RESIDENT EVIL OUTBREAK – PLACING THE SCENARIOS
This section is really used for me to explain exactly how and why I have chosen the relative times for the scenarios with regard to the overall timeline, and how I came to these decisions. It is mainly through fact and through some educated guesses.
OUTBREAK FILE # 1
OUTBREAK
This scenario is the easiest of them all, as it is the beginning. We know that people are able to happily enter bars and have a drink though in the back streets zombies are killing policeman and beginning to take over. Only the RPD are taking action at the moment.
DEFINATE CHARACTER APPEARENCES: All.
PREDICTED DATE: 24th September 1998
HELLFIRE
Perhaps the most difficult scenario of them all to place. Whilst it’s quite easy to place the scenario – it’s difficult to justify it. As many of you know, the Apple Inn where this scenario is set, is seen in both scenario’s ‘Outbreak’ and ‘End of the Road’. During the scenario – the inn is burning to the ground as a result of a boiler explosion and other sourced fires. However, thanks to one thing in particular we are given an idea of how this scenario plays out.
At the end of the scenario after the players have battled the Regis Licker, a fireman breaks the door down and allows the players to escape. Now, in Outbreak when the player reaches the Apple Inn after the tanker explosion, the doors are already shattered, meaning that Hellfire must take placed BEFORE that specific person reaches the street outside. Also don’t forget at the end of the scenario a fire-fighter states that the army has been called in, the end of the ‘Outbreak’ scenario shows the army barricading the city. So my theory is this:
Hellfire and Outbreak take place at the same time, and effectively ‘splits’ up the team. They eventually get to that street through whichever means (be it either escaping the Inn or through the sewers) and are rallied up by the RPD and taken to Raccoon Main, where Outbreak resumes.
I agree that this stretches it, but there’s absolutely no other place this could go.
PREDICTED DATE: 24th September 1998
HIVE
This scenario is cause of much debate. It’s obviously set before the 1st October as the hospital is obliterated before then. The dead giveaway is this file here:
Damn Umbrella… I understand the need to choose a location few people would
investigate, but why the hell choose the sewers! Burkin and that pig of a
chief! I am a normal man.
I don’t wanna trudge through such filth. Not even for 5 minutes. I won’t go to
the laboratory until they provide me with a boat.
I finally got a boat…but it doesn’t handle so well in narrow chammels. Oh
well though…
It’s much better than walking.
This tells me that the writer was obviously discussing the main Birkin labs beneath Raccoon City (the one seen in Resident Evil Zero and Resident Evil 2). His file explains that he uses the sewer boat to get there. At the end of the scenario the characters use the said boat to travel through the sewers, after battling the Leech they are forced to wade the rest of the way – bringing them to Birkin’s lab, as most obviously seen at the start of Below Freezing Point. (The sewer exit leads to the train tunnel – an educated guess of course – but why wouldn’t this work?)
PREDICTED DATE: 26th September 1998
BELOW FREEZING POINT
This scenario is a little more difficult, straight away we have the knowledge that it MUST take place before the 29th September, as by the time Leon and Claire arrive at the labs they are thawed out, and the Marshalling Yard train is returned.
DEFINATE CHARACTER APPEARENCES: Yoko Suzuki.
PREDICTED DATE: Night of 26/27th September 1998
DECISIONS, DECISIONS
Easy, needs no explanation whatsoever, takes place after and during the last few moments of Resident Evil 3. Evidence for this is that during the last few moments of the scenario, Raccoon City is destroyed and the characters see the missiles coming in. To justify this and End of the Road, separate the characters. Please note that for this timeline, I have chosen to have the character of Yoko Suzuki in this scenario as she suits it more with specific character moments.
DEFINATE CHARACTER APPEARENCES: Yoko Suzuki, George Hamilton
PREDICTED DATE: 1st October 1998
OUTBREAK FILE # 2
WILD THINGS
Well looking at it, from a cutscene point of view, there’s been a lot of carnage going on in Raccoon City, but there are still things in place, such as the news, as reports are still being broadcast (see the television in the closing cutscene). If you listen carefully to the cutscene, the reporter mentions that the Police and the National Guard are struggling to keep everything under control. This confirms that the Army have already arrived, placing the scenario after they arrive on first light, 25th September. Given that there’s really no other place for it to go, I’ve decided…. To go for early evening, 25th September. This would then directly lead into Hive, which as fan fiction derives, they go to, to treat wounds inflicted from the hellish zoo. There’s no other place I think it can logically go, and sadly not enough information is given within the scenario to help us find a place.
DEFINATE CHARACTER APPEARENCES: Cindy Lennox
PREDICTED DATE: 25th September 1998
UNDERBELLY
Another tough one. There’s not a lot we know. We do know it’s daylight as the survivors enter the subway – we can derive this from the fact that it’s looking like sunset in the opening cutscene. I’ve decided to go for the fact that this scenario will follow on from Flashback – as in the cutscene the characters seem very driven to get to the subway to find a way out of the city.
The biggest problem comes from the ending of the scenario – just where do they get to from the subway?
I simply imagine that they end up at a station within the city, close to the RPD and out of desperation decide to attempt to seek refuge with a group of survivors hauled up within the car park beneath the precinct.
PREDICTED DATE: 29/30th September 1998
FLASHBACK
Sigh. I’ve no idea really what to do with this one at all. So I’ve placed it after Desperate Times. Fan fiction deriving that when they left the RPD in the van they are taking as far out of the city as they can. Where they now come across the cabin where Al resides. I don’t know – your guess is as good as mine. If you want a place, go for the 28th September 1998. The biggest problem with this scenario is why they come back into the city. I assume that the only reason is that the woods are too dangerous to pass through so they decide to head back, and try to take the train out of the city – hence…. Underbelly. Or you could merge the endings where the survivors comment how all trails lead back into the city.
DEFINATE CHARACTER APPEARENCES: Alyssa Ashcroft
PREDICTED DATE: 29th September 1998
DESPERATE TIMES
A tricky scenario, before I discuss it I want to point out I am ignoring the ending with the squad car passing Kevin Ryman. I am considering it a non-canon Easter egg as it just causes too much trouble if it were fact.
The main things that help us define this scenario are the appearance of Marvin Branagh and the files in Resident Evil 2. The best way to place it was to set it after the initial attack on the RPD (the 26th) and after the zombie battle seen in the beginning of Resident Evil 3, (the 27th). Not only does this help explain the lack of RPD survivors in this scenario, but also connects Marvin’s attack closer to his unconscious state seen in Resident Evil 3. This scenario is also useful in that it’s definitely sunset by the time the scenario begins. (RPD main entrance doors face south, the sun is setting in the west). With this information we can set in the evening of the 27th, which are just hours before Resident Evil 3.
PREDICTED DATE: 27th September 1998
END OF THE ROAD
Again, this is an easy scenario; it takes place during Resident Evil 3 as at the end the characters race to get out the city as missiles are on approach. To justify both this and Decisions, Decisions, simply separate the characters. Due to the introduction sequence, I have included David in this scenario.
DEFINATE CHARACTER APPEARENCES: David King
PREDICTED DATE: 1st October 1998
