Series Review: Resident Evil Part 1

The RE games, known as Biohazard in Japan, are a series of games belonging to the Survival-Horror genre. The game at first glance looks just like a game where you must survive a zombie apocalypse, but it actually is much more. RE games is not only a horror game, it is also a story about a plot about a company conspiracy, biological warefare, and eco terrorism in later versions. The series all started in 1998.

Resident Evil 1 (The Mansion Incident)

The first game takes place in the neighboring Arklay mountain region by Raccoon city somewhere in the United States (all fictional of course). In July of 1998, a series of strange cannibalistic murders triggers an investigation by the local Police departments special forces, STARS, the Special Tactics and Rescue Service. The story starts out with Alpha team, investigating the helicopter crash of the other team, Bravo team. The team is ambushed by mutant dogs (known as Cerebrus) and the team flees for cover inside a mysterious mansion while their helicopter pilot, Brad flies away. You play as either Jill Valentine, or Chris Redfield, and explore the mansion, uncovering a conspiracy from a big company Umbrella. The game is one of the first true, if not the first, survival horror games made, because it incorporates the classic haunted house atmosphere, the eerie music, and the combination of grotesque violence. It's selling point is not the gore, although it is pretty graphic. The puzzle solving was very innovative as well, making this game the starting point for a very successful franchise. The very first version for PS1 was notorious for it's terrible translation, voice acting, with generous amounts of Engrish.





Resident Evil 2 (The City Outbreak)

The second game takes place a few days after the mansion incident, Jill and Chris flee Raccoon city, and a huge zombie outbreak occurs and the city's population is nearly wiped out. You play the role of either Claire Redfield, Chris Redfield's sister, or Leon Kennedy, a rookie police officer going to his first day of the job. As the outbreak occurs, you flee to the local police station to take refuge, but realize that the station is not safe, a huge variety of monsters come out for you same as the mansion incident, as you explore deeper into the inner areas of the station, you pick up memoirs and diaries of people there. You learn about the Umbrella conspiracy, and corruption within the police department. You also encounter Sherry Birkin, a young girl who is connected to a Dr. William Birkin, who is responsible for the outbreak and also the engineer of a virus strain that causes mutations changing things into monsters. You also encounter Ada Wong, an agent who helps you, but to achieve her own agenda. The game ends with the protagonists escaping the city of course, but also sets the tone for the next game in the series.

Resident Evil 3 (The Nemesis series)

This game takes place in the same time as the out break that wipes out the city. This time in the view point of Jill Valentine. At the time of the outbreak, Umbrella  sends its own team of special forces, UBCS, to contain the outbreak, but they too are mostly wiped out. Jill runs around the city trying to survive and avoid a programmed bio weapon, the Nemesis, who was sent to kill all members of STARS, the only people in the city that have witnessed the mansion incident. Along the way, you meet one of the UBCS, Carlos and work together to survive. After fighting off the Nemesis the group escapes the city right before the entire city is wiped out. The game incorporates less of the creepy lab motif, and being trapped by monsters, it leans more towards fighting of zombie hoards like the conventional horror games nowadays.