RE:0 Summary

Might as well start at the beginning.

RE:0 Summary:

1920s – Ozwell Spencer and Edward Ashford found Umbrella Inc. after discovering the Mother Virus in Africa. Their idea is to use pharmaceutical advances to create powerful bio organic weapons and sell to the highest bidder.

1950s – Mother virus refined into Progenitor virus.

1970s – Edward Ashford is killed accidentally by his son, leaving Spencer in complete control of Umbrella. Dr. James Marcus develops the Progenitor Virus into the T-virus by combining the Progenitor with the DNA from a leech. If anyone got in his way, he made them test subjects, which is one of the reasons he had a breakthrough so quickly.

1988 – James Marcus is assassinated by Ozwell Spencer and his research is taken over by Albert Wesker and William Birkin. His experimental leeches are nearly wiped out, but the queen manages to find his body and somehow merge with him and reanimate his body.

May 1998 – James Marcus in leech form, starts his revenge against Umbrella. He releases the T-Virus in the labs.

June 1998 – Most of the staff have succumbed to the T-Virus. Cerberus (zombie dogs) have escaped and gotten into the Raccoon forest.

July 1998

In the Mid Western United States, Raccoon City. A passenger Train, The Ecliptic Express, is hit with hundreds of mutated leeches. The train stops. A young man in white robes (James Marcus) stands on a hill nearby.
A military transport vehicle is also hit by the leeches. The soldiers are killed but the prisoner they are transporting, Billy Coen, escapes.

Rebecca Chambers and the rest of STARS Bravo team (see below*) are in a helicopter investigating recent murders in the suburbs of Raccoon City, (you may recognize this from the opening text of RE1). They have engine problems and are forced to land. The team discovers the military vehicle and dead soldiers. They find the orders to transport Billy Coen for execution and assume he killed everyone and escaped. Rebecca separates from the group and finds Billy onboard the Ecliptic Express. Ed Dewey (Stars Bravo Team) makes it onto the train to escape zombie dogs, but he dies from his wounds. They discover there’s a lot of creatures on the train and they will have to work together to survive. There are some very tough creatures composed entirely of leeches. Somehow a giant scorpion is also on the train, along with your run of the mill zombies and zombie dogs. Of course there are puzzles required to access different areas of the train. Luckily they find the Hookshot to get on the roof to access other cars. They also find information that the train didn’t contain passengers, but a cleanup team sent from Umbrella. They overhear radio communication sent from Albert Wesker and William Birkin to some of the surviving cleanup team, but they don’t know who is talking. The instructions are to destroy the train. The remaining cleanup team members are killed by leeches before they are able to. Rebecca sees the man in white on the hill, then the train starts up and they have to find a way to stop it and get off. Eventually they find a way to activate the brakes.

The train ends up crashing safely into the underground floor of an Umbrella Facility that looks like a mansion. They make their way through the mansion. Markings on the floor state that it is the Umbrella Research Center. Rebecca starts to realize that Billy is a good guy and was unjustly sentenced for war crimes because he didn’t want to kill innocent civilians. They mow down hunters, zombies, giant crickets, and a centipede of unusual size. They even kill mutated baboons that have a better chin than the Diaz brothers. These things can take a hit and keep coming. Throughout the mansion, recordings play over loudspeakers that have Dr. Marcus “pep talks” for the employees. There is a portrait of James Marcus looking really old on the wall which has a plaque that reads “First General Manager.” Rebecca thinks it looks like man in white, except the man she saw is much younger than in the picture. Wesker and Birkin see Rebecca and Billy on the security cameras. They also see the man in white in the facility. The man in white seems to know he’s being watched, he claims he will get revenge on Umbrella.

Rebecca and Billy find Dr. James Marcus’ private office and diary which states he was in charge of 2 promising researchers, which he nicknamed “Practical Al” and “Scholar Will.” He would make them compete against each other as motivation. They also find torture and prison areas where he Marcus kept his human experiments. Meanwhile, Birkin and Wesker have discovered that the man in white really is James Marcus. They are aware that Ozwell Spencer had Dr. Marcus assassinated and that they have to cover it up. Wesker intends to leave Umbrella once he has enough combat test data for the T-virus. He intends to use the STARS as combat test subjects (RE1). Birkin just wants more time to work on his G-virus (RE2). They are going to hit the self destruct on the facility to destroy all the evidence.

Rebecca and Billy manage to rotate the observatory so that another exit opens. This leads towards an old chapel. They have to kill a giant bat inside, and then they’re able to take an elevator down to the secret lab. They get separated and Rebecca takes a cable car to explore further. The cable car arrives at a railroad turntable (same one from RE2 which Claire and Leon will use in about 2 months in RE2). She meets up with Enrico (bravo team leader). After killing a Tyrant, she takes an elevator to a couple different floors in this complex. She finds Billy washed up on the bottom level. They make their way into a nearby factory. They are confronted by Marcus. They still don’t believe it’s him because he would be much older. His face changes to show his old age. He’s actually made up of leeches and can appear however he wants. He attacks them and they take an elevator to the top level of the factory. He chases them up and turns into a gigantic leech monster. Billy distracts him while Rebecca activates the four controls that open the ceiling. The bright light from the sun dries out the leech and kills him. The self destruct has been activated, so they escape the building quickly. Rebecca sees the Spencer Mansion a few miles away and decides to head for it. She takes Billy’s dog tags and says she will report him deceased. Billy says thanks and heads off in a different direction. Obviously Birkin and Wesker escaped too.

*Fate of Bravo Team members
Kenneth Sullivan is the guy being eaten by the first zombie you encounter in Resident Evil 1 after going through the dining room.
Forrest Speyer is found infected on the 2^nd floor of the Spencer Mansion on the East outside walkway. He chases you with the quickness.
Enrico Marini (team leader) is found in the mining tunnels, he tells you the STARS were betrayed, but gets shot before he can say by whom.
Richard Aiken is found in the Spencer Mansion, poisoned by Yawn (giant snake). He is either killed by the Yawn or Neptune (shark) depending on your actions.
Ed Dewey makes it onto the Ecliptic Express but dies of dog bites; he comes back as a zombie before the train crashes.
Rebecca is rescued by Chris Redfield in the Spencer Mansion.

Random thoughts:
1) While everyone else is all bitter about Raccoon city being destroyed and having their family turn into zombies, Billy Coen stays positive. He has the most beneficial outcome from the outbreaks of any person in the RE series. He’s being taken to his execution when he gets a chance to escape, and ends up running free at the end of the game. He probably even got a handy from Rebecca in one of the save rooms. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, but when life gives you T-Virus, make iced T.

2) Billy’s war crimes were from refusing to kill innocent villagers in Africa. I was hoping he would either appear or be mentioned in RE5 since they were in Africa. He doesn’t make an appearance in any other game besides 0.

3) If Marcus would’ve stayed dead, everyone in Raccoon city would’ve been fine. He’s the reason all the outbreaks started.

4) Maybe next time send the Alpha team in first.

Virus info:
Mother Virus – discovered in Africa
Progenitor – Refined from Mother Virus
T-Virus – Progenitor + Leech DNA
G-Virus – Found in Lisa Trevor’s body after experimenting on her with every imaginable virus and parasite.
T- Veronica virus – Progenitor + Queen Ant DNA
Nemesis – programmable parasite
Las Plagas – controllable parasite