Guide Note

The Resident Evil series is a group of survival-horror video games developed by Capcom for various video game consoles. The series has has spawned a trilogy of movies, several books, comic books and other media. It deals with a man-made virus that turns people into Zombies, and the people who become emeshed in the struggle against the zombies and other mutated monsters created by the evil Umbrella Corporation.

Fast Facts

1. Created by: [[Shinji Mikami]
2. First game debuted: March 30, 1996
3. Developer/Publisher: Capcom
4. Called Biohazard in Japan
5. Main Characters: Chris Redfield, Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine, Leon Scott Kennedy
6. Platforms: PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, PC, Nintendo DS
7. Over 30 million copies sold (Feb. 2006)
8. Next Series Installment: Resident Evil 5

One of the more salient visual elements of the Resident Evil series are the lush and opulent settings. Although they are often police stations or private residences, they are nonetheless filled to the brim with priceless artwork and elaborate puzzle locks that seem out of place in what should be more mundane settings. Part of this can be explained by the vanity or paranoia of various employees and associates of the Umbrella Corporation. They design complex barriers to locations throughout their facilities to protect their secret genetic experiments housed inside. Even though the scale of grandeur often reaches cartoonish proportions, it is one of the games' most impressive visual elements.