Gyuri’s diary
February 1st, 2009.
I’ve been on the run for a while. Those zombies are not as dumb as they look. Well, they are still pretty slow so it’s not like I’m in big trouble. As long as I don’t run into any large groups I should be fine. I took shelter in a house close to the police station and it’s actually a lot like the one I was staying in before. Maybe I’m just looking at the rooms from wrong angles. Still the resemblance is uncanny.
Why not the police station? Anyone who’s played Resident Evil 2 knows that’s a dumb idea. Every survivor will try to go there hoping to find weapons but this also means that if one if them turns out to be infected, then the whole group is at a risk as he could easily infect the others. This also means that if such an event were to occur, then the station would be anything but safe for people like me.February 2nd, 2009.
It looks like my laptop and mobile internet are working fine. I’ll write the second part of my article while I have the chance.
Hello readers and welcome to part two of MonsterVine’s Resident Evil Retrospective. We left off with Resident Evil last time so now it’s time to talk a bit about Resident Evil 2.
Resident Evil 2’s development began in 1996, shortly after the release of the first game. The game was supposed to be released in March 1997, but the developers were unsatisfied with the product. Apparently, they felt it was too similar to the first game. The team decided to take a risk and completely redo the game – thus, Resident Evil 2 became known as Resident Evil 1.5 and was abandoned near completion. Sources generally state it was 60-80% complete.
One of the worst things about not being a game developer is probably that you can never know a game’s entire development story. Many games go through changes as they are developed – some ideas are added, some are abandoned, and the gamer can’t do anything about it – but Resident Evil 1.5 is one of those rare cases where the game is abandoned near it’s completion. When people see beta footage of games they generally become a bit disappointed as they see things that they would’ve liked to see in the finished game, but 1.5 is a special case as it had many, many things that were cut out of the finished product.
So what made Resident Evil 1.5 so similar to Resident Evil? We don’t really know. A lot of promotional media was released of the game which are all over the internet nowadays, generally consisting of low-quality screenshots and videos. From them we can see that in reality 1.5 seems a lot different from the original and the final version of Resident Evil 2. While I can’t say much about the atmosphere or the storytelling, the environments are very different from the first game and according to various screenshots, interviews and articles the game had a lot of functions that never made it into Resident Evil 2. Examples include characters holding their handgun the way Chris does in Resident Evil Remake, various safety vests that would protect the player from damage similar to the body armor of Resident Evil 4 and hand grenades which would also appear in Resident Evil 4. Clothes could get damaged and bloody if a zombie is taken out too close. There were new enemies, some of which never made it into a Resident Evil title, like the gorilla-like monsters (Resident Evil Zero’s monkeys could have been based off of these) the spider-human hybrid monsters which seemed like an upgraded version of the original’s Chimeras. I’m not a fan of conspiracy theories, but it kind of looks like the developers were actually saving their ideas for later games. 
The storyline (what we know of it that is) differed drastically from the finished product as well. Some minor characters had bigger roles: Robert Kendo and Marvin Branagh were both seen helping the main characters for example. Ada originally seemed to be a researcher, Brian Irons was apparently not corrupt, William Birkin might have made an appearance in human form and there was a character called DJ who never made it into the final game. The RPD was a lot more modern and featured locations that were actually like a police stations: while no art rooms were seen, the game had a shooting range, a more realistic jail with zombies reaching out from behind the bars, locker rooms and many offices. One of the more significant differences was Claire Redfield’s absence. Originally Elza Walker, a blonde motorcyclist was set to be the female protagonist, however she became Claire in the final version. Their basic storylines were supposedly similar, the key difference being that Claire was connected to Chris Redfield from Resident Evil.
As you can see 1.5 was very different from Resident Evil 2 and to this day remains the beta version that most fans want to play. It will not be the last time a Resident Evil game has an interesting beta version, however it is probably the most interesting and well known one. Looking at it now, if the internet and video game journalism were as wide spread back then as they are now, Resident Evil 2 might have met a little more criticism, though not too much. Ironically – despite 1.5 looking as good as it did and despite that various functions were omitted from the finished version – Resident Evil 2 became a large hit and remains the most popular Resident Evil game and most fans’ favorite game of the series, the game that is frequently evoked by gamers when talking about the series.
Let’s fast forward to September 1997, one and a half year after the original release. The Resident Evil Team wasn’t stupid – they had no sequel and they knew they had to do something. The decision was made to release an updated version of Resident Evil – Resident Evil Director’s Cut, which came bundled with a demo of Resident Evil 2.
Once players went through the demo and actually put the Director’s Cut disc in, they were greeted with a few new options. An Advanced game mode was available along with the original game. The original game was basically the same as the original release. Advanced mode featured quite a few new things: the camera angles were all different, there were new costumes, the number of enemies increased and their placement was changed, new scenes were added and many items were placed in different locations, offering Resident Evil veterans to feel as if the Director’s Cut edition was a brand new game. Only a few of these changes made it into subsequent releases of the game – for example starting with Director’s Cut, every version of Resident Evil had Forest Speyer turn into a zombie – while most remained Director’s Cut exclusive, even ones which were improvements upon the original, such as Wesker shooting giant spiders instead of bees in the guardhouse. Soon after the release of Director’s Cut, Capcom released another updated edition in Japan and North America titled Resident Evil Director’s Cut Dual Shock Edition. The title already showed the main difference between the two versions, Dual Shock Edition had vibration support allowing owners of the Playstation’s new Dual Shock controller to immerse themselves even more into the game. 
Time to move onto Resident Evil 2. Initially released in 1998 for the Playstation, the game was later ported to the PC, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, GameCube and a weaker version was also released on the relatively unknown Tiger game.com. Resident Evil 2 is known for being the Resident Evil game that is available on the most consoles.
Resident Evil 2 is set two months after Resident Evil, in September 1998. STARS have made it back to the town and prevented the T-virus from spreading further, however their attempts to bring Umbrella to justice are proving to be futile. Chris Redfield hasn’t got in touch with his sister Claire for a while and she is worried about him. She sets off to Raccoon City and arrives on September 29th only to find the town infested with zombies. Claire is saved by Leon Scott Kennedy, a rookie cop who arrived in Raccoon just a few minutes before Claire and was supposed to start working at the RPD that very day. The two enter a police car and head for the police station. They introduce themselves and Claire finds herself a gun, only to have a zombie attack them from the backseat. Leon loses control of the car and they crash, but they are unhurt. As they breath a sigh of relief, a zombified truck driver is heading toward them. Leon and Claire barely manage to jump out of the car as the truck crashes and creates a massive explosion, separating the two. Leon tells Claire to head to the police station as it should be a lot safer. Separated by the flames, the two take their separate routes to the police station, searching for Claire’s brother, answers and a way out of town. 
Resident Evil 2 – as I gave it away earlier – is not very different from Resident Evil. In fact it’s basically the same gameplay wise. This is really not a bad thing and supports what I tend to say nowadays: “You don’t need to be innovative to be very fun.” Anyway, the point is Resident Evil 2 plays very much like Resident Evil, but easily makes up for that by introducing new environments, settings and generally improving everything that was good about the first game. You see this time you are not stuck in an abandoned mansion with your teammates, this time you’re stuck in a city and you hardly have anyone to rely on. The setting is just as scary as the first one, but is also original enough to feel new and this is a trademark ability of the survival horror genre: regardless of how good you are at one game, you can’t be prepared for the sequel, because of the new areas and enemies. Yes, you grasped the idea of saving ammo, but that still doesn’t help you to actually find ammo in the new, unfamiliar area. Yes, you know how to fight zombies, but that still doesn’t help you when you are cornered by four of them with no means of escape. Yes, you know the magnum works well against bosses, but you still don’t know when the bosses of the sequel will show up.
As I said before, Resident Evil 2 was an improvement in roughly every aspect. The graphics were much better, the character models looked very good compared to the original. The soundtrack was much better as well, very atmospheric. Other than that, the feeling of the game remained the same but also improved due to the graphics, sound and better harnessed power of the consoles. More enemies were on screen, the character health could be guessed by their body language: the more they held their stomach and the slower they moved the worse their condition was. The item boxes were more convenient to use and were placed in more locations allowing better players to visit it fewer times – the better players generally found an item box just as their inventory became full. Also the difficulty level was just perfect. The game was hard, but not unreasonably so and although it was much harder to find ammo than in Resident Evil – due to the fact that most weren’t visible on screen, all ammunition packs were hidden behind tables or in lockers etc. – a player who took his time to look around (as they were meant to be doing) had a significantly easier time than those who didn’t. Also it increased the tension: let’s face it, although ammo was scarce in Resident Evil, they were generally easy to find, most of them were in plain sight on tables or on dead bodies or under objects that were obviously movable due to the era’s graphics etc. In Resident Evil 2, the player was required to search everything inside the rooms to find ammo. 
As you can see Resident Evil 2 was great. But it wasn’t without flaws. The game was a lot more controlled this time: it only had four endings and which one you got depended on simply which game you played. You see, Leon and Claire had separate games: although similar, they were quite different, more so than Chris and Jill’s games in Resident Evil. They met different characters and took different routes to get around the place and also had different starting equipment: Leon had a lighter while Claire had a lockpick. They even received different weapons throughout the game, with only their knife being the same. Also initially, when the player started a new game, the game he played was known as the “A” Scenario. Both characters had an A and B scenario, with the B games being unlocked after the other character’s A game was completed. It’s a simple yet effective method to increase the replay value and logical too – if you start with Claire A, she ends up on the left side of the wreckage and if you finish the game you get to play Leon B and see what he does on the right side. If you start with Leon A, then it’s the other way around. Only by playing all four scenarios can the player get everything out of the game. On the other hand the players actions didn’t really make a difference in the game nor between the A and B scenarios. Some actions taken in A affected B but these were few and not yielded anything important.
The game also included unlockables like it’s predecessor. There were a total of three unlockable weapons and three minigames. The 4th Survivor starred Umbrella agent Hunk as he retrieved a virus sample from the sewers while relying on very limited equipment; the other starred Tofu, a piece of tofu and was a harder version of Hunk’s game. With the exception of the standard Playstation and Nintendo 64 version, all releases included a minigame titled Extreme Battle, where the player controlled either Leon, Claire, Ada or Chris from Resident Evil 1 and went through all of the game’s areas searching for four bombs. The PC and Dreamcast versions had unlockable artworks as well, while the Nintendo 64 version had various special options. All games included two secret costumes for Leon and one for Claire, although she got an exclusive Colt Single Action Army with the special clothes. Leon would aim with one hand when the special outfits were equipped.
As you can see, back in the day, Capcom (and other developers too) had a habit that I never understood and always bugged me – and it still does since it seems to be coming back. What I’m talking about is offering different content in different versions. As it stands right now you need to own at least two versions of Resident Evil 2 to get the most out of it. Let’s go over each version. 
First, there’s the standard Playstation Resident Evil 2. It’s the most basic version, offering the main game and two minigames: The 4th Survivor and it’s harder version The Tofu Survivor. The Dual Shock version which wasn’t released in PAL territories offers the same plus vibration support and the Extreme Battle minigame. The Nintendo 64 version is quite different from the rest as it has different costumes, special files called EX Files and the option to change the blood color and randomize item placement, all of which are exclusive to this version. The Dreamcast and PC versions offer everything the Playstation version does and also an artwork gallery and an unlockable Hard difficulty setting. The Gamecube version released much later is sadly equal to the Dual Shock version with the added ability to skip ingame cutscenes.
Now that I’m done with that it’s time to go into the story. Get ready folks, I’m about to retell the story of the game. I’ll be following the Claire A – Leon B route because I prefer that one and also there’s some evidence from Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles pointing to that scenario being canonical or at least parts of it, such as Sherry getting infected. Although the canon scenario could easily be a blend of all four scenarios. Also there are discrepancies in all scenarios that exist due to gameplay reasons, for example Claire never encounters Mr. X despite the fact that it lands soon after the helicopter crashes in Leon’s B scenario (an event that happens just before Claire arrives at the station) and Claire never sees the destruction it causes. Another example would be Claire being unable to enter the jail in the A scenario even though she contacts Leon after he clears the path to the jail. In any case, let’s begin.
Claire’s story 
After being separated from Leon, Claire heads off to the police station. As she looks around the street, she sees countless zombies. Avoiding them altogether – due to only having 13 bullets in her handgun – she heads into a nearby gunshop. She is startled as Robert Kendo, the shop’s owner points his shotgun at her and asks her who she is. Claire calms him down and reassures him that she’s not a zombie. Although Claire is curious about what’s happening in the town, Kendo can’t offer her any information. He tells her that by the time he noticed something was wrong the entire city was infested with zombies. Kendo locks the door as Claire looks around the store for equipment, however she only finds some handgun bullets. The emptiness of the gun store hints at Kendo supplying survivors with weapons, but before Claire can start a conversation with him zombies burst through the shop windows and Kendo is unable to struggle himself free of the zombies arms. Claire is momentarily paralyzed and unable to help him. Claire doesn’t lose her head though and escapes through the back door knowing that she couldn’t save the man even if she wanted too. From there on, she makes her way through back alleys and a crashed bus and arrives at the police station’s gates. She encounters a zombified Brad Vickers in front of the station but avoids him and goes inside the building. 
The first thing that comes to Claire’s attention is the size of the building. Apparently it had two floors and a smaller third floor and it may have had a basement as well. Claire is lost for a minute and seeing as the main lobby is empty, she tries the three doors on the sides. Only one opens though, the others are electronically locked. Upon entering the door she finds a wounded policeman, Marvin Branagh. Marvin is wounded on his torso and lying against a locker on the floor. Claire is shocked and starts asking him questions of what happened. Upon learning Claire’s identity, Marvin tells him that they lost contact with Chris and the other STARS members about 10 days ago. Marvin gives Claire a card for the computer in the lobby to unlock the electronic locks and tells her to rescue the remaining survivors. Claire is too concerned about the cop to leave him behind, however Marvin points his gun at her to convince her – aware of the fact that he’s not gonna make it and would only be a danger to Claire. Claire leaves, but tells him she’ll be back for him, something the officer doesn’t want, and thus locks the door the second Claire is on the other side of it. 
After unlocking the doors, Claire begins to investigate the building. She starts with the western wing and encounters a monster she hasn’t seen before: a monster walking on all fours, with a very long lance-like tongue, missing patches of skin and sharp claws on it’s hands. It drops down from the ceiling of a hallway as Claire realizes that the beheaded body on the ground was most likely the monster’s doing. Claire outsmarts it and runs out the other end of the hallway. Continuing on, she finds detailed plans of the survivors and learns that they also encountered the dangerous creature she just met and dubbed it “Licker”. As she continues her journey, Claire comes across the STARS office and immediately goes inside. To her dismay, the room is empty of people however she manages to find her brother’s diary. According to it, Chris and his teammates were unable to prove Umbrella’s involvement in the “Mansion Incident” and decided to head for Europe to Umbrella’s main bases. Police chief Brian Irons apparently got in the way of the team’s investigations as well and Claire learns from a fax that Chris requested a background check on him from the United States Federal Police Department. The results weren’t exactly good: Irons apparently recieved bribes from Umbrella and was even arrested multiple times under the suspicion of rape, but never sentenced. As Claire wonders how a police chief could be like that she checks the large iron locker in the room and finds a grenade launcher. The weapon seems ideal for taking out the licker and so Claire takes it on and finds a key hidden in the fountain of the main lobby. With this she goes back to the hallway of the STARS office and sees a young girl running from a zombie. Claire takes the monster out and notices that the girl went through a ventilation hole into the next room. Using her newfound key, Claire enters the door and encounters Leon.
The two are happy to see each other but it turns out that the girl slipped by Leon and escaped through a small hole – one that neither of the two adults could fit through. Claire tells Leon to look for a way out while she finds the girl. Leon agrees and hands Claire a radio to help them keep in touch with each other. The two separate once again. 
Claire soon finished investigating the western wing of the building and headed for the eastern areas. She finds a couple of useful items, most notably a bowgun in the maintenance room. She tries to open the door inside the maintance room as it apparently leads to the back entrance, but two zombies immediately bust in as she does so – Claire realizes the back area is completely overrun by zombies and unusable.
She also found the helicopter pad but it didn’t help her much, after all she didn’t have anyone to come save her and the only helicopter on the helipad was a wreckage, crashed into the building. Claire noticed that the helicopter must have been burning earlier, but the fire was put out by someone a short while ago. The crashed chopper destroyed a door inside the building and made it unopenable. Claire wouldn’t have cared much, however she heard a scream from behind the door and realized she must take out the door somehow if she is to save the screaming woman. She needed some explosives and luckily she knew where to find them: an memo she found earlier stated there were some confiscated in the evidence room. The door was locked, but thanks to new key Claire found she could enter it. Inside the found some C4 in a locker with a broken lock, which she managed to open using her makeshift lockpick. Opening the other door inside the evidence room, she found herself in the room where she met Marvin.
Claire looked around for the wounded cop and found him next to a desk with the C4’s detonator. Before she could say a word Marvin stood up, zombified. Claire immediately stepped back and put Marvin to rest using her weapon. She took a few seconds to get her thoughts together after the shock and picked up the detonator. Returning to the stuck door, she used the bomb to destroy the blockage and found a short hallway with a door at the end: it led to chief Irons’ room. 
Irons’ room seemed empty at first but as Claire moved toward the dead woman’s body on the desk, the big armchair turned around with Irons sitting in it. He aimed his Desert Eagle at her but quickly put it away once he knew Claire was human. The chief seemed pretty normal, although her story about the mayor’s daughter being bitten by a zombie seemed fishy; Claire was sure the dead woman on the chief’s desk was shot in the stomach. Irons told Claire that the only way to stop the people infected from becoming zombies was to put a bullet through their brain, or to decapitate them completely. Irons finds the situation ironic when he thinks his hobby used to be hunting and asks Claire to leave him alone for a while. Seeing that the chief is shaken, Claire leaves and enters the other door in the office. She finds the little girl in the room.
The girl introduces herself as Sherry Birkin. Her mother sent her to the police station thinking it was to dangerous for her to stay at home. Claire informs Leon that she’s found the girl and cleared the corridor and asks Sherry to come with her. The 12 year old girl however tells Claire that there’s a monster much larger than the zombies in the building chasing her. The two hear a loud, monstrous scream and Sherry runs off telling Claire that’s the monster she was talking about. Claire runs after her but fails to catch up to her and Irons is missing from his office as well. Claire grabs the key left by the chief and reads his diary as well. She stands in horror as she finds out that the chief has been hunting down his own men out of pleasure. Now having the key leading to the basement, Claire decides to check out the underground areas. 
In the basement Claire finds a morgue and an armory but the jailblock is blocked off. She makes her way down into a canal and finds Sherry there. Shery tells her she heard her father calling for her and he must be in trouble. Despite Claire’s pleading to stay with her, Sherry enters another small hole and runs off. She finds a key needed for Claire and goes back to give it to her, however she can’t get back to her. Sherry tosses the key to Claire through the hole and tells her not to worry, she’ll find her. Claire goes back to the upper levels and after solving some puzzles, she opens the secret passage behind the desk in Irons’ room. It leads to an elevator going down. Sherry enters the room while Claire is opening the passage – she likely figured the room where they first met would be a good place to look for her – and the two are reunited. Claire tells the girl to stay there while she goes ahead.
Claire finds herself in a damply lit corridor. It looked very dim and medieval, something that creeped Claire out. At the end of the hallway was a door and just before Claire entered, she heard Irons scream in pain. Claire’s heartbeat became infinitely faster as she opened the door. 
The room appeared to be a torture chamber where Irons greeted her by aiming his gun at her, while holding his chest in pain. He explained everything to her: one of Umbrella’s researchers conducted experiments with the new G-Virus, a man named William Birkin, who happens to be the father of Sherry. According to him Umbrella must have screwed something up and that’s why the whole city is full of zombies. He’s enraged about what they’ve done to his town after everything Irons did for them, including helping with keeping the Mansion Incident a secret. Irons is about to kill Claire, but suddenly something bursts out of his body: Irons’ torso is torn in half as a small creature bursts out of it and escapes using the hatch in one of the corners. The hatch leads to the sewer entrance, which Claire believes to hold her escape route out of the city. Claire follows the monster down, however she soon realizes what a bad idea that was: the monster is in the process of transforming into a larger creature with claws that spouts out it’s “children” through it’s mouth. Claire seeing no other alternative fights the monster and manages to defeat it and clear the path forward. She goes back for Sherry and radios Leon to tell him they are leaving via the sewers and also tells him to follow them. 
The two of them make their way into the sewer entrance where they see a monster they haven’t encountered before, a humanoid monster armed with a steel pipe and with a giant eye in it’s right arm. Claire tells Sherry to run and they enter the sewers, where Sherry gets caught up in a current and falls into a different section of the sewers. Sherry makes her way into a garbage dump, evading mutant bugs but is knocked unconscious when the floor opens under her and she lands on the garbage one level lower. The last thing she sees is a monster coming near her.
Claire is fully aware that the girl could be in danger and doesn’t waste time. She explores the entire sewer system looking for her while encountering a large number of giant spiders and runs into a woman along the way: Anette Birkin, Sherry’s mother and Umbrella scientist. Anette learns of Sherry’s situation and agrees to help Claire but not before revealing what caused the biohazard: William Birkin was planning to sell out Umbrella due to disagreements with his superiors and was attacked by a team of the Umbrella Special Forces Unit, led by Hunk. Armed with submachine guns, they demanded Birkin to give them the G-Virus sample. 
Birkin was unwilling to give up his life’s work and aimed his own gun at the commandos, but unfortunately the scientist accidentally knocked over the chair behind them – an action that startled Hunk’s teammate and made him shoot the doctor. The team then collected the sample and left Birkin for dead. Anette came moments after and ran off to find something to treat his husband’s wounds with. Birkin, on the verge of dying, injected his bleeding right side with the G-Virus and transformed into the ultimate bio weapon, “G”.
Apparently the G-Virus has the ability to revitalize cells, however it also causes an uncontrollable mutation and as such, although Birkin survived, he is no more than a constantly mutating monstrosity. The large monster Sherry talked about was actually his father and it turns out it was calling her name for a reason: G can implant embryos into other beings orally, creating offsprings. Brian Irons was also implanted with one of them – the creature Claire defeated earlier, however his body rejected it. Anette reveals that only people with William’s DNA structure can accept the embryos – in other words, his daughter Sherry. It turns out that the reason Anette told Sherry to go to the station was to keep William from finding her. The two women go their separate ways to find Sherry, knowing the danger she’s in.
Ultimately it is Claire who finds Sherry in the garbage disposal. Claire calls out to her, but she is seemingly unconscious and doesn’t respond. Before Claire takes a step further, she notices a giant crocodile in the sewage. Claire immediately jumps back as the crocodile attacks her. Due to the monster entering the narrow hallway, the security system considers this an emergency and locks both exists. Claire tries to escape, but soon finds the door she came through locked and gunfire ineffective against the abomination. By luck she notices a large canister full of gas and knocks it over – Claire’s quick thinking saves her life: as the canister sticks in the crocodile’s mouth, she shoots it with a single bullet resulting in an explosion that blows the monster’s head off. 
The doors open again and Claire reunites with Sherry, who tells Claire she’s not feeling well. Claire, hoping Sherry hasn’t been infected, takes the girl out of the sewers and the two arrive in a small factory.
The train elevator platform located in the factory turns out to lead to Umbrella’s secret laboratory complex and the pair descend with it, hoping to find a cure for Sherry. On the way G attacks them while Sherry’s condition is getting worse. Claire is positive the girl has been implanted with an embryo, due to her chest pains. Claire, seeing no other alternative, tells Sherry to stay in the train of the platform, while she goes out to fight the monster. As she leaves, the door locks behind her and she faces off against the monster who has mutated further since she last saw it. Claire manages to defeat it and takes Sherry to the security office once they reach the lower levels. 
Inside, Claire puts Sherry on a medical bed and gives the girl her jacket to keep her safe. Sherry is appreciative and opens up to Claire, telling her how she felt neglected by her parents due to them working a lot. She feels like she finally has someone to depend on. Claire tells her not to worry about anything and that she’ll be back with the antidote soon. Being in a hurry, Claire opts to take out any enemy that she can’t get around fast enough – including the mutant plants and giant moth she encounters on the way. 
Inside she runs into Anette again, who is hostile at first because Claire hurt William. Despite her earlier statement about William having no memory as a human being anymore, she seems to still believe otherwise. Anette tells Claire that she will not let anyone take the G-Virus from her as it’s his husbands legacy. Claire interrupts Anette and tells her about Sherry’s situation, who panics and runs off – right into the hands of G. Anette is brutally mauled by what was formerly his husband and breaks the sample of the G-Virus she carried with her. With her last breath, she gives Claire written instructions on how to create the G-Virus vaccine codenamed “Devil” and tells her to tell her daughter she is sorry for not being a better mother. Moments after that, the self-destruct system activates and Claire realizes she needs to hurry. As she goes to the labs she notices Leon on a security monitor and calls her via her radio. Claire asks Leon to bring Sherry to the underground escape train while she takes care of the antidote. After creating the antidote Claire heads off toward the train as well. 
Claire finds herself in an experimental containment room with a large cargo elevator inside it, leading to the escape platform. An explosion rocks the lab and the computer announces that there are only 5 minutes till the lab complex is reduced to a pile of rubble. Claire immediately calls the cargo elevator. As she is waiting, G drops into the room, breaking through the ceiling. Claire begins to fight the monster which triggers another mutation: the four armed beast which brandished giant claws similar to a Tyrant turns into an extremely agile and dangerous enemy walking on all fours, attacking with a mouthful of spikes. Claire avoids it as it tries to ram her over and over again and defeats the creature. G dissolves into a jelly-like substance as the elevator arrives.
Claire arrives on the platform just as the train is taking off. She sees Leon leaning out of an open door, yelling for her to get on – Claire misses her first opportunity but manages to get on via another open door. 
Once she’s inside, the lab’s detonation sequence is completed and knocks the two of them off balance and Sherry to the floor. Claire quickly administers the antidote and anxiously wait with Leon. Sherry comes to shortly and thanks Claire for saving her. Leon breathes a sight of relief and tells Claire it’s finally over, but Claire tells him she still has to find her brother. Claire looks at her vest on Sherry and tells her the guardian angel on it’s back protected her and will always protect her. The train continues it’s route outside to the surface…but is this the true end? What was Leon doing during all of this? Let us go back in time and reveal the other side of the story.
Leon’s story
After the crash, Leon finds himself behind the RPD building. He arrives sooner than Claire, into the back parking lot but has to find a key while avoiding zombies to get into the maintenance room where Claire later acquires her bowgun. As he enters, he hears the back gates shattering outside. He knows he can’t go back. 
Leon finds the back stairway to the roof where the helicopter pad is but only to witness a rescue attempt fail. A police helicopter comes in trying to rescue a middle-aged policeman with a submachine gun, however in his excitement the man fails to notice the zombies creeping up behind him and is taken down by them. As he’s taken down he sprays random gunfire everywhere and accidentally kills the helicopter’s pilot – the chopper crashes into the building and the wreckage goes up in flames. Leon notices a water thank that could put out the fire but he lacks a valve handle to do so.
Leon makes his way inside the police station, immediately encountering Lickers. He evades them and goes down to the first floor where he finds a shotgun and the valve handle he needs. On his way back he takes out the Lickers using his new weapon and puts out the fire. As he is about to go back inside he notices another helicopter heading for the police station, one that drops a huge capsule down onto the building. The container opens in midair and a huge humanoid creature with a trenchcoat falls through the roof of the building. 
Leon is forced to fight it as it cuts off him off from the exit and empties more than one handgun clip before he falls. Leon is relieved but soon after he exits the hallway the creature rises again – and follows him.
As he explores the precinct Leon bumps into a little girl – Sherry Birkin. Sherry who was running from a zombie is frightened by Leon and runs away from him through a small opening on a blocked off door. Claire arrives seconds later and tells Leon to find an escape route while she looks for the girl. After giving Claire a radio the two separate and Leon eventually finds his way to the basement after some run-ins with the mysterious trenchcoated monster as well as the remains of his now canceled welcoming party.
In the basement parking lot, Leon is fired upon by a mysterious and beautiful woman who mistakes him for a zombie due to his uniform. She introduces herself as Ada Wong and tells him she’s looking for a reporter named Ben Bertolucci, who is apparently held in the cellblock. Ada asks for Leon’s help to get a van out of the way of the entrance and they enter the cellblocks. They soon find Ben who is questioned by Ada. The woman reveals she’s looking for his boyfriend John, who works for an Umbrella branch office in Chicago and disappeared in this area a few months ago. 
Ben denies any knowledge of him and tells them he locked himself in to protect himself from a certain creature – a creature whose roar echoed in the halls just moments ago. Ben tells them to leave before they lead the monster to him, but Leon retorts saying that he’s the only cop alive in the building and it’s Ben’s last chance for escape. Somewhat discouraged, Ben tells Leon how to get to the sewers which might lead out of the city but stays in his cell. Ada runs off and Leon follows, thinking that securing the way out of the station would convince Ben to leave with him.
Leon makes his way to the septic pool of the sewers where he finds a door leading out of the area, but he lacks one of the necessary keys to open it. He figures the last one should still be inside the police station and heads back. He runs into Ada who found a vent shaft and asks Leon to give her a boost so she can investigate the other side. Ada runs into Sherry upon hitting the ground who runs away and drops her pendant. Ada picks it up and opens it to find a picture of the girl and her family inside. Amused, she decides to hang on to it for her in case they meet again. After the encounter, Ada finds the key Leon needs to access the remaining areas in the station and throws it to him via the vent shaft. Unable to return to Leon, Ada leaves him despite the rookie’s objections. 
Claire calls Leon to tell him she found the girl and cleared the wreckage that was blocking the second floor corridor.
Leon makes his way to the RPD’s clock tower where he finds the last key and also a dust chute leading to the basement. Being somewhat tired after two previous run-ins with “Mr. X” the trenchcoated monster, he decides to take the shorter route and slides down the chute. Just moments after he hits the ground he hears Ben screaming in pain and immediately goes to his aid – however he is too late. With his last words, Ben disappointedly but also somewhat jokingly tells Leon he can’t believe he’s going to die when he’s almost got the entire story. Leon tells him to hang in there, hoping that Ben may be able to survive somehow despite being gutted by the creature he tried to avoid. Ben however is aware of the hopelessness of his situation and gives Leon a document while telling him to make Brian Irons, that scum of a police chief pay. The reporter dies as a startled Ada walks in, shocked by the man’s brutal death. Leon and Ada read the document that details Irons’ dealings with Umbrella and William Birkin. 
It turns out that Birkin was aware of the Umbrella spies sent after him and trusted Irons to keep them away. It turns out that Birkin wanted to sell the G-Virus to the American government or someone inside it. Ada tells Leon she’s going to the chemical plant, thinking John may be there. She runs off again and before Leon can follow he gets a call from Claire who tells him she’s leaving with Sherry through the sewers. Leon tries to ask Claire for more information but she cuts the transmission, leaving a frustrated Leon asking himself why no one ever listens to him.
Leon goes to the sewer entrance where he is confronted by William Birkin. He is still in the mutations earlier stages and looks like a human. His right arm becomes stronger and more grotesque right before Leon engages him. Birkin rips a still pipe of the railings and uses it to fight Leon. Leon doesn’t give up and doesn’t allow G to smash his head in – in the end, Leon’s magnum bullets weaken the beast and it dives into the sewage water. Leon goes through the exit where Ada rejoins him – Leon argues with her and tells her she should stop running off and work together with him. 
Leon as a cop feels responsible for Ada’s safety and wants to make sure both of them get out alive. Ada agrees to do things his way for the time being.
Leon and Ada search the chemical plant and run into Anette searching for her daughter. Ada chases after her but Anette turns and fires at her. Leon jumps in front of Ada and takes the bullet, saving her life. Leon is knocked unconscious by the bullet but Ada chooses to chase Anette instead of helping him.
Ada eventually catches up to the scientist and Anette holds her at gunpoint. After Ada tells Anette her name, she immediately realizes his John’s girlfriend. He knows of them from his husband, who was William’s colleague when he was working on the T-Virus. She tells her John turned into a zombie in the Arklay mansion and was destroyed along with it. Anette starts talking about the G-Virus when she notices Sherry’s pendant around Ada’s neck. 
She becomes surprisingly aggressive suddenly and demands to have it. The two women fight and in the end Ada knocks Anette over the rail, into the sewage. Suspicious about Anette’s sudden outburst, she checks the pendant again and finds a secret compartment containing a sample of the G-Virus.
Around this time, Leon regains consciousness. She goes looking for Ada and finds her in the garbage dump, where she bandages Leon’s wound and tells him of John’s death. She suggests to get out of there as fast as possible. They exit the sewer and recall the tram Claire took earlier at the sky tram platform. It leads to the small factory, but before they get there, G attacks them. It stabs it’s claw through the ceiling of the car multiple times as it searches for them. Leon and Ada retaliate by firing at it and it eventually backs off.
The pair reaches the train elevator platform. Ada stays in the control room, while Leon locks for the keys to call the elevator back, since someone – Claire – took it down. He finds it in a secret security room along with some security cameras. He looks into one that shows the door he just entered and notices a familiar face following him- Mr. X. After one more battle with him, Leon returns to Ada, calls the elevator back and descends toward the lab. 
The descend does not go well as William returns. He stabs Ada in the back through the wall, who loses consciousness. Leon goes out to confront G who has grown two new arms and doubled in size. Using his shotgun and magnum, Leon forces the monster to submission and it flees. Leon returns to Ada.
The elevator platform’s engine overheats and stops midway. Leon and Ada talk during this time when Ada pleads Leon to go on without her, but he is determined to save her. Ada tells Leon she generally doesn’t care about people, but she’s enjoyed his time with the rookie cop and doesn’t want to lose him. Leon says they’re going to leave the city together and tells her to rest while he goes out to find something to treat her wound. He goes outside and finds a vent duct which he jumps into and drops into a corridor. 
Just moments after, the platform starts up again. Leon reactives the emergency elevator and goes up to the level where the platform stopped. He immediately goes to check on Ada but she is missing. Leon looks around the laboratory complex and finds the key for the power room he found while activating the emergency elevator.
Heading back there, Leon is confronted by Annette armed with a gun and carrying a purple substance in a vial – the G-Virus. She accuses Leon of being a spy, just like Ada. Leon refuses to believe Ada is a spy, but Annette assures him that she’s done a background check on her and knows she works for “the Agency”. The only reason she was together with John was because she could get information on Umbrella for them. Annette declares she’ll protect his husband’s legacy and prepares to shoot Leon when suddenly, Mr. X crashes through the ceiling. Evading the monster, Leon heads to the power room, however he is ultimately cornered by it. Before Mr. X has a chance to do anything, Ada appears behind them and shoots the monster. Ada runs out of ammo and is grabbed by the monster as she reloads. The woman shoots Mr. X point blank in the face which causes it great pain and temporarily blinds it – however it swings Ada into a control panel, heavily injuring her. Due to being blinded, Mr. X falls off the platform, into a smelting pit below them. Leon runs to Ada’s side who is bleeding heavily. In her last moments, Ada confesses her love to Leon and tells her she’s sorry for not making it, something that Leon just can’t believe. The two kiss and Ada dies in Leon’s arms, leaving him screaming her name in grief. Leon finds the master key near Ada’s body and leaves the room. Little does he know that a clawed hand emerges from the smelting pool as he leaves. 
Due to the damage done to the control panel by Mr. X, the self-destruct system activates and a computer voice directs survivors to the underground cargo train to evacuate. Leon receives a call from Claire who tells him to get Sherry out of the security room and take her to the train. Leon finds the girl who is just barely conscious and takes her inside the emergency elevator where he switches the elevator to the emergency evacuation route using the master key. Once they reach the train, Leon leaves Sherry inside the train, laying her down on the seats. He notices the gate isn’t opened and the train is without power. He takes the platform key found inside the train so he can power up the train. As he does this, the computer voice warns him that during the charging process for the train, the power will be completely shut down temporarily and also that he has five minutes left till detonation. As the power shuts down a transformed, blazing Mr. X appears before him. The monster’s transformation reveals that it is another Tyrant, stronger than the one developed in the Arklay mansion – Leon of course, not being there doesn’t know this. Leon battles it but can hardly do any damage. All hope is lost when suddenly a familiar figure appears on the gantry above them and drops Leon a rocket launcher telling him to use it. Leon identifies her as Ada from her figure and voice and yells at her in disbelief, but the woman disappears. Leon realizes he has bigger things to worry about and rushes to the rocket launcher and uses it to obliterate the creature, just like Chris Redfield before him. The lights turn on and Leon rushes back to the train as time continues to run out. He opens the gates and starts up the train in the last minute. 
As the train starts up, Leon notices Claire. He yells out to her but she doesn’t make it in time, however she appears to have found another open door as she enters the Leon’s car from the rear. She gives Sherry the antidote and while Leon is happy that it’s over, Claire tells him she has to find his brother. Leon enters the cockpit and says goodbye to Ada.
Suddenly the train rocks. Leon moves back to the girls and asks them what happened, but neither of them know. Leon heads toward the back of the train where it turns out the train is equipped with the same computer system as the lab – it announces that bio-hazardous material has been detected on board and that the train will detonate in just two minutes. The cabin door locks and Leon is unable to return to Sherry and Claire. Leon runs to the back of the train to search for the source of the emergency – and finds giant tentacles smashing through the ceiling.
It is G once again. Birkin is now reduced to a giant blob, pulling himself forward with his tentacles. Leon gives it everything he’s got left and the creature is reduced to a purple jelly-like substance for the second time.
Standing between two cars, Leon tries to get back inside by climbing up to the top of the train. As he does this, G reforms once again and smashes into Claire’s cabin. She tells Sherry to hide, who opens a vent to the cockpit and crawls through, promising Claire that she’ll stop the train. Leon notices G’s tentacles behind him and Claire climbs down a hatch and hangs onto the bottom of the train while it’s moving. Meanwhile, Sherry is still searching for a way to stop the train, when Leon opens an escape hatch on top of the cockpit and immediately notices the emergency stop button. 
Sherry pushes it and the train brakes, showering Claire with yellow sparks as it is slowing down. Once it is stopped, the three are reunited and run out of the tunnel. G notices the countdown in the cockpit and realizes he’s got two seconds to live. The train explodes just as the trio make their way out of the tunnel, into the daylight. On September 30th, they escape Raccoon City, with Leon telling them it’s up to them to take out Umbrella.
And so the story ends. Soon after the events Claire goes off to look for his brother and Leon and Sherry stay together while Leon’s wound is being properly treated. What happens after that is still a mystery….
But what about the G-Virus? Are there no samples left? Or did Umbrella manage to retrieve it? Yes, they did.
One survivor from the USS Alpha Team, specifically, it’s leader, Hunk awakens at the sewer entrance at an unspecified time after the massacre of his unit. 
Wearing military equipment and a gas mask, he calls someone on the radio and tells him he accomplished the mission. He is told to go to the rendezvous point which is the roof of the RPD building, the helipad. Hunk battles his way out of the station and is airlifted out – along with a G-Virus sample.
That’s it for today folks. Sorry for the delay, but I had a lot of technical difficulties recently and this part turned out to take longer than I expected. I’ll make sure the next one will be out as soon as possible. I’ll be covering Resident Evil 3 and perhaps Code Veronica as well…stay tuned.
Gyuri’s diary
February 14th, 2009.
Had a bunch of problems with the laptop, but managed to fix it. Zombies are also starting to stir things up nearby. Better leave this place.
leveit2Bever
April 3, 2009 at 9:55 pm
kewl beanz. great article, and it seems as everything is clear and understandable. im thinking that you should make it into a vedeo with clips and stuff, like gametrailrs