"Conspirators in the shadows..."
Now in its twelfth year, the Resident Evil series has a lineage of chiselled heroes, ridiculously clichbad guys and enough viruses, monsters and high-level conspiracies to make Mulder and Scully scream in wide-eyed horror.
This glossary of good and evil will give you the lowdown on Resi 5's good guys, evil doers and the contagions that cause all the trouble in the first place - and perhaps a bit of backstory that you might have missed, too.
Good
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Chris Redfield: Former S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team leader turned BSAA agent, sent to Africa's Kijuju region to investigate reports of a growing Bioweapon threat. Haunted by flashbacks of the apparent death of his former partner, Jill Valentine, Chris will unwittingly stumble into the origins of Umbrella's entire research at the place it all began... |
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Sheva Alomar: Chris's new partner is a well trained, hard-as-nails Western Africa BSAA operative. Orphaned at a young age, she later discovered that her parents had been victims of Umbrella's B.O.W. research, and pledged her life to avoiding similar losses of life. In Resi 5, player two will be able to control Sheva, helping Chris with fully-integrated co-op gameplay. |
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Jill Valentine: Ex S.T.A.R.S. member Jill joined the BSAA with her partner Chris after the Mansion Incident, and fought bioterror outbreaks across the world. She was supposedly killed on a mission, which still haunts Redfield to this day. But is she really dead? |
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Kirk: Your aerial support at the outset of Resident Evil 5, Kirk shows up in his chopper to aid Sheva and Chris with handy rocket-propelled help at just the right time. What a guy. |
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BSAA: With the Umbrella Corporation dissolved, it wasn't long before their B.O.W, research slipped into terrorist hands. To combat the new biohazard threat, the United States government established the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance. With skilled personnel like Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar, advanced technology, and branches across the world, they are the best hope of avoiding another Raccoon City catastrophe. |
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S.T.A.R.S.: The Special Tactics And Rescue Service of Raccoon City's Police Department were the first on the scene when deaths were reported at the Spencer Mansion Estate in July 1998. Chris, Jill and Barry of Alpha Team, and Rebecca Chambers of Bravo team, survived, discovered Wesker's treachery, and went underground in a bid to bring down Umbrella. |
Evil
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Albert Wesker: Former Umbrella researcher, S.T.A.R.S. founder and the man who betrayed Chris and Jill during the Mansion Incident. Wesker injected himself with an experimental virus which allowed him to not only survive attack by a Tyrant, but resurrected him with super-powers. Now the series' omnipresent Machiavellian supervillain, aspiring to reform Umbrella in his own image. |
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Excella Gionne: A descendant of the Travis family which founded the TriCell Pharmaceutical Corporation, Excella was responsible for founding and installing TriCell's presence in West Africa. She can be seen in recent trailers handling both T-virus and Las Plagas samples, assisted by the beaked figure, and making romantic advances towards Wesker. |
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Irving: The BSAA's main contact regarding the rumoured viral outbreak in the Kijuju region. Finding him is the main objective at Resident Evil 5's outset - but this proves trickier than it sounds. Hordes of infected villagers, several B.O.W.s and a mysterious beaked figure stand between Chris and Sheva and their annoying, pipsqueak quarry. |
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Beaked Figure: This enigmatic, apparently female evil-doer wears a raven-beaked mask, long flowing grey cloak and high heeled boots, and can be seen turning a man into a writhing, snakelike B.O.W. in Resident Evil 5's opening cinematic. Seemingly Irving's personal protector, early trailers point to her also being a cohort of Excella Gionne. |
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Umbrella Inc.: Founded by Ozwell E. Spencer, James Marcus and Edward Ashford, Umbrella was a legitimate pharmaceutical company with a distinctly less legitimate sideline in bioweapon research. Their discovery of the Progenitor Virus eventually led to the T-Virus and G-Virus being created. Following the T-Virus outbreak in Raccoon City, the once-powerful Umbrella was dissolved and much of their research - both technological and B.O.W. related - fell into terrorist hands. |
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TriCell Pharmaceutical: Founded by the Travis family and now ran by their descendant, Excella Gionne. It would seem that TriCell were a rival to Umbrella, who have now acquired not only Umbrella's T-Virus, but the Las Plagas parasite which first emerged as the premier contagion in Resident Evil 4. |
Contagious
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Progenitor Virus: The root of all evil, this Mother Virus is the basis for Umbrella's most successful bioweapons research, spawning the T- and G-Viruses amongst others. In Resident Evil 5, Chris and Sheva will unwittingly stumble upon the Progenitor Virus's point of origin. |
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T-Virus: Short for 'Tyrant Virus'. Created by mixing the Progenitor and Ebola Viruses with Leech DNA. the T-Virus is highly infectious, turning humans into zombies, and one in ten million people into a Tyrant. Spread through food, fluid and direct contact - including being bitten by infected. This virus turned Raccoon City into a nightmare after being carried by sewer rats into the water supply. |
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G-Virus: The G-Virus was created when William Birkin mixed the T-Virus and Umbrella's experimental NE-Alpha parasite. Unlike the T-Virus, it is not contagious - a host must be directly injected for it to take effect. The G-Virus causes rapid mutations which make for some of the more hideous monsters in the Resident Evil series. |
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T-Veronica Virus: Alexia Ashford's creation mixes the T-Virus with a virus secreted by the queen ant. It takes 15 years in cryostasis for a host's body to acclimatise to the virus, but the benefits are enormous power and mutagenic properties, while retaining the host's personality and intelligence (see left). Without the slow gestation, hosts mutate horribly, becoming a monster like that to the right - a Nosferatu; previously Alexia's father, Alexander. |
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Las Plagas: The Las Plagas are a breed of parasite, and the main contagion in Resident Evil 4. Plagas victims become stronger, highly immune to pain, and answer to the will of the master Plaga. Extreme mutations create grotesque monsters like El Gigante (right). In Resident Evil 5 it would appear that TriCell are experimenting by mixing T-Virus with Las Plagas to create new, even more terrible bioweapons. |
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