Visual evolution[]
Resident Evil (1996)[]
Richard's artwork for the first Resident Evil.
In the first game, Richard is the sole S.T.A.R.S. member that appears without any kind of armor or flak jacket on. Despite this, his concept art depicts him with an orange high-collar model like most of his colleagues wear. Underneath, he wears the standard issue white T-shirt with the S.T.A.R.S. logo on the left sleeve. He also wears the standard black combat boots and black fingerless gloves. His combat pants appear dark gray and he has a green ammo belt hanging from his waist. Besides Chris, Richard is the only other S.T.A.R.S. operative to wear knee pads, although while Chris' are triangular, Richard wears completely different oval ones. His hair is dark brown and appears to be done in a military flat top style.
In-game, his appearance is slightly different from his depiction in the concept art. As previously stated, he doesn't have a flak vest on him at any point in the game, and his T-shirt appears differently-colored, although this most likely has to do with the fact that it has been discolored by the blood from his injuries. Noticeably, the T-shirt in-game does not feature the S.T.A.R.S. insignia, despite every other character, even other minor ones such as Kenneth still having this detail. His pants appear lighter and his knee pads are barely noticeable, due to them appearing as a flat, undefined texture on his pants, rather than a separate model.
Resident Evil 0 and Resident Evil (2002)[]
Like the other S.T.A.R.S. members, Richard's design was altered to appear more realistic than his first iteration. Although like Enrico, Richard's changes are a bit more noticeable than the ones made to the others.
In Resident Evil 0, the first of these changes are apparent. Richard's dark brown hair has now become a lighter blond. He's also seen for the first time with his orange flak jacket on. His T-shirt has changed colors from white to a light orange, matching his flak jacket. The T-shirt does also still feature the S.T.A.R.S. insignia.
In the Resident Evil remake, a strange change appears. His S.T.A.R.S. T-shirt inexplicably gets changed to an R.P.D. one. It stays orange, but now features "R.P.D." on the breast and has the R.P.D. logo on the sleeve, rather than the S.T.A.R.S. logo. An unused costume concept for Rebecca in the remake also featured this orange T-shirt. Richard's pants are a darker gray than previously and he still has the black combat boots and fingerless gloves. He no longer wears any kind of knee pads, but he now has a watch as well. Just like the original game, at no point is Richard ever seen wearing his vest in the remake, only the torn T-shirt.
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007)[]
Richard as depicted with his modern design in The Umbrella Chronicles. Notice the different insignia between him and Rebecca.
One last noticeable design alteration was made to Richard in 2007's Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. Similar to the remake's Wesker, Richard now wears an earpiece and has communications equipment attached to his vest. This was probably done in reference to the fact that Richard hands the player a radio in the original games.