The Resident Evil series has spanned six games on the Playstation, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast and Game Boy (bluergh). They follow the common theme of zombie-survival-horror, though as the series progressed the games became more action orientated. The six games are:

• Resident Evil
• Resident Evil: Director's Cut
• Resident Evil 2
• Resident Evil 3
• Resident Evil: Survivor
• Resident Evil: Code Veronica

I'm not too sure about the order of the last three, but you should get the idea

The games are set in, I think, second-person perspective. Or would it just be third-person? Basically, you see your character from fixed camera angles which don't move, unless you walk into another section of the playing area. Then it switches to another camera. Sweet.

Then there is the scary music. Oh, these games can be very scary, even the later ones. Play late in the evening, in the dark, on your own. When things are safe, the soundtrack will scare the willies out of you. You're on edge in case anything jumps out at you. Occaisonally you may be surprised by a cut-scene that throws something new at you. The key is to psyche yourself up for the experience. You can just tell yourself "It's a silly game with zombies that's been re-hashed a thousand times". Or you can treat it like a real horror experience, and get a lot more out of it.

There are things in life, such as cartoons Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z, TV series The X Files, and the Final Fantasy game series, that demand persuing for the sake of the developing storyline. Resident Evil is the same. For a week I busted my ass off playing Resi 2, then blasting through as much as Resi 1 as my patience would allow. It was my yearning for more Resi action, and a great story that needed finishing. In the end, a week later, I gave
once I'd reached the giant spider boss - even just half and hour blasts each day were proving tiresome. But I understood the story more than I had before, and that was very fulfilling.

Here is the story as best as I can tell it, through each game. Major plot spoilers!

Resident Evil

May 1998: experiments begin in earest in a mansion lab located in the forests outside Raccoon City, a city owned by the soon-to-be infamous Umbrella Corporation. Umbrella are developing the T-Virus for military usage - a virus that turns living things into zombies. The citizens of Raccoon City are, sadly, not to know of this

A month later, people start going missing. Bodies start turning up: "Victims appeared to be eaten". S.T.A.R.S. Bravo team are sent in to find out what's happening. They disappear.

Another month later, STARS Alpha team go in. Their pilot, Brad, drops them off. Things go sour and team-mate Joseph is killed by rabid dogs. Unknowing, Brad takes off, leaving his poorly-acted comrades in the wilderness. They run to the mansion, not knowing what's inside.

Upon entering, Chris Redfield goes missing. You can play him at the start of the game, but it's been ages since I did so. All I know is that you meet Rebecca from Bravo team: alive. Anyway, Jill (who I played - these are the only two chracters you may control) and Barry have a quick search for him. The only guy left is Wesker, who also goes missing. Later you find out that he is an undercover oporative for Umbrella.

So, as Jill, I very quickly got out of the mansion. If I'd had the benefit of hindsight, the rest of the game wouldn't have been hard. But it was. For the amount of time I spent playing, there's not much to talk about...unless you want a spoon-fed guide to playing the game.

Resident Evil: Director's Cut

Resident Evil in three difficulty settings, and with all the items rearranged. Also contained a demo of Resi 2. No plot developments to speak of.

Resident Evil 2

Set two months after Resi 1, in September. It's been over a year since I'd last played this, as Claire (Redfield, brother of Chris), so I decided to play as Leon.

There are two characters you can play: the aforementioned Leon and Claire. The first time you play, you will be playing that character's 'A' scenario. When you play the next character, it'll be the 'B' scenario, which will be a varient of the 'A' scenario. I'll explain what happens, and all will be clear...

As Leon, you are a rookie cop driving into Raccoon City for your first day as a pig. However, upon entering the town, the place is deserted. Not for long though, as the local zombies spy fresh meat and chase you...

In another part of town, a truck driver who has stopped off at a garage throws the owner through the window. He gets back into his truck.
"Guy's a maniac! Why'd he bite me?!"

In possibly one of the worst acted cut-scenes in the Resi series, the truck driver utters this immortal line as he cradles his arm and drives off, passing off the massive chunk that's been torn out as a 'bite'.....go figure!

A door opens, and Leon turns. It's Claire, being chased by a zombie. Leon caps the zombie's ass and the pair make off in a police car. As they drive to the police station, a zombie cop pops out from the back seat, and the car crashes. As the pair recover, the aforementioned truck driver looms into view, unable to control his vehicle in his newly-zombiefied state. Leon and Clair dive out of the car at seperate sides and the truck crashes into it and explodes.

The 'A' scenario starts from one side of the wreck, the 'B' scenario starts from the other. If you play the 'B' scenario, then early on a meaty guy in a trenchcoat is dropped from a helicoptor into the police station. He pops up to cause you much grief on occaisons.

As you play, various things reveal themselves. A case of Bent Cop Blues as the police cheif is in the pay of the Umbrella Corporation. After killing the mayor's daughter (in Claire 'A' scenario), he is himself killed by a crashing helicopter at the start of 'B'.

Later on, as you leave the police station (as Leon), you meet Ada Wong. You two then meet a reporter, Ben, in a cell. A bit later Ben is attacked by a horrid monster. When you meet him again, he seems alright, but suddenly is killed as his torso splits in half and a gribbly thing straight out of Aliens bursts out of him. This gribbly thing turns into a big monster which you meet a bit later. It is easy to kill. In Resi 2, you are a walking armoury. At one point I had 150+ handgun bullets (and an upgraded hangun at that), 40+ shotgun shells and 16 magnum bullets. Sadly, no room for the machine gun! Near the end though, I was Running On Empty.

The big monster who kills Ben in William. Creator of the G-Virus (an upgraded T-Virus), Umbrella send men to take the virus he has painstakenly worked on. In the process they shoot him badly. He injects himself with the virus, and turns into a big monster and kills the men. The virus is let loose in the sewers, and destroys Raccoon City.

At various points in the two scenarios, you meet William. At each different point he is even more mutated than before. Like right at the end, where he's a bit like a massive dog. Each time he picks me up in his jaws, shakes me a bit, then lobs me to the other side of the room! Anyway, he's easy to kill. A magnum round (eight shots - less than that, actually) should be enough.

Resident Evil 3

Thoroughly sick of Resident Evil 1 & 2 by now, I didn't get far with Resi 3. You play Rebecca Chambers from Resi 1, a few days before the setting of Resi 2. The guy at the start who "just lost {his} daughter out there" is, I've just figured, the mayor. He locks himself into a silo-type thing but don't worry, you have loads of guns!

You start off with a machine gun. Y'know, in the intro cut-scene these zombies defy the automatics and shotguns of the cops and mercenaries, killing them all. But when you face them yourself, in the streets, they're quite faggoty. My favourite bit is when a door burts open and four of them stumble outwards, like drunks from a pub. So you machine gun 'em all dead. Then, once you've met Brad (from Resi 1), you can look into one of the crates that frequent the games (this is where you store items)...and find handgun, shotgun, magnum, bazooka, and more than enough ammo for each.

You may want to take the magnum here. I should have. When you get to the police station, the Nemesis appears. On a mission to kill STARS members, he promptly dispatches Brad in front of your eyes. When I played, he promptly dispatched me too. Y'see, he's quite fast. If you stand and fight, he'll take a few hits before lamping you out. If you run, he runs. So, what I should have done was stood and fought, taking a few hits but making him feel more. But I didn't. Hey, cut me some slack!

Survivor and Code Veronica

Haven't played Survivor much at all. Haven't played Code Veronica at all. What I do know is that, apparently, in Survivor you are playing the head of Umbrella. Just survived a helicopter crash and suffering from amnesia

It's a good idea for a new twist to the series. This time the game is first-person, and controlled with the light gun. To see zombies stumble up towards you, as you take catious steps backwards and try to stop them with your gun...it sounds great in theory, eh? But when played, we couldn't control the bloody thing. To move, you aim and the screen, hold down a button and the trigger to walk forwards, right? Something like that. But there were times - there were four of us there (three watch one play) - were only one of us could make it happen! First guy tries to make character move: nothing happens. Second guy tries: nothing happen. I myself try: nothing happens. Fourth mate does it and makes it work, and laughs at us. So what did he do that we hadn't? Noteably frustrated, we eventually gave up on the game, and my mate took it back to the shop.

Code Veronica, as I said, I haven't played. But I am assured that it's action packed and full off dandy creatures to kill (jncluding a giant ant at the end), as well a crazy story.

So what do you think? If you like a bit of George Remero, and are into console gaming (tacky term used by old newspaper reviewers I think but my heyday of computer games are long gone) then I can do no more than insist you play these games! They're great! And if there's a Resi expert near you, then it's fun to watch. A bit like a movie. I remember when Resi 1 was new and I watched my older brother play it...ground-breaking experience! This is a legend!