Resident Evil

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Resident Evil

 
The Resident Evil logo used for the GameCube remake. The older logo consisted of bold red letters.Resident Evil, known in Japan as Biohazard, is a survival-horror series of video games developed by Capcom and created by Shinji Mikami. The series is credited with establishing the survival horror genre. This franchise has been heavily influenced by George A. Romero's Dead movies, as well as the Alone in the Dark series of PC horror games, early seminal examples of the genre.

The games have sold over 30 million copies as of February 2006.[1] The success of the series has led to creation of comic books, novelizations, two Hollywood action films (with a third under production), guides, collectibles, publications, and a variety of action figures.

As of 2007, there are six games in the mainstream series (excluding remakes), with a seventh installment currently under production.

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Overview
 
The PlayStation box art for the first Resident Evil.Resident Evil takes inspiration from the game Sweet Home,[2] which was based on a Japanese horror movie of the same name. Sweet Home was released only in Japan in 1989 for the Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System). Resident Evil borrowed many elements from Sweet Home including the mansion setting, the puzzles, and even the "door" loading screen. While the initial game in the series was announced in both Asian and Western markets under the title Biohazard, Capcom's U.S. branch changed the title to Resident Evil a few months prior to release. While no official reason for the change has ever been divulged, it is said the reason for the change was due to trademark infringement (probably due to the name Biohazard being registered in the U.S. to the band Biohazard). According to Mikami, the title Resident Evil was chosen by Capcom USA after their playtesters reviewed the contents of the game.[3]

Most of the games in the series are played from a third-person perspective, viewing the characters from fixed camera angles as they move through pre-rendered environments. Although Resident Evil was one of the first games to use this gameplay style on console systems, the technique was first pioneered on the PC by the Alone in the Dark series which is often cited as the progenitor of the survival horror genre. These static backgrounds have been a bone of contention for many players, although Code: Veronica, and more recently Resident Evil 4, have featured environments rendered in realtime. Resident Evil 4 in particular featured a cited "full model change" which featured, among other significant changes, a new camera system which follows the player's character from behind their back rather than relying on fixed camera angles. The next game Resident Evil 5 is set to use the gameplay model.

Some of the games featured branching storylines in which events unfolds differently based on the player's actions taken during gameplay. In addition, most of the games features two main characters ( a male protagonist and a female protagonist) that are featured in the main game as either: selectable characters with their independent scenarios or as part of an overlapping storyline featuring both characters. In addition, some games feature supporting characters that become playable during key portions of the game.

 
The Dreamcast boxart for Resident Evil Code: Veronica .The Resident Evil series is controversial for the use of its graphic violence, gore and bloodshed which is seen throughout the entire game from start to finish. Each game is prefaced by a disclaimer warning that "This game contains scenes of explicit violence and gore" and is rated "M" for Mature audiences only. It should be noted that the game's violence, unlike other series, is almost exclusively against zombies and non-human mutants, and only twice has the player character fought and killed another human being (who, in general, are villains anyway). However, the player-controlled characters are human and their deaths are often graphic - especially in Resident Evil 4, where the main character can be decapitated, ripped in half, etc. The Game Over screens also add to this, with the words You Died or You Are Dead in a blood-splattered font. Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis featured game over screens depicting the player's character being devoured by zombies or other creatures.

Further controversy arose from Capcom's dealings with Nintendo to make the Resident Evil series exclusive for the GameCube,[4] at least for the core story based titles, after many years of releasing the games for the PlayStation and porting them to other systems (more below).

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Story

The original Resident Evil revolves around a series of cannibalistic homicides that occur in the Arklay Mountains region, situated north of the fictional Raccoon City in 1998. The local police's Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) are commissioned to investigate the sources of these murders. When Bravo Team, the initial team deployed to the area, fails to report back, Alpha Team goes on a rescue mission to find them; what they find are the mutilated bodies of some of the Bravo team, and a horde of freakish creatures. They are led to a seemingly abandoned mansion, where the team encounters zombies and other creatures, where they discover the rest of their comrades in the house. In the end, it is revealed that the house is actually a front for a top-secret laboratory owned by the international Umbrella Corporation, and that the creatures are the result of experiments with a genetically modified virus called the T-Virus. Due to an accident there was an out break of the T-Virus. The mother virus from which the T-Virus was developed, was discovered by three men; Edward Ashford, James Marcus and Ozwell E. Spencer. Resident Evil 0 explores the cause of the viral outbreak and Bravo Team's ordeal prior to the events of the Mansion incident.




Chris and Jill in the 2002 GameCube remake of the original Resident Evil.The following game, Resident Evil 2, takes place two months after the events of the original game in Raccoon City itself. With S.T.A.R.S. unable to convict Umbrella for their wrongdoings, the company continues their experiments within an underground facility. However, a botched attempt to steal a former scientist's (William Birkin) work results in the T-Virus being leaked into the city's sewers and Birkin being infected by the new G-Virus. The T-Virus is spread by rats and most of the city's population become zombies, leaving only a few survivors trying to find a way to escape the city alive. The third game, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, is set during the same time period as Resident Evil 2, and features a similar premise. Nemesis, a creature created by Umbrella, is sent into the remains of Racoon city to eliminate the remaining members of the S.T.A.R.S. unit. The game concludes its story by depicting the city's ultimate destruction by a nuclear warhead. The Resident Evil: Outbreak series depicts the attempts of normal civilians trying to escape the city.

Resident Evil Code: Veronica depicts the previous games' survivors attempt to expose the Umbrella corporation and sabotage their operations. Code: Veronica reveals the existence of a rival corporation, who employs Albert Wesker, the crooked leader of the S.T.A.R.S. and a former Umbrella researcher himself, also developing their own bio-weapons. Resident Evil: Survivor and Resident Evil: Dead Aim depicts similar attempts to overthrow Umbrella.

Set six years after the events of the previous games, Resident Evil 4 begins with the dissolution of Umbrella Corporation. The focus is on a religious cult known as Los Iluminados that uses a breed of ancient parasites known as Las Plagas (The Plagues) to turn victims into mind-controlled psychopaths known as "Ganados". The same Organization seen in Code: Veronica also plays a role in Resident Evil 4, by having two of their agents attempt to steal a specialized sample of the parasite for their disposal.

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History

The original Resident Evil made its debut in 1996 for the Sony PlayStation. Despite its unorthodox gameplay, it was both a critical and commercial success, leading to the production of two immediate sequels, Resident Evil 2 in 1998 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis in 1999, both also for the PlayStation. A port of Resident Evil was released for the Sega Saturn and a port of Resident Evil 2 was released for the Nintendo 64. In addition, ports of all three were released for Windows. The fourth game in the series, Resident Evil Code: Veronica, was developed for the Sega Dreamcast and released in 2000 (followed by ports of 2 and 3). A Sony PlayStation 2 version was later produced in the form of an updated version titled Code: Veronica X.

Despite earlier announcements that the next game in the series would be released for the PS2 (which resulted in the creation of an unrelated game titled Devil May Cry), series' creator and producer Shinji Mikami decided to target the series exclusively to the Nintendo GameCube. The next three games in the series: a remake of the original Resident Evil, the prequel Resident Evil Zero (originally planned as an Nintendo 64 game) and Resident Evil 4, would be exclusive to the GameCube. In addition, the console would receive ports of the previous Resident Evil sequels (2, 3 and Code: Veronica X), as they originally appeared on the PlayStation and Dreamcast. The remake and Zero were both released in 2002. Despite this exclusivity agreement between Capcom and Nintendo, Capcom still managed to release a few Resident Evil spinoffs (see spinoffs) for the PS2 that were not part of the main series. Eventually, Capcom managed to release both a GameCube and PS2 version of Resident Evil 4 in 2005. The PS2 version followed the original GameCube release by months and contains additional supplemental features. A Windows port is also scheduled to be released in April, 2007.


Future releases

The series is set to make its next-generation debut with Resident Evil 5 for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. In contrast to the previous exclusivity agreement between Capcom and Nintendo, executive producer Keiji Inafune commented that Capcom wants the series to grow into a multi-platform franchise, and expects a simultaneous release date for both versions of the game.[5], a first in the series' history.

Another new game tentatively titled Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles is also being planned exclusively for Nintendo's Wii, but little more is known about the title.[6]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_%28series%29