The Full Chronological Order of Resident Evil Games | Game Rant
The Resident Evil franchise has been running for a long time, with the very first game releasing all the way back in 1996. With Resident Evil 8 and a remake of Resident Evil 3 Remake rumored to be in development, it makes sense that anticipation for the franchise is at an all-time high. Yet, for newcomers to the franchise and those who have long forgotten, here's the chronological order of events of the franchise's biggest games.
Resident Evil 0 begins during the spring of 1998, as citizens in Raccoon City begin to demand answers over various reports on the grapevine of unexplained murders happening in the heavily forested Arklay Mountains outside of the city. Finally, on July 23, 1998, Raccoon City Police Department sent in their S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team to investigate what was transpiring out there.
After their helicopter made an emergency landing due to mechanical issues, Bravo team discovered a prisoner convoy that had crashed on a nearby road. One of its prisoners, Billy Coen, had escaped. Bravo Team's Rebecca Chambers, a rookie medic, found Billy on a stopped train belonging to Resident Evil's villainous corporation, Umbrella, while searching the premises for him. Umbrella researcher William Birken, along with their agent, Albert Wesker, were sent by Umbrella to cover up evidence that would incriminate Umbrella, ensure S.T.A.R.S. members do not survive and find out why Umbrella's train, the Ecliptic Express, was attacked and stopped.
A man named James Marcus, who was able to control mutated leeches and had a Queen Leech residing in his body, was responsible for attacking Umbrella's train and the prisoner convoy transporting Billy. Marcus was a virologist and one of the founders of Umbrella, who helped develop the T-Virus and the Queen leech - a giant leech created by conducting experiments with the T-Virus with ringworms.
When he had a falling out with one of Umbrella's other founders, Oswell E. Spencer, an assassination attempt was put into place against Marcus. However, Umbrella's assassination backfired, as his experiment, the Queen Leech, soon entered his dead body thereafter. It revived him and he went on killing sprees for the purpose of revenge against Umbrella.
Eventually, the train was started, and it took them all into Umbrella's research lab in the Arklay Mountains. When Rebecca learned of Billy's innocence, she let him go and helped fake his death, but not before finally killing Marcus.
The key takeaway from Resident Evil 0 was Marcus' desire for revenge, which caused the outbreak in Umbrella's research facility and the violent events that transpired in the Arklay mountains. This ultimately caused much outcry in Raccoon City, triggering the attention of the city's Police Department, forcing them to dispatch S.T.A.R.S. into the Arklay Mountains.
The following day, on July 24, 1998, Resident Evil 1's events begin, as Raccoon City's police dispatched S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team to continue the investigation in the area and find out what happened to Bravo Team. Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, and Barry Burton were part of this team. They soon found Rebecca Chambers in Spencer's Mansion, where Umbrella's underground research facility had been run amok with zombies and infected creatures, thanks to actions by Marcus.
During the journey, Albert Wesker blackmailed Barry into attempting to lure S.T.A.R.S. members to their demise, by threatening his family. When Barry discovered it is all a lie, he redeemed himself and helped in efforts against Wesker. Eventually, Wesker is seemingly killed when he releases an all-powerful creature known as the Tyrant, which turns on him. After the Tyrant is killed, Chris, Jill, Barry and Rebecca escape the mansion and facility, but not before the self destruct sequence was activated, turning Umbrella's facility to ashes.
No more investigations were carried out regarding the incidents in the Arklay Mountains, and the police department's leadership failed to believe their outrageous sounding stories. However, as is revealed in Resident Evil 2, Umbrella had a role in ensuring that no more investigations were carried out by bribing the Chief of Police, Chief Irons.
As zombies swarmed Raccoon City in late September when the outbreak occurred, Jill Valentine planned her final escape from the city. Around this time, Umbrella sent in their highly intelligent and dangerous Nemesis creature to hunt down and kill S.T.A.R.S. members while also covering up Umbrella's involvement in the outbreak. The Nemesis was created by infecting a Tyrant with an artificially engineered parasite which was developed in the 1980's.
They also sent in their Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (UBCS), but their stated reasoning of helping to ensure security turned out to be a ruse. In reality, Umbrella decided it would be a good opportunity to see how the city's T-Virus infected zombies and creatures would fair against armed combatants. After all, the T-Virus and all of Umbrella's experiments were bio-weaponry the company planned on selling to various military in the future.
As Jill Valentine attempted to escape the city, she met and befriended UBCS member Carlos Oliveira. Along the way, the Nemesis infected Jill with the T-Virus. After finding refuge in an abandoned church, Jill and Carlos obtained some much needed rest while the events of Resident Evil 2 transpired.
Claire Redfield entered Raccoon City looking for her brother Chris Redfield, while Leon Kennedy entered in hopes of starting his first day on the job as a rookie police officer with Raccoon City's Police Department. Along the way, they met up randomly. During the journey, Claire discovered that Chris had left the city weeks prior to investigate Umbrella elsewhere. Leon ran into Ada Wong, who stated she was looking for a sample of William Birkin's G-Virus, which created much more powerful mutations than the T-Virus.
However, along this journey, it was discovered that Ada Wong was actually working for a mysterious company known as "The Organization", and she was dispatched to obtain the G-Virus for them. It was also discovered that William Birkin caused the outbreak in Raccoon City. When Umbrella discovered he secretly sold a sample of the G-Virus to the U.S. military, they attempted to assassinate him in Umbrella's lab below the city. But not before he injected himself with the G-Virus and mutated into a nearly unstoppable monstrosity. In the chaos that unfolded, samples of the T-Virus vials broke, infecting sewers rats in the area.
Once the sewers became contaminated with T-Virus infected rats, it is not hard to imagine the chain of events that led to a full outbreak in Raccoon City, by which the U.S. military quarantined it. Once the main characters made their way into the sewers, and then Umbrella's lab further below, Ada Wong got her hands on a sample of the G-Virus thanks to an unsuspecting Leon who gave her it.
Claire saved William Birkin's daughter, Sherry Birkin, from her father's attempts to infect her with the G-Virus as a means to reproduce. Because their DNA was shared, he knew that reproduction would work if he infected her with it.
Ada Wong disappeared under murky circumstances, with a sample of the G-Virus, and Sherry, Leon and Claire were able to subdue William Birkins, blow up the research laboratory and ultimately escape to safe ground far outside the confines of Raccoon City.
The events of Resident Evil 3 continued, as Carlos was able to find a cure for Jill Valentine's T-Virus infection. The two realized they had to escape all the more urgently, as the U.S. military was planning to drop a nuke on the city.
After ending up in an Umbrella waste facility, they were able to finally kill off the Nemesis, and Barry flew in on a helicopter to save them moments before Raccoon City was completely nuked. Perhaps Barry still felt a need to redeem himself of past guilt when Wesker blackmailed him in the original Resident Evil game.
Claire Redfield continued her journey to look for her brother at an Umbrella facility in Paris, France, but was ultimately caught and imprisoned by Umbrella and thrown on a prison island known as Rockfort Island. Wesker made his return finally, revealing that he actually never died.
Wesker had faked his death in the first game because he was already infected with a virus that would give him super-human strength. He ended up causing a T-Virus outbreak on the island, and had now turned against Umbrella himself in order to obtain virus samples for his own secretive agenda.
After escaping her cell with another inmate, Steve Burnside, they discover that experiments were being conducted on prisoners on the island. They eventually run into the crazed governor of the island, Alfred Ashford, who also believes he is his twin sister, Alexia Ashford, who is actually in cryogenic sleep at Umbrella's facility in the Antarctic.
When Claire and Steve finally escape the island on an airplane, Alfred surprises them by crashing the plane into Umbrella's facility in the Antarctic. It is discovered that Umbrella has, for many years, been conducting attempts at harnessing the all-powerful T-Veronica virus that is within Alexia.
Alfred eventually freed Alexia right before dying of injuries he suffered earlier in the game. Alexia eventually infected Steve with her T-Veronica virus, but his body rejects it and he died.
Chris Redfield's ongoing investigations conveniently have him arriving at the facility, but he is no match for Wesker, who also arrives on site. Mysteriously, Wesker chooses not to kill Claire and Chris Redfield at different occasions in the game. And the facility is eventually blown up. Of course, Alexia was killed and Wesker lives on thanks to his indestructible abilities given to him by the virus he is infected with. After this point in time, Umbrella is completely shutdown, or so it seems.
Leon Kennedy has a new position working for the U.S. government on a mission to rescue the U.S. President's kidnapped daughter, Ashley. It leads him to a village in Spain, where he quickly runs into crazed and deformed cultists infected with the Las Plagas parasites, and led by a man named Osmund Saddler. This Parasite has no connection to previous Resident Evil games, making this perhaps the oddest standout in the series.
Saddler had Ashley kidnapped in order to infect her, so she would be able to assassinate the President. Luckily, Leon is able to rescue her. Soon later, Ada Wong made her return, and as it turns out, she is attempting to get her hands on a sample of the parasite for none other than Wesker. Near the end of the game, Leon is able to remove the parasite that had infected Ashley, and kill Saddler with the help of Ada.
Unfortunately, Ada is able to obtain a sample of the Las Plagas after Saddler is killed, but says that Wesker will not receive it, whether that is to be believed or not.
Starting in the year 2008, Chris Redfield finds himself in the fictional African country Kijuju. He is working on behalf of Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) with a new character, Sheva Alomar. The local populace is infected with Las Plagas.
Their mission is to arrest Ricardo Irving, who is attempting to sell a mysterious weapon to the black market. Later on, they finally find Irving and kill him after he injects himself with the Las Plagas and puts up a beastly fight. Before he dies, he gives them key information leading them to a secret cave where they discover flowers that contain the original virus that Umbrella founded itself upon and derived the T-Virus from, known as the Progenitor virus.
They also discovered that the area had Tricell equipment and facilities all around, the company that had funded the BSAA that Chris and Sheva worked for. Of course, Tricell had continued Umbrella's research. Chris also discovered that Jill Valentine is still alive and somewhere in the premises possibly. It is also revealed that Tricell's CEO was working with Albert Wesker.
It is revealed that one of Umbrella's founders, Alfred Spencer, created Wesker as a means to become invincible. Wesker, unhappy at being a clone experiment, killed Spencer long ago, and decided to set out on a vendetta against the world by which he would infect the entire globe, using the Uroboros virus, conceived from the original Progenitor virus. He also believes it will unleash a survival-of-the-fittest type of paradigm in which only the strongest humans would be able to survive, which could somehow benefit his agenda.
Jill Valentine is finally found to be under the control of Wesker, as it turns out she had become Wesker's test subject. She was found to be one of the few people who could successfully host the Uroboros virus within her, due to her antibodies for the T-Virus, since she was cured of it in Resident Evil 3. After removing the mind-controlling virus from her chest, she is freed. Wesker and Tricell's CEO are killed in two separate and final showdowns.
Resident Evil 6 has three stories that overlap. First, In Jake Muller's 2012 story, he discovers he is the son of Albert Wesker. Sherry Birkin, from Resident Evil 2, is all grown up and sent on a mission to rescue him from the war-torn eastern European country of Edonia, because his blood can help create a vaccine for the new C-Virus. By the end of the game, Chris rescues them both and they are successful in creating a cure.
Ada Wong turns out to not really Ada Wong in Chris and Jake's story, but a clone created by Derek Simmons, both of whom work for the newly revived offshoot of Neo-Umbrella. Therefore, much of the evil Ada committed in the game was not really her doing, yet she remains as elusive and mysterious as ever.
Derek Simmons is a National Security Advisor, but it is discovered he helped assassinate the U.S. President and orchestrate an outbreak within the area where the President was to give a speech revealing the truth behind the Raccoon City outbreak and U.S. involvement with Umbrella at the time. Later in the game, Simmons is killed in a deserving manner by Leon and presumably the real Ada.
Chris ends up blowing up the Neo-Umbrella facility. At this point in the game, all the characters are in a fictional Chinese city where the C-Virus outbreak has already occurred. But of course, the C-Virus cure conceived from Jake saves the day.
Resident Evil 7 stars newcomer Ethan Winters as he goes looking for his missing wife, Mia, in Dulvey, Luisiana, after receiving a message from her. It leads him to an old house where a seemingly crazed Baker family attempts to hunt him down and kill him. He eventually finds his wife, but she has become infected and is aggressive.
Down in the house's basement, monsters known as the Molded are lurking about. As it turns out, the house and family were infected when a boat crashed ashore the nearby coastline, with Mia stumbling upon the house accompanied by a girl named Eveline.
When Mia is cured of her infection, she reveals that she was a secret operative for a corporation, and that Eveline was created as a bioweapon known as E-001. Eveline ended up sinking the ship and infecting Mia, stumbled upon this old house, leading to this entire mess.
Eveline infected Mia because she desired to have a mother, as her powers give her the ability to control the minds of those she infects. Ethan was ultimately drawn to the Baker family house because Eveline lured Ethan there, by having Mia send the original message to him in the start of the game.
At the end of the game, Eveline mutates into a large monster, and Ethan ends up killing her with the help of Chris Redfield, who arrives at the scene in a helicopter with the Umbrella logo on it. Ethan and his wife (if the player chose to cure her) then take off with Chris and safely escape. It remains a mystery why the helicopter has Umbrella's logo on there, and we will likely have to wait until Resident Evil 8 for more details.
Resident Evil 8 is currently in development.
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