The Forgotten Resident Evil Game That Holds the Secret to Resident Evil: Requiem

With the announcement trailer of Resident Evil Requiem, Capcom has provided immoderate of the archetypal hints astir the communicative being told successful the ninth mainline introduction successful the Resident Evil series. The trailer didn't see immoderate of the series' acquainted faces, but it did suggest that Requiem has ties with a lesser-known Resident Evil crippled from mode backmost successful the PlayStation 2 era: Resident Evil Outbreak.

Outbreak was released successful 2003, betwixt Resident Evil 3 successful 1999 and the franchise's semi-reboot with Resident Evil 4 successful 2005, and shook up the series' look up to that point. Instead of a single-player experience, Outbreak was Resident Evil's archetypal large foray into online cooperative gameplay, with arsenic galore arsenic 4 players warring to past the T-virus outbreak successful Raccoon City that serves arsenic the mounting for Resident Evil 2 and 3.

While Leon Kennedy, Clair Redfield, and Jill Valentine were warring for their lives successful places similar the Raccoon City Police Department, Outbreak enactment players elsewhere successful the city. Outbreak follows a radical of residents arsenic they abruptly find themselves successful the heavy of things arsenic Raccoon City is overrun by zombies and different mutated monstrosities. There’s besides a large accent connected teamwork, utilizing character-specific traits and abilities alongside Resident Evil's survival-horror elements, similar constricted inventory space, slow-moving characters, and mostly fixed camera angles, to promote players to enactment unneurotic to survive.

Outbreak besides introduced an insidious constituent to players' combat for survival. The characters are each infected with 1 of Umbrella's deadly, monster-making viruses astatine the commencement of each of the game's levels. The corruption complaint successful each quality increases implicit clip and ramps up adjacent faster erstwhile they instrumentality damage, forcing players to hunt for anti-viral items. If the microorganism overtakes a character, they alteration into zombies themselves and onslaught their erstwhile allies.

It's a small spot hard to get a implicit communicative representation from Outbreak oregon its sequel, Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2, which featured the aforesaid formed of characters. The games each see a bid of 5 scenarios, with players picking from the 8 imaginable survivors and trying to marque their mode done a level. But the scenarios aren't presented successful chronological order, oregon adjacent needfully linked unneurotic arsenic a coherent story. One script has characters drinking successful J's Bar successful Raccoon City erstwhile the archetypal zombie stumbles successful and starts biting people, for instance, portion different script find the survivors stumbling into an underground Umbrella lab, moving done the Raccoon City zoo filled with mutated animals, oregon making their mode into the Arklay Mountains and yet to a infirmary overrun by a elephantine murderous plant.

But acknowledgment to the trailer for Resident Evil Requiem, we cognize that astatine slightest immoderate of what takes spot successful Outbreak and File #2 is present canonical to the Resident Evil series, and important to the events of the adjacent game.

Grace’s Connection to Outbreak

The Requiem trailer begins by introducing FBI Analyst Grace Ashcroft, a caller quality to the series, arsenic she receives an duty to analyse the Wrenwood Hotel. We rapidly larn that Grace's mother, Alyssa Ashcroft, was murdered astatine the edifice 8 years earlier. Alyssa was 1 of the playable characters successful the Outbreak games, and they springiness a small backstory astir her that mightiness pass what we spot successful Requiem.

In Outbreak, Alyssa is simply a reporter, and you tin find her bylines successful the newspapers the Daily Raccoon and Comet News. She's presented arsenic a dedicated investigator, but her dialog suggests that due to the fact that of the Umbrella Corporation's power and power successful Raccoon City, she hasn't ever been capable to people pieces that could person exposed the company's wrongdoing.

In the sequel, Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2, there’s an Alyssa-focused level that gives a greater consciousness of her enactment arsenic a journalist, arsenic good arsenic the lengths Umbrella has gone to successful bid to screen up its crimes. The script "Flashback" finds Alyssa and the different survivors heading into a backstage infirmary successful the Arklay Mountains extracurricular of the city. As she makes her mode to the hospital, Alyssa keeps feeling similar she's been to the spot earlier arsenic portion of an nonfiction she was pursuing, but can't look to retrieve the details. She aboriginal discovers, done flashbacks and files you tin uncover on the way, that she was close astir that unusual feeling.

Years earlier, different journalist, Kurt, had go convinced doctors astatine the infirmary were utilizing Umbrella drugs to behaviour amerciable experiments connected the patients there, and Alyssa followed him arsenic helium went determination successful hunt of evidence. In the people of his investigation, Alyssa saw Kurt eaten live by 1 of the virus-infected patients. Umbrella past utilized its monolithic power with constabulary and section officials to screen up the deaths astatine the hospital, including Kurt's, and it's suggested they utilized pharmaceuticals to suppress Alyssa's representation of what happened, arsenic well.

Alyssa yet remembers what happened to her done the people of "Flashback," and uncovers the information of the experiments, including 1 performed by the infirmary head connected his ain terminally sick wife, which led her to seemingly alteration into the carnivorous works that infests the hospital. Over the years, the head has been starring radical who rotation into the woods to the hospital, sidesplitting them, and feeding them to the plant. Alyssa and the different survivors decision the head and destruct the plant, and with her representation somewhat restored, Alyssa vows to dispersed the connection of Umbrella's wrongdoing and what happened to Kurt.

Resident Evil Requiem Picks Up the Pieces of Raccoon City

Other scenarios successful some games person the survivors yet curing their viral corruption and escaping Raccoon City earlier the U.S. authorities destroys it with a rocket to incorporate the outbreak. You tin spot the rocket crater successful the Resident Evil Requiem trailer. In File #2, each quality gets an epilogue country if they marque it out, and Alyssa's country suggests that, similar Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, she made it her ngo to stroke the whistle connected Umbrella. She wrote an nonfiction astir each the horrors she learned astir successful Raccoon City, but successful the end, the communicative is mostly buried, acknowledgment to the cover-up perpetrated by the U.S. authorities to fell its engagement with Umbrella and what happened successful Raccoon City.

It's not wide if immoderate of the different Outbreak characters canonically survived Raccoon City arsenic Alyssa is the lone 1 who has been mentioned successful different games. You tin adjacent find an nonfiction she wrote successful Resident Evil 7 detailing the galore disappearances successful Dulvey Parish, Louisiana, wherever that crippled takes place. And present with her notation successful Resident Evil Requiem, we cognize that, successful the years aft Raccoon City, she raised a daughter, earlier she met her eventual fate.

Requiem's trailer suggests we'll larn much astir Alyssa done Grace, arsenic good arsenic by heading to the edifice wherever she was murdered. The trailer besides implies that Requiem mightiness instrumentality players backmost to the ruins of Raccoon City, highlighting iconic locations similar the Raccoon City Police Department. So portion it's not wide now, it's imaginable different elements of Outbreak's communicative could besides beryllium applicable to what happens successful Requiem—but we mightiness person to hold until its merchandise successful February to find out.

Either way, it’s chill to spot the events of a less-remembered Resident Evil crippled much oregon little canonized by the Resident Evil Requiem announcement. Furthermore, it appears that aft detours successful zombified Europe and the heavy south, Resident Evil is acceptable to caput backmost to the metropolis wherever it each began: Raccoon City.

For much connected Resident Evil Requiem, beryllium definite to cheque retired our hands-on preview of Capcom’s ninth, mainline Resident Evil game.