In the year 1998, the Midwestern American town of Raccoon City has been plagued by a sudden outbreak of bizarre, gruesome murders in the nearby Arklay Mountains and the suburban parts of the city. On July 23rd, Bravo Team of the Special Tactics And Rescue Squad, or STARS, is dispatched into the mountains to investigate the matter. They disappear without a trace. On the evening of July 25th, Alpha Team is dispatched to find their comrades.
Locating the crashed chopper of Bravo Team, it's a derelict; something has broken through the windows, brutally killing its pilot, Kevin Dooley. As Alpha Team adopts a loose formation to begin investigating the area, they find out firsthand what killed Kevin: one of their members, Joseph Frost, is attacked by a pack of savage, mutilated yet weirdly functioning dogs. Despite the gunfire from his teammates, Joseph is torn to pieces by the crazed canines, which then attack the rest of Alpha Team.
At that point, the cowardly pilot of Alpha Team's helicopter, the aptly nicknamed Brad "Chickenheart" Vickers, panics and takes off, abandoning his companions to their fate. As roughly a dozen of the monstrous mutts herd them, the STARS flee for the dubious shelter of a mysterious nearby mansion.
During the flight, some of the members of Alpha Team are separated from the group, depending on who the player chose. If Chris is selected, only he, Jill and Albert Wesker make it through the main doors. If Jill is selected, then she, Barry Burton and Albert Wesker are the ones who make it to the main hall. From here, the character's stories begin to take their own unique path; each character undergoes roughly the same story, but there are distinct differences, such as which side-character is encountered. Precisely how the two different versions of the story integrate has never been made clear, so this synopsis will separate by character.
Chris's Story
As he, Jill and Wesker take stock of their situation, and try to figure out where Barry disappeared to, they hear a gunshot from nearby. Chris goes to investigate, but alas he's too late; the gunshot was fired by a member of Bravo Team, Kenneth Sullivan, but he has been killed by a madman, mutilated to the point of resembling a walking corpse, just like the dogs outside - a zombie. Chris slays the creature and, after stopping to grab the video recording of Kenneth's last moments, returns to the main hall.To his surprise, it's empty. Wesker has vanished. Alone and unsure of what to do, Chris starts to explore the mansion, hoping to find a surviving member of either of the STARS teams. As he explores, he uncovers files left behind, revealing that the monsters stalking the halls are all that's left of Umbrella scientists after an illegal bio-engineered virus was leaked.
His searching finally pays off, to an extent, when he discovers two members of Bravo Team on the second floor of the east wing; Richard Aiken and Rebecca Chambers. Unfortunately, Richard is in bad shape, having been bitten by a venomous snake of enormous size. It's taking all of Rebecca's medical skills to sustain his life, and he won't last much longer. So Chris is sent to find the mansion's infirmary, in hopes that there might be a vial of antivenom serum there.
There is a fork here based on the player's actions.
If Chris finds and retrieve the serum from the ground floor of the west wing, they stabilize Richard. Chris and Rebecca carry Richard to the infirmary, where Rebecca stays to watch over him. Richard gives Chris a radio and Chris resumes exploring the mansion.
If Chris fails in this task, Richard dies. Rebecca goes to find a safe room to grieve in whilst Chris resumes his explorations.
Battling more monsters, and finding more files, including learning of the murder of the mansion's architect, George Trevor, and the abduction of his wife and daughter by Umbrella, Chris wends his way through the estate as much as he can. Rebecca emerges from the safety of her hiding place to help him solve a puzzle requiring the playing of a specific piano piece - ironic, given that Billy needed to play it for her during her exploration of the training facility - and likewise comes to Chris's aid if he is poisoned whilst fighting Yawn, but even this still leaves many parts of the mansion inaccessible.
With no choice, Chris ultimately makes his way to the rear half of the estates, where he finds several cabins in the woods. If he has the radio, he hears Wesker try to call him, but the static is awful; all Chris can make out is something about some kind of new monster in the woods.
As part of his exploration, he comes across one particularly isolated cabin, where he is ambushed by a horrific monster; a twisted parody of a woman, clad in a tattered dress, hands manacled and chains dragging behind its ankles. His strongest firepower merely makes it scream in fury, and Chris promptly beats a hasty retreat.
On his way through a newly unlocked courtyard, if Chris has the radio, he hears Brad signalling to any survivors, but is unable to answer due to his radio being broken. His path then takes him to a set of dormitories, below which he finds a mostly-flooded underground lab facility. Here, he must drain the labs, whilst avoiding the teeth of the hungry giant sharks, and also do battle with a monstrous mutant plant.
If Richard's life was spared, he dies here, saving Chris from being killed by the biggest of the mutant sharks. Chris finds Richard's assault shotgun in the drained labs, and must battle Plant-42 himself.
If Richard died in the mansion, Rebecca comes to Chris's aid, deciphering the notes left by the Umbrella scientists to create a herbicide called "V-JOLT", which kills Plant-42.
As he leaves the Point 42 room, he finds himself confronted by Rebecca, who had followed him there, and must tell her that Richard is dead. She proceeds to set herself up in the chemical room.
Once Plant-42 dies, Wesker arrives, claiming to have been driven out of the main hall by a monster and subsequently gotten separated from Chris and Jill alike by the sheer size of the mansion. He instructs Chris to return to the mansion and resume his investigation, using the newly-found keys to unlock those parts of the mansion that had remained off-limits.
If Chris has the radio, he hears another message from Brad on his way back to the mansion.
Once Chris arrives back in the mansion, however, he finds himself attacked by a new form of monster; squealing, reptilian humanoids later identified as "Hunters". Battling or evading these creatures, he unlocks new parts of the mansion.
Chris' explorations ultimately lead to him finding and activating an elevator hidden in a courtyard. This elevator brings him down to a series of mine tunnels. As he works his way through them, he comes across another survivor of the STARS team; Captain Enrico Marini.
However, his captain wards him off at gunpoint, accusing him of being a double-crosser. Before Chris can convince Captain Marini that he's not involved, somebody sneaks up behind them and fatally shoots the captain, who gasps out "Umbrella" with his last breath. Chris tries to give chase, but is seperated by the sudden attack of several Hunters.
Forced to double-back into the mansion, he must rescue Rebecca when she is cornered by a Hunter in the east wing's library - whether or not he succeeds is up to the player.
With no further choice, he continues his exploration, finding another elevator that brings him down to an underground river and dock system. Here, he has to evade the she-creature from the cabin in the woods, but he finds his way into a former drainage ditch, now a candle-lit hideway decorated by some young girl. Here, he finds the final key, one needed to unlock a set of doors underneath the grand staircase in the main hall. A nearby ladder leads him back up to the cabin where he encountered the mutant woman in the first place.
Returning to the mansion's main hall, Chris descends down the hidden staircase, finding himself in a crypt where he and Wesker are confronted yet again by the mutant woman. As Wesker holds her off with a barrage of bullets, Chris pushes off nearby weights in order to drag open the sarcophagus, which the creature is clearly guarding. Once the lid slides free, the she-beast stops her attack; she takes the skull from the sarcophagus, moaning "Mother", before shuffling to the edge and throwing herself into the darkness below.
Chris has just seen the last of Lisa Trevor, kept as an Umbrella test subject for its mutagenic viruses for decades.
Whilst Wesker remains behind to secure the area, Chris proceeds, finding another elevator that brings him down to yet another underground lab. Here, he finally finds Jill, trapped in a cell, and is told to find the three MO Disks needed to open the cell. As he battles the zombies and mutant bug-men creatures infesting the lab, he finally stumbles across a bio-engineering room, where he discovers Wesker... busily typing away at the computers.
Wesker, as he reveals, is a traitor. He has been working for Umbrella all along, and deliberately set the STARS up to plunge unaware into the infected zone of the Arklay Mountains; he hoped to record their fates against the zombies and B.O.Ws as "combat data", which he could use to sell the T-Virus and its creatures on the black market. Disarming Chris, and non-fatally shooting Rebecca if she is present, he proceeds to activate the only untested B.O.W; the Tyrant, Umbrella's "ultimate" creation. But the creature turns on Wesker, impaling him and casting him aside before turning on Chris.
Fortunately for Chris, the Tyrant turns out to be more hype than reality, and it collapses under his firepower. Depending on if she survived the Hunter attack earlier, either Rebecca proceeds to activate the self-destruct mechanism to put an end to any infected monstrosities the STARS may not have been confronted by, or else it turns out that Wesker activated it with his dying breath.
Depending on if Chris found the MO Disks or not, he either stops by Jill's cell to release her, or abandons her to her fate. Either way, he flees for the mansion's private helipad, where a signal flare finally gets the attention of Chickenheart Vickers. However, as Vickers comes in for the approach, the Tyrant suddenly bursts through the ground and resumes its attack; it had merely been stunned before, and woozy from its recent awakening. Rejuvenated, it's a far tougher opponent.
Luckily, after seeing Chris standing defiant, Vickers finally comes through, throwing Chris an anti-tank rocket launcher. This at last proves to be more firepower than the Tyrant can handle, and it goes up in a shower of viscera.
The surviving STARS climb onto Brad's helicopter. As Brad lifts off, the Spencer estate explodes into a pillar of flame. The STARS are left battered and bloodied, but alive, with a story to tell that no one will believe.
Jill's Story
Jill makes it to the main hall of the mansion alongside Barry Burton and Albert Wesker. Somewhere along the line, they got separated from Chris. Jill's immediate reaction is to try and go back out the door to look for him, but Wesker orders her not to. Before she can plead her case, the sound of a gunshot from nearby sends her and Barry to investigate.In the dining room, at the far end, they discover a mysterious blood smear. Barry decides to investigate, whilst Jill continues on through a nearby hall.
Alas, she's too late; the gunshot was fired by a member of Bravo Team, Kenneth Sullivan, but he has been killed by a madman, mutilated to the point of resembling a walking corpse, just like the dogs outside - a zombie. Having exhausted her ammunition in the flight to the mansion, Jill wisely flees back to the dining room, where Barry dispatches the creature. After some brief banter, they return to the main hall to report the encounter to Wesker.
One unique aspect of Jill's story is that, if you slay the zombie feasting on Kenneth yourself instead of returning to Barry, you will not get the various cutscenes hinting at Barry's possible status as the traitor. This synopses is ignoring that, for reasons of flow.
In the hall, however, Wesker has disappeared, and despite their efforts at searching, no trace of him can be found. Reluctantly, the two decide to split up and search the ground floor. Not that they have much choice, because almost all of the doors from the main hall are locked on both levels. Before they separate, Barry gives Jill a lockpick. Jill's initial search in the east wing turns up a dead end, so she hurries over to the west wing instead.
Strangely, Barry is gone when she returns to the dining room. Figuring he must have gone on ahead, she works her way through the corridors, following wherever the unlocked doors take her.
She encounters Barry again after setting off a trap that nearly crushes her when she attempts to retrieve a shotgun. She expresses her gratitude, but is puzzled by his disappearance. Barry just makes an excuse and they go their separate ways again, with Jill wondering why he's acting strangely.
After more exploration, their path crosses again, with Barry giving her a batch of acid grenades he stumbled across. He declares they should they secure an escape route now, and they separate once again.
They meet up a third time when Jill finds Barry in a lab. He shows her a file he found that provides more evidence as to what happened here. Strangely, it's been torn, and Barry has no explanation for where the missing part of the file could be.
Some time later, Jill discovers the remains of another of their fallen friends; Forest, although depending on actions taken she either does so alone or Barry beats her to him.
She finally has something go right when, in the highest parts of the mansion, she comes across a survivor; Richard Aiken! He bursts out of a nearby door, slams into a wall, and collapses on the floor, clutching an arm that has been viciously gouged by a massive fang. He explains he was bitten by a huge venomous snake, and begs for her to retrieve some serum from the mansion infirmary.
There is a fork here based on the player's actions.
If Jill manages to retrieve the serum in time, Richard lives, giving her his radio. He begs her to go and look for the others, clinging to the hope that they may have survived. Soon afterwards, Jill is forced to venture into the room where Richard encountered the giant snake, Yawn, and is attacked herself. As she fights it off, Richard comes charging in, lending the firepower of his assault shotgun to the battle. Their combined efforts seemingly kill the monster... but they celebrate too soon; wounded but not dead, Yawn lunges for Jill, but Richard pushes her out of the way. Before Jill can intervene, he is bitten to death and his corpse swallowed before the monstrous serpent flees. Jill grabs Richard's shotgun and mournfully resumes her investigation.
Incidentally, Jill can choose to flee Yawn's room after Richard arrives, but if she does, then Yawn will devour Richard off-screen and she will not get the assault shotgun.
If Jill is too late, then Richard dies. His radio and shotgun lost, she must face off against Yawn by herself.
If Jill is poisoned in the battle with Yawn, either Barry will rescue her, taking her to the mansion infirmary and then leaving her to regain consciousness there, or Jill will have to make her way there herself.
Eventually, Jill's exploration brings her into the wilderness outside the rear of the cabin. If she has the radio, Barry will momentarily contact her; his message is riddled with static and cut short, but he warns her about a "monster in chains" that is haunting the forest and which seems to be immune to bullets, telling her to avoid that area. But she has no choice; she's exhausted her progression routes in the mansion itself, so now she has to explore the forest behind it in hopes of finding more keys.
Ultimately, her path brings her to an abandoned cabin, where she finds the key she needs. As she tries to leave, she is ambushed and knocked unconscious, regaining her senses to find herself confronted by a deformed, shackle-and-chain-bounded parody of a human woman. Her shots are useless, and she quickly beats a hasty retreat.
Still, the key she found allows her to unlock a previously inaccessible courtyard. If Jill has the radio, she can hear Brad begging for any survivors to give him a sign.
Jill's path ultimately brings her to a set of dormitory-cabins. As she enters, she stops outside of the door to one set of bunks; she can heard somebody inside. She can make out one side of a conversation, but when she enters, she only finds Barry. She asks what happened, but Barry just makes lame excuses about being old and unsettled by the mansion. He then leaves to "clear his head" with some fresh air.
Undaunted, she continues exploring. Files she find reveals a secret underground lab, and also the presence of a monstrous mutant plant in one chamber of the cabin. Descending down to the lab, she finds it flooded, the central chamber inhabited by several gigantic mutant sharks. Undaunted, she drains the lab, retrieving more keys, and concocts a batch of "V-Jolt" herbicide to apply to the mutant plant's root from the room it descends into.
Confident that she has killed it, Jill returns to the plant's room, only to find she was premature; it has shriveled, but it isn't dead yet, and it grabs her with its tentacles. Fortunately, Barry bursts in to save her with a flamethrower, killing the Plant of Point-42. After some thought, he tells her to go and finish checking out the mansion, whilst he stays to complete investigating the dormitory.
On her way out, Jill encounters Captain Wesker, alive after all! They exchange some brief discussion, with Wesker noting that Barry is starting to act "a little flaky", before Jill declares that she will go and investigate the unexplored regions of the mansion with the new keys she's found.
After she leaves the cabin, if Jill didn't save Richard and get his radio, she finds one conveniently discarded nearby. This ensures that she is able to hear a transmission from Brad begging for anyone to contact him, but her radio is too damaged to let her transmit a response.
In the mansion, Jill finds that she has new things to worry about; strange, squealing, reptilian beasts that will later be identified as Hunters have begun to rampage through the dusty halls, and they are much tougher than the zombies she fought earlier. Undaunted, Jill continues her exploration, ultimately finding and activating an elevator hidden in a courtyard. This elevator brings her down to a series of mine tunnels. As she works his way through them, she comes across another survivor of the STARS team; Captain Enrico Marini.
Captain Marini asks her if she's alone, and explains that the STARS were set up by Umbrella, who have planted a traitor in the team. At that point, somebody sneaks up behind them and fatally shoots the captain. Jill tries to give chase, but is separated by the sudden attack of several Hunters.
With no further choice, she continues her exploration, finding another elevator - and Barry as well! Together, they descend deeper down into the depths, ending up near an underground river and dock system. A strange moan from nearby draws their attention, and Jill is told to investigate whilst Barry guards the escape route.
In the tunnels, she has to evade the she-creature from the cabin in the woods, but when she tries to return to Barry, he takes the lift back up and abandons her!
Narrowly evading the moaning mutant, she finds her way into a former drainage ditch, now a candle-lit hideway decorated by some young girl. Here, she finds the final key, one needed to unlock a set of doors underneath the grand staircase in the main hall. A nearby ladder leads her back up to the cabin where he encountered the mutant woman in the first place.
Returning to the mansion's main hall, Jill descends down the hidden staircase, finding herself in a crypt. Barry is here, and tries to concoct an excuse for abandoning her before, only to try and pull his gun on her. Jill disarms him and turns it on him, demanding answers, only for them to be interrupted by the arrival of the creature. As it shuffles towards them, Barry pleads for Jill to give him back his gun so he can defend himself.
If she refuses, the creature knocks her out of the way, and then knocks him over the side to his death.
If she agrees, Barry turns his gun on the creature, distracting it.
Either way, Jill struggles to push aside the stones that are anchoring the sarcophagus lid in place, reasoning that it must be important to the creature somehow. Her desperate gamble pays off; as soon as the lid is open, the monster, Lisa Trevor, grabs the skull of her mother and leaps to her apparent death in the crevasse.
If Barry survived, he will tell Jill to go on ahead, as he wants to be certain that the creature won't be coming back. Either way, Jill continues, and ultimately finds herself in a second underground lab.
Here, she finally finds Chris, trapped in a cell, and is told to find the three MO Disks needed to open the cell. As she battles the zombies and mutant bug-men creatures infesting the lab, she finally stumbles across a bio-engineering room, either with or without Barry at her side, where she discovers Wesker... busily typing away at the computers.
If Barry is alive, he pulls his gun on Jill, as Wesker reveals that he was the traitor that Captain Marini had discovered. He has been working for Umbrella all along. Barry, meanwhile, has been blackmailed into helping him through threats to his family. When Wesker turns his own gun on Jill, he sends Barry to go wait above ground. As Jill demands to know why, Wesker reveals he's got his own agenda, activating the nearby capsule that contains Umbrella's "ultimate" creation, the Tyrant. He prepares to kill Jill, but Barry suddenly returns in the nick of time, shooting down his former commander. Sadly, he only wounds Wesker, who lunges for the keyboard and completes activating the Tyrant. It steps forward to attack, swatting first Wesker and then Barry aside before confronting Jill.
Otherwise, as Jill approaches Wesker, he mocks Barry's incompetence and then pulls a gun on his former teammate. Wesker reveals he was working for Umbrella all along, and they set this up - however, he has his own agenda. He then activates the nearby capsule that contains Umbrella's "ultimate" creation, the Tyrant. However, Wesker is caught off-guard as the creature suddenly attacks from behind, impaling him through the back and discarding him before stepping over to confront Jill.
Fortunately for Jill, the Tyrant turns out to be more hype than reality, and it collapses under her firepower.
If need be, she checks on Barry, who turns out to be sore but alive - worse, Wesker also survived, and escaped; as they make their way out of the lab, clarions blare as he sets off the self-destruct system.
Otherwise, the self-destruct activates itself, evidently one final trick of Wesker's.
Depending on if Jill found the MO Disks or not, she either stops by Chris's cell to release him, or abandons him to his fate. Either way, she flees for the mansion's private helipad, where a signal flare finally gets the attention of Chickenheart Vickers. However, as Vickers comes in for the approach, the Tyrant suddenly bursts through the ground and resumes its attack; it had merely been stunned before, and woozy from its recent awakening. Rejuvenated, it's a far tougher opponent.
Luckily, after seeing Jill standing defiant, Vickers finally comes through, throwing Jill an anti-tank rocket launcher. This at last proves to be more firepower than the Tyrant can handle, and it goes up in a shower of viscera.
The surviving STARS climb onto Brad's helicopter. As Brad lifts off, the Spencer estate explodes into a pillar of flame. The STARS are left battered and bloodied, but alive, with a story to tell that no one will believe.
