemmy will usually only go after Carlos if Carlos
gets in his way. (Unless you keep the fight within a camera angle
featuring the exit door, Nemesis will leave the front hall at the
first opportunity and head for the chapel.) Nemmy doesn't seem to
have a problem with eliminating Jill's allies.
Q. How did those zombies in the graveyard reanimate?
A. It's been noted that whenever we see RE zombies actually
crawl out of a graveyard in the best cinematic tradition, it's
always raining. This may be another film reference, to _Return
of the Living Dead_ and its contaminated rainclouds.
Q. Is the girl with the briefcase at the end of the Mercenaries
minigame Rebecca? Is that guy in the hood Chief Irons?
A. Everybody in the Mercenaries minigame is a retextured set of
polygons recycled from either RE2 or RE3. The hooded guy's animation
is taken directly from RE2, when Irons spins around in his chair
and points a gun at Claire, but that doesn't mean the hooded guy
*is* Irons; in the same vein, that doesn't mean that the girl's
Rebecca. Further, the Mercenaries game has no bearing on the plot,
so their identities are meaningless.
============================
14v. RESIDENT EVIL: SURVIVOR
============================
Q. Here's a witty joke involving the phrase "voted off the island!"
Aren't I funny?
A. No.
Q. Why was GunCon support taken out of the North American release?
A. The official reason, according to a Capcom rep, is that "there
is no retail support for light guns or light gun games." This
sounds like a delightful crock, but at least it's an answer.
Mark Chang deserves thanks for this one, because he thought to
write to Capcom and get the official word on the subject.
Q. What's the difference between the various paths?
A. Nothing, really, except for what you fight and what you find.
The exception is the second choice, as explained above.
Q. Who's this little goblin guy, and why does he hate me?
A. The gnome is Andy, the sewer manager. As is not readily
apparent from his diary, he first encountered Ark when Ark
was claiming to be Vincent Goldman. Later, Andy finds out
that Vincent caused the outbreak, and since he thinks Ark
is Vincent, he undertakes a mission of revenge against him.
If you go to the hospital, you'll never see Andy, but he's
laid a trap for you in the library and is waiting in ambush
when you enter the office in the arcade. That's him on
the pay 'phone at the beginning of the game, by the way.
Q. Who sets off the self-destruct mechanism in the factory?
A. There's no explanation on that score. It can probably be
directly attributed to whoever is about to get whacked by
the Tyrant, although it being Andy is a bit of a stretch.
Q. Why are there so many Mr. X units running around?
A. Sheena Island apparently mass-produced them. At one point,
you fight a Mr. X unit on a walkway in the factory, surrounded
by other Mr. Xs in glass containment tubes. If they were released
with a specific purpose in mind, that purpose isn't mentioned.
Q. Hey, is Hunk the cleaners' commander?
A. I kinda doubt it. There's no hint whatsoever of who the
cleaners' commander is, which leads me to believe that he's
just some generic guy in a uniform. Survivor also hints
rather strongly that the cleaners' commander dies at some
point, whether you see it happen or not, and Hunk is still
alive as of Code Veronica.
Q. Why does the introduction to the game say that Umbrella
destroyed Raccoon City?
A. Because Umbrella *did* destroy Raccoon City, by honeycombing
it with poorly designed secret bioweapon factories. The bomb
was a formality.
Q. So why aren't there bathrooms on Sheena Island?
A. Look at those graphics, dude. Ark's lucky he has a nose,
let alone the need for a bathroom.
==================================
15vi. RESIDENT EVIL: CODE VERONICA
==================================
Q. What's the difference between CVX and CV: Complete?
A. CVX is a PS2/Gamecube game, while CV: Complete came out for
the Japanese Dreamcast. They're otherwise identical.
Q. How did Wesker survive the "mansion incident?"
A. According to Wesker's Report, Wesker injected himself with
a virus he'd obtained ahead of time from William Birkin. This
virus would make Wesker look like he was dead, but he would
eventually wake up with superhuman power. He then proceeded
to fake his own death by deliberately provoking the Tyrant.
(By "deliberately provoking," he means "Okay, I didn't know
it was awake yet. Oops.")
That low grumbling sound you hear is that of a couple of million
RE fans, all complaining simultaneously about how contrived that
explanation is. As noted above, though, we've other options now.
Q. What *was* Wesker's virus?
A. All we know is that he got it from Birkin and that it
wasn't the G-Virus, since Birkin didn't finish his work on
that until two months after the original RE. Here endeth
the available information.
Q. Y'know, Steve looks a lot like Leonardo DiCaprio. Here's a
witty comment about it!
A. [through gritted teeth] Stop doing that. Everyone does that.
Q. What's the difference between CV and CVX?
A. Oh, a few things.
-- the Easy and Very Easy difficulty settings from the Japanese
release have been put back in, because little things like not
having arms shouldn't keep you from enjoying Code Veronica. (It
really is the easiest of the REs, you know, even on Normal.)
-- Steve has a new haircut. Now, instead of looking like Leonardo
DiCaprio, he looks like Leonardo DiCaprio without access to
hair care products.
-- a new cutscene featuring Wesker and Claire, triggered when
Claire returns to the mansion with the Piano Roll.
-- a couple of lines of dialogue have been changed.
-- the ending's about three times as long, as detailed above.
-- in CVX, Wesker gets a hit in on Alexia. In CV, Alexia slaps him
around like a handball.
-- everyone gets different character portraits in their inventory
screens. (Steve is such a goober.)
-- really fake-looking fire has been Photoshopped over Wesker's
Battle Game victory screen.
Q. How did Leon find Chris so quickly?
A. Claire sent Leon Umbrella's surveillance data, so Leon knew
exactly where Chris was at the time. After that, all he would've
had to do is make a few telephone calls.
The timing on the whole thing is a little convenient, but some
time passes between Claire's departure from the island and Chris's
arrival. Since the Albinoid Claire let out has grown to adulthood,
we know it's been at least ten hours since she was there.
Q. (from Joseph Goodman) What's the "Raccoon City Test?"
A. Couldn't tell you on a bet. It's on the jewel case, but there's
nothing about it in the game. We don't know what test was completed
in Raccoon City (the Nemesis? the Gamma Hunters? the effects of
the T-Virus on a sizable metropolitan civilian population?), or
where Claire got that information in the first place.
Q. (from Joseph Goodman) How did the T-Virus manage to escape
at Rockfort?
A. As Chris, examine the wrecked ductwork in the chemical storage
locker. Chris will say that "maybe this is where the T-Virus
escaped." This is as close to an explanation as we get over the
course of CV, and all things considered, it's a pretty good one.
It looks like someone chucked a grenade into the wrong room.
Q. If the T-Virus was accidentally spilled at the island
prison, why wasn't Claire infected?
A. Once again, we will temporarily ignore the T-Virus's sense
of humor and focus on the facts. Looking at Rockfort, the only
people who get infected are the prisoners, Alfred's servants,
and a couple of unlucky members of Wesker's strike team. Claire,
Steve, Rodrigo, Alfred, Wesker, Chris, that guy in the clean
suit who gets killed by the Bandersnatch, and at least three
cargo planes filled with survivors all manage to get off Rockfort
without becoming zombies. We're left to conclude that the T-Virus
was being lazy that day, it was a weak batch, or it didn't have
enough time to work on everyone. (It's also notable that CV's
virus has the least time of any of them to go into effect, barring
perhaps that in the first scenario of Outbreak.) Further, the
protagonists of RE games have traditionally enjoyed a near-complete
immunity to the T-Virus, barring circumstance.
Q. Where did the Gulp Worm come from?
A. The same place that the Grave Digger and the giant crocodile
came from: the T-Virus. No more explanation is necessary.
Q. (from Joseph Goodman) Rodrigo tells Claire that Rockfort
Island was attacked by a special forces team, but there's
little evidence of an actual military-type battle. Why would
anyone attack a worthless prison island? Where'd everyone go?
A. Rodrigo's "special forces team" is, in fact, a band of
troops led by Wesker. Wesker tells Claire as much in CVX.
Looking at the island's layout, much of the island is
off-limits due to fires, explosions, and rubble. I'd
guess that the fighting is taking place on parts of the
island that the player can't access. Wesker's forces are
only able to take the prison and training facility a day
after Alfred's men have evacuated, judging by the zombies
dressed in black in Chris's game. Most of them explode when
they're shot, thus proving that you should not believe Wesker
when he gives you what he says is a flak jacket.
As for the "worthless island" scenario, Wesker wants Alexia.
Alfred's strange delusion was effective enough to convince
Wesker that Alexia was on Rockfort, and he only learns otherwise
once he's taken over the island. He says as much to Chris in
their first meeting.
Q. (from Michael Conroy) The servant's memo at Rockfort implied
that Alexia was believed to be alive and living in seclusion,
yet doesn't Alfred's diary (found in Antarctica) mention Alexia
"faking her own death?" Which cover story was correct?
A. The story in Alfred's diary is the truth. The confusion as
to whether Alexia is dead or alive is the major plot twist of
CV, Wesker's return notwithstanding.
In short: Alexia faked her own death and went into coldsleep
so the T-Veronica virus would be allowed to work on her. Alfred,
who was monomaniacally devoted to her, began to construct an
elaborate delusion that she was still around. Alfred's delusion
was good enough to trick his servants, Wesker, and himself.
Meanwhile, the *real* Alexia has been in Antarctica, a literal
ice queen, since 1983.
The twists go like this: Claire concludes there never was an
Alexia. Then, when you reach Antarctica, several files note
that there *was* an Alexia, but she died years ago. Finally,
Alexia suddenly appears, and you learn over the course of time
that Alexia had faked her death.
Q. (from Michael Conroy) Why doesn't Alfred release Alexia from
cryogenic freeze the moment he touches down in Antarctica?
What's he waiting for?
A. Alfred's just as surprised as the player when Alexia
defrosts. Look at his face and listen to his voice.
Q. (from Michael Conroy) Was Alexia even *supposed* to be
released from cryo-freeze at that point in time?
A. Alexia's sudden emergence from the deep freeze is the
second most contested plot point in CV, right behind Wesker's
survival. While it is feasible, given the timeline, for
Alexia's time in cryogenic storage to have run out at some
point in 1998 (Wesker's Report 2 has Alexia's "fatal accident"
occurring in 1983 when she was twelve, which means her fifteen
years were just about up), her dea-ex-cryotube defrosting right
in time to wreck Claire and Steve's snowmobile is one of the
single most convenient plot developments in the history of video
games. If it's keeping you up at night, you may wish to blame
Alexia's sudden return to consciousness on her vast and wildly
discordant powers (as S.D. Perry did in the novelization), and
leave it at that.
Q. (from Michael Conroy) How did Wesker find out about the
T-Veronica virus?
A. Chris found out about the T-Veronica virus by strolling
into an unlocked lab in the Antarctic mine and reading
Alexia's research notes, which were lying on top of a desk.
Given fifteen years of opportunities for corporate espionage,
the general lack of respect for Alfred that seems to be
floating around Umbrella's offices, the fact that Wesker's
been working for Umbrella for twenty years, and the near-total
lack of security at the Antarctic base--Chris didn't even need
a *keycard* to get into that lab, for gods' sake; you needed
a key to get into Alfred's *game room*, but he leaves Alexia's
*highly secret laboratory* unlocked--the question isn't how
Wesker knew about T-Veronica. It's how he managed to get
taken in by Alfred's little delusion.
Q. (from Michael Conroy) If Wesker had the inside track on
the T-Veronica virus, why did he attack Rockfort to begin with?
A. He was looking for Alexia, and thanks to Alfred, most people
thought Alexia was sitting prettily in a mansion window in South
America. When Wesker fights Chris, he mentions that Alexia's
"already awake," which means that at some point, he does learn
what's really going on.
Q. (from Michael Conroy) Since Wesker is a superhuman one-man
army, why does he even *need* a special forces team to attack
the island?
A. Supervillains do love their cannon fodder.
Q. (from Michael Conroy, who asks too damn many questions)
Why doesn't Rodrigo hop aboard one of the cargo planes
fleeing the island? Why does he stay behind?
A. Rodrigo's been gutshot, so he isn't going to move very
fast, and by the time the rest of Rockfort's staff make
their escape, the prison is cut off from the rest of the
island. Since Claire and Steve took the only plane in the
seaport, Rodrigo's got nowhere to go.
Q. Why did Alfred send Claire and Steve to Antarctica?
A. A few people (most recently Gary Tong) have written in to
make note that autopilot systems tend to be preprogrammed
to follow a single course or to fly to GPS coordinates.
Q. Why are there zombies and monsters all over the place in
the Antarctic base?
A. To learn the answer to this question, we must consult the
"Diary of D.I.J." secret file. According to it, the workers
released the T-Virus deliberately, and then escaped via the
cargo planes Steve notices upon his and Claire's landing.
(The CVX version of the same file changes the story, claiming
that the T-Virus escaped from the planes that landed before
Claire and Steve's did, but I find that questionable. None
of the Antarctic zombies are dressed like Rockfort guards.)
Q. How do I find this secret file?
A. It's one of the random items you can get from the slot
machine in the Battle Game. Once you've found it, it'll be
in your file list whenever you start a new game.
Q. Who's D.I.J.?
A. A mouse. Specifically, he's the mouse that runs under
the closing blast shutter when Alfred traps Claire in the
military training facility. He shows up again in Antarctica,
when Claire lets him out of the locker in Alfred's office.
Reportedly, if you stay alert, you can see him again and
again throughout Claire's game on Rockfort, especially if
you use a GameShark to get the sniper rifle on Disc One.
He is not, repeat *not*, the Ashford family's butler. We don't
know what happened to Scott Harman (although the smart money
says that he was one of the zombies wearing a suit marked
with the Ashford crest), but unless he was in that convenient
crate of explosives, he wasn't in the cargo plane when Claire
fought the Tyrant.
Q. How the hell can a mouse keep a diary?
A. He's a very smart mouse.
Q. Weren't those two mice different colors? How could it be
the same mouse?
A. He's a *very* smart mouse.
Q. (from Jim Stevenson) How does Wesker have access to
Hunters when he no longer works for Umbrella?
A. Well, he did just take over an Umbrella facility.
More importantly, those Hunters are being stored inside the
large cases in the seaport. I don't know why they're there
or why a prison facility had them (to go after escapees?),
but all Wesker had to do was let them out.
Q. What happens with Wesker on the third time through the game?
A. Nothing. "Tips & Tricks" magazine printed that "hint" in
their June 2000 issue, and it's false.
Q. Doesn't Wesker work for Bioject now?
A. Bioject, Umbrella's "true owner" or something like that,
is an unsubstantiated rumor that seems to have come out of
thin air. Alert reader Steve Clement notes that there's a
medical supply corporation called Bioject that has several
contracts with the U.S. Navy, which makes it unlikely that
there's a fictional Bioject employing superhuman assassins.
Wesker's employer is currently a mystery. The only clue that
we have in this area is Wesker's HCF logo in the Battle Game,
and that's hardly concrete. Alert reader "Lotus" writes in to
say that in the official CV artbook, there's a note that says
HCF stands for Hive Capture Force; thus, we can't even assume
that HCF is the name of Wesker's company.
Q. (from Devvrat Shukla) Why is Claire poisoned when I find her?
A. Because you got a little too close to Alexander when you
fought him on the helipad. Alexander's clouds of purple mist
can poison Claire, and if that happens, she'll stay poisoned
until Chris finds her behind the stairs. At that point, you,
as Chris, will need to run back to the weapons storage locker
on the second floor and get a container of serum. When you
return to the front hall of the "mansion," Chris will
automatically use the serum on Claire. Alexia will walk in
thereafter and the game continues. When you gain control
of Claire in the study, she'll be in Danger condition.
To avoid being poisoned by Alexander, you can either hit
him from across the helipad or go for the quick kill with
Alfred's sniper rifle. Just zoom in on Alex's heart and fire;
it may take more than one shot, but if you hit the heart
cleanly, you'll see a special cutscene ("I've got you now!").
Q. Why do the winged ants attack Alexia?
A. I don't know whether they attack Alexia, land on her, or
just get agitated. That could've been clearer.
Q. Wait. Chris and Wesker are fighting in the same room where
Steve shot Alfred, aren't they? Isn't that room frozen solid?
A. Yeah, I thought so too, right up until I saw the submarine
in the background. Chris and Wesker are fighting in an
underground docking bay, and I'd presume that the submarine
is the one that DIJ mentions in his diary.
===============================
15vii. RESIDENT EVIL: THE MOVIE
===============================
Q. Hey, have you seen the (first) movie?
A. Naturally. You can read my review of the film in my old column,
"Signal to Noise," in the "Specials" archives at gamepartisan.com.
It's listed as the second "episode" of the column for some reason.
Q. Is the movie based on the games, or what?
A. Paul Anderson would have you believe the film's a prequel,
but it really isn't. There was some handwaving in that general
direction with the first movie (with the notable exception of
the fact that it takes place in 2002, four years after the
first game), but the second film departs from the games'
storyline entirely.
Q. If the film's a prequel, then where does it take place?
A. In the high-tech laboratories underneath the Arklay mansion.
Q. Hey, there's this line about the "Nemesis Project," and--
A. I know, thanks.
Q. Hey, [event in movie] figures into the games' plot.
A. No, it's pretty much official now that it doesn't. The
first movie's set in a completely new mansion with new
characters, four years later, whereas the second rewrites
RE3 in the proud tradition of fanfiction.net. Let's wash
our hands of this before someone mentions alternate universes
or "post-Crisis RE" or something.
Q. Will you summarize the film in this document?
A. Nope. It's no longer relevant.
==========================
15viii. RESIDENT EVIL ZERO
==========================
Q. So Rebecca's this capable heroine-type who faces down
Hunters, Tyrants, and James "Leechboy" Marcus in RE0, but
she's a shrieking victim in RE. 'Sup with that?
A. Admittedly, Billy comes off a lot better than Rebecca, with
the exception of Rebecca punk-slapping the Tyrant. Just the
same, REv.2's Rebecca, who cowers in fear before a single Hunter
and begs Chris to be careful, is a change from the relatively
calm and straightforward Rebecca of RE0. Personally, I try to
keep in mind that RE0 Becky hasn't found the dead bodies of
most of her teammates and has Billy backing her up, whereas
REv.2 Becky is usually alone, trapped, and exhausted. (Look
at how she reacts to Richard's death in REv.2.)
Q. Where did all her weapons go?
A. That's a borderline irrelevancy. Personally, I chalk it up
to that last fight with the queen leech; I never seem to have
any ammo coming out of that, so why should Rebecca?
She's also been loose in the forest and the mansion for an
entire day by the time she runs into Chris, so there's
a lot of room for any number of things to have happened.
Q. How does Billy know that Rebecca's in STARS?
A. She's got a STARS patch on the arm of her T-shirt.
Q. Why didn't Rebecca tell Chris about what'd happened to her?
She doesn't really *act* like she's been through a lot.
A. Because there's no reason to drop a few dozen RE0 spoilers
into the middle of REv.2. In-character, there are a few good
reasons why Rebecca wouldn't tell Chris much of anything, such
as her decision to fake Billy's death, but listing them here
would be pointless speculation.
Q. If Rebecca sets out for the Spencer mansion on the morning
of the 25th, then what takes the Alpha team so long? Didn't
they set out to find the Bravo team right after the crash?
A. In the original RE, yes, the Alpha team came right after the
Bravo team. In REv.2/RE0 continuity, it would appear that the
Alpha team's search doesn't start until the evening of the 25th.
I couldn't tell you why, but it's worthy of mention that Rebecca's
radio reception sucks for most of RE0, and that Wesker, the
commander of the Alpha team, is out at Birkin's lab for much of
the 24th.
Q. Didn't zombie dogs kill the MPs in the truck?
A. No, Rebecca just thinks they did, which isn't a bad guess
given the information she has. In the opening movie, Enrico
looks away from the truck just before slime drips off the
windshield, thus indicating that Marcus's leeches did it.
Q. Hey, in Marcus's flashback to his assassination, was
that Hu--
A. *No*.
Q. Why aren't there any Crimson Heads in RE0?
A. Good question, and one that's not answered in the game.
Several readers have written in to mention an interview
with Shinji Mikami that ran on Gamespot. Reportedly, Mikami
said the Crimson Heads were deliberately left out of RE0 due
to the relatively short period of time that Rebecca and Billy
spend in any one location.
Q. Where did the Stinger come from?
A. It's apparently an experimental B.O.W. that the train's
passengers were bringing with them to the training facility,
according to the Passenger's Diary file.
Q. What's the point of the "Verse of Poetry" file?
A. I've kicked this one around with a couple of my editors.
The best thing we can come up with is that it's an oblique
hint that the observatory contains the escape route.
Q. If there was a big explosion in the Raccoon Forest a day
before RE, why didn't anyone report it?
A. Assuming that there was anyone around to see it in the
first place--as the Raccoon Forest was the recent site of
several vicious murders, I doubt there were a lot of people
just casually hanging out in the woods right about then--all
of the people who it would've been reported to are either
responsible for it or being paid not to care. Wesker helped
blow it up, Birkin blew it up, and the chief of the Raccoon
P.D. is so far in Birkin's pocket that he's sorted Birkin's
change. There was already a cover-up in the works for the
"mansion incident"--see the Internal Investigation Report
in RE2--so it easily could've encompassed this.
Q. Why did Ozwell Spencer have James Marcus assassinated?
A. Leaving aside for the moment how Marcus was obviously,
visibly crazy, and how he was apparently using Umbrella's
best and brightest as guinea pigs, Marcus also intended to
use his invention of the T-Virus to oust Spencer (cf.
Marcus's Diary 1).
Q. What's up with James Marcus?
A. Marcus throws a wrench into the RE timeline. He's said
to be the "co-founder" of Umbrella with Spencer, when Marcus
writes in his diary that when Spencer founded Umbrella,
Marcus couldn't've cared less. Marcus's co-founder status
may be Spencer practicing revisionist history, as part
of the campaign to smear the Ashfords (cf. the Umbrella
Memo EX File in RE2). Alternatively, the only two people
who've said anything about the Ashfords helping to found
Umbrella are Alexander and Alfred Ashford, both of whom
were just a little crazy.
It doesn't help that there's a typo in the American version's
Investigator's Report 1 file. It says that Marcus disappeared
twenty years ago. Rob MacGregor's done the inquiries on this
one, and other versions of RE0 say that Marcus disappeared
ten years ago.
So the situation then becomes this: James Marcus was one of
the scientists who helped create the Progenitor virus. When
Spencer founds Umbrella, Marcus doesn't even fake interest,
although he becomes the headmaster at Umbrella's training
facility. He lets his assistant do most of the actual work,
but William Birkin and Albert Wesker gain Marcus's trust.
In the mid-seventies, Marcus concludes that the only way to
get the Progenitor virus to do what he wants it to do is via
human experimentation. Marcus keeps his "special" research a
secret for a good long while (although he had someone in his
confidence at Arklay, since one of Marcus's prisoners/test
subjects gets sent there), and eventually manages to make a
breakthrough with the creation of the T-Virus. He continues
his private research into the creation of mutant leeches,
because he is what is technically referred to as "icky."
Marcus was also getting a few of his test subjects from
the trainees at the facility. That and his intention to
overthrow Spencer result in his assassination in 1988. Soon
thereafter, an Umbrella investigation team checks out the
training facility, and what they find is bad enough for them
to nail the doors shut and declare the place closed. Years
later, owing to a recent rapid period of growth by Umbrella,
a few teams are sent to the training facility to clean the
place up and reopen it. They start the job, but before they
get too far into it, they run into the resurrected James
Marcus. Hilarity ensues.
Q. If Rebecca visits RE2's lab during RE0, then how do all
the labs relate to each other? What about the treatment
plants, the factories, the training facility, the Spencer
mansion...?
A. Okay, let's start at the top.
The training facility had direct underground transit systems
that linked it up with William Birkin's lab complex and the
shipping lane connected to the Raccoon City sewer system,
both of which were in RE2. The cable cars apparently linked
the sewers to Birkin's lab's cargo entrance, and from the
cargo entrance to the training facility; the positioning of
the cable cars' stations would seem to indicate that the
tram Rebecca rides isn't the same tram that Leon and Claire
ride in RE2. (If you check in RE2, there's a big stack of
oil drums in front of the corner where Rebecca's door was.)
The entirety of the tunnel system apparently makes use of
a preexisting series of underground caverns.
From Outbreak, we also know that Birkin's lab has two
additional sublevels, accessible via a freight entrance
connected to the tunnels underneath Raccoon City. In RE2,
they're inaccessible thanks to the giant plant on the
facility wall; in RE0, you can't reach 'em because Rebecca
won't go through the west door on B4.
With this in mind, Rebecca's meeting with Enrico and her
fight with the Tyrant are both set on the top floor of
Birkin's laboratory. We're not sure exactly what caused
the rockfall on this floor (although the Tyrant's a prime
suspect), or what that rockfall is blocking (since the
turntable's got train tracks on it and it doesn't go
all the way down to Birkin's station, one would assume
the rockfall destroyed another train stop). Naturally,
the worst of the damage to Birkin's lab has been cleaned
up by the time Leon and Claire visit.
The sewage treatment plant that Ada and Sherry visit in
RE2 is *not* the one that Rebecca finds Billy in. When
Billy and Rebecca escape the treatment facility at the
end of RE0, they're still in the middle of the Raccoon
Forest, whereas RE2's plant was on the same block as
the police station in midtown Raccoon City.
The biggest problem here is the elevator in the trainyard
of the training facility, which stops there, at a storage
area outside the training facility's cable car stop, at
the top floor of Birkin's laboratory, and at the power
station in the former treatment plant. This would suggest
that all seven floors of Birkin's laboratory, the training
facility, the factory, a dam, at least two train stations,
and a cable car track with at least two cars and four
stops are all encompassed by a single, sprawling complex
that stretches underneath the Raccoon Forest and part of
Raccoon City. This further assumes that the underground
rivers seen in both REv.2 and RE0 are joined to each other.
You could reach this complex via the secret trams in the
Raccoon City sewer system, a personnel elevator in the
training facility's basement, or by walking through a
subway tunnel underneath Raccoon City.
Furthermore, this also means that Birkin's labs were
so well-constructed that after the destruction of the
training facility and presumably all the areas below
and around it, they were not only still standing, but
they were able to function independently.
The Spencer mansion, thankfully, is a bit simpler. By
the time the player reaches the entrance to the labs
beneath the Spencer mansion, there aren't any places
where the mansion *could* have passages connecting it
to Raccoon City or the training facility. There're a
couple of doors in the same area as the fountain that
conceals the labs' entrance, one of which is obviously
a freight entrance, but someone with a welding torch
has sealed them by the time the player gets there.
Q. (from Alex Rose, among others, paraphrased) When
she gets to the warehouse from RE2, why doesn't
Rebecca just go back to the RPD building?
A. For one thing, the hatch is locked and Rebecca never
finds the key. For another, she's got no way of knowing
about the secret passageway in the RPD basement, as is
suggested by the phrase "secret passageway." Rebecca
has many talents, but clairvoyance isn't on the list.
Q. When was the treatment plant closed?
A. One of the problems that RE0 presents to the storyline
enthusiast is that many of the files have dates, but
no years. The Treatment Plant Manager's Diary file
says that the plant was run by Umbrella, but was
closed due to a sudden influx of additional waste
that they couldn't process--on July 24th. Now, seeing
as how the treatment plant looks like it's been
abandoned for a while, how very few businesses are
closed suddenly in the middle of the night, and how
I find it hard to believe that the manager would write
an exasperated diary entry about the closing of the
plant while he's hip-deep in zombies and Hunters
("July 24th: I can't believe they're closing the
plant. What am I going to do for a job now? PS: Oh,
yeah. AIEEEEEEEEEEE!"), I choose to believe that the
diary entry was written on, at the latest, July 24th,
1997. The fresh zombies and working machinery can be
attributed to another ill-fated cleanup crew.
Q. Is the factory the same place as the Dead Factory
in RE3?
A. No. When Billy and Rebecca leave the factory via
the shipping dock on the fifth floor, they're on a
hill overlooking the Spencer mansion. The Dead
Factory was in Raccoon City, behind the park and
within a few blocks of the hospital.
Q. What was that thing that came after Billy in the water?
A. It's almost easier to say what it wasn't. It couldn't've
been the Neptune, because the Neptune's locked in the Aqua
Ring, and it was clearly too big to be the giant frogs
that the official strategy guide calls "Lurkers." Another
traditional suspect is the giant crocodile from RE2,
simply because it is also large and aquatic, but the facts
(it's too big to escape its own sewer tunnel, and it probably
hasn't mutated into existence yet by the time of RE0) seem
to prohibit that.
I tend to believe that Billy's attacker was Marcus's queen
leech. It's big, we know from Marcus's expository FMV that
it's aquatic, and it didn't eat Billy.
Q. Where the *hell* did that Tyrant come from?
A. As mentioned above under RE2's FAQs, it might very
well be the mysterious escapee from William Birkin's lab.
I'm pretty sure it wasn't the former inhabitant of the
broken storage tube on the ninth floor of the treatment
facility, since that tube's not really big enough.
============================
15viii. RESIDENT EVIL GAIDEN
============================
Q. When're you going to add Gaiden?
A. When I run out of distractions, which, at this rate,
will be at some point in late 2008. See, here's the thing:
Gaiden blows. It's like they took that dumbass sliding
meter from Tidus's Overdrives and made a shooter out of
it. I've owned Gaiden for a while and I keep putting it
off in favor of better games. Like *Cybermorph*.
I mean, come on. I already played through Survivor twice
for you people. A man can only take so much.
Q. Does Gaiden contribute *anything* to the plot?
A. It would appear to answer the question of who was talking
to Leon in his RE3 Epilogue, tells us what Barry's been up to,
and ends on a cliffhanger that may never be explored.
=============================
15ix. RESIDENT EVIL: DEAD AIM
=============================
Q. Why is it on the PS2? What about the exclusivity contract?
A. As it was explained to me, the exclusivity contract only
applied to new games in the core Resident Evil series. Gun
Survivor 4 and Outbreak were both in development before the
contract was made, and both are side stories.
Q. Why did its name change?
A. The original Survivor has a largely deserved reputation for
sucking. Dead Aim doesn't suck. Therefore, it's understandable
why they might want to change the name.
Q. Hey, is Fong Ling Ada?
A. There's no reason why she would be, aside from them both being
eerily competent Chinese women. They don't look at all alike.
Q. Why was Morpheus blamed for the Arklay outbreak?
A. The Dismissal Notice file is Morpheus's pink slip from Umbrella,
and gives the reason as his responsibility in the May 11th, 1998
incident at the Arklay laboratory. This came pretty much out of
left field, and Morpheus's link with Arklay isn't explored further.
With that said, we know from the intro that Morpheus isn't American;
the name Duvall is French; and Morpheus's cultists managed to steal
a T-Virus sample from a Paris laboratory.
Meanwhile, as noted above, Wesker screwed over a French laboratory;
William Birkin was "killed" by agents working for Umbrella's French
division; and Morpheus's job put him in a supervising capacity.
Coincidences are seldom useful, as noted above. Granted, this is a
list of facts without much to join them together, but there's enough
here to at least come somewhere near an answer. It's possible that
Morpheus is being made the scapegoat for the Arklay outbreak due to
Umbrella France's responsibility for the Raccoon City outbreak.
============================
15x. RESIDENT EVIL: OUTBREAK
============================
Q. Okay, so what does *this* do to the timeline?
A. Not a great deal, actually. Outbreak begins on September
22nd, very shortly after the first death of William Birkin
(one of twelve; collect them all!), and despite a mild
continuity quirk (see Mistakes, below), it ends at the same
time as RE3.
"Outbreak" clearly starts on the 22nd and ends no more than
a couple of hours thereafter. There's nothing here that
relates to any other games' plot.
"Below Freezing Point" is set on the lower levels of Birkin's
laboratory. Since RE0 establishes that Birkin's lab is way the
hell out in the Raccoon Forest, underneath the ruins of the
training facility, you've got to figure the hike under the
city took a little while. Further, a bit of time clearly
elapses between the attack against Birkin and "Below Freezing
Point," though it could've been anywhere from a few hours to
a couple of days. You could set "BFP" anywhere from the 23rd
to the 26th or so without screwing up the timeline too badly.
"The Hive" takes place inside the Raccoon Hospital, where
Carlos searched for a T-Virus vaccine in RE3. There's nothing
to indicate when the scenario takes place, although it'd seem
to be relatively late in the outbreak. If it was early on,
you'd expect the hospital to be really crowded with injured
survivors; instead, it's almost deserted.
I initially thought that "Hellfire" was set directly after
"Outbreak," as you pass the Apple Inn during the mad dash
away from J's Bar, but "End of the Road" in File #2 disproves
that. Since the fire department's still up and running after
"Hellfire" and the street outside the Inn is clear, I'd say
that "Hellfire" is set on the 23rd or 24th, when the situation's
dire but not yet critical. Like "Outbreak," there's nothing in
"Hellfire" that references any other RE.
Finally, "Decisions, Decisions" takes place just before
sunrise on October 1st. The big problem here is Nicholai's
presence, which is complicated by the aforementioned
continuity quirk. That said, for all we know, Nicholai
had his helicopter waiting on the roof.
Q. How do the scenarios relate to each other, anyway?
A. At this point, I'm considering all the scenarios within
the two Outbreak games to be short stories set against the
background of Raccoon City, rather than a cohesive narrative
in five or ten parts. "Outbreak" is a starting point and
"Decisions, Decisions" and "End of the Road" are endings,
but that's about as far as I think we can go.
Q. When you start "Outbreak," all eight characters are
shown in J's Bar, but only three or four of them are still
inside when the game starts. Where did the others go?
A. If they aren't in the active group, then they're NPCs,
and as such, they can do whatever the hell they want. It's
suggestive that Cindy and Mark are present for "Outbreak,"
but other than that, all bets are off.
Q. Why are there so many zombies, so soon after the outbreak?
A. Many files in RE2 and RE3, such as Chris's Diary, indicate
that the T-Virus had already made it into Raccoon City, with
monsters appearing within the city limits as early as August
18th. Presumably, those individuals who immediately succumbed
to the T-Virus were already nursing a mild dose of it before
the lab attack.
Q. What's Yoko's deal, anyway?
A. Good question. Nobody in Outbreak gets a lot of plot
except Yoko (there's a lot of inferred characterization,
such as each character's special items, but very little
character-driven story), and a lot of hers is weird.
This makes her the main character of Outbreak almost
by default.
If you play "Below Freezing Point" as Yoko, it becomes
obvious that she worked in Birkin's laboratory before the
attack. She already knows the facility's layout, the dying
scientist on B5 recognizes her, several of the special
items were hers, her fingerprint's already registered on
the lab's computer system, and Monica needs Yoko's card
key to unlock B4. (How did Monica get to B4 despite the
plant infestation in the duct? NPC powers.)
Yoko also found out about the attack in time to escape
the laboratory. As noted in the next FAQ, Yoko's not
trying to get out of town before "Outbreak"; she's trying
to change her appearance as fast as possible. The viral
spill is as much of a surprise to her as to anyone else,
if her emotes are anything to go by.
The question then becomes whether Yoko remembers why
she knows this. As you progress through the game as
Yoko, her ending monologues continue to pursue a theme.
She knows she's forgotten something important, and it's
driven her slightly mad.
The only resolution we get to this in the first Outbreak
is the comment made by Greg at the end of "Decisions,
Decisions." If Yoko's in your group when you meet him,
Greg says that something happened to her two years ago.
Yoko clearly doesn't remember it, and Greg sympathizes;
it was so horrible that he doesn't blame her for forgetting.
It's only in "End of the Road" in Outbreak File #2 that
we get an answer. If you decrypt a second MO disk and use
it in the computer in the Special Research Room, you'll
find the hidden Experiment Participants file. In it, Yoko
is listed among the people who participated in an unspecified
T-Virus experiment on May 14th, 1996: two years before the
events of the Outbreak games.
Yoko's ad-libs during the same scenario also reveal that her
memory is apparently coming back by that point, as Yoko
remembers that she donated cells to help create the Tyrant.
Afterwards, Greg operated on her to tamper with her memory.
Q. Why was Yoko cutting her hair in the J's Bar bathroom?
A. Good question. Yoko never gives a reason, and given her
commentary throughout the rest of the game, I have my doubts
that even she knows why.
I do have one idea, though. Yoko has trust issues (one of
her ad-libs is "It's okay to trust you, right?") and she
may know what happened to Birkin. If you're an Umbrella
employee whose boss just got whacked by other Umbrella
employees, changing your appearance is a solid Plan A.
It's also been noted by some alert reader or another--I
lost the e-mail, sorry--that cutting off your hair is a
potent image in Japanese symbolism, representing a breaking
of ties with the past. Yoko seems a bit too American to
have been going with that, but the game's Japanese.
Q. What was in Monica's briefcase?
A. The Top-Secret Memo mentions a parasite that needs
to be kept in a special case. If you speak to the dying
researcher on B5 as Yoko, he says that Monica took one
of Birkin's projects.
Odds are good that Monica's carrying that parasite, and
that the parasite has something to do with the G-Virus.
Since it's something that'll "wake up," I'd imagine it's
an embryo.
Q. What happened to Monica?
A. There's only one creature in RE that plants little
happy monster bombs in people, and Monica happens to
be standing in his lab.
Another possible culprit is the unnamed "sample" inside
Monica's case, which as noted above is almost certainly
something to do with the G-Virus. The Top Secret Memo
notes that you have to be very careful with the sample
or it'll wake up, and the case gets opened at some point.
The problem with that, though, is that in the cutscene
where Monica gets attacked, her assailant comes from
above and behind her, as if somebody jumped down on her
from the top of the turntable shaft. Whatever's in the
case is also visibly still in that case when Monica
appears at the end of the scenario.
Given the available information, I've got to go with
my first guess. That's right, kids; chalk up another
one for my man Willy Birkin.
Q. So why didn't William go after the survivors?
A. If you play as Yoko and speak to the scientist on
B5, he mentions that Monica's stealing one of Birkin's
projects ("We both know she can't handle that"). That
may be enough to explain it right there, especially
early in his mutation when there might still be something
of Birkin left.
It also doesn't help that the survivors are a small,
well-armed group. After his initial attack against Hunk's
team, Birkin seems to get shy around crowds; note that
he goes out of his way to make sure that Leon or Claire
are alone before attacking during RE2.
Q. Why is the plant in Birkin's lab still alive in RE2?
A. As we know from either version of RE, V-Jolt will
weaken and damage a T-Virus plant, but it won't kill it
outright. Further, in RE:O, you don't fry the plant's
roots. It has plenty of time to regenerate between games.
Q. So who cleaned out Birkin's lab in time for RE2?
A. Probably Annette. Who else would do it? Who else is
still alive *to* do it?
Q. Is the leech creature in the hospital James Marcus?
A. It doesn't seem likely. The hospital leeches have an
entirely different modus operandi than Marcus's did; they
take over a victim's body, as opposed to shapeshifting
into creepy old men. There's also the minor detail of that
colony's queen having been destroyed at the end of RE0.
Finally, the Investigation Report file notes that these
leeches are different than Marcus's.
Q. How does the author of the Investigation Report file
know anything about Marcus's leeches?
A. They were Marcus's private obsession for about a
decade, as seen in RE0, and Umbrella is just crazy about
archiving data.
Q. Did Ben Bertolucci escape from the Apple Inn?
A. A lot of players have written in to note the presence
of a man who looks a great deal like Ben Bertolucci in
the ending for "Hellfire." That man is running away from
the Inn as fast as his legs can carry him.
Capcom's displayed sort of a knack for reusing character
models in the RE games, especially in the Outbreak series.
For example, the casual observer might note that Cindy B
and Mark B are both standing in the crowd during the final
cinema sequence of File #2. Thus, it's hard to say that the
running guy in "Hellfire" is unequivocally meant to be Ben.
Q. (from Victor Xiao) Are Daylight and the T-Virus vaccine
from RE3 the same thing?
A. It's hard to say for certain. Peter and Greg developed
Daylight on their own. Greg was working for Umbrella at the
time, but he apparently never bothered to tell Umbrella about
Daylight. The Reagent Refinement file in RE:O2 indicates that
as far as Umbrella knows, the T-Virus doesn't have a cure.
The components of RE3's vaccine, on the other hand, are
just lying around the Raccoon Hospital. Presumably, it
and the AT1521 mentioned in the Reagent Refinement file
are related somehow, if not actually the same thing.
Q. Who killed Peter Jenkins?
A. No one takes credit for it. It probably wasn't Nicholai;
Peter wasn't an Umbrella employee and knew nothing about
Thanatos, so Nicholai has no reason to kill him. That would
point the finger at Greg Mura (whose last name is revealed
in a Yoko-specific file in "Flashback").
Q. Why does Greg hate Umbrella?
A. He's a big prima donna, apparently. He resents Umbrella
because they wanted to mass-produce the Thanatos bioweapon.
Seriously, does Umbrella run psychological tests on their
employees to make *sure* they're crazy?
===========================================
15xi. RESIDENT EVIL 4
(a.k.a. Thomas Uses the Word "Assume"
Fifty Times in Rapid Succession)
===========================================
Q. I'm *really* confused.
A. I don't blame you. Let's take it from the top.
Some time ago, the Salazar family encountered a species
of parasites called Las Plagas and imprisoned them below
their family's castle. When Las Plagas hatch in a victim's
body, they're nearly impossible to remove, although their
development can be slowed with medication.
Fast-forward to the present day. The last living Salazar
has become a member of a cult called Los Illuminados,
which is led by Lord Saddler. No one ever says what
the cult's beliefs are, aside from Saddler's "I'm so
awesome I should rule the world" philosophy, but there
are enough bloody altars and freaky iconography lying
around that we can make a few guesses.
Saddler and Salazar hatch a plan. They go find Las
Plagas underneath the castle and find that the
parasites have survived, after a fashion, in the form
of spores. They begin a long process of research and
experimentation on Las Plagas, aided by biologists
like Luis Sera.
The parasite's mutagenic properties allow Salazar
and Saddler to create guardian monsters, such as
Los Gigantos or the Regenerators. Note that many
monsters in RE4 are nearly immune to conventional
attacks, and only "die" upon the destruction of
their parasite.
Victims of Las Plagas, the Ganados, are intelligent
and appear self-aware, but are also utterly psychotic.
Ganados attack any non-Ganado they see with intent to
kill messily. Note that even when the Ganados are
ostensibly out to capture Leon, Luis, Ashley, or Ada,
they're using lethal force more often than not; also
note that according to Luis' Memo 2 (sic), the Plagas
induced psychosis in their hosts even before Saddler
started experimenting on them. A Ganado also likes
rotten food, doesn't care much for personal hygiene,
and tends to opt for melee weapons over firearms.
The leaders of Los Illuminados, such as Salazar, Saddler,
and Mendez, are all hosting master Plagas. Ada theorizes
at one point that the master Plagas can communicate with
and control lesser Plagas via the use of ultrasonic waves.
This may be linked with the bizarre staff Saddler carries.
By the time Leon strolls into town, every surviving
villager is either a Ganado, hosting a parasite, or
an Illuminado. (The game never says what differentiates
the two, aside from face paint and funky helmets.
Perhaps Ganados are villagers who resisted infection,
while Illuminados were members of the cult before the
rediscovery of the Plagas.) The destruction surrounding
Salazar's castle, the occasional proof of recent violence
(the dead woman in the cabin by the village in 1-1, the
fresh blood on the altar in the cliff tunnel in 2-3),
and the hand-drawn sketches shown during the final credits
would suggest that this conversion did not occur entirely
without incident. (Well, okay. It's that, or Ganados are
*not* cool about fire safety. Your pick.)
A modern member of Los Illuminados is hosting one of
Las Plagas, and as such, is completely under Saddler
and/or Salazar's control. Since there's no free will
involved here and Las Plagas are capable of reproducing
on their own (i.e. when the parasite jumps out of
somebody's head), Saddler's plan is to use Las Plagas
in a bid for world domination.
Towards that end, he hires Jack Krauser, a former
American soldier, to kidnap Ashley Graham, the daughter
of the President of the United States. Saddler intends
to inject Ashley with a parasite egg, then ransom her
back to her father. Ashley, thus infected, will be
able to place the President under Saddler's control.
(Presumably, an infected Ashley would've been granted
some abilities above and beyond those of a common
Illuminado. The sample that Luis steals from the lab
early in the game is apparently quite important; as
Saddler says in the Closure of the Church file,
without that sample, Ashley's useless to them.)
Krauser has other plans, however. He may be posing as
a mercenary at the moment, but he's actually working
for Wesker. Krauser kidnaps Ashley and delivers
her to Saddler as a way of worming his way into
Saddler's confidence, the better to steal a sample
of the special Plagas for his real employer. Krauser
has no intention of actually letting Saddler's plan
come to fruition; he tells Leon as much during their
knifefight in 5-2.
(To go by Krauser and Ada's conversation in 5-2, they
aren't after just any Plaga sample. They want the
special one that Luis stole.)
Saddler never really trusts Krauser, and thus never
gives Krauser the chance to steal the sample. Krauser
has no choice but to call for backup from a woman he
despises: Ada Wong.
Here's where things get tricky. The Americans find
out where Ashley is, but as Mendez points out in the
Alert Order file, it's not like one of the Ganados
squealed or something. Someone had to have tipped
the Americans off.
Krauser wouldn't've done it, and Luis doesn't seem
like a likely culprit. That leaves Ada, who's probably
the mysterious "third party" spoken of in several files.
Before Leon makes the scene, there's no one else on the
island who'd help Luis remove his Plaga.
Whoever reports Ashley's whereabouts, Leon's soon
dispatched to the Ganados' territory to ask a few
questions about Ashley. He shows Ashley's photo to
the first man he sees, who responds by trying to kill
Leon with an axe. Meanwhile, a bunch of other Ganados
kill the cops who drove Leon to the village and take
out the bridge out of town. Leon figures that means
he's on the right track, and the game gets underway.
Q. So why would Ada bring Leon in in the first place?
A. Good question, and one that's largely answered in
Separate Ways. Ada is the unseen hand that motivates
most of RE4, and you can trace most of the unexplained
plot points to her.
Ada explains her motivations in the reports that frame
the chapters in Separate Ways. Leon's presence is half
a distraction from what Ada's doing, and half an act of
deliberate sabotage against Los Illuminados. Ada wasn't
expecting the Americans to send Leon and *only* Leon,
but she's incorporated that into her plans; Ada's confident
that Leon can survive anything Los Illuminados throw at
him, and while they're focused on him, she can do her job.
The complication is, of course, that Ada doesn't want Leon
killed, but Wesker does, and Ada is supposedly working for
him. The biggest problem Ada faces over the course of the
game is that she's playing both sides against the middle,
and by the end, she's blown her cover with Wesker.
Q. Does Ada actually care about Leon?
A. I get the feeling that when people ask me this, they're
Leon/Ada 'shippers looking for confirmation.
There's some small subtext in the main game that would indicate
Ada's still sweet on Leon, but Separate Ways is full of it. Ada
doesn't just save Leon on several occasions; she lies, risks
her own life, and blows her cover to do it.
Q. Who's Ada really working for?
A. Once you beat Separate Ways, Ada files a final report. She
was only pretending to work for Wesker; she is, in fact, working
for some unnamed organization that is apparently opposed to
Umbrella. That organization wished to acquire a sample of Las
Plagas for research purposes.
Ada may not be on the side of the angels, per se, but she's
definitely not on Wesker's side.
Q. The Brady Games pamphlet enclosed with the PS2 version
contradicts you on a few points.
A. If you buy the limited edition version of RE4, you get a
little "the story up to now" magazine pamphlet by Brady Games,
for the legions of people who're only now checking out the series.
The booklet's... well, frankly, it's not that great. Among other
things, it works from the "Leon did it all" version of RE2 found
in Wesker's Report, it misspells Sherry's name, and it blames the
Raccoon City outbreak on the processing problems at the Dead
Factory, as mentioned in RE3.
Short version: I'm right, they're wrong, nanny nanny nyah nyah.
Q. Why isn't Leon better-equipped when the game starts?
A. He's there to ask a few questions, not invade Spain.
If anything, he's overequipped; Leon's got a handgun
with a laser sight, a combat knife in a quick-release
sheath, a flashlight, a grappling hook, two different
radios, a portable tracking device, an attache case,
a pair of binoculars, a combat harness, and some gum.
He looks like a Bud K catalogue exploded.
Q. Why don't the Ganados disarm Leon?
A. Why would they? The Ganados don't think guns are
dangerous, Mendez is bulletproof, they expect Leon to
become a Ganado at any moment, and they were planning
on killing Leon with an axe.
Q. What happened to Leon's jacket?
A. As you head back through the village in the second chapter
of Separate Ways, one of the Ganados you kill won't dissolve.
If you check his body, Ada will note that he appears to be
wearing Leon's jacket. Apparently, Ganados really dig on suede.
Q. What was Saddler doing to Ashley with that machine?
A. I can only presume that Saddler was preparing to
inject Ashley with the special sample that Luis had
stolen. Really, what else would that machine be? The
coolest tanning bed ever?
Q. Who was Luis Sera?
A. He claims to have once been a cop. As he's dying,
Luis confesses that he was one of Saddler's researchers.
That doesn't preclude his being a former cop, especially
in the world of RE, where everyone has six careers before
they hit 21.
According to Luis's diary entries, which're scattered
throughout the game, Luis's job was to try to find ways
that Las Plagas could be safely eliminated from an infected
human's system. Saddler proceeded to use Luis's research
to make Las Plagas harder to safely cure. Luis began looking
to anyone and everyone for help against Saddler, including
emailing a friend of his from college.
As Ada mentions in her report on Luis, that friend happened
to have died, and Ada intercepted the email. She contacted
Luis and offered her assistance, albeit without disclosing
her identity or her motivations.
There's a little bit of a problem with the story, found within
Separate Ways. Wesker says that they planted Luis in Saddler's
employ, but Ada's report on Luis seems to contradict this. As
Ada's version of events matches up with what Leon learns over
the course of the main game from Luis's own files, I'm guessing
that Wesker doesn't have the whole story here.
Q. Why is Saddler retarded?
A. For all his posturing, Osmund Saddler is actually
pretty stupid. He could've stopped Leon's rampage at any
time after Leon's Plaga hatched, but inexplicably chooses
not to. (I can see Saddler not really caring about the
deaths of the Ganados, but once he starts in on the
Illuminados, you'd expect Saddler to object.) He also
has a habit of writing down his plans in precise, explicit
detail, then leaving the notes out where Leon's going to
find them.
You know how Plagas infection makes people psychotic?
Personally, I chalk Saddler's idiocy up to that.
Q. Who are the Merchants?
A. Really creepy agents of a game mechanic. I try
not to consider them part of the plot, except as a
way of explaining where Leon's getting some of his
equipment. They are Ganados, though; some of them
have the creepy red eyes.
If nothing else, though, their presence does explain
how Saddler's getting ahold of all that military
ordinance. For a European cult leader in the middle
of BFN, the man has a lot of firepower.
Q. How does Leon know Ada's been working with Wesker?
A. He clearly knows something we don't.
Q. When does Ada save Leon from Mendez?
A. At the start of Chapter 1-3, head back into the bedroom.
You'll get to see this from the other side during Chapter 2
of Separate Ways.
Q. Why is Wesker planning to bring back Umbrella?
A. We never learn Wesker's motivation for rebuilding Umbrella.
We get Krauser's, odd though it may be (Umbrella can't keep
its act together long enough to order shatterproof test tubes,
let alone bring "order to this world"), but not his boss's.
That said, there are plenty of possible reasons why someone
might want to reorganize Umbrella, including but not limited
to power, wealth, fame, and megalomania.
Wesker's Report II gives the impression that Wesker didn't
actually hate Umbrella. His objection was largely to Ozwell
Spencer and his crazy plans. If Wesker rebuilt Umbrella,
Spencer would ostensibly no longer be in the picture.
In her final file during Separate Ways, Ada suggests that
Umbrella served as a useful cover for the criminals of the
world; further, she notes that Wesker used Umbrella to
hide behind while he came up with his own plans. Both are
interesting points, but as neither argument comes directly
from Wesker himself, they must be considered conjecture.
Q. Do the Plagas mutations have anything to do with the
T-Virus or G-Virus?
A. There's nothing in any file in the game that would
suggest such. As a matter of fact, the only people who
mention Umbrella at all are Krauser and, at the end of
Assignment Ada, Wesker.
The mutations linked to Las Plagas are apparently the
result of Saddler's experiments in the island facility.
As far as we know, they were done on their own, with
no influence from Umbrella.
Q. Did Luis's vial contain the T-Virus?
A. I saw a long thread on GameFAQs about this, and
figured I'd include it here.
Luis says that he's seen a sample of the T-Virus in
his police department's laboratory. Some fans interpret
this as a tacit admission that Luis is a former Umbrella
employee, as it seems unusual that a police station
would have the T-Virus on hand.
This is something of an overreaction. Luis says that
it's a sample, which connotates a very small amount.
It's not like there's a big tank of it somewhere.
Further, we know that the American government knew about
the T-Virus and its effects, and Leon's opening monologue
suggests that Umbrella's culpability in the Raccoon City
disaster was, if not public knowledge, a relatively open
secret. It's not beyond the bounds of reason for any law
enforcement agency to have a sample of the T-Virus on hand,
in case there's an outbreak within their jurisdiction and
they need to know what they're dealing with. (Note that
Leon doesn't flip out when Luis mentions the sample.) It
also helps that Luis wasn't working in some backwater
town; he was a cop in Madrid, the capital of Spain. One
could also assume, given Luis's knowledge of biology,
that he was a forensic scientist.
Since the T-Virus isn't present in any form in Saddler's
labs (because if it was there, it would've escaped; that's
just the way it rolls), we must assume that all the samples
in RE4 are of preserved Plagas.
(Besides, why would Ada want a sample of the T-Virus?
If she really needed one, she works with Wesker. She
wouldn't have to steal it from Los Illuminados.)
While there's room for debate, most contradictory theories
tend to rely on questioning whether Luis was telling the
truth. There's no in-game reason why he wouldn't--honestly,
Luis has the most straightforward motivations of anyone
besides Leon--so we have to assume that he was.
Q. When did Ashley see Ada?
A. She was half-conscious when Leon pulled her out
of Saddler's machine. Note that Ashley is weak, but
walking under her own power as Leon drags her out
of the room. Also, in Separate Ways, Ashley looks up
during the final battle to see Ada zip-lining around
the construction platforms.
Q. Why is Ada dressed like that?
A. Here's a thought on the subject, to do with as
you will.
Luis Sera introduces himself as a "ladies' man."
He's looking to stop the Ganados and Saddler, and
has found a way to destroy Las Plagas. He's also
capable of moving around the area undetected (cf.
the Sera and the Third Party file).
Ada, conversely, wishes to steal a sample of Las
Plagas and was hoping to do so secretly. She's also
come by an astounding amount of knowledge about Las
Plagas and has done so without being discovered or
visiting the research facility.
Various files, as noted above, suggest that Luis and
Ada are working together despite their dissonant
motivations, and Ada does look good in that dress.
Q. How does Assignment: Ada fit in to the storyline?
A. Uneasily. It may work best if we assume that Ada's
mission is set on Disc 2, after Leon and Krauser's
knifefight, and between Chapters Three and Four of
Separate Ways. While Leon's battling Krauser, Ada
circles back around the island, changes into tac gear,
and mounts her own assault on what's left of Saddler's
processing facility.
At the end of A:A, Ada calls for evac. Assumedly, she
turns the helicopter around, changes back into her
dress, and gets dropped off on the road outside the
battlefield. This also gives her plenty of time to
plant charges throughout the island, and explains
how Ada winds up on the road to the battleground
despite the destruction of the ruins.
Parjay, on the Dark Legacy forums, points out that
in A:A's ending Ada stores all the Plagas samples
inside the case, including the one she got from
Saddler. Thus, the end of A:A takes place after the
end of RE4's main story mode.
The advantage to this chain of events is that it
gives Krauser a reason to show up at the end of A:A.
The Krauser's Notes file suggests that he didn't
trust Ada and was looking for a reason to kill her.
Ada disarming him during the knifefight would neatly
provide that reason.
This is the best explanation I can come up with,
but it has its own set of difficulties:
-- This explanation assumes that Krauser's mutation
works a bit like it does in Mercenaries. In
other words, his wonder arm's retractable,
though he may need to recover after he uses
it. Thus, he pops it to deal with Ada, changes
back into human form, then brings it back out
(with considerably more drama) to deal with Leon.
-- You've also gotta wonder why Krauser gives up
so easily in A:A, compared to what you have to
do to him in Leon's game. Any ideas I'd have
on the subject all involve making guesses about
his motivations, which I don't like to do.
-- It's a nice dress, Ada. Still, why change back
into it? Is this a girl thing that I shouldn't
question?
Q. Where did Krauser get his nifty mutated arm?
A. Krauser's sporting any number of enhancements even
before he sprouts the claw: superhuman agility, brief
bursts of unnatural speed, taking a .45 slug to the
face without messy braindeath, sassy beret, etc. The
similarities to Wesker's powers are unmistakable.
Since Krauser's working for Wesker, and thus for the
remnants of Umbrella, it's easy enough to assume
(there's that word again) that he's received several
nifty powers as a signing bonus. Since we know Umbrella
had developed Tyrant-in-a-can in 2002, as seen in Dead
Aim, it's not much of a stretch to assume (aigh!) the
existence of similar but improved biotech in 2004.
Q. Is Krauser infected with a Plaga? Is that where he
gets his powers?
A. Ada's report on Krauser seems to intimate that
Krauser had his mutated arm well before he was sent
to infiltrate Los Illuminados. She also notes that he's
probably fallen prey to the temptations the cult
represents; since Krauser is still vocally faithful
to Umbrella, that statement can easily be chalked up
to Ada just being bitchy.
It's my opinion that Krauser is not hosting a Plaga
at any point during RE4. For one thing, he still has
his free will, which would seem to rule out infection;
if Krauser was hosting a Plaga, Saddler wouldn't need
to distrust him. Further, that distrust would seem to
argue against Krauser hosting a master Plaga, since
Saddler doesn't hand those out to just anyone.
It is an odd side note, however, that the special
anti-Plaga laser device in the PS2 version of RE4
will instantly kill Krauser, but it's ineffective
against chickens, crows, cows, and dogs.
Q. Did Krauser survive?
A. To the casual observer, no. Not only did Leon kill
him, but Ada proceeded to kill him again. That said,
if he came back from what looked an awful lot like death
once, there's no reason why he couldn't do it twice.
Q. Where the hell did Krauser get spiderbots?
A. He's a big Deus Ex fan. Who knew?
Q. Is Ingrid Hunnigan Ada?
A. This is the first really Out There question that's
arisen in RE4 (the second being the surprisingly
widespread idea that Saddler is Spencer), so I'm
including it here.
The short version: you lose contact with Hunnigan
shortly before meeting Ada for the first time. Ada's
initially wearing sunglasses, but destroys them as a
handy distraction. The next time you see Hunnigan,
after the credits, she's not wearing her glasses.
Hence, as the popular theory goes, Ingrid's Ada in
disguise, presumably using some kind of gadget to
mask her face and voice.
This theory has apparently become widespread enough
that it was one of the questions that PSM2 asked
Masachika Kawata, the head of the team that ported
RE4 to the PS2. According to him, it's not true.
Q. Was Ingrid Hunnigan the "traitor"?
A. No, that was probably Krauser. He's an American,
and he admits to being Ashley's kidnapper during the
knifefight in 5-2.
Q. What's an ORE?
A. If you check the canned food store in the basement
of the island facility, Leon will remark that it reminds
him of his ORE days. A quick look at acronymfinder.com
indicates that ORE, among other things, can stand for
Operational Readiness Evaluation/Exercise. One would
presume that this is a reference to Leon's training.
================================
15xii. RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE
================================
Q. Are you going to cover the second movie in this document?
A. Hell no. You can't even *begin* to tell me it's relevant.
=======================================
15xiii. RESIDENT EVIL: OUTBREAK FILE #2
=======================================
Q. When do the new scenarios take place?
A. "Wild Things" is set a few days into the outbreak. The
RPD is still an active force in the city and the media is
still operating, but the writing's on the wall.
The only thing that determines when "Flashback" is set is
Ed's sidelong comment at the start of the scenario, about
how things are getting bad in the city. There's no real
way of knowing when it occurs, particularly since Ed's
shenanigans don't have much to do with the outbreak. You
could put it at almost any point within the first few days
of the outbreak.
"Underbelly" appears to take place at some point after the
27th, since the city's taken serious damage and the streets
are becoming overrun. The first Outbreak's scenarios suggest
that Raccoon didn't get *really* bad until the RPD lost the
battle on the 27th.
The events of "Desperate Times" take place near the end
of the siege of the RPD, just before Jill Valentine visits
the building on the 28th.
Finally, "End of the Road," like "Decisions, Decisions,"
is set on the morning of October 1st, in the last hours
before the bomb.
Q. So... what does this do to the timeline? How do all
of these scenarios fit together?
A. As with the first Outbreak, File #2's scenarios aren't
really a cohesive, five-part narrative. Instead, it's five
situations encountered throughout the outbreak, as seen
through the eyes of the survivors. Compared to the first
game, it's a bit more character-driven--all five scenarios
do, however tangentially, involve at least one member of
the cast--but it's still an anthology rather than a plotline.
While some scenarios would seem to be at least thematically
linked--for example, the end of "The Hive" could bring a
group of survivors to Birkin's laboratory to participate in
"Below Freezing Point"--no such connections are made in-game.
Q. What order do the scenarios take place in?
A. This is a highly contested question with few real answers
in-game. My version of the timeline is as follows:
"Outbreak": obviously, this is the start of the Raccoon City
disaster.
"Hellfire": since the fire department is still running and
the streets are relatively safe, I'd set this right after
"Outbreak." One might consider this the story of what happens
to the other four main PCs after that scenario.
"Below Freezing Point": I'd set this as early in the outbreak
as possible, to give Annette as much time as possible to clean
the lab back out before Leon and Claire get there. It also
can't be all *that* long after Birkin's assassination, since
there are still survivors amongst the lab's staff.
"Wild Things": all we know is that this is set before the 27th,
since the RPD is still working on an evacuation.
"Flashback": there's no way of knowing when this takes place,
but some characters' Illusion Endings note that the survivors
spend an entire day out in the forest. Thus, it's probably
around the middle of the week.
"The Hive": the horde of zombies outside the hospital, and
the general destruction within it, suggest that this scenario's
set near the end of the outbreak.
"Underbelly": the destruction in the streets at the start
of the scenario would suggest that this takes place near the
end of the outbreak, on the 27th or 28th.
"Desperate Times": This is one of the few scenarios that we
have a date for. It's set on the 28th, a few minutes or hours
before Jill arrives in RE3.
"End of the Road"/"Decisions, Decisions": these take place
nearly simultaneously, in the hours just before the destruction
of Raccoon City.
Q. What happened to Kurt at the hospital? Why is Alyssa
having flashbacks?
A. Kurt was an idealistic colleague of Alyssa's, who
came to the hospital to investigate an ongoing scandal.
Patients were dying, the details of their deaths were
going unreported, and Kurt couldn't track down who was
providing the hospital with its drugs. The culprit
turned out to be Umbrella, of course, working through
a shell corporation called Drugs Incorporated.
The Clinical Report file suggests rather strongly that
the drugs being used at the hospital were wholly or
partially derived from the T-Virus. The treatments
worked at first, but the patients would eventually
become zombies. This included Dorothy Lester, who was
given the treatment in 1996. However, patients were
still being admitted to the hospital as late as
mid-September of 1998, no more than a week before the
beginning of the outbreak.
If you hit the emote button a couple of times after
Alyssa's flashbacks, you'll get her commentary on them.
It doesn't seem that she's having sudden bursts of
repressed memory, so much as she's having flashes of
insight about the events that must have occurred at
the hospital. She remembers the hospital, and she
knows she's been there at some point to cover a story,
but it takes her a little while to figure out what
must've happened. It's probably understandable, since
the hospital looks like it's been abandoned for years.
Alyssa knows that Kurt went to the hospital to investigate
the scandal, and then disappeared suddenly. It's only when
she reaches Room 201 that she realizes what must've happened
to him. Kurt broke into the hospital at night and fell prey
to the zombified patients. Alyssa's flashbacks are a
combination of her memories of the place and a series of
intuitive leaps.
An alternative interpretation is that Alyssa was actually
with Kurt on the night he broke into the hospital, but
something was done to her that made her forget the incident.
The flashbacks are her memories resurfacing as she revisits
the area. I'm not sure I like this version, but given Yoko's
revelation in "End of the Road," it's a distinct possibility.
Q. What the hell happened to the RPD after the siege?
A. Yeah, I'd like to thank Capcom for that one. It's bad
enough that half the RPD is boarded shut during RE3, but
now there's a raging inferno in the back lot, several rooms
are heavily barricaded, and most of the damn building is
flooded with *nerve gas*. (Apparently, Brian Irons doesn't
think something's an effective deterrent unless it's banned
by the Geneva Convention. Why is he in charge, again?)
That being said, there are quite a few people who are still
in the RPD or have yet to arrive there, many of whom are
major players in RE2. Just to name a few, Ada Wong, Sherry
Birkin, Marvin, Elliot Edward, Eliza Warren, Ben Bertolucci,
the two convicts in the cellblock, and a few surviving cops
(re: the Operation Report files in RE2) are all still in the
building when Rita's crew makes their escape. Brian Irons
is also lurking in the background, though he may not actually
be in the building; his diary in RE2 mentions that he's in
the precinct, but not necessarily the precinct house.
Any one of these people could account for one or more of
the changes in the RPD between the end of "Desperate Times"
and Jill's visit on the 28th. Particular suspects here
would include Irons, whose obsession with the arrangement
of his furniture was noted in RE2's Secretary's Diary file;
Elliot Edward, who writes of his attempts to escape via the
sewer system in RE2's Operation Report files; and Ada Wong,
who says in RE2 that she's conducted a room-by-room search
of most of the building.
At the end of the day, however, just like the boarded-up
doors in RE3, none of this really matters. It'd be nice
if Capcom would cut it out--I just know they're going to
do something in File #3 like blow up the St. Michael Clock
Tower on the 23rd, because they hate me--but it's sort
of irrelevant for the purposes of this document.
Q. How does "Desperate Times" fit into the RE2/RE3 timeline?
A. It's a little tricky.
At first glance, the order of events is simple. Following
the battle against the zombies on the 27th (RE3's intro),
the police pull back to the RPD. The siege goes poorly,
and the zombies take over the west wing of the building.
(Presumably, several cops and citizens are trapped in that
wing during "Desperate Times," as there are living officers
in the building right up until Leon and Claire arrive on
the night of the 29th.)
With all of their escape routes blocked off, Marvin Branagh
comes up with a plan. The setup and execution of that plan
is covered in "Desperate Times," which takes place at some
point on the 28th.
Rita and the survivors escape the RPD at the end of
"Desperate Times," and Marvin collapses in the west
office. At some point shortly thereafter, Jill stops
by to grab her Lockpick. She thinks Marvin's dead, and
thus doesn't try to help him. While she's slugging it
out with Nemesis, Marvin wakes up and, perhaps motivated
by the sound of anti-tank rockets going off inside the
building, decides to find somewhere else to be. (As noted
above, in RE3, Marvin's body disappears the moment you
find the Lockpick.)
Finally, on the night of the 29th, Leon and Claire reach
the RPD. Claire finds Marvin barely alive in the RPD's
west office, and is later forced to kill him when he
becomes a zombie.
So far, things are fairly simple. The big complication is
in Kevin's ending in "Desperate Times," where a police car
passes their van on the street. Some people think that's
Leon and Claire's police car from the beginning of RE2.
Personally, I don't see why people think that, as I can't
see through the car's windshield. It's weird that there's
another car on the street, yeah, but if it's Leon and Claire,
it screws up the timeline. Either Kevin and Rita were driving
around the city for a day and a half before he thought to talk
to her (not inconceivable, really, as Kevin's kind of a dick),
Jill's visit to the RPD on the 28th took place at some point
when everyone but Marvin was behind the barricades, or the
Outbreak File #2 developers were so eager to include an Easter
egg that they forgot about RE3.
Q. What's Marvin got against the STARS?
A. There's an interesting note on the desk in the RPD's
west office, where Marvin details the cops' evacuation
plan. He mentions something about how they might be able
to rely on the STARS, but dismisses the idea out of hand.
At this point in the timeline, as far as Marvin knows,
the notoriously unreliable Brad Vickers is the only member
of STARS who's still in town and still alive; the other
STARS dropped off the radar around the middle of August,
as Marvin says at the start of RE2. Further, as established
in several files in RE2, the STARS became a laughingstock
upon their return to Raccoon City.
Q. Doesn't Marvin know about Jill?
A. He still thinks Jill's "disappeared" when he talks to
Claire at the start of RE2, on the 29th. Clearly, he didn't
actually see Jill on the 28th.
Q. What's in Leon's envelope?
A. As Kevin, you can find Leon's resume in the RPD's
west office, although the envelope is tightly sealed.
It's odd that Capcom didn't include the file in total.
Q. Where's the Experiment Participants file?
A. After you bring Carter the MO Disk, grab a second
disk off the table and decrypt it in the same mainframe.
You can now use the disc in the Special Experiments
room's computer to bring the file onscreen. It's garbled,
but Yoko's name is still legible.
Q. Why did the Tyrant turn on Carter?
A. It was in its contract. As an Umbrella bioweapon, it's
legally required to turn on its creators or users at the
worst possible moment.
Seriously, though, there's no indication as to why the
Tyrant starts going after humans. Personally, I wonder
if it heard and understood what Carter was saying about
it, and took offense to the whole "explosive charge in
my head" thing.
Q. Hey, shouldn't the Apple Inn be on fire?
A. The Raccoon City fire department took care of that in
the closing cinematic for "Hellfire."
Q. How can I get Yoko to talk about the experiment?
A. Yoko seems to be more likely to uncork her ad-libs
about her resurfacing memories if you're either in the
lobby of the Apple Inn with Linda, or if you're on the
first floor of the office building waiting for the clock
to run out.
Q. Where did Cindy get the money to buy a house?
A. One word: "lawsuit." I think she might have a case.
==============
16. Say What?!
==============
"I play violent video games. I could snap at any moment!"
-- Tycho Brahe, "Penny Arcade"
You people are crazy.
This section deals with the weirder and wilder theories, "facts,"
claims, and proclamations that I've received or seen since this
thesis made its freshly updated debut. Most of these theories
were sent to me by fans who presented them as though they were
the gospel truth. I have, admittedly, had my own fun with a few
of these, and I snuck in a particularly creative contribution.
Say What?! is meant strictly for fun, and isn't intended to mock
any of the people who sent me the theories in question. This
also isn't an invitation to send me even *weirder* theories,
send me a friend's zany theories (Peter Pap told me a funny
story about a neighbor of his who's convinced Sherry was
Nemesis), or, indeed, to send me theories at all.
All theories regarding Wesker's survival predate Wesker's Report,
save #19. All theories regarding Nemesis's origins predate the
RE film and Wesker's Report 2.
============================
16i. The Weirdest of the Lot
============================
1. Wesker survived RE because there is more than one Wesker. There
is actually a *series* of Weskers, created by forces unknown, which
are sent out to perform various tasks. These Weskers are:
1a. ...clones.
1b. ...robots.
1c. ...robot clones.
1d. ...robot killer death clones. Yeah, bitch.
1e. ...Rebecca. Yes, that's right, *all* of them are *Rebecca*.
She's *very clever*.
1f. ...Nemesis. Turnabout is fair play.
1g. ...created by Dr. Mephisto for his own evil purposes. Some
of them have as many as *five* asses! Quake in terror,
mortals! The five-assed Wesker thirsts for your blood!
2. Nemesis was actually:
2a. Wesker. The radiation from the nuke turned him human again.
(This, and the other radiation-based theories, all stem
back from before Outbreak, when we all thought the missile
at the end of RE3 was a nuke.)
2b. The original Wesker. The one in CV was a clone (with/without
"Hunter genes," depending on who's talking).
2c. Jill's anonymous "boyfriend," mentioned in RE2.
2d. Ada. She survived the end of RE2 by using the G-Virus, and
then turned right around and became Nemesis. (...so the
G-Virus lets you travel back in time? William Birkin was
a friggin' *genius*!)
2e. Rebecca.
2f. The (previously) unidentified guy in the STARS group photo.
2g. Regina. No, I don't know why he'd be Regina, particularly
since if Regina exists in the RE universe, she'd be eleven.
2h. Hey, Billy Coen could've been Nemesis! (HATING YOU SO MUCH)
2i. Hey, D.I.J. could be Nemesis, who was turned into a mouse
by the nuke's radiation! (...am I the only one who didn't
learn about radiation from Silver Age Marvel comics?)
2j. American "prop comic" Carrot Top, in his video game debut.
2k. He was sculpted out of delicious tapioca pudding, and
left in the microwave too long.
2l. No one actually *made* him. They found him clogging up
the floor drain in the Dead Factory.
2m. Nemesis is 1952 Democratic presidential candidate Adlai
Stevenson. "STAAARRRSSSS" is really code for "Eisenhower
beat me, so I will extract revenge on you, Jill!
Rrraaarrggghhh!" (I always thought Adlai looked a little
shifty.)
3. Wesker is "obviously" a vampire as of CV. He's fast, he's
strong, he's arrogant... he's a vampire! Come on! Work with me!
4. Jill quit S.T.A.R.S. and the RPD because of--ahem--unwanted
attentions from Chief Irons. (According, that is, to "anonymous
sources" inside the development staff. Why is it that everyone
and their mom, EXCEPT ME, has "anonymous sources" inside Capcom?)
5. You can play as [Rebecca/Wesker/Akuma] in RE2. (No, you can't.
Rebecca and Wesker are purely Internet rumors, but the
Akuma rumor was printed in one of Electronic Gaming Monthly's
April Fool's issues, and like everything else that shows up in
their April Fool's issues, the rumor spread like influenza and
has far outlived its funniness. According to EGM, if you beat
the game in under an hour and a half, using *only* the handgun
and knife, Akuma would become playable. Vincent Merken did it,
for he is ninja, and it didn't work.)
6. Wesker works for the American government (yet another fact
from those "anonymous sources").
7. Brad was an Umbrella spy before his death. (And not a very good
one, either.)
8. Annette Birkin threw the rocket launcher in RE2. (It's Ada's voice
actress (a guy on Evil-Online actually ran a spectrograph and proved
it), it's Ada's polygon model, Leon thinks it's Ada, and Ada's
still alive.)
9. D.I.J. is the Ashfords' butler. The T-Virus turned him into
a mouse. Now, he uses his powers to fight evil!
10. Lara Croft threw the rocket launcher in RE2. Yeah. I know. The
girl gets around.
11. Nemesis was a G-Virus creature, because the Resident Evil 3
two-page magazine ad shows a broken vial of the G-Virus. (It's
not the conclusion that I have trouble with, so much as it is
the process by which that conclusion was reached.)
12. Ada was Rebecca in disguise, who was in turn Nemesis (who lived
in the house that Jack built!).
13. In CV, Wesker is, and I quote, a "super stealth Tyrant."
14. Nemesis was a G-Virus creature! He was he was he was! Here's
an incredibly unlikely series of events that would explain his
being a G-Virus creature, none of which are so much as hinted
at in the game! (Remember what I said about taking this too
seriously?)
15. Resident Evil 1.5 was a better game than RE2; it had hand grenades,
better scenery, and Elza Walker was a better protagonist than Claire.
The only reason it was canceled was because Square lured away most
of Capcom's design team so they could work on Parasite Eve. (...yeah.
It's worth mentioning that I asked the guy who sent me this to produce
a source for it, and he never replied.)
16. Nemesis escaped from the ruptured tank in RE2's double-locked room.
17. The reason Rebecca disappears after RE is because Wesker used her
brain to make the RE Tyrant. (Now, while Becky not having a brain
*would* explain a few things about the original game, this is
still impossible.)
18. Wesker's body was rebuilt, using the genetic material of a Hunter,
by an Unspecified Third Party, Probably His Employer In CV (TM).
That Unspecified Third Party (TM) has been mentioned to me so often
that it's earned its WWWF Grudge Match (TM)-style (TM).
19. Wesker survived RE because the Tyrant threw him off of the Spencer
mansion's balcony. (This was sent in *after* the Wesker's Report
updates, by a charming individual who claimed he'd e-mailed
Capcom and that was what they'd told him. Once again, I'm forced
to wonder if any of you psychotic little darlings actually read
this thing, or if you just scan to the end to get my e-mail
address.)
20. This one comes from the RE0 gamefaqs.com boards: Wesker's Plot
Device Virus was a special, mutation-free strain of the G-Virus.
(The problem is that he doesn't perfect the G-Virus at all for
another two months, so it's unlikely that he'd have a better
version on tap.)
21. Osmund Saddler is Ozwell Spencer. Their names are so similar,
after all; they've just *got* to be the same guy. (Shut up.)
============
17. Mistakes
============
This section is dedicated to factual mistakes found within
the Resident Evil series. This isn't dedicated to serious plot
holes or B-movie science errors; instead, it's sort of like the
"goofs" category on the Internet Movie Database. In this section,
we'll go over the various errors to be found within the series,
just for grins.
Mistakes in this section were provided by myself, Cal Adams,
the erstwhile "CVXFREAK," Joseph Brooks, Michael Soo, Mark Chang,
Andrew Leonard, Frank Kool, James Middleton, Rob MacGregor, and
"TwistingGears."
RE0:
If you examine the Dining Car Key, what the tag says and what
the text field says it says are two entirely different things.
REv.2:
Presumably, the gunshot heard at the start of the game is fired
by Kenneth Sullivan. However, when you watch Kenneth's film in
the media room at the end of the game, he fires three times.
George Trevor's last diary entry is dated November 31st. There
are only thirty days in November. (I'm including this for the
sake of having it, so I don't hear about it again. All in all,
though, give Trevor a break, huh? He was starving to death.)
The Observation Note file, ostensibly written by William Birkin,
has a comment in it about how Birkin wants to rub his success
in Alexia Ashford's face. The problem there is that the success
he's talking about is the G-Virus, which was first discovered
in 1988, five years after Alexia's "death." Therefore, either
Birkin's unhinged, Birkin and Wesker knew that Alexia faked her
death, or this is a genuine mistake. Until I hear something else,
I'm considering it to be the latter.
(Dan Kirk makes an interesting observation in that we have no
idea when Alfred's delusion started; he could've been
masquerading as Alexia for quite some time. As such, Birkin
might've thought that Alexia was still alive, thanks to Alfred.
It's a weird explanation that brings up more questions than
it answers, but it's still quite a valid point.)
RE2:
Very few of the firearms in the game are correctly labeled or
using the right ammunition.
When you fight the G-Type in Leon B, it wrenches off a chunk of
the railing to beat you with. If you look in that room before
the fight, that chunk of the railing isn't there.
In Claire A, when Claire sees Leon on the monitor room in the
Umbrella lab, Leon isn't bandaged.
In Leon A, the gun that Leon concludes is Ada's is actually
Annette's; Ada's gun clearly fell off the walkway with her.
In the N64 port, when Ada catches up to Annette in Leon A,
you'll hear Claire's voice instead of Ada's during Annette's
expository FMV.
The Night Watchman's Diary file has a couple of continuity
errors, especially in light of the timeline established by
later games.
The upside-down flag in the RPD briefing room is indicative of
a state of emergency, and isn't actually a mistake.
RE3:
The RE3 manual claims that Jill, at the age of twenty-three,
is a former member of the United States Delta Force. To join
Delta as a combat operative, a soldier must be a former Green
Beret or Army Ranger, neither of which admit women into their
ranks. If Jill was in Delta, she was in the "Funny Platoon,"
which is dedicated to intelligence services. Further, it's
extremely unlikely for someone to reach Delta by twenty-three,
let alone to have left Delta by then. (The only thing I can
think of that might've gotten Jill out of Delta that fast is
if she'd come out of the closet.)
Brad Vickers is killed by a tentacle through the head. This
would make his becoming a zombie, as seen in RE2, impossible.
(As we know from both gameplay and Brian Irons's paranoid rant
in RE2, an injury that damages the brain prevents a human from
becoming a zombie. The injury that kills Brad punches a big
hole through his head; if you check his body after the fight
with Nemesis, Jill notes that his face is a "red ruin." It's
anatomically impossible for the kind of wound Brad took,
which destroyed most of his face, to *not* have inflicted
serious brain damage.)
No one ever actually tells Jill Nicholai's name. She sort
of figures it out on her own.
As mentioned above, the area code on the Grady's Inn sign in
the introduction is for Manhattan Island. For those of you
who aren't Americans, that would place Raccoon City, with its
mountain range, big forest, handy lake, and Midwestern locale,
somewhere in New York City.
The Mercenary's Diary file is written in a book with the words
"Diary of Chris Redfield" on the cover. Chris apparently has his
own line of hardcover journals.
RE:S:
In real life, the Nanbu pistol, also known as Handgun 4, was
chambered to fire 8mm rounds. Survivor's 9mm parabellum rounds
wouldn't fit in the gun.
CV:
It doesn't actually snow in Antarctica. It's too cold.
Steve manages to run out of ammo in both guns simultaneously
after shooting his father, after he's just blown the hell out
of the wall in the last room with the gun in his right hand.
(I would further note that Claire somehow makes one clip fit
two guns, but that's nitpicking.)
If Alexander Ashford had genetically engineered a single
embryo to produce intelligent offspring, it shouldn't've
resulted in twins.
CVX:
The five-minute countdown to a nuclear explosion conveniently
stops right before Chris's showdown with Wesker.
RE:O:
In the longer, character-specific endings, we see the missiles
hit Raccoon City while it's still dark. This contradicts both
the beginning of "Decisions, Decisions" (it's twilight when
the characters arrive at the university) and RE3 (where the
missiles hit right after dawn).
RE4:
In a cutscene where he's holding a pistol, Leon will always be
holding his default Handgun, whether he's got one or not.
Since the cutscenes in the PS2 version are now cinematics, they
don't take any changes to Leon or to his environment into
account. Leon's tactical vest will disappear abruptly during
movies, and any buildings or barrels that get destroyed, such
as the cabins during the first Gigante fight, will abruptly
reappear for the next movie you see.
RE:O2:
Once again, the missiles hit at the wrong time.
===============
18. Easter Eggs
===============
This section is all about listing the funny little injokes and
references that can occasionally be found in or related to the
RE series, contributed by myself, Sean Wyvill, and Iain Lewis.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention this. In Final Fantasy 9,
there's a statue near Cid's office in Lindblum. If you examine
it, Zidane will note that there's "no place to put the medal."
This is largely interpreted to be a joke about RE2.
Queen references:
"Made in Heaven" (Claire's vest, Chris's RE leather jacket),
"Let Me Live" (Claire's CV vest, her second costume in RE2),
and "Mother Love" (Billy's tattoo) are the second, third, and
fourth tracks on Queen's "Made in Heaven" album.
Dino Crisis:
As mentioned above, several crates in the facility basement
are sporting the Umbrella logo.
Crimson Tears:
The Poison Cure items look like mixed herbs.
Pocket Fighter:
Chun-Li turns into Jill for one of her Flash Combos.
REv.2:
Jill and Chris both get unlockable costumes based upon their
outfits in RE3 and RE:CV, respectively.
RE3:
The movie theater in downtown Raccoon, across the street from
the plaque where you find the Bronze Compass, is showing
"Biohazard 4."
One of Jill's alternate costumes is the texture set for Regina,
from Dino Crisis. Another is her old RE outfit.
RE:S:
There's a Dino Crisis 2 poster on the wall in the Arcade, and
Lott has a Street Fighter 2 poster on the wall in his bedroom.
RE:CV:
In the Battle Game, Rodrigo is visible behind a stack of crates
in the fourth room. No one has any idea why.
RE4:
Some people have noted that the dog that'll help you against
the Gigante looks a great deal like Howie, Fiona's dog from
Haunting Ground.
Leon's new gangster outfit from the PS2 version makes him
look a lot like Harman Smith from Killer 7.
=====================
19. About the Authors
=====================
I'm twenty-seven years old and work as a freelance writer. Any more
biographical details I'm willing to part with can be found on my
personal website, at http://www.dimfuture.net/elsewhere/.
Dan Birlew's author's information can be found in his strategy
guides, available from Brady.
==============
20. Conclusion
==============
Thanks to Dan Birlew, for starting this document and letting
me update it. Thanks also go out to Ben Plante, who's apparently
my editor; to Toby Normoyle, who sent me Wesker's Report dubbed
onto videotape, along with the uncensored introduction to RE, the
new ending for CV, and some RE1.5 movies; and to everyone else
who's contributed to and helped shape this document. I appreciate
most of the letters, and I've let you know if I didn't appreciate
yours.
This document can be found at many, many websites. The following
are the most likely to have the newest version:
http://www.gamefaqs.com
http://www.dimfuture.net/elsewhere/writing.html
The following have older versions of this document:
http://www.ps2fantasy.com
http://www.absolute-playstation.com/
http://www.neoseeker.com
http://www.columbia.edu/~kvr10/
http://www.geocities.com/peterpapau
(Peter, could you e-mail me, please?)
Note that www.gamecenter.com is currently hosting an old copy
of this document without permission.
At the 2003 Digital Arts Conference in Melbourne, a paper
was presented entitled "Reading Resident Evil-Code Veronica
X." This document was used as one of the source references.
If you're interested, it can be found at:
http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/papers/Tosca.pdf
If you find unauthorized hosting or usage of this document,
please alert me at twilde@game-over.net.
You can find Nicolas Falduti's French translation of this
document at http://ritalman.thelemmings.net/story.html.
If you're interested in placing this document on your own website,
please e-mail me for permission. Naturally, using this document
for anything other than non-profit purposes, or altering the
content of the document in any way, are both strictly forbidden.
It's also your responsibility to make sure that the copy of the
analysis that you're hosting is the most recent one.
Questions, comments, corrections, and feedback are welcomed.
Please e-mail me at twilde@game-over.net.
Note that sending me any of the following will, at the bare
minimum, get you a rude response:
-- theories (this applies to *everyone*)
-- requests or questions about an update
-- unsolicited attached files
-- questions that have already been specifically answered in
this document
-- viruses. Please do me a favor and run some scanners. I
get *lots* of viruses, and it's all because of this FAQ.
With that said, please read the following before e-mailing me,
and take it to heart:
http://www.dimfuture.net/elsewhere/writing/fiq.html
[warning: explicit language]
Thomas Wilde
twilde@game-over.net
a.k.a. Wanderer at dark-legacy.org and worthplaying.com
twilde1 on Outbreak - File #2 online
home: http://www.dimfuture.net/elsewhere/
work: http://www.hardcoregamermag.com
http://www.doublejumpbooks.com
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