Resident Evil Requiem is finally here, making it a great time to brush up on all that’s happened across the Resident Evil series’ 30-year history. This is especially true as Resident Evil Requiem looks to combine a bunch of different story threads across both mainline and spin-off titles in the series. For those that are jumping into the franchise for the first time, or for those who need a refresher on key plot details, here’s everything you need to know before playing Resident Evil Requiem. Oh, and as you might have suspected, plenty of spoilers lie ahead, so read at your own discretion.
In the mid- 1960s, a group of scientists led by Oswell E. Spencer discovered the Progenitor virus, which they believed could be used to essentially speed up humanity’s evolution. In order to fund their research, they agreed to develop new strains of the virus for the U.S. military to be used as bioweapons, as one of the biggest hurdles in utilizing the Progenitor virus to evolve humanity was that it had a high mortality rate. Thus, the Umbrella Corporation was born, as well as a litany of new strains of Progenitor. One of these strains, of course, was the notorious T-Virus, or Tyrant virus.
The Mansion and Raccoon City Incidents
In the late ’90s, the Umbrella Corporation’s less-than-ethical work finally falls under scrutiny. Resident Evil (1996) kicks off the saga and details an investigation into an Umbrella Corporation research station on the outskirts of Raccoon City, the Spencer Mansion. This investigation is helmed by Raccoon City’s Special Tactics and Rescue Service, or STARS, and led by Albert Wesker, who turns out to be a mole planted within the group by Umbrella. Along with Wesker, Resident Evil introduces two other key players in the RE series: protagonists Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. After exploring the mansion’s various chambers, Chris and Jill discover Umbrella’s dirty secrets and are forced to confront Wesker. Although Chris, Jill, and a handful of other STARS members manage to escape, the end of that game sees the T-Virus break containment and infect the city’s water supply.
Resident Evil 2 picks up not long after the events of the first game and features a new cast of characters, most notably one of Requiem’s two protagonists, Leon Kennedy. Upon arriving in Raccoon City for his first day as a cop, Leon witnesses the city’s descent into chaos, as zombies begin devouring his fellow cops and just about everyone else around him. Immaculate timing, Leon. At the beginning of the game, he runs into Claire Redfield, Chris Redfield’s sister, who is searching for her brother after the events of the first game. Leon and Claire serve as dual protagonists for the game, each getting their own campaign–kind of like Leon and Grace in Resident Evil Requiem.
Along his journey to escape, Leon encounters Umbrella’s top scientist, William Birkin, who has mutated thanks to the G-Virus, an even worse strain of Progenitor that pushes the mutations in those infected with it to new, increasingly abnormal heights. He also meets Ada Wong, an FBI agent conducting an investigation into the Umbrella Corporation who agrees to work with Leon, in light of the ongoing outbreak. Claire, on the other hand, runs into William Birkin’s daughter, Sherry, who is infected with the G-Virus by her father.
After numerous grueling ordeals, Leon, Ada, Claire, and Sherry finally discover an underground Umbrella facility called NEST, where a very dramatic family reunion for the Birkins ensues. Sherry’s mother, Annette, informs Leon that Ada is not an FBI agent, but a mercenary looking to make a profit off of the G-Virus. Ada demands Leon give her the G-Virus, but before he can hand it over, Annette shoots Ada, sending her and the virus plummeting to the bottom of the secret base. Meanwhile, Claire finds a G-Virus vaccine; Sherry then administers a vaccine to her daughter, curing her of the G-Virus before succumbing to injuries William gave her.
While all this is happening, so too are the events of Resident Evil 3, which revolve around Resident Evil’s Jill Valentine. Like Leon, Jill is trapped in the quickly-declining Raccoon City. Fortunately, she gets unlikely aid in the form of Carlos Oliveira, an Umbrella mercenary. However, Jill’s luck doesn’t last very long. As part of the Umbrella Corporation’s concentrated effort to ruin everything and make Jill’s life extremely difficult, the pharmaceutical company has opted to use ongoing chaos as an excuse to test out a new bioweapon: Nemesis. Jill soon finds herself facing a second, more personal peril, as an encounter with the creature leaves her infected with the T-Virus.
Thankfully, the ever-helpful Carlos manages to retrieve a T-Virus vaccine and administers it to Jill, but believe it or not, an ever bigger problem is now on the horizon. Turns out, the U.S. government has decided the best way to resolve the Raccoon City Incident is to bury it. Literally.
Ultimately, Leon, Sherry, Ada, Claire, Jill, and Carlos all make it out of Raccoon City alive before the U.S. drops a nuclear bomb on it in an attempt to prevent the spread of the various viral strains found within it.
Before jumping further ahead in the timeline, we need to talk about two games that also take place in Raccoon City around the same time: Resident Evil Outbreak 1 and 2. The Outbreak games revolve around numerous storylines and showcase a bunch of different characters residing in the doomed city at the time of the zombie outbreak, but the character that’s integral to the plot of Requiem is Alyssa Ashcroft, mother to Grace Ashcroft, the other co-protagonist of Resident Evil Requiem.
Alyssa is an investigative reporter for the Raccoon City Times who, over the course of the games, makes her way to a private hospital on the outskirts of the city, near the original Umbrella facility of the first game. It is here that she unlocks suppressed memories, quelled either through trauma or intentionally quashed by an Umbrella operative; we never learn for sure. These memories are of five years prior, when Alyssa was investigating the hospital for suspected illegal drug testing. As you might have deduced, what Alyssa witnessed was actually Umbrella doing some shady experimentation.
Alyssa makes it out of the hospital and Raccoon City alive as well, and ultimately writes an exposé on the whole situation, making her an extremely important figure in the downfall of Umbrella.
Post-Raccoon City
Following the destruction of Raccoon City, a few key things happen. Firstly, in Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, Claire Redfield is captured during her quest to find her brother, Chris, and taken to Rockfort Island, a prison island run by Alfred Ashford. After yet another outbreak and her subsequent escape, Claire discovers another one of Umbrella’s secret bases in Antarctica, and this one houses an even bigger threat: the T-Veronica Virus. While this unravels, Chris pays a visit to Rockfort Island in an attempt to find Claire. Instead he bumps into Wesker, who admits to essentially faking his death in order to fully awaken his power.
Secondly, the Umbrella Corporation finally collapses. Regulations, lawsuits, and financial ruin ultimately lead to the company’s downfall, though the damage it did will certainly live on forever.
Most pertinent to Requiem, however, is that Leon agrees to work for the U.S. government in order to secure freedom for both him and Sherry after it attempted to detain them following the events of Resident Evil 2. Resident Evil 4 then revolves around him tracking down the kidnapped daughter of the President of the United States, Ashley, who was last seen in the Spanish countryside. Upon reaching his destination, Leon is greeted by a parasite-infested cult named Las Plagas. The rookie cop-turned-roundhouse kicking zombie killer ultimately finds Ashley–and “friendly” face Ada Wong–then returns stateside following the game’s conclusion.
For the sake of brevity, we won’t delve too deep into the journeys Chris, Jill, and Claire take between Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 6; in the grand scheme of things, Resident Evil: Revelations 1 and 2, and Resident Evil 5, play fairly small roles in the series’ overarching story. The only information that truly seems to be of note is that Chris, presumably, kills Wesker at the end of Resident Evil 5.
Which brings up to Resident Evil 6 and its three separate campaigns, none of which are particularly great or impactful, so we’ll keep this one brief as well. Like Resident Evil 4, a lot of the plot of Resident Evil 6 is self-contained, but it does introduce a new character–Albert Wesker’s son, Jake Muller–and set up two key agencies that are important to know. The first is the DSO, or Department of Security Operations. This is an official branch of the U.S. government, formed in 2011, that is designed to counter bioterrorism. Leon is one of its co-founders, and Sherry becomes one of its agents. There’s also the BSAA, or the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance, which was initially set up in Resident Evil 5 and was co-founded by Chris. The BSAA is like the DSO, but an international organization formed by the United Nations.
The Ethan Winters saga and beyond
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil 8: Village both revolve around a new character, Ethan Winters, and deal with a fungal infection dubbed the Mold. On the surface, it seems unrelated to the Progenitor virus and its myriad strains, although it is revealed that one of the founders of Umbrella was a student of Mother Miranda, the main antagonist of Village and the first to be infected by the Mold. As such, a lot of Umbrella, even down to its logo, is inspired by Miranda and her actions.
These games also set up yet another evil faction: The Connections, a crime syndicate that is involved in various nefarious deeds including money laundering, drug trafficking, and yes, biochemical research. The Connections collaborated with Miranda to help evolve the Mold, like Umbrella helped evolve the Progenitor virus into its numerous strains. One of the key aspects of this research into the Mold is that the resulting infections allow for some semblance of mind control. However, the BSAA catches wind of the Connections’ actions, forcing them to move their research and ultimately kicking off the events of Resident Evil 7 and 8.
That’s a wrap on the recap portion of this, but there’s one other crucial piece of information to consider before you jump into Resident Evil Requiem. Although it hasn’t been mentioned outside of trailers, it seems as though some survivors of the Raccoon City incident have developed a disease due to prolonged exposure to the T-Virus. While it doesn’t cause rapid mutations within those infected, it does eventually lead to death–and it has been revealed that Leon himself has contracted the disease. In fact, it’s his search for a cure that inserts him into Requiem’s story, and brings him back to the ruins of Raccoon City.
