With Resident Evil 3 Remake all but confirmed, it makes for an enjoyable time for fans to rejoice and refresh their memories of the closely knit storyline of the second and third games. For fans who have never played the the original Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, be warned: there are spoilers ahead.
In some ways, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis may be part prequel and part sequel, given that it takes place both before, during, and after events in Resident Evil 2. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis begins on September, 28, 1998 in Raccoon City, 24 hours prior to the events that begin to transpire in Raccoon City in Resident Evil 2 the following day, September 29.
There are some slight differences in the storyline between Resident Evil 2 Remake and the original. For the purpose of clarity and consistency, this story overview will adopt the Remake's version of events. For the most part, Capcom overwhelmingly kept the Remake true to the series' lore and mythos, and the differences are but small nuances.
To fully understand the events in Resident Evil 2 and 3, it is important to first briefly touch back upon the date of May 11th, 1998 in the Resident Evil universe, when a T-Virus outbreak occurred in the Umbrella research lab below the Spencer mansion. Only the main takeaways from the first Resident Evil are necessary to understand and appreciate Resident Evil 2 and 3's key events.
By the summer of 1998, Raccoon City Police sent in the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha Team to try and investigate the violent disturbances in the mountains outside Raccoon City and look for the Bravo team that was sent in previously, yet disappeared. It was there that surviving Alpha Team members and Resident Evil mainstay characters Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, and Barry Burton discovered the Spencer mansion deep in the woods, where Umbrella's secret research facility had lost control of a viral outbreak deep underground below the estate.
It becomes apparent that the creatures lurking throughout the mansion and lab were the results of bio-organic weapons experiments by Umbrella corporation which became uncontrollable and infected the people who worked there as well, turning them into zombies. S.T.A.R.S. members had walked into the middle of an ongoing outbreak that had been running amok for months.
Secret Umbrella agent and lead villain, Albert Wesker, blackmailed Barry Burton to lure S.T.A.R.S. members into death traps by threatening his family's safety. But once he learned that Wesker's threats were merely lies, he redeemed himself, turning on Wesker and aiding S.T.A.R.S. going forward.
Jill, Barry, and Chris eventually escaped the infected lab and mansion, but not before conveniently triggering the self-destruction feature, turning the entire facility to ashes. In the end, no one believed their outlandish sounding stories of zombies and mutated creatures, and there was never any further investigations into the matter. As will be clarified later in Resident Evil 2Remake, the lack of investigations theoretically left Raccoon City vulnerable and ultimately led to the events that transpire in Resident Evil 2 and 3.
As the summer of 1998 wrapped up, the start of Raccoon City's outbreak would begin shortly. William Birkin, a scientist working in Umbrella's secret lab far below Raccoon City, made the decision to turn his back on Umbrella and sell a sample of the G-Virus to the U.S. military.
On September 23, 1998, after Umbrella discovered William Birkin's secret deal, they sent in a team of armed security forces to assassinate Birkin and gather important virus samples from his lab. However, before the armed forces could take him out, he quickly injected himself with a sample of the G-Virus.
William mutated into something completely monstrous and seemingly invincible, and proceeded to go on a rampage, attacking and killing the Umbrella security forces before they could escape. In the process of doing so, many of the T-Virus samples broke open amid the chaos that ensued, spilling all over the floor. Rats in the area quickly became infected with the T-Virus samples as they curiously inspected the liquid matter. This led to the city's water supplies and sewers becoming infected, which ultimately led to the Raccoon City outbreak.
As zombies swarmed the streets and mass killings ensued, the U.S. military quarantined the city. Around the same time, Umbrella sent in their own armed forces, the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (UBCS). Their purpose was presumably to try and quell the situation and provide protection to the city's residents. However, it turns out Umbrella sent them into the city to test the waters and see how the T-Virus would perform against armed combatants in what became a sick real-world experiment. After all, the T-Virus was created as a bio-weapon for war, and Umbrella must have figured they might as well gain something useful out of an inconvenient situation.
Umbrella also sent their highly intelligent Nemesis creature into the city to hunt down and assassinate S.T.A.R.S. members and attempt to cover up Umbrella's dirty involvement in this outbreak. The Nemesis was created by infecting a Tyrant with a separate artificially engineered parasitic organism that Umbrella developed in the 1980's. To put that in simple perspective, the Nemesis was a modified Tyrant, and a Tyrant is created using a modified application and version of the T-Virus.
September 28 is the date where Resident Evil 3: Nemesis' gameplay begins and Jill Valentine starts her journey to escape the city, her home of residence. After a dangerous journey into Raccoon City's Police Station where she first encountered the Nemesis, she ran into Carlos Oliveira, a member of UBCS.
After surviving the Nemesis and all the chaos that ensued, it became apparent that they found friendship, common ground and had the same interests in mind: to survive and get out of the city as fast as possible. In a violent confrontation with the Nemesis later on in the story, it infected Jill with the T-Virus and abruptly retreated to fight at a later time. Carlos took Jill to a nearby Church where they rested for some time.
A day passed by, and September 29th marked a new day, as the chronological events of Resident Evil 2's gameplay begin at this point. Leon Kennedy entered Raccoon City, as he was a newly hired police officer hoping to start his first day on the job with the city's police department. Claire Redfield also entered the city on the same day, in anticipation of searching for her brother, S.T.A.R.S. member Chris Redfield. The two met up randomly, and eventually found themselves in the Raccoon City Police Station soon after.
Leon eventually met Ada Wong in the police station, who stated she was there on an assignment by the FBI to incriminate those responsible for the outbreak and G Virus, and that she was looking for a sample to use as evidence against them.
Claire's venture into the police station took a different journey, as she found paperwork confirming that her brother, Chris Redfield, had already departed the city weeks prior in order to investigate Umbrella elsewhere. Claire also discovered a young girl, Sherry Birkin, who happens to be the daughter of William Birkin, the creator of the G Virus and the one who caused this entire outbreak. Shortly thereafter, Sherry is kidnapped by the sadistic Chief of Police, Chief Irons.
It turns out that Chief Irons was in the pockets of Umbrella all along, and helped cover up the mansion outbreak that transpired in the first game months prior in the timeline, which explains why no more investigations into the matter had followed. Had investigations took place, per the advice and insistence of surviving Alpha team members, it can be theorized that this may have led authorities to Umbrella and Birkin's research earlier on and a mass outbreak could have been avoided.
As Leon and Ada headed downward into the sewers, the story introduced players to Annette Birkin, the wife of William Birkin and mother of Sherry Birkin. She tried desperately to stop Ada from obtaining a sample of the G Virus.
Meanwhile, Claire found Sherry in the Raccoon City orphanage where Chief Irons took her. But William Birkin had already injected Irons with a G Virus at some point earlier in the plot, resulting in a gruesome mutation and fight against Claire.
After killing Irons, Claire and Sherry entered the sewers, where they run into Mr. X, a tyrant that had been attempting to stalk and kill everyone throughout various points of the journey thus far. However, the monstrosity that is William Birkin showed up and fought off Mr. X, presumably to save his own daughter from being killed. In the chaos that ensued, Sherry was accidentally knocked down into a duct and became separated from Claire.
When Claire finally found Sherry deeper in the sewers, she discovered that William Birkin found her already and infected her with the G Virus. As is discovered, William Birkin was hunting for his daughter because he wanted to reproduce. He was convinced that her body would not reject the G Virus, given their DNA is related.
Claire and Sherry then headed deeper underground to Umbrella and William Birkin's research facility. Claire eventually succeeded in obtaining a vaccine which cured Sherry of the G-Virus infection. Around the same period, Leon obtained a sample of the G-Virus in the lab, and gave it to Ada, believing she would use it as evidence to incriminate Umbrella. However, Annette revealed that Ada was actually sent to Raccoon City to obtain the G-Virus for self-interests. Ada was supposedly working for a mysterious competitor of Umbrella known simply as "The Organization."
Leon confronted Ada demanding answers, but he received none as Annette shot Ada in the shoulder, causing her to fall off a ledge and into the lab's dark depths. She fell with the G-Virus sample still in her possession, leaving players to wonder if she died or not. Annette died minutes later, due to earlier injuries she sustained from William Birkin, in what could probably be described as uncontrollable G-Virus-induced roid rage.
As Leon, Sherry, and Claire prepared to board a train that lead outside of the facility for a final escape, the facility's self-destruction feature was activated giving them limited time to get out. Mr. X also showed up again. Ada suddenly made a brief return, tossing a rocket launcher to Leon, which he used to kill Mr. X once and for all.
As the three of them tried to escape on the train, William Birkin showed up to ruin their plans one last time in his final and most monstrous form, but was ultimately defeated, as the facility blew up moments later and engulfed him in flames. The three of them were able to exit the train and make their way to the surface where they found safety far outside the confines of Raccoon City.
Shortly thereafter, on October 1st, 1998, the events of Resident Evil 3 resumed. While Jill was still resting inside Raccoon City's church, trying to survive the tribulations of her T-Virus infection, Carlos set out to look for a cure to save her. He went to the city's general hospital where he was able to create a cure after he found a Vaccine Medium in a more secretive part of the facility known as the B3F Laboratory. It appeared that the cultivation of various creatures' cells took place here, as it was clearly not a normal facility within a hospital.
After returning to the Church and curing Jill of the T-Virus, the two departed and soon discovered that the U.S. military was going to drop a nuclear bomb and wipe out the city completely, making escape all the more urgent. Finally, the two ended up in an Umbrella waste facility where the final showdown with the Nemesis occurs. Jill used leaking pipes to shower Nemesis with acid and finish it off for the most part. The Nemesis mutated into its final and most powerful form, but Jill was still able to kill it off with good old fashioned weaponry.
Finally, Barry Burton, still feeling guilty for being blackmailed by Wesker in the first Resident Evil game, showed up in a helicopter and rescued Carlos and Jill from the city. Moments later, Raccoon City went up in flames and was turned to smithereens after a nuclear bomb was dropped on it.
With that, the story ends, as Resident Evil 3 marked the chronological start of the Raccoon City outbreak and ended with it too. There was lots left out and there are many connections that other games make to Resident Evil 2 and 3. This includes the mission Chris Redfield had embarked on at the time, and a lingering connection between Ada Wong and Wesker in Resident Evil Chronicles that is relevant to Resident Evil 2's ending, and many other pieces of lore can be dug out. There is an abundance of information, lore, mythos and interconnected storylines within the Resident Evil universe which can not possibly all fit in one summary, and this merely scratches the surface of the series' rich saga. It will be intriguing to see if Capcom expands the Resident Evil 3 Remake storyline when fans finally get their hands on it, whenever that may be.
Resident Evil 3 Remake is rumored to be in development.