Resident Evil Should Clean Up Its Past Before Moving Forward.

Capcom’s Resident Evil has a deep and rich mythology behind it. You wouldn’t really know it from the games but there’s a ton of lore that connects all of the myriad RE media out there. Everything but the live action movies…those don’t tie in at all.

With Resident Evil Village coming later this week, I think it’s high time that Capcom take a look at the series’ past before it moves on and creates further games.

Like it or not, the lore of the series is pretty much intertwined with that of the Umbrella Corporation.

After all, Umbrella was the source of the original incidents, with the T-Virus outbreaks in the Spencer Mansion and Raccoon City. With its massive resources, it managed to conceal a ton of its illegal activities from the public. It’s the looming threat that the surviving S.T.A.R.S. members (and Leon Kennedy) have to contend with, as their reputations are besmirched and their lives upended by constant assassination squads.

The company is at the core of the first few RE games.

Which is why it’s really puzzling that Capcom’s barely touched upon the company’s fall.

Yes, the story was revealed in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, a lightgun game that made its debut on the Nintendo Wii. As a lightgun game though, there’s really not much lore or nuance in the storytelling.

I don’t think I’m alone in wishing that Capcom would return to this phase of RE history and make a proper game out of it. They already have the stellar RE Engine, all they need now is just the time and resources to make the game.

New and old school fans need this. Not only because it’s a largely unexplored event but also to keep up the continuity between Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil 4.

In Resident Evil 3, Jill’s out to get Umbrella after escaping from Raccoon City. Then the next time we hear from her, she’s under Wesker’s thrall in Resident Evil 5, where Umbrella’s already fallen and other pharmaceutical companies (like TriCell) have taken its place.

There’s a total and jarring disconnect from the original games to Resident Evil 4.

Here’s hoping with this being Resident Evil’s 25th Anniversary, we finally get wind that Capcom’s making a game based on Umbrella’s fall. Hell, at this point, I’d even take a movie or a remastered version of Umbrella Chronicles (with added content).