Resident Evil
Release date(s) March 22, 1996
Genre: Survival horror
Theme: Zombie Shooter, Puzzle
Developer Capcom
Publisher Capcom
Director Shinji Mikami (My personal favorite game director)
The player's character is a member of a special law enforcement task force who is trapped in a mansion populated by dangerous mutated creatures. The objective of the game is to uncover the mystery of the mansion and ultimately escape alive.
To fulfill the game's objective, the player uncovers various documents that provide exposition about the game's narrative, as well as clues that help them solve various puzzles within the mansion. Key items are also available that give the player access to other items or new areas. The player can arm their character with weapons to defend themselves from enemies, although the ammunition available for each firearm is limited and the player must learn to conserve the ammunition they have for situations where they will really need it. To restore the character's health, the player uses first-aid sprays or three types of healing herbs that can be mixed together in different combinations for different healing effects. The carrying capacity of the player is limited depending on the character and items that the player does not wish to carry at the moment can be stored into an item box to be retrieved for later use. To save their progress, the player must pick up an ink ribbon and use it on any of the typewriters scattered through key locations in the game. However, the supply of ink ribbons the player can acquire is also limited much like the player's ammo and healing supplies.
The various enemies the player encounters include infected creatures like flesh-eating zombies, zombie dogs, giant spiders, crows and artificial creatures with codenames such as "Hunters" and "Chimeras", as well as the game's ultimate adversary, a new type of biological weapon known as the "Tyrant".
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[i][u]STORY[/u][/i][/b]
The game begins on July 24, 1998 after Alpha team locates Bravo team's helicopter, but there are no signs of survivors; only a severed hand is found. While searching the area for further clues, Alpha team is attacked by ferocious dogs, one of which kills one of the team's members, Joseph Frost. Alpha's helicopter pilot, Brad Vickers, panics and takes off alone. Pursued by the dogs who killed their colleague, Alpha team is forced to seek refuge within a nearby mansion. It is believed to be abandoned.
With the dogs roaming outside, the four remaining Alpha team members (Albert Wesker, Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine and Barry Burton) are trapped within. Depending on which character is the player, one of the members of Alpha team is separated from the others during the chase and does not make it to the mansion(Barry if Chris, Chris if Jill). A gunshot rings out, and the player character moves to investigate. At this point, the player takes control of the character and begins to explore the mansion. One of the first discoveries is a member of Bravo team, Kenneth J. Sullivan, being eaten by a zombie. While searching the mansion, the character finds the other members of Bravo team, such as Richard Aiken, dying of poison, who gives the character his radio before dying, Forest Speyer, found dead on the balcony, and Enrico Marini, who reveals that one member of the team is a traitor before being shot and killed by an unseen attacker. The character eventually finds the mansion to be riddled with puzzles, traps, and horrors. Scattered documents suggest that a series of illegal experiments were being undertaken on the property by a clandestine research team, under the authority and supervision of the Umbrella Corporation, a biomedical conglomerate. The creatures roaming the mansion and surrounding region are the results of these experiments, which have exposed the mansion's personnel and various animals and insects to a highly contagious and mutagenic biological agent known as the T-virus.
After navigating a series of underground tunnels, passageways and buildings, the player discovers a secret underground laboratory containing the Umbrella Corporation's experiments, including the Tyrant. In the lab, Wesker reveals that he is a double agent working for Umbrella. Wesker is killed after that by one of the creations. The player finds the other playable character in a cell, put there by Wesker, and manages to get him/her out by activating the self-destruct system. Chris, Jill and the helper character(Rebecca if Chris, Barry if Jill) head for the heliport, but the other two are separated from the player due to more creatures. The player gets up to the heliport and manages to contact Brad and meet the other two survivors there, but they are attacked by the Tyrant T-002, a giant humanoid monster created through prolonged exposure to the T-virus. After the Tyrant is defeated, Chris, Jill and Barry/Rebecca manage to escape the premises in the team helicopter.