Resident Evil (1996 game)/plot

Note: this section contains information on both the original Resident Evil'' and the remake. Remake-exclusive information will be marked as such.''

The original game opens on the evening of July 24, 1998 in the fictional Midwestern town of Raccoon City where a number of grisly murders had taken place on the outskirts of town. Victims were attacked in their homes by a group of assailants with evidence of cannibalism. Baffled by the strange nature of the cases, the Raccoon City Police Department sent in the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team. Their mission was to investigate a mysterious mansion out in the woods... A mission few would return from.

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 * Content=After contact is lost with their compatriots, S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team quickly mobilizes to find out what happened. Alpha team locates the downed Bravo team helicopter, but finds no one in it. The other six members are nowhere to be found... Alpha team quickly spreads out to look for clues. As the group fans out, Joseph Frost locates a severed hand clutching a pistol. Frost is quickly beset by a pack of Cerberuses and is fatally mauled. Alpha team pilot Brad Vickers panics and flies off in the helicopter, stranding the remaining four members: Captain Albert Wesker, Barry Burton, Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine.

With no other options, the group takes refuge inside what they believed to be an abandoned mansion. Though they find out later in the game that this mansion is in reality the façade for the Arklay Laboratory and owned by Umbrella CEO Oswell E. Spencer. Depending on which character the player chooses, one of the four survivors will get separated from the others - Barry will get lost from the if your playing as Chris, and Chris will be lost if your playing as Jill. It is at this point that the player takes control of either Chris or Jill to explore the mansion.

Regardless of who is chosen, the first major discovery is the dead body of Bravo team member Kenneth J. Sullivan, having been eaten alive by a Zombie. Another member, Forest Speyer is found, having been wounded and eventually pecked to death by crows. (Speyer will reanimate in the Director's Cut and the REmake.) The mansion is overrun with vicious monsters - ranging from zombies and zombie dogs, to giant spiders and even hostile plant-like creatures. Scattered documents and computer discs suggest that a series of experiments have been executed on the property by the Umbrella Corporation. The monsters are the results of these experiments, which have exposed humans and various animals to a specially engineered biological agent known as the t-Virus (hence the Japanese title "Biohazard").



Throughout the game, Jill is aided by the veteran Barry Burton, while Chris works with Bravo team rookie Rebecca Chambers. The house abounds with strange, deadly puzzles and traps that must be overcome to advance. After navigating a series of tunnels, passageways, and other buildings on the property, Chris/Jill discover a secret underground laboratory containing detailed records of the Umbrella Corporation's experiments. It's here that Wesker reveals himself as an Umbrella Agent to the player (and their respective partner). He then releases a giant monstrous humanoid called the "Tyrant T-002," (created through prolonged exposure to the t-Virus) but the creature turns on him and impales him with its clawed left hand.

Shortly after Chris/Jill defeat the Tyrant, the wounded Wesker triggers a self-destruct program to ensure an end to the laboratory and the experiments held there. The player is finally able to contact Brad to rescue them, but the Tyrant bursts through the roof of the lab onto the chopper landing pad, making the escape impossible until subdued. Now resistant to bullets, the Tyrant can finally be defeated with a Rocket Launcher that is tossed to the player by Brad Vickers. With the super powerful weapon, the Tyrant is completely destroyed. Chris/Jill escape with their respective partners into the chopper before the Spencer Mansion explodes and the game ends.

The ending sequence varies depending on choices made by the player as he/she explored the mansion. So long as the player escaped with two teammates, the ending plays out as described above. Rescuing only one or none of your teammates changes the outcome, in particular the fate of the laboratory and the Tyrant.