On the night of September 29, 1998, Raccoon City is dead. Since the T-Virus, an illegal mutagenic viral weapon bio-engineered by the Umbrella Corporation, was leaked at the Spencer Mansion on May 11th of that year, it has steadily spread its way into Raccoon City. Gruesome murders in the Arklay Forest, where the leak had occurred, had resulted in the S.T.A.R.S team being deployed to investigate; they had returned with only five members of the once-elite team still alive, babbling unbelievable tales of monsters in the woods, a traitor in their ranks, and secret bio-engineering experiments being conducted by the Umbrella Corporation, the town's biggest employer and financial benefactor.
Naturally, the town does not believe such fantastic claims, and by August 24th, all of them except for Brad "Chickenheart" Vickers have resigned and left Raccoon City. But the denizens of the city are forcibly made to see the truth around the 22nd and 23rd of September, when a massive outbreak of the so-called "cannibal plague" sees the city overrun by hordes of zombies. Despite everything that the city's defenders do, chaos consumes the city, and it becomes a glorified necropolis in all but name, with the US military seeking to cordon the infected.
But there are gaps in their efforts, and so it is that two souls ride into Raccoon City, unaware of the hell they are entering.
The first is Leon S. Kennedy; a rookie cop newly assigned to begin work at the Raccoon City Police Department. For whatever reasons, later reputed to be the result of drinking away a broken heart, he slept in, and is late for his first day on the job. He speeds into the city in his jeep, and is baffled by the silence that greets him. He pulls to a stop when he finds a dead woman's body lying in the middle of the road, getting out to investigate. As he puzzles over the corpse, he is suddenly confronted by the shambling forms of multiple zombies.
He pulls his gun and demands they stay back, but finds the corpse he was just examining suddenly grabs his ankle. Struggling, he instinctively shoots her in the head. Having decided to fight, he opens fire on the zombies, but they shake off every bullet that lands, driving him towards a nearby alley. As he makes a fighting retreat down it, a door nearby suddenly swings open, and he whirls to face - the frightened form of a still-living girl, about his age.
This is the second soul; Claire Redfield. Sister to Chris Redfield, the disgraced S.T.A.R.S officer who survived the Arklay Mansion Incident, she had driven into town at the same time on her motorbike, hoping to find her brother, who she hasn't heard from in months. She had pulled up at a nearby diner to ask for directions and information, only to find herself confronted by a zombie devouring a corpse, which quickly switched its attention to her. Realizing that other zombies were pressing themselves against the windows, she bolted for the fire escape door, only to come face to face with a gun-wielding cop; Leon.
Leon tells Claire to get down, and she ducks as he fires over her head, putting a fatal bullet in the brain of the zombie that had been shuffling up behind her. He extends her his hand and declares they need to get out of here, suggesting that they head for the safety of the police station. Agreeing on this sentiment, the two race for the other end of the alley, zombies hot on their heels.
Spotting a nearby police car, they dive into it for safety and drive off. As they speed through streets and past moaning zombies, Leon tries the radio, whilst Claire wonders what the heck is going on. Leon tells her that he can't give her any answers, as this is his first day on the job here. The two swap names, as Claire explains that she came to town to look for her brother Chris. She also checks the glove compartment, and takes the pistol she finds there for safety.
As they travel, they are unaware of danger rapidly approaching from behind. A trucker hauling a tank full of fuel had pulled up at a Raccoon City gas station not far away, and been bitten by a zombie. Although he had fought it off and driven away, he is rapidly succumbing to the disease, and losing control of his truck in the process. Claire and Leon have more immediate dangers to worry about, though, when a zombie suddenly lunges out from the back seat where it had been left.
In the struggle, the car is crashed, the zombie thrown violently out through the window. Leon and Claire don't have time to catch their breath; the now-zombified trucker is barreling straight towards them, forcing them to leap from their doors as it slams into their and crashes. Both survive the blast, but they re caught on opposing sides of the burning wreckage, and must find their separate ways to the police station in order to regroup.
Because of the scenario system, this synopses will subdivide into the Claire A/Leon B and Leon A/Claire B routes, although Claire A/Leon B is considered the "canon" storyline. Some license is taken, because certain puzzles are actually duplicated between scenarios (for example, both characters must extinguish the same burning helicopter), even though the events are happening in the same timeline.
Claire A/Leon B
Claire's route through the streets brings her to Robert Kendo's gun shop, where she is momentarily held up at the business end of a loaded bow-gun by the owner. When he sees she's alive, Kendo lowers his weapon and tries to flirt with her, explaining that he was caught here by the zombie outbreak but assuring her that he can keep her safe.Alas, in his distracted state, he is caught off-guard when zombies suddenly force their way through the glass window at the front of his shop and bear him to the ground. Depending on the player's actions, either Claire flees the shop as they devour their luckless victim, or she grabs the ammunition he has lying around and guns them down - too late to save him, alas, but allowing her to salvage his bowgun for extra firepower.
After wending her way through more streets, including some back alleys and a crashed bus, Claire finally arrives at the front door to the Raccoon City Police Department. All but one of the doors are locked, and that door proves that the station will be no safe haven. An impromptu barricade into the police offices, one clearly overrun, shelters a wounded and dying police officer, one Marvin Branagh. He explains to Claire about the zombie uprising as best he can, including that the STARS left the city before it happened, when nobody would believe them about their claims of the zombies in the woods and Umbrella's experiments. He tells her to look for a way to get out of the police station, and insists at gun-point that she leave him behind. As she hastily leaves the offices, she hears him lock the door behind him, and can only wonder what that was all about.
Approaching a computer desk in the main hall, she finds the PC that controls the door locks is still active, and promptly deactivates the lock. A brief look into the east wing sees her confronted by a shuffling horde of zombies, and she beats a hasty retreat to the west wing instead.
Whilst this is going on, Leon is making his own way to the police station. He finds himself in the rear section of the station, using a key he finds in the parking lot to enter the station grounds via a maintenance shed. From here, he is able to climb onto the roof of the station via a handy ladder, dodging zombies all the while.
When he reaches the roof, it is to the tragic sight of a rescue attempt gone horribly wrong. A surviving cop in a police copter attempts to land on the roof in order to rescue another officer, but two zombies are closing in on the latter. He blazes away with his machine gun, but in his panic fails to actually hurt them; they grab him and start to bite into him, causing him to reflexively jerk the gun into the air as he fires. The bullets punch through the copter and kill the pilot, who promptly crashes on top of the other cop and the zombies, crushing them in a burning mass of metal.
Unable to do anything more, Leon makes his way into the building through the rooftop door. On the second floor, he finds his way blocked by the burning wreckage, which has smashed far enough through the wall to block him from reaching the only doorway that leads back to the main part of the building. Descending to the first floor, he finds himself in the east wing offices - which are crawling with zombies. With his limited reserves of ammo, Leon considers against fighting his way through; instead, he uses his greater speed and agility to duck inside just long enough to retrieve a valve handle, and then returns to the rooftop, where he uses the valve to over-pressurize the water-tank, causing it to burst and drench the burning wreckage.
As he prepares to head inside, he spots another helicopter approach - except this one is carrying a large rack of cylinders. Before his dumbfounded eyes, one of the cylinders is dropped like a bomb, opening in its descent to reveal a huge, humanoid creature, which smashes through the roof and lands unscathed in the second floor. Realizing this creature is too strong to fight with his limited arsenal, Leon races for it, outmaneuvering the hulking creature and fleeing for safety around the now-quenched wreckage.
He and Claire will later rename the monstrous humanoid "Mr. X". Though they have no way of knowing it, they have just confronted the refined, mass production model of the Tyrants that the STARS fought in the Arklay facilities.
Back in the west wing, Claire is having her own dramatic encounter - a scuttling, skinless horror, which a file written by the doomed officers of the R.C.P.D nicknames "the Licker". Fortunately, this creature is not as tough as Mr. X, and falls before her bullets. She works her way back and forth through the main hall and the west wing, solving strange puzzles and collecting files, ammunition and keys as she goes. In the process, she manages to make her way back into the west wing offices - only to find out why the wounded cop locked her out, as he succumbs to the virus and attacks her, forcing her to put him down.
Ultimately, she makes her way up to the S.T.A.R.S Office. Here, she finds not only heavier firepower, in the form of a grenade launcher in the weapons locker, but also a journal left behind by her brother, Chris. It confirms what the wounded police officer told her about the S.T.A.R.S, and reveals that they went to Europe to investigate Umbrella there.
As she gets ready to leave, the fax machine suddenly spits out a file. It holds grim tidings; the sender had been asked by Chris to look into the R.P.D Chief, Brian Irons, as Chris was suspicious that his nominal superior might actually be in league with Umbrella. The fax reveals that not only is Chief Irons under investigation for possible corruption, but he has been accused of rape twice in the past.
Leaving the office with that revelation hanging over her, she is startled by the sound of a scream. Looking over to her left, she spots a young girl being attacked by a zombified cop, and quickly races to the rescue. Whilst she guns down the undead civil servant, the panicked schoolgirl flees through a door to the north. Claire gives chase, especially when she hears further shots coming from the room beyond.
Here, she meets up with Leon, and his relief to see that she's alive matches her own. Leon explains that he rescued the girl when a second zombie attacked her, but in her sheer panic, she fled further north, through a door that, whilst shattered at the bottom sufficiently to let her crawl through, is too firmly barricaded shut for either of them to pursue. Claire explains in turn that her brother isn't here, and hasn't been for weeks; their only mission is now to escape this undead-infested killing zone. With that in mind, they separate once again; Leon to find and secure an escape route, Claire to rescue the girl and any other survivors, using a pair of radios to stay in contact.
Heading to the 2nd floor of the east wing, wary of the creature that Leon spotted, Claire hears a scream coming from a doorway that has been crushed by the crashed copter. She immediately starts looking for some way to blow open the weakened wall near the smashed door, as a file she found earlier mentioned the presence of seized C4 and a detonator somewhere in the station.
As she does this, Leon arms himself with a shotgun and ammunition taken from the S.T.A.R.S office and works his way downward. Exploring the now-unlocked and soon zombie-free east wing's ground floor, he finds his way into the underground section of the R.C.P.D, where a parking lot, dog-kennels and prison cells can be found. Here, he suddenly finds himself under fire, though the attack stops when he calls out in affirmation of his humanity.
His assailant reveals herself to be a Chinese woman, named Ada Wong. She apologizes for the misunderstanding, and explains that she's looking for her missing boyfriend, John. She's here in the police station because she believes a reporter named Ben Bertolucci both has information on John's whereabouts and has survived the outbreak by hiding in the cells. The only problem is that a stalled truck is blocking the way into the cells, and it's far too heavy for her to move.
Wanting to help her out, Leon lends a hand, and working together, they manage to push the truck out of the way and reach the rooms beyond. Here, they fight off the zombified remains of the canine unit, and ultimately enter the cell-block.
Meanwhile, Claire has retrieved the bomb ingredients and blows open the mangled doorway. Inside, she finds a hall leading to the office of the R.C.P.D Chief, Brian Irons... and it is not a pretty sight. The blood-covered corpse of an attractive young woman is sprawled across the desk, and before Claire can even fully process this, the chair behind the desk whirls around as the police chief pulls a gun on her!
Fortunately, he recognizes that she's human and stops pointing it at her. He apologizes for his actions, but something about him seems... off. A feeling that only grows as he and Claire converse. Chief Irons explains that the corpse on his desk is that of the Mayor's daughter, whom he had promised to protect, but ultimately failed to do so. Claire tries to coax him into joining her in her search for an escape, as she can't bear to leave even someone as creepy-seeming as Chief Irons here, but he rejects her, fatalistically claiming that nothing they do matters and that they're all going to die here. He ultimately sends Claire on her way, but not without one final spine-tingling comment.
"And to think, taxidermy used to be my hobby..."
Thoroughly unnerved by this point, Claire hastily beats a retreat, taking another door that leads to a small set of storage rooms, used to hold various art pieces. Here, she finally manages to corner the little girl from before, calming her down and getting her to talk.
The girl's name is Sherry Birkin. Her mother sent her to hide here during the outbreak, and whilst she has managed to avoid the zombies, she insists that she is being chased by something worse than zombies. She also mentions that the nearby Umbrella chemical plant, hinting that this might be a way to escape from the infested city. Claire doesn't get to question her on this, as a sudden roar from nearby startles the girl; she insists that this is the sound of her pursuer, and flees before Claire can stop her.
At the same time, Leon and Ada are confronting Ben Bertolucci in the cells. Although startled out of his complacency when he hears that Leon is the last cop left alive in the city, he still refuses to join them. Although he has the key and can leave whenever he likes, he's using the cell-block to hide, as he's seen and heard some kind of horrible monster stalking around. An inhuman howl underscores his words, and he demands that they leave before they lead the creature right to him. Still, not unsympathetic, he tells them that there is a connection to the sewers hidden in the nearby kennels, and this should allow them to escape the station.
Ada promptly runs off, and Leon, startled, gives chase.
Up above, Claire is following Sherry, who has disappeared. She absently notes that Chief Irons has disappeared from his office on her way, and takes note of another strange puzzle-lock on the wall behind his desk, but is more concerned with the little girl. Ultimately, she finds her way to another part of the station's underground level, away from where Leon and Ada are.
Here, she finally catches up to Sherry, who explains to Claire that she heard her father in trouble nearby, and that she has to look for him. Before the teenager can intervene, Sherry has slipped through a hole into the nearby sewer treatment facility.
Whilst this is going on, Leon has caught Ada near a door that leads to the same facility that Sherry has entered. Although he scolds her for running off, she slickly talks him into helping her by giving her a boost into the air-vent over the locked door, so she can explore what's on the other side.
Sherry and Ada briefly cross paths, but the suspicious little girl runs away from Ada before she can stop her. In her flight, Sherry drops a pendant she had been carrying, which Ada promptly retrieves, reasoning that she can give it back to the little girl if they meet again. Ultimately, each of them returns to their partner, and whilst they can't physically make it back the way they came in and have to look for other ways around, they each throw their partner a key they discovered in their explorations.
Claire radios Leon to tell him that she's blown open the doorway to Chief Irons' office, but she has to find a way back to Sherry. She also wants to investigate what she's learned is a hidden door in the chief's office, which requires a set of three stones. Leon in turn tells her that the sewers have been confirmed as an escape route out of the facility, and he needs to find a set of chess-themed plugs to unlock a lock in the sewage treatment facility to proceed from his route. Decision made, each decides to pursue the keys to their respective door.
During their explorations, Leon is attacked by Mr. X again, but he manages to escape the hulking brute.
Claire finds her keys first, and when she returns to Chief Irons' office, she meets up with Sherry, who finally found her way back. She leaves the girl in the office and cautiously ventures through the secret door. It turns out to be even worse than she imagined; a full-fledged dungeon, complete with instruments of torture, lies concealed within. Here, she is confronted by the raving mad Chief Irons, who holds her at gunpoint, ranting about how he'll kill everyone rather than let any escape "his" town. Things seem hopeless for Claire... and then her assailant convulses, screams and is torn apart; a horrible monster bursts out from inside of him, and slithers away down a trapdoor nearby.
Though she has no way of knowing it, what Claire has seen is a "G-Baby", the result of a G-Virus host implanting a non-compatible victim. Chief Irons had been attacked by the G-monster minutes before they arrived.
Refusing to endanger Sherry, Claire follows the monster down the trap door, finding it has already grown into a deformed monstrosity that towers over her. Fortunately, the twitching, drooling, larvae-spitting abomination is relatively fragile, and falls under a barrage of grenades. Investigating, she finds that the chamber she has entered has steps leading down into the sewers; she's found a way out for herself and Sherry!
Meanwhile, Leon has returned to the parking lot with all four keys, where he hears a sudden scream of horror and pain from the cells. He races to Ben's cell, only to find it torn open, and the man brutally injured. With his dying breath, Ben reveals his big scoop: he has found tangible proof that Chief Irons has been in Umbrella's pocket all along, giving his work to Leon before he dies.
Claire radios moments afterwards, explaining that she found a connection to the sewers from Chief Irons' office, so she and Sherry will take that route instead. Leon confirms, and returns to the chemical plant, where he unlocks the doorway from the septic pool. But, before he can escape, he is confronted by a strange figure; a deformed humanoid, right arm and the right half of his chest swollen all out of proportion with his body, an enormous eye darting madly around in a makeshift socket in his bicep. This hulking horror grabs a chunk of railing and attacks, but Leon responds by blazing away with his trusty shotgun; after a number of hits, the monstrosity staggers and topples over the bridge into the room so far below.
Shaken, but undaunted, Leon descends down into the sewers, where he finds Ada being attacked by a crazed woman in a lab-coat, who is blazing away with a handgun as Ada returns fire. Leon makes a diving save to protect Ada from being hit, and catches the bullet in the shoulder. He passes out from the shock, whilst Ada goes after the shooter.
She quickly catches up to her, but the woman - Annette Birkin - gets the drop on her. When Ada tries to claim she's just a woman looking for her boyfriend, she taunts Ada that she knows all too well who she is; a spy sent to recover the G-Virus. Ada's supposed boyfriend died in the Arklay Mountains, and she's not the first person to come after the G-Virus. She reveals that Umbrella tried to take the virus from her husband, William Birkin, by force, and after he was shot, he injected himself with his precious mutagen. Transformed into a hulking brute, he pursued and killed the operatives who had attacked his lab, but in the process he caused a T-Virus spill. That's what caused the mass outbreak a few days earlier, making this plague entirely Umbrella's fault.
Annette prepares to execute Ada, but is caught off-guard when she spots Sherry's pendant in the spy's possession. This gives Ada the opportunity she needs to lunge for Annette, and in the struggle for the gun, she accidentally knocks Annette into the sewer pools below the lab. She then sees why Annette cared so much; the struggle caused the pendant to open, and inside is a vial of the G-Virus. Deciding that this simplifies things, she starts searching the lab for more information that might help her.
Meanwhile, Claire and Sherry have been descending through the sewers themselves. In their descent, they find themselves accosted by the hulking, misshapen creature that Leon fought in the sceptic pools - William Birkin, still alive. They quickly flee, but in the panic of their flight, Sherry is sucked away through a drain outlet. She tries to find her way back to Claire, but is dropped into the dumping area, where she is left unconscious. In this vulnerable state, the mutant Birkin finds her...
Unable to do anything else, Claire continues her descent, stumbling across Leon, who has been shot. Briefly regaining consciousness, he begs Claire to look for Ada, and Claire reluctantly leaves him behind to continue searching. She doesn't find Ada - but she does find Annette Birkin, who clambers out of the pool in the bottom half of the lab. The woman initially greets Claire with hostility, but when Claire explains that she's looking for Sherry, her attitude changes. She's horrified to hear that her daughter is in the sewers, claiming she was supposed to stay in the police station, where it's safe. When Claire explains the station was overrun and isn't safe anymore, Annette reveals that it's even less safe for Sherry down here.
She explains about her husband's work led to his becoming a monster, and how he caused the T-Virus leak that created the zombies. She then reveals that the G-Virus works in a different way; it spreads through direct implantation of "embryos" into hosts, and the best chance these have for compatibility is with hosts that are genetically similar to the initial infected. The mutant William will be seeking Sherry to implant her with a G-embryo. A sudden scream startles both women; that was Sherry! They immediately split up to look for her.
Claire finds her first; trapped in the sewer dumping pool, being menaced by a giant crocodilian. She lures the mutant reptile back into the passageway where she reached the chamber from, denying it the ability to evade her. Through the clever use of a nearby canister of gas, she blows its head off, ending its threat for good, before going back to find Sherry. The little girl is groggy, and complains of stomach pains, flushed and feverish; Claire is forced to admit she must have been infected by William.
With Sherry's life in danger, Claire reluctantly leaves Leon to fend for himself and makes her way through the lab to reach a nearby factory. Here, she activates a turntable that will bring them down into the underground lab where Sherry's parents made the virus that is killing her. As they ride down, something begins to bang on the roof of the cabin they are riding in, and Claire goes out to investigate.
Here, she comes face to face with William, who mutates into a second form; his oversized arm elongates into a monstrous taloned paw, whilst his human head sinks into his chest as a new one sprouts from his back. Still, he doesn't stand a chance against Claire's determination and her trusty grenade launcher, and ultimately vanishes over the side of the turntable.
Upon reaching the lab, Claire locks Sherry in the security guard’s office to be safe, giving the little girl her biking jacket to make her more comfortable. Regaining consciousness momentarily, Sherry thanks Claire for being like a sister to her, because she’s never had that kind of attention from her parents. As she goes back out again, Claire vows to save her and goes to explore the lab.
Back above, Leon finally regains consciousness and makes his way to the sewer lab, where he reunites with Ada. She patches him up and thanks him for trying to protect her. Working together, they exit the sewers and take a trolley ride to the factory - although they must defend themselves as Birkin, still not dead despite Claire's efforts, tries repeatedly to punch his clawed arm through their roof along the way.
Upon reaching the factory, Leon retrieves the control panel key, narrowly avoiding Mr. X in the process, and the two call up the turntable so that they can descend to the Umbrella Lab hidden so deeply below. As they descend, Birkin attacks yet again, punching clean through the wall and knocking Ada out cold. Leon darts outside to face off against the mutant scientist. Birkin mutates again, transforming into a demonic, almost Tyrant-like skinless creature with four arms, but he can't stop Leon, and flees his firepower.
After driving Birkin away, Ada regains consciousness and begs Leon to abandon her, as her injuries will slow him down. Leon refuses, and even when the motor temporarily overheats, he promises her that he will be back for her before going to find the vent leading away from the lift.
Which turns out to not have been his best decision when the lift continues descending without him. With no other choice, he continues exploring the lab, but when his wanderings bring him back to the power room, he is confronted by Annette Birkin. She brandishes a G-Virus sample and accuses him of being a spy, just like Ada is. Before things can go further, Mr. X appears and the two flee, with the brainless Tyrant chasing after Leon instead of the scientist.
Annette's flight brings her to the bottom-most lab, where she and Claire encounter each other. Whilst Annette is furious that Claire "killed" her husband, Claire tries to explain that Sherry has been infected with the G-Virus. This shocks Annette, but when she hears a bellow from nearby, she races off towards the source, believing her husband is still sane. Unfortunately for her, she's wrong; the four-armed monster no longer recognizes his wife, instead cutting her down with one blow of his claws.
By the time Claire arrives, it’s too late for Annette. With her dying breaths, she instructs Claire on how to prepare the Devil Vaccine and asks her to tell Sherry that she’s sorry she was such a poor mother.
Meanwhile, in his flight, Leon ends up in the power room, where he is cornered by Mr. X. But Ada arrives to save him, pumping a full clip of bullets into the monster, which advances on her and grabs her just as she reloads. She blasts it repeatedly in the eyes, blinding it; the pained beast slams her against a nearby terminal, and then trips before falling into the iron smelter so far below.
Leon rushes to Ada’s side, but she is fatally injured. With her apparent dying breath, she confesses to having fallen in love with him, and they share a kiss before she expires, even as the damaged terminal triggers the self-destruct sequence.
Moments later, Claire radios Leon and tells him that he needs to rescue Sherry from the security guard office. Vowing to never forget Ada, Leon rushes up and does as he is told, using the master key dropped by Ada to reach the emergency escape train. But it needs to be powered up, and at the power switch, he is attacked by Mr. X, now transformed into a Super Tyrant. To Leon’s shock, Ada suddenly appears when he needs her the most, throwing him a rocket launcher that allows him to destroy the tyrant with a catchy quip of “Game Over”.
As Leon is doing this, Claire is hastily assembling the Devil Vaccine, fighting her way to the main evacuation elevator. Here, she is confronted by Birkin, and she responds with a barrage of firepower. Instead of fleeing, the scientist mutates a fourth time, assuming a beast-like form that scurries around on all sixes. But despite its strength and speed, it's no match for Claire, who guns it down and then rides the lift, leaping onto the train as it starts to rumble past the evacuation platform.
Safely aboard, she hastily doses Sherry with the vaccine; to her immense relief, it seems to work. The two don't have long to enjoy their seeming escape, as an alarm suddenly blares from aboard the train. Puzzled, Leon heads back to investigate - which triggers a warning from the train that there is a biohazard outbreak detected, and the train will detonate in two minutes.
In the back carriage, he is confronted by the shapeless mass of Birkin, mutated beyond all recognition, who he temporarily stymies with firepower. But the creature continues to grow, literally invading the train like a cancer. As Claire tries to defend Sherry, she slips through the vent into the train’s cabin, where Leon joins her, having fled Birkin’s advance along the train’s roof. As they bring the train to a halt, Claire drops down beside the tracks and the three survivors flee for the tunnel entrance, visible in the immediate distance. Behind them, Birkin has just forced its “head” into the cabin when the timer reaches zero and the train explodes, finally destroying Birkin for good.
Safely outside the tunnel, Claire expresses relief that it’s finally over, before teasing Sherry that she looks terrible, at which Sherry quips back that she looks no worse than Claire. Tiredly, Leon tells them it’s time to leave; as they have to go and take out Umbrella.
Leon A/Claire B
Leon's route through the streets brings him to Robert Kendo's gun shop, where he is momentarily held up at the business end of a loaded shotgun by the owner. When he sees he's alive, Kendo lowers his weapon and apologizes, visibly relieved to see another living soul in this city of the dead. He tells Leon frankly that he was caught here in the heart of the outbreak, and has done the best he can to fend off the undead with what limited ammo he has left.Sadly, he is caught off-guard when zombies suddenly force their way through the glass window at the front of his shop and bear him to the ground. Depending on the player's actions, either Leon flees the shop as they devour their luckless victim, or he grabs the ammunition he has lying around and guns them down - too late to save him, alas, but allowing him to salvage Kendo's shotgun for extra firepower.
After wending his way through more streets, including some back alleys and a crashed bus, Leon finally arrives at the front door to the Raccoon City Police Department. All but one of the doors are locked, and that door proves that the station will be no safe haven. An impromptu barricade into the police offices of the west wing has been clearly overrun, the trappings of a party to welcome Leon still adorning the walls and ceiling almost in mockery of what has happened here.
More importantly to Leon is the discovery of another survivor; a wounded and dying police officer, one Marvin Branagh. He recognizes Leon as the rookie the team was expecting, and manages a feeble joke about Leon's party being cancelled. He explains to Leon that the city was overrun by zombies, with the police being overwhelmed despite their best efforts to rescue civilians and fortify the station. He tells Leon to forget about him and to look for a way out, rescuing any other survivors; when Leon protests leaving Marvin here, he pulls a gun on Leon and orders him out, locking the door behind him.
Approaching a computer desk in the main hall, he finds the PC that controls the door locks is still active, and promptly deactivates the lock. A brief look into the east wing sees him confronted by a shuffling horde of zombies, and he beats a hasty retreat to the west wing instead.
Whilst this is going on, Claire is making her own way to the police station. She finds herself in the rear section of the station, using a key she finds in the parking lot to enter the station grounds via a maintenance shed. From here, she is able to climb onto the roof of the station via a handy ladder, dodging zombies all the while.
When she reaches the roof, it is to the tragic sight of a rescue attempt gone horribly wrong. A surviving cop in a police copter attempts to land on the roof in order to rescue another officer, but two zombies are closing in on the latter. He blazes away with his machine gun, but in his panic fails to actually hurt them; they grab him and start to bite into him, causing him to reflexively jerk the gun into the air as he fires. The bullets punch through the copter and kill the pilot, who promptly crashes on top of the other cop and the zombies, crushing them in a burning mass of metal.
Unable to do anything more, Claire makes her way into the building through the rooftop door. On the second floor, she finds her way blocked by the burning wreckage, which has smashed far enough through the wall to block her from reaching the only doorway that leads back to the main part of the building. Descending to the first floor, she finds herself in the east wing offices - which are crawling with zombies. With her limited reserves of ammo, Claire considers against fighting her way through; instead, she uses her greater speed and agility to duck inside just long enough to retrieve a valve handle, and then returns to the rooftop, where she uses the valve to over-pressurize the water-tank, causing it to burst and drench the burning wreckage.
As she prepares to head inside, she spots another helicopter approach - except this one is carrying a large rack of cylinders. Before her dumbfounded eyes, one of the cylinders is dropped like a bomb, opening in its descent to reveal a huge, humanoid creature, which smashes through the roof and lands unscathed in the second floor. Realizing this creature is too strong to fight with her limited arsenal, Claire races for it, outmaneuvering the hulking creature and fleeing for safety around the now-quenched wreckage. As she passes by, she hears a woman screaming, but she can't do anything about it; the doorway it came from has been crushed by the helicopter's wreckage.
She and Leon will later rename the monstrous humanoid "Mr. X". Though they have no way of knowing it, they have just confronted the refined, mass production model of the Tyrants that the STARS fought in the Arklay facilities.
Back in the west wing, Leon is having his own dramatic encounter - a scuttling, skinless horror, which a file written by the doomed officers of the R.C.P.D nicknames "the Licker". Fortunately, this creature is not as tough as Mr. X, and falls before his bullets. He works his way back and forth through the main hall and the west wing, solving strange puzzles and collecting files, ammunition and keys as he goes. In the process, he manages to make his way back into the west wing offices - only to find out why Marvin locked him out, as he succumbs to the virus and attacks Leon, forcing Leon to put him down.
Ultimately, he makes his way up to the S.T.A.R.S office. Here, he discovers a journal left by one Chris Redfield, which reveals that the S.T.A.R.S were disgraced upon their return from the mountains, and nobody believed them. Ultimately, all of them left several months ago; Chris in particular headed to Europe to investigate Umbrella there, which is why he obviously failed to contact Claire.
At this moment, Claire finally catches up to Leon. The two express their relief to see each other alive, and Leon shows Claire the diary. Whilst she is relieved that Chris is still alive, that means that this whole trip to Raccoon City was pointless; the two agree that their best option is to split up and look for a way to escape. Before parting, they take a pair of radios from the office so they can keep in touch.
As they leave the office, Claire hears a scream. Looking to her left, she spots a little girl being attacked by a zombified cop, and quickly leaps to the rescue. Despite gunning the zombie down, the girl flees in panic to the north, and despite her best efforts, Claire cannot catch up; the girl escapes by crawling through a hole at the bottom of a barricaded door. Determining to herself that she could keep an eye out for her, Claire resumes exploring the station.
When she goes back to the S.T.A.R.S office, the fax machine suddenly spits out a file. It holds grim tidings; the sender had been asked by Chris to look into the R.P.D Chief, Brian Irons, as Chris was suspicious that his nominal superior might actually be in league with Umbrella. The fax reveals that not only is Chief Irons under investigation for possible corruption, but he has been accused of rape twice in the past.
Finding a file that reveals there the components to a remote detonated bomb have been stored in the R.C.P.D, Claire begins investigating, hoping to find it.
As she does this, Leon works his way downward. Exploring the now-unlocked and soon zombie-free east wing's ground floor, he finds his way into the underground section of the R.C.P.D, where a parking lot, dog-kennels and prison cells can be found. Here, he suddenly finds himself under fire, though the attack stops when he calls out in affirmation of his humanity.
His assailant reveals herself to be a Chinese woman, named Ada Wong. She apologizes for the misunderstanding, and explains that she's looking for her missing boyfriend, John. She's here in the police station because she believes a reporter named Ben Bertolucci both has information on John's whereabouts and has survived the outbreak by hiding in the cells. The only problem is that a stalled truck is blocking the way into the cells, and it's far too heavy for her to move.
Wanting to help her out, Leon lends a hand, and working together, they manage to push the truck out of the way and reach the rooms beyond. Here, they fight off the zombified remains of the canine unit, and ultimately enter the cellblock.
Although startled out of his complacency when he hears that Leon is the last cop left alive in the city, Ben still refuses to join them. Although he has the key and can leave whenever he likes, he's using the cell-block to hide, as he's seen and heard some kind of horrible monster stalking around. An inhuman howl underscores his words, and he demands that they leave before they lead the creature right to him. Still, not unsympathetic, he tells them that there is a connection to the sewers hidden in the nearby kennels, and this should allow them to escape the station.
Meanwhile, Claire has retrieved the bomb ingredients and blows open the mangled doorway. Inside, she finds a hall leading to the office of the R.C.P.D Chief, Brian Irons... and it is not a pretty sight. The blood-covered corpse of an attractive young woman is sprawled across the desk, and before Claire can even fully process this, the chair behind the desk whirls around as the police chief pulls a gun on her!
Fortunately, he recognizes that she's human and stops pointing it at her. He apologizes for his actions, but something about him seems... off. A feeling that only grows as he and Claire converse. Chief Irons explains that the corpse on his desk is that of the Mayor's daughter, whom he had promised to protect, but ultimately failed to do so. Claire tries to coax him into joining her in her search for an escape, as she can't bear to leave even someone as creepy-seeming as Chief Irons here, but he rejects her, fatalistically claiming that nothing they do matters and that they're all going to die here. He ultimately sends Claire on her way, but not without one final spine-tingling comment.
"And to think, taxidermy used to be my hobby..."
Thoroughly unnerved by this point, Claire hastily beats a retreat, taking another door that leads to a small set of storage rooms, used to hold various art pieces. Here, she finally manages to corner the little girl from before, calming her down and getting her to talk.
The girl's name is Sherry Birkin. Her mother sent her to hide here during the oubreak, and whilst she has managed to avoid the zombies, she insists that she is being chased by something worse than zombies. She also mentions that the nearby Umbrella chemical plant, hinting that this might be a way to escape from the infested city. Claire doesn't get to question her on this, as a sudden roar from nearby startles the girl; she insists that this is the sound of her pursuer, and flees before Claire can stop her. As Claire gives chase, she notes that Chief Irons and the corpse of the mayor's daughter have vanished from his office.
At the same time, Leon and Ada are exploring the sewer facility. The two separate when Ada is boosted through a vent to circumvent a locked door; although she retrieves a key that Leon needs to continue his exploration, Leon will have to fend for himself again until they can reunite.
At the other end of the station, Claire is looking for Sherry, ultimately finding her near a broken bit of fencing that the girl squeezes through after protesting that she has to find her daddy, who she swears she heard in trouble. Although Sherry briefly explores the sewage treatment plant, she ultimately concludes that her father isn't here. Unable to return the way she came in, she tells Claire that she'll look for another way in.
As Leon returns to the cellblock, he suddenly hears Ben scream, and races back to him. Ben's cell has been torn open, and he babbles about having proven that Chief Irons is in Umbrella's pocket - before he is suddenly torn apart from the inside as a horribly infantile creature rips its way out of his body. Before Leon can kill it, the creature scurries away. Ada momentarily returns, and declares they should find a way into the chemical plant, before running off again.
Leon calls Claire, telling her that he is investigating a possible escape route through the sewers in his part of the station. Claire acknowledges, but says that she has to find Sherry first. Both discuss the puzzle-based locks they saw - Claire in Chief Irons' vacated office, Leon in the sewer plant, and resolve to seek out the keys they need.
Leon recovers the last of the chess-themed keys that he requires and heads to the sewage treatment plant. Here, the grotesque infant mutant that was gestated inside of Ben confronts him in the septic pools, grown to a monstrous height. Still, it is no match for Leon, and expires in a mass of twitching limbs.
At the same time, Claire recovers a set of three stone blocks, one of which has been broken in half, to complete the mural in Chief Irons' office. As she explores, she is repeatedly confronted by the hulking form of Mr. X, narrowly escaping each time. When she returns to the chief's office, she finds Sherry waiting for her.
Completing the mural, as expected, opens a secret door, and she tells Sherry to wait for her whilst she investigates. It turns out to be even worse than she imagined; a full-fledged dungeon, complete with instruments of torture, lies concealed within. Here, she is confronted by the raving mad Chief Irons, who holds her at gunpoint. Amidst his ranting, he reveals that Sherry's father, William, is a genetic engineer for Umbrella; the zombie disease that caused this apocalypse, the T-Virus is his creation, and it was leaked when Umbrella tried to forcibly seize his newest creation, the more powerful G-Virus, from him.
Ironically, William Birkin chooses that moment to intervene; when Chief Irons steps too close to the trapdoor, the mutated scientist's monstrous hand reaches up and pulls him in. The noise of flesh tearing and bone breaking is indescribable, before Chief Irons' upper torso, ripped messily in half at the waist, is hurled back up into the dungeon.
Steeling herself, Claire descends down the trapdoor herself, confronting the shambling form of the former scientist, his right arm swollen all out of proportion. Though he attacks her with a length of railing, she blasts him with a barrage of grenades, and he ultimately staggers and falls over the edge, vanishing into the depths. Realizing that this hidden chamber also leads to the sewers, Claire heads up to retrieve Sherry.
Leon is already in the sewers, having reunited with Ada and scolded her for abandoning him. As they descend, they suddenly encounter a woman in a lab coat. Ada tries to catch her as she runs off, only for the madwoman to open fire on her. Leon is shot through the shoulder rescuing Ada with a diving save, and Ada promptly goes after the shooter, only to be cornered by her in the upper levels of a small lab hidden in the sewer.
The woman demands Ada's name, and reveals that she is Annette Birkin, wife of William Birkin, creator of the T- and G-viruses. She explains that Umbrella attacked their lab, trying to steal the G-Virus, and William infected himself with the G-Virus after being mortally wounded. In this state, he killed the attackers, but caused the T-Virus leak that turned Raccoon City into a hell on earth. She also explains that William now has the ability to implant G-Embryos into other creatures, explaining the monster that Leon faced in the septic pools.
Spotting a moment of weakness, Ada lunges for Annette's gun, accidentally knocking her into the pool below in the struggle. Dismissing it, Ada decides to explore the lab now that she has it to herself.
Around this time, Claire and Sherry are descending into the sewers themselves. However, they are confronted by Mr. X and flee, during which they become separated when a storm drain suddenly opens up and Sherry is sucked away. Unable to do anything else, Claire continues her progress, and stumbles across Leon, who regains consciousness long enough to beg her to look for Ada.
Claire doesn't find Ada. Her path leads her away from the lab, where instead she encounters Annette Birkin. She tries to help her, but Annette warns her off, accusing her of being another thief after her husband's G-Virus. This allows Claire to identify Annette, the scientist's surprise giving the teen the opportunity to tell her that Sherry is lost in the sewers. Annette is horrified, because this means that both Sherry and the G-Virus sample are now in danger. She then passes out, leaving Claire confused; does this mean Sherry has the G-Virus sample?
As she continues her exploration, Leon regains consciousness and is drawn to the lab by the sound of Ada shouting and firing her gun. In the trash dumping pool, he discovers her trying to fend off a monstrous crocodilian, grown to gigantic stature as a result of the T-Virus.
He lures the mutant reptile back into the passageway where he reached the chamber from, denying it the ability to evade her. Through the clever use of a nearby canister of gas, he blows its head off, ending its threat for good, before going back to Ada, who thanks him for his efforts at protecting her and patches him up. The two of them continue their progress, locating a trolley-car - as they ride it over to its destination, they are attacked by the mutated Birkin, whose right arm has now developed into a massive claw, which he repeatedly attempts to skewer them on by punching through the roof.
With deft firepower, they repel the freak temporarily, and exit the trolley-car at a factory. Here, they activate a turn-table and proceed down into the Birkins' primary lab. But, as they descend, William suddenly punches through the wall of their cabin, knocking Ada out cold. Leon races outside to confront Birkin, who mutates further, his old head sinking into his body and a new one replacing it as he grows bigger. Still, he is no match for Leon, and retreats in the face of the rookie cop's determination and firepower.
After driving Birkin away, Ada regains consciousness and begs Leon to abandon her, as her injuries will slow him down. Leon refuses to even consider this, and upon reaching the bottom of the turntable, places her in the guard's room to recover whilst he continues exploring.
As he is doing this, Claire and Sherry reunite, taking their own trolley-car to the factory. They need to dodge Mr. X when he rears his ugly head again, but reactivate the turntable that Leon and Ada rode earlier, and descend down towards the lab. As they descend, Claire asks Sherry about a G-Virus sample, but the girl is puzzled; all that her mother gave her was the pendant she's carrying.
Claire doesn't have the time to ask her further questions; pounding on the roof forces her to leave the cabin and confront William Birkin, who mutates into a monstrous, Tyrant-like form; a skinless, four-armed abomination that looks like a demon. Though she drives him off, the turntable's motor overheats, causing the platform to jam.
To try and get it started, Claire leaves Sherry by slipping through a revealed air vent, which brings her into the power room area. Ironically, the turntable cools off and resumes its own descent, forcing Claire to find her way down to the bottom-most lab and then work her way back up.
During her ascent, Claire reaches the monitor room and runs into Annette again, who comes clean that Sherry’s pendant contains the G-Virus sample. Desperate to find her daughter, Annette uses the monitors, revealing that Sherry is in the power room - and has been cornered by Mr. X.
The two women race off, but Claire gets there first. She gets Sherry to throw her the pendant and then, as Sherry slides to safety down a nearby vent, she throws the pendant into the iron smelting pool, causing Mr. X to leap after it and seemingly plunge to its death. However, whilst it was chasing Sherry, it smashed a panel, and triggers the self destruct, sending Claire racing to find Sherry & Leon and get out of the lab. Unnoticed by Claire, a mutated Mr. X emerges from its molten bath.
Whilst Claire was rescuing Sherry, Leon was retrieving the M.O disk needed to reach the escape train. As he makes his way back to Ada, he is confronted at gunpoint by Annette, who has seemingly lost her mind. She accuses him of being a thief, and reveals that Ada is a spy, after the G-Virus - which she has the only remaining sample of. Before she can shoot Leon, something pounds against the roof, causing the ceiling to partially collapse on top of her.
Confused and just wanting to escape, Leon, strangely, chooses to grab the G-Virus sample and retrieve Ada from the guard's room - but she's gone when he gets there. As he makes his way back to the bridge area, Ada suddenly confronts him at gunpoint. Confirming that what Annette told him was true, she threatens him for the sample, but Leon refuses to give it to her.
The stand-off is broken when a shot suddenly rings out; Ada cries out, stumbles and falls over the railing, as behind her, Annette collapses, bleeding from a head wound, having fought her way here to intervene. Leon ignores her, diving to grab Ada's hand and trying to pull her up - but with his injured shoulder, he can't do it. They share some final banter, and then Ada slips free of Leon's hand, plunging into the abyss below.
Ignoring Annette as she babbles about protecting her husband's legacy, Leon checks Ada's gun; it was empty the whole time. Angrily, he throws the G-virus sample into the abyss after her, even as a self-destruct blares. Caught up in his grief, he sits there, mourning to himself as Sherry arrives, racing to her mother's side and crying.
Moment's later, Claire arrives, witnessing the final moments of Annette as she apologizes to her daughter for being such a bad mother. Annette passes away, and the self-destruct's blare shakes the three of them into action; they race for the escape train.
At the evacuation elevator, Leon is confronted by Birkin, and he responds with a barrage of firepower. Instead of fleeing, the scientist mutates a fourth time, assuming a beast-like form that scurries around on all sixes. But despite its strength and speed, it's no match for the determined cop, who guns it down and then rides the lift to the train area.
However, before they can leave, the train requires power. As Leon is injured and exhausted, Claire leaves Sherry with him and goes to turn on the train's power.
As she does this, she finds herself confronted by the mutated, "Super Tyrant" Mr. X, only to be saved when a mysterious woman throws her a rocket launcher, which enables her to blow Super X to pieces with the quip, “You lose, Big Guy”.
All three survivors escape from the lab on a train as it detonates behind them. Claire starts to celebrate, telling Sherry that “her goddess” (the angel-decorated jacket she had loaned Sherry earlier) must have protected her. They are interrupted when alarms blare, and Claire heads back to investigate - which triggers a warning from the train that there is a biohazard outbreak detected, and the train will detonate in two minutes.
In the back carriage, she is confronted by the shapeless mass of Birkin, mutated beyond all recognition, who she temporarily stymies with firepower. But the creature continues to grow, literally invading the train like a cancer. As Leon tries to defend Sherry, she slips through the vent into the train’s cabin, where Claire joins her, having fled Birkin’s advance along the train’s roof. As they bring the train to a halt, Leon drops down beside the tracks and the three survivors flee for the tunnel entrance, visible in the immediate distance. Behind them, Birkin has just forced its “head” into the cabin when the timer reaches zero and the train explodes, finally destroying Birkin for good.
Outside of the tunnel, Leon compliments Sherry on her bravery, whilst Claire encourages the group to keep walking the long track-line to civilization; she still needs to find her brother, Chris.
Remake
This section will cover major changes made to the story in the 2019 remake.Leon S. Kennedy receives a call, just as he's about to embark to his new assignment, telling him to stay away from Raccoon City. He initially complies, but after a week of silence, he heads off.
Claire Redfield, similarly, rides into a gas station just outside the city limits, looking for her brother...
And both find themselves faced with a nightmare.
Soon meeting up, and finding themselves surrounded by the undead, they escape in a commandeered police car, where they introduce themselves.
They attempt to head to the police department, but end up facing a blockade. Again, finding themselves surrounded, they separate after a tanker crashes into them, ultimately triggering their vehicle to explode and ignite the tanker's contents.
From here, like the original, certain events and locations are altered depending on the first character chosen. The remake opts to call the scenarios the 1st and 2nd Runs. The Zapping system is completely absent otherwise.
The 1st Run protagonist is forced through the streets and alleyways of the city to the RPD, finding a CCTV terminal in the Main Hall where they find a officer requesting assistance in the East Hallway, blocked off by the shutter system.
Opening it, they search through it, ultimately finding the officer in question, Elliot, behind another shutter. They, unfortunately, barely get him through before his lower half is devoured by the horde behind, and it's not long before they're joined by intruders.
They run back towards the hall, but find themselves grabbed by a zombie...only to be saved by Marvin Branagh, who subsequently fills them in on the notebook Elliot carried.
