This is a thread that helps people who are playing the Resident Evil series for the first time get up to speed on the story aspects of RE4, and provides a deep look into what went on before Leon enters the Pueblo village. This is filled with spoilers do not look below if you want to find out everything for yourself.
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Before Leon Was Around
Before Resident Evil Zero
Umbrella is founded in the first half of the century by Ozwell E. Spencer, James Marcus and Edward Ashford. Ashford and Spencer discovered the Mother Virus in Africa, and James Marcus refined it into the Progenitor Virus (or Primogenitor Virus as William Birkin called it). Leech DNA is combined with the Progenitor Virus to create the T-Virus, which is short for Tyrant Virus (Marcus found Spencer to be a tyrant hence the name). Ashford is as ambitious as Marcus, and merges the DNA from a queen ant with the T-Virus to create the T-Veronica Virus. And William Birkin, another ambitious young man, although much later, creates two viruses the G-Virus and Weskers Super Power Virus. He creates the G-Virus by taking the daughter of the architect of the mansion built outside Raccoon City, and infusing her with the Nemesis Parasite, the T-Virus and a lot of other dangerous shit. So we have
Progenitor Virus
Refined from the original Mother Virus. Not very powerful on its own.
T-Virus
Stands for Tyrant Virus. Turns humans into zombies, although merging it with Beta hetero non-serotonin creates Tyrants. Amphibians become Hunters, crows become vicious flesh eaters, dogs become decomposed and super flexible, and zombies exposed to a second wave of T-Virus become Lickers. Among others.
T-Veronica Virus
Combining the gene of a queen ant with the T-Virus yields this. Named after Veronica Ashford (CODE: Veronica!!!). It takes the host 15 years to cope with the virus, as Alexia Ashford went through. Albert Wesker has a sample from Steve Burnsides body.
G-Virus
Created inside Lisa Trevor, daughter of George Trevor, architect of the Spencer Mansion. Injecting her with the T-Virus, Ebola Virus, Nemesis Parasite and other toxins yielded the G-Virus inside her. The G-Virus regenerates dead cells, but mutates the host into a constantly-mutating, killing machine. Hunk and Ada Wong escaped with samples of the virus after Raccoon City exploded.
Resident Evil Zero
Umbrellas experiments in the Spencer Mansion, as well as the convenient revival of James Marcus, whom in 1988 was assassinated in the middle of an experiment by Birkin and Wesker (hence William Birkin sometimes is credited with the invention of the T-Virus). Marcus survived when he ate a leech, the same leeches that produced the DNA that merged with the Progenitor Virus to create the T-Virus. Marcus becomes one with the leeches quite literally. In May 1998, Marcus sabotages the Spencer Mansion and spills the T-Virus there. Owned are the researchers
In July, Marcus returns and unleashes leeches on an Umbrella passenger train, and his former place of work, the Umbrella Research Center.
Some of the zombies filter into Raccoon City streets and murder innocent civilians. After weeks of this happening, the Raccoon City Police Department dispatches the two S.T.A.R.S. groups to the Arklay Mountain, Raccoon Forest area to find the perps. First to go is Bravo Team.
Bravo flies via chopper to the forest, where their helicopter crashes. They discover an overturned vehicle that was supposed to transport a man convicted of killing 23 people, Billy Coen. Hes discovered to be on the loose, and the mission changes to finding Coen. Rebecca Chambers, one of the members, stumbles onto a stopped train. She finds Billy on board, and the train starts up. Billy and Rebecca decide to cooperate to survive. They discover zombies and leeches throughout the train, which ends up at the Umbrella Research Center. Marcus reveals himself to Billy and Rebecca, and he unleashed his virus upon Raccoon City to have revenge of Birkin and Wesker. Billy also reveals his life story; he was a Marine in Africa, where a civil war was breaking out. His commander killed 23 people, not him, so he was wrongly convicted. Billy and Rebecca, after reaching the reservoir area of the Arklay River, kill Marcus as the URC and the surrounding area explode. Rebecca and Billy part their ways; Rebecca heads to the Spencer Mansion.
Resident Evil
Bravo Teams been missing for a day, so Alpha Team members Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Barry Burton and Albert Wesker, as well as Brad Vickers and Joseph Front, fly to the forest to search them out. They find Bravos chopper with the pilot, Kevin, dead. A skirmish with zombie dogs scares Brad as he flies the chopper away, forcing Chris, Jill, Barry and Wesker into the Spencer Mansion, which by now Rebeccas successfully reached. After discovering secrets of Umbrella and zombies and the death of all Bravo members except Rebecca, and the responsibility of Wesker behind all of this, Chris, Jill, Barry and Rebecca destroy the Tyrant on the premises and escape when Brad returns in the chopper. The Spencer Mansion blows up.
(Wesker at this point has injected the Super Virus into his body, so when the Tyrant impales him, he magically lives. He joins an organization that rivals Umbrella, HCF and vows revenge on S.T.A.R.S.).
Leons Role
Resident Evil 2 September 29-30, 1998
By this point, Raccoon City has been infected and completely overrun with zombies (at this point, Jill Valentine is unconscious at the St. Michael Clock Tower play RE3). At the same time, the various characters from both Outbreak games are running around trying to escape the city (play Outbreak File 1 + 2).
Leon S. Kennedy, meanwhile, is on his way to work at the Raccoon City Police Department when he is ambushed by zombies. Meeting up with Claire Redfield, whos looking for her missing brother Chris, they escape the zombies to the RPD building (after getting separated). Leon meets Ada Wong, who he discovers to be an agent out for the G-Virus, created by William Birkin. After discovering Birkins lab, Ada either sacrifices herself for Leon to survive against a Mr. X Tyrant seeker unit, or falls to her doom. If the former is true, Leon does see Ada alive after her death, but ultimately concludes that shes dead. Reuniting with Claire, whos befriended Sherry, the daughter of Birkin, the three escape Raccoon City with knowledge of Umbrella behind the incident.
Post-Raccoon City
Despite the fact it seems like Claire and Leon are parting ways, they do keep in contact with each other in the following months (play CODE: Veronica X). With Claire and Leon separated, and Sherry hanging out with Leon, Leon and Sherry are captured by the American government
HUNK 4th Survivor (in the RE2 universe)
Hunk was the leader of the French Umbrella team who went after William Birkins G-Virus. Acquiring a sample of the G-Virus and narrowly surviving the mutated Birkins onslaught, HUNK escapes and turns the G-Virus into Umbrella France. Months later, HUNK would be in charge of transporting the T-047 Tyrant over to Rockfort Island, which Claire Redfield would destroy. HUNKs mission will not be relevant until 4 years later.
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis/Resident Evil Outbreak/Resident Evil Outbreak File 2 October 1, 1998
Jill Valentine, Carlos Oliveira, Barry Burton, Nicholai Ginovaef, as well as Kevin Ryman, Cindy Lennox, Yoko Suzuki, Alyssa Ashcroft, Mark Wilkins, David King, George Hamilton, and Jim Chapman escape Raccoon City just as its nuked by the American government. Because of the actions taken, the US government halts all involvement in Umbrella. Others take notice, and Umbrellas stock begin to fall, but the effects arent seen until after 1998 concludes days after CODE: Veronica X. In fact, the death of Umbrella proper comes at least 4 years following the events of Raccoon City
Leon does indeed join the US government and spends six years working against Umbrella. He immediately gets to work against Umbrella.
Resident Evil Survivor November 1998
Leon sends his friend, Ark Thompson, who works for the same organization, to investigate Sheena Island, an Umbrella-owned city which manufactures Tyrant Mr. X units by capturing prisoners from various places on Earth and torturing them. Ark Thompson immediately confronts Vincent Goldman, and a skirmish leaves them both unconscious. Ark loses his memory, and thinks hes Vincent Goldman. As Ark discovers information about the now-contaminated Sheena Island and the crimes of Vincent Goldman, Ark believes himself to be a killer. Discovering two children, Lott and Lily, Ark rediscovers his memory, and the island, because of the real Vincent Goldman, is blown up with them escaping.
Resident Evil CODE: Veronica X
Our buddy Leon makes himself useful by relaying a message sent to him by a captured-turned-freed Claire Redfield to Chris Redfield, a surviving member of the Mansion Incident (play REmake). In CVX, Claire gets captured in Paris while trying to infiltrate an Umbrella laboratory. Taken to Rockfort Island, Claire escapes thanks to a wounded guard, and meets up with Steve. Claire and Steve offend the islands operator, Alfred Ashford. Claire and Steve escape before Alfred blows the island up, but they are rerouted to Antarctica, where they manage to finally kill Alfred. Unfortunately, theyre captured by his twin sister, Alexia, who has just awaken from years of sleep absorbing the T-Veronica Virus.
Chris Redfield, receiving Leons message (go Leon!), arrives on Rockfort. Thanks to Rodrigo, who freed Claire, he discovers Claire already escaped before Rodrigo is killed. Chris meets up with Wesker, whos been alive since the Mansion Incident, which Wesker was ostensibly responsible for. Moving onto Antarctica, Chris reunites with Claire, but because of Alexia, Steve is killed. Chris destroys Alexia, but meets Wesker again. Chris and Wesker duke it out as the base explodes, but no one wins. Wesker decides to save his bout with Chris for another day. Claire and Chris escape, and vow to destroy Umbrella and you know what, the job gets done.
The Death of Umbrella
In Resident Evil 4s introduction video, Leon describes the death of Umbrella, but hes given you the basics. The destruction of Raccoon City required military presence, in addition to the nuke. Investigations were also set up. In short, the United States government had its hands tied up with the affair.
Some parts of Umbrella decided to strike back.
(Outbreak File 2 Spoiler)
Resident Evil Dead Aim September 2002
Morpheus Duvall, a former Umbrella worker, steals vials of the T-Virus from the Umbrella Paris Lab, the same lab that Claire Redfield had infiltrated. Duvall hijacks an Umbrella cruiser, the Spencer Rain. From the Spencer Rain, Duvall makes threats to the American and Chinese governments, demanding that they capitulate to his monetary demands as well as allow him to build an empire in Africa. If they dont cooperate, Duvall threatens to launch missiles containing the T-Virus into China and America. The American government, already aware of the disaster caused by Umbrella, sends Bruce McGivern to investigate the Spencer Rain and eliminate Duvall. In typical Gun Survivor fashion where the hero meets the enemy at the beginning, Duvall is mortally injured but manages to get away. Similarly, the Chinese government sends Fong Ling to take care of Duvall. Working together, Fong Ling and Bruce crash the Spencer Rain onto the island that contains Duvalls missiles. Duvall, meanwhile, merges the T-Virus with the G-Virus. Having acquired his samples from Paris, the G-Virus sample he used came from the sample HUNK took directly from Birkin. The TG-Virus is what a wounded Duvall uses to survive, but he becomes a female Tyrant. However, this virus allows Duvall to maintain his thoughts and memories. The Duvall Tyrant is wiped out by Bruce, and the missiles containing the T-Virus are wiped out by him and Fong Ling.
Its only logical to conclude that being threatened with missiles Cold War-style sealed the lid on Umbrellas operations worldwide. As Leon says, the companys stocks fall, and the company is finally destroyed.
Resident Evil 4 Begins
Six years, a missile crisis and several disasters later, Umbrella is now dead. Although Leons job is theoretically done, he sticks with the US government and obtains a new mission: to rescue the daughter of President Graham, Ashley.
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-
-
-
Before Leon Was Around
Before Resident Evil Zero
Umbrella is founded in the first half of the century by Ozwell E. Spencer, James Marcus and Edward Ashford. Ashford and Spencer discovered the Mother Virus in Africa, and James Marcus refined it into the Progenitor Virus (or Primogenitor Virus as William Birkin called it). Leech DNA is combined with the Progenitor Virus to create the T-Virus, which is short for Tyrant Virus (Marcus found Spencer to be a tyrant hence the name). Ashford is as ambitious as Marcus, and merges the DNA from a queen ant with the T-Virus to create the T-Veronica Virus. And William Birkin, another ambitious young man, although much later, creates two viruses the G-Virus and Weskers Super Power Virus. He creates the G-Virus by taking the daughter of the architect of the mansion built outside Raccoon City, and infusing her with the Nemesis Parasite, the T-Virus and a lot of other dangerous shit. So we have
Progenitor Virus
Refined from the original Mother Virus. Not very powerful on its own.
T-Virus
Stands for Tyrant Virus. Turns humans into zombies, although merging it with Beta hetero non-serotonin creates Tyrants. Amphibians become Hunters, crows become vicious flesh eaters, dogs become decomposed and super flexible, and zombies exposed to a second wave of T-Virus become Lickers. Among others.
T-Veronica Virus
Combining the gene of a queen ant with the T-Virus yields this. Named after Veronica Ashford (CODE: Veronica!!!). It takes the host 15 years to cope with the virus, as Alexia Ashford went through. Albert Wesker has a sample from Steve Burnsides body.
G-Virus
Created inside Lisa Trevor, daughter of George Trevor, architect of the Spencer Mansion. Injecting her with the T-Virus, Ebola Virus, Nemesis Parasite and other toxins yielded the G-Virus inside her. The G-Virus regenerates dead cells, but mutates the host into a constantly-mutating, killing machine. Hunk and Ada Wong escaped with samples of the virus after Raccoon City exploded.
Resident Evil Zero
Umbrellas experiments in the Spencer Mansion, as well as the convenient revival of James Marcus, whom in 1988 was assassinated in the middle of an experiment by Birkin and Wesker (hence William Birkin sometimes is credited with the invention of the T-Virus). Marcus survived when he ate a leech, the same leeches that produced the DNA that merged with the Progenitor Virus to create the T-Virus. Marcus becomes one with the leeches quite literally. In May 1998, Marcus sabotages the Spencer Mansion and spills the T-Virus there. Owned are the researchers
In July, Marcus returns and unleashes leeches on an Umbrella passenger train, and his former place of work, the Umbrella Research Center.
Some of the zombies filter into Raccoon City streets and murder innocent civilians. After weeks of this happening, the Raccoon City Police Department dispatches the two S.T.A.R.S. groups to the Arklay Mountain, Raccoon Forest area to find the perps. First to go is Bravo Team.
Bravo flies via chopper to the forest, where their helicopter crashes. They discover an overturned vehicle that was supposed to transport a man convicted of killing 23 people, Billy Coen. Hes discovered to be on the loose, and the mission changes to finding Coen. Rebecca Chambers, one of the members, stumbles onto a stopped train. She finds Billy on board, and the train starts up. Billy and Rebecca decide to cooperate to survive. They discover zombies and leeches throughout the train, which ends up at the Umbrella Research Center. Marcus reveals himself to Billy and Rebecca, and he unleashed his virus upon Raccoon City to have revenge of Birkin and Wesker. Billy also reveals his life story; he was a Marine in Africa, where a civil war was breaking out. His commander killed 23 people, not him, so he was wrongly convicted. Billy and Rebecca, after reaching the reservoir area of the Arklay River, kill Marcus as the URC and the surrounding area explode. Rebecca and Billy part their ways; Rebecca heads to the Spencer Mansion.
Resident Evil
Bravo Teams been missing for a day, so Alpha Team members Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Barry Burton and Albert Wesker, as well as Brad Vickers and Joseph Front, fly to the forest to search them out. They find Bravos chopper with the pilot, Kevin, dead. A skirmish with zombie dogs scares Brad as he flies the chopper away, forcing Chris, Jill, Barry and Wesker into the Spencer Mansion, which by now Rebeccas successfully reached. After discovering secrets of Umbrella and zombies and the death of all Bravo members except Rebecca, and the responsibility of Wesker behind all of this, Chris, Jill, Barry and Rebecca destroy the Tyrant on the premises and escape when Brad returns in the chopper. The Spencer Mansion blows up.
(Wesker at this point has injected the Super Virus into his body, so when the Tyrant impales him, he magically lives. He joins an organization that rivals Umbrella, HCF and vows revenge on S.T.A.R.S.).
Leons Role
Resident Evil 2 September 29-30, 1998
By this point, Raccoon City has been infected and completely overrun with zombies (at this point, Jill Valentine is unconscious at the St. Michael Clock Tower play RE3). At the same time, the various characters from both Outbreak games are running around trying to escape the city (play Outbreak File 1 + 2).
Leon S. Kennedy, meanwhile, is on his way to work at the Raccoon City Police Department when he is ambushed by zombies. Meeting up with Claire Redfield, whos looking for her missing brother Chris, they escape the zombies to the RPD building (after getting separated). Leon meets Ada Wong, who he discovers to be an agent out for the G-Virus, created by William Birkin. After discovering Birkins lab, Ada either sacrifices herself for Leon to survive against a Mr. X Tyrant seeker unit, or falls to her doom. If the former is true, Leon does see Ada alive after her death, but ultimately concludes that shes dead. Reuniting with Claire, whos befriended Sherry, the daughter of Birkin, the three escape Raccoon City with knowledge of Umbrella behind the incident.
Post-Raccoon City
Despite the fact it seems like Claire and Leon are parting ways, they do keep in contact with each other in the following months (play CODE: Veronica X). With Claire and Leon separated, and Sherry hanging out with Leon, Leon and Sherry are captured by the American government
HUNK 4th Survivor (in the RE2 universe)
Hunk was the leader of the French Umbrella team who went after William Birkins G-Virus. Acquiring a sample of the G-Virus and narrowly surviving the mutated Birkins onslaught, HUNK escapes and turns the G-Virus into Umbrella France. Months later, HUNK would be in charge of transporting the T-047 Tyrant over to Rockfort Island, which Claire Redfield would destroy. HUNKs mission will not be relevant until 4 years later.
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis/Resident Evil Outbreak/Resident Evil Outbreak File 2 October 1, 1998
Jill Valentine, Carlos Oliveira, Barry Burton, Nicholai Ginovaef, as well as Kevin Ryman, Cindy Lennox, Yoko Suzuki, Alyssa Ashcroft, Mark Wilkins, David King, George Hamilton, and Jim Chapman escape Raccoon City just as its nuked by the American government. Because of the actions taken, the US government halts all involvement in Umbrella. Others take notice, and Umbrellas stock begin to fall, but the effects arent seen until after 1998 concludes days after CODE: Veronica X. In fact, the death of Umbrella proper comes at least 4 years following the events of Raccoon City
Leon does indeed join the US government and spends six years working against Umbrella. He immediately gets to work against Umbrella.
Resident Evil Survivor November 1998
Leon sends his friend, Ark Thompson, who works for the same organization, to investigate Sheena Island, an Umbrella-owned city which manufactures Tyrant Mr. X units by capturing prisoners from various places on Earth and torturing them. Ark Thompson immediately confronts Vincent Goldman, and a skirmish leaves them both unconscious. Ark loses his memory, and thinks hes Vincent Goldman. As Ark discovers information about the now-contaminated Sheena Island and the crimes of Vincent Goldman, Ark believes himself to be a killer. Discovering two children, Lott and Lily, Ark rediscovers his memory, and the island, because of the real Vincent Goldman, is blown up with them escaping.
Resident Evil CODE: Veronica X
Our buddy Leon makes himself useful by relaying a message sent to him by a captured-turned-freed Claire Redfield to Chris Redfield, a surviving member of the Mansion Incident (play REmake). In CVX, Claire gets captured in Paris while trying to infiltrate an Umbrella laboratory. Taken to Rockfort Island, Claire escapes thanks to a wounded guard, and meets up with Steve. Claire and Steve offend the islands operator, Alfred Ashford. Claire and Steve escape before Alfred blows the island up, but they are rerouted to Antarctica, where they manage to finally kill Alfred. Unfortunately, theyre captured by his twin sister, Alexia, who has just awaken from years of sleep absorbing the T-Veronica Virus.
Chris Redfield, receiving Leons message (go Leon!), arrives on Rockfort. Thanks to Rodrigo, who freed Claire, he discovers Claire already escaped before Rodrigo is killed. Chris meets up with Wesker, whos been alive since the Mansion Incident, which Wesker was ostensibly responsible for. Moving onto Antarctica, Chris reunites with Claire, but because of Alexia, Steve is killed. Chris destroys Alexia, but meets Wesker again. Chris and Wesker duke it out as the base explodes, but no one wins. Wesker decides to save his bout with Chris for another day. Claire and Chris escape, and vow to destroy Umbrella and you know what, the job gets done.
The Death of Umbrella
In Resident Evil 4s introduction video, Leon describes the death of Umbrella, but hes given you the basics. The destruction of Raccoon City required military presence, in addition to the nuke. Investigations were also set up. In short, the United States government had its hands tied up with the affair.
Some parts of Umbrella decided to strike back.
(Outbreak File 2 Spoiler)
Yoko Suzukis Testimony
Upon surviving Raccoon City, Yoko Suzuki, along with a woman named Linda, who also survived Raccoon, goes to court to testify against Umbrella. This testimony helps build the US governments hate for Umbrella.
Upon surviving Raccoon City, Yoko Suzuki, along with a woman named Linda, who also survived Raccoon, goes to court to testify against Umbrella. This testimony helps build the US governments hate for Umbrella.
Resident Evil Dead Aim September 2002
Morpheus Duvall, a former Umbrella worker, steals vials of the T-Virus from the Umbrella Paris Lab, the same lab that Claire Redfield had infiltrated. Duvall hijacks an Umbrella cruiser, the Spencer Rain. From the Spencer Rain, Duvall makes threats to the American and Chinese governments, demanding that they capitulate to his monetary demands as well as allow him to build an empire in Africa. If they dont cooperate, Duvall threatens to launch missiles containing the T-Virus into China and America. The American government, already aware of the disaster caused by Umbrella, sends Bruce McGivern to investigate the Spencer Rain and eliminate Duvall. In typical Gun Survivor fashion where the hero meets the enemy at the beginning, Duvall is mortally injured but manages to get away. Similarly, the Chinese government sends Fong Ling to take care of Duvall. Working together, Fong Ling and Bruce crash the Spencer Rain onto the island that contains Duvalls missiles. Duvall, meanwhile, merges the T-Virus with the G-Virus. Having acquired his samples from Paris, the G-Virus sample he used came from the sample HUNK took directly from Birkin. The TG-Virus is what a wounded Duvall uses to survive, but he becomes a female Tyrant. However, this virus allows Duvall to maintain his thoughts and memories. The Duvall Tyrant is wiped out by Bruce, and the missiles containing the T-Virus are wiped out by him and Fong Ling.
Its only logical to conclude that being threatened with missiles Cold War-style sealed the lid on Umbrellas operations worldwide. As Leon says, the companys stocks fall, and the company is finally destroyed.
Resident Evil 4 Begins
Six years, a missile crisis and several disasters later, Umbrella is now dead. Although Leons job is theoretically done, he sticks with the US government and obtains a new mission: to rescue the daughter of President Graham, Ashley.
