Resident Evil

Resident Evil is a well known name in the video game world. There are many remakes, sequels, sequels to sequels, side-stories, novels, comics, and three movies to complement the series. The original installment in the series, Resident Evil, was developed by Capcom for the Playstation console and was released in 1996. It was the first video game ever to be named a ‘survival horror’ game and has been deemed one of the most important video games of all time by Game Informer magazine. Resident Evil 2 was a huge success and has received awards such as Game of the Year. Resident Evil 4 was equal in success, also capturing numerous awards.

Resident Evil is the story of surviving members of a team of agents (called the STARs team) sent in to investigate murders in the town of Raccoon City. The team finds out the murders were committed by zombies formed from the release of a biological weapon named the T-virus developed by the Umbrella Corporation. The team eventually escapes after fighting through hordes of zombies and creatures. The game is played from a fixed camera perspective. Resident Evil revolves around puzzles and strategy while fighting enemies with limited ammunition. The result is a difficult but still fun video game.

Resident Evil 2 is the sequel to Resident Evil. It was also developed by Capcom for the Playstation. Resident Evil 2 was released in 1998. During the development the project was scratched entirely and restarted. This created a so-called, never released, Resident Evil 1.5. The plot of Resident Evil 2 involves the actions of two main characters named Leon and Claire. Leon is a rookie police officer in Raccoon City and Claire is the sister of a member of the STARs team in Resident Evil 1. They work together to escape Raccoon City while fighting through hordes of zombies again infected by the T-virus. Resident Evil 2 follows the same gameplay as Resident Evil. The numerous puzzles and limited ammunition allow for a more difficult yet fun game. One significant difference between the two games is Resident Evil 2 is much more violent and gruesome with zombies devouring your characters body after their death in game. This caused a very controversial game that had to be censored in some countries.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis follows the plot laid out in Resident Evil 1 and 2. A surviving STARs member, Jill, tries to escape the still zombie filled Raccoon City. The third installment features a new boss-like enemy called Nemesis. Nemesis is a creature similar to a super-powered zombie. It can follow the character throughout the game and attacks during scripted parts or during random encounters. Even if defeated Nemesis will eventually revive and continue to pursue Jill. The game still features many puzzles and while it allows for more firepower for you to wield there is still a limited amount of ammunition. While highly acclaimed by critics, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis did not share the success of Resident Evil 2.

Resident Evil 4 was released in 2005 and was again developed by Capcom. Resident Evil 4 changed the life of the series. It moved from a fixed camera view to an over-the-shoulder view. It also changed the mindset of the puzzles. They were more obscure and slightly easier. The game also allowed for much more ammunition to be used to allow more of an action style of play. The plot once again involves the character Leon whose mission is to rescue the President’s daughter from a cult called Los Illuminados in Europe. He arrives there and is met with resistance from a town of people infected by a parasite called Las Plagas. These enemies are much smarter and faster than the zombies of the rest of the series. It, like Resident Evil 2, was redesigned multiple times in its development process. One of the scrapped ideas became the start of the Devil May Cry series. Resident Evil 4 won many awards and was highly acclaimed in the video game industry.

There are many more obscure games in the series that include remakes, arcade style shooters, and small side story games. There is a fifth installment of the series coming out in 2009 named Resident Evil 5. There have been many novels written about the series and a comic series. Finally, there has been a movie trilogy made on the series. Resident Evil the movie was commercially successful despite many bad reviews. Its plot while not specifically following a story from one of the video game contains many references to the series. The second live-action movie, Resident Evil: Apocalypse was based on the third installment of the video game series, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, and was a sequel to the first movie. The second movie also attained horrid reviews from critics. The final movie, Resident Evil: Extinction, was again based loosely on the video game series with many references to them. It is still a sequel to the second movie and again received bad reviews but had high success. There are plans for a fourth movie to be released soon.