The ninth mainline Resident Evil game, Requiem, arrives on February 27, 2026. For new players, this probably looks like a good jumping-on point, but it’s not so obvious.
- Resident Evil Timeline: The Short Version
- How This Guide Is Set Up
- 1998: The Arklay Incident and Spencer Mansion
- 1998: Raccoon City Falls
- Late 1998: The Bigger Picture Emerges
- 2004 to 2013: Bioterror Goes Global
- 2017 to 2021: The Mold and the Village
- 2026: Resident Evil Requiem
- What to Play Before Requiem
- Bonus Context: 2037 and Beyond
- This Story Never Let Go
This entry builds on nearly thirty years of bioterror, mutated monsters, and burned-out heroes. Without background, you are not going to know who these people are or why they are still chasing each other through the rubble of a city that was already destroyed in the 90s.
| Game | Genre | Developer | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Resident Evil Requiem | Shooter & Adventure | CAPCOM |
 | Resident Evil 0 HD REMASTER | Shooter & Adventure | Capcom Production Studio 3 |
 | Resident Evil | Adventure & Shooter | CAPCOM |
 | Resident Evil 2 | Adventure & Shooter | Capcom Development Division 1 |
 | Resident Evil 3 | Adventure & Shooter | M-TWO |
 | Resident Evil Code: Veronica X | Adventure & Shooter | Nextech |
 | Resident Evil Revelations | Shooter & Adventure | CAPCOM |
 | Resident Evil Revelations 2 | Adventure | CAPCOM CO., LTD. |
 | Resident Evil 4 Remake | Adventure & Shooter | Capcom Development Division 1 |
 | Resident Evil 5 | Shooter & Adventure | CAPCOM |
 | Resident Evil 6 | Adventure | CAPCOM |
 | Resident Evil 7 | Adventure & Puzzle | CAPCOM CO., LTD. |
 | Resident Evil 8 Village | Adventure & Shooter | Capcom Development Division 1 |
This guide walks through the core timeline, game by game, in chronological order. Major plot points are covered, characters are named, and connections to Requiem are flagged along the way.
Resident Evil Timeline: The Short Version
- 1998: T-Virus outbreak hits the Spencer Mansion and Raccoon City. Leon, Jill, Claire, and Chris enter the picture.
- 2004 to 2013: Umbrella collapses. Bioterror spreads across Europe, Africa, and China. Leon becomes a government agent. Wesker dies in a volcano.
- 2017 to 2021: Ethan Winters fights through Mold-based horror that links back to Umbrella’s origin. Miranda and the Megamycete enter the story.
- 2026: Requiem sends Leon and newcomer Grace Ashcroft back into the ruins of Raccoon City
How This Guide Is Set Up
Resident Evil lore can get messy fast. Games jump across decades, locations, and cast members, and important details often hide in side entries or spin-offs. This guide exists to keep things straight, without turning into a wiki dump.
Here is how the breakdown works:
1. Chronological events
Each section follows the timeline in story order, not release order. That keeps character arcs and cause and effect clear, especially for events that echo into Requiem.
2. Key characters that matter for Requiem
Not every returning face gets equal attention. The focus stays on characters, families, and organizations that have a direct or likely connection to Requiem.
3. Why it matters notes
Every major era ends with a short explanation of why those events still count. These notes flag themes, locations, or relationships that Requiem appears to revisit.
4. Spoiler warning for legacy titles
Plot details from older games are discussed openly. This includes major deaths, reveals, and twists from across the series. Newer players should expect full spoilers for classic entries.
1998: The Arklay Incident and Spencer Mansion
On July 23, 1998, the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team goes missing in the Arklay Mountains. Rookie medic Rebecca Chambers survives alongside Billy Coen, a convict on the run. They discover a facility tied to Umbrella and the T-Virus, created by James Marcus and Oswell Spencer.
On July 24, Alpha Team arrives. Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine are among the members. They get trapped inside the Spencer Mansion. Umbrella’s betrayal becomes clear when Albert Wesker, their captain, reveals he has been using them to gather combat data. He unleashes a Tyrant and fakes his death.
Why it still matters: This is the origin of the outbreak. Requiem takes place back in this region. The entire Umbrella legacy begins here.
1998: Raccoon City Falls
By September, the virus reaches the city. William Birkin, an Umbrella scientist, injects himself with the G-Virus and causes a second outbreak.
Jill Valentine tries to escape while being hunted by Nemesis, a bio-weapon that learns and adapts. She survives, but the city does not. The US government launches a missile strike.
Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield arrive just as things spiral. Leon is a rookie cop. Claire is searching for her brother, Chris. They meet Ada Wong, a mysterious operative with unclear allegiances. They uncover Umbrella’s NEST lab below the police station.
In another corner of the city, citizens try to survive. One of them is Alyssa Ashcroft, a journalist featured in Resident Evil Outbreak.
Why it still matters: Requiem brings the story back to Raccoon City. The Ashcroft name returns through Grace Ashcroft. The ruins of the RPD still hold secrets.
Late 1998: The Bigger Picture Emerges
After Raccoon City is destroyed, the rest of Umbrella’s global operations begin to unravel. In Code Veronica, Claire Redfield is captured and taken to a facility in the Southern Hemisphere. She escapes and uncovers new experiments, this time involving the T-Veronica virus.
She reconnects with her brother Chris, and the Redfield siblings take on yet another Umbrella threat. Albert Wesker reappears, now fully superhuman. This game expands the lore significantly by showing the Ashford family’s role in Umbrella’s founding and the idea that Umbrella was never just one lab or one city.
Why it still matters: Code Veronica widens the scope of the series. Requiem is about legacy, and Umbrella’s legacy is global, messy, and layered in betrayal.
2004 to 2013: Bioterror Goes Global
In 2004, Leon rescues the president’s daughter in Spain. He fights Los Illuminados, a cult using a parasite called Las Plagas. No virus this time, but the same goal: control and chaos. Ada Wong resurfaces with her own mission. Leon becomes the hardened agent we see later.
Chris Redfield fights in Africa in 2009. He tracks Wesker to a final confrontation in a volcano. Wesker dies. Jill is recovered after being brainwashed and used as a test subject. These events are deeply personal for both of them.
In 2013, Resident Evil 6 spans China, Edonia, and the US. Three campaigns overlap. Leon, Chris, Ada, and new characters like Jake Muller (Wesker’s son) deal with another outbreak, this time involving the C-Virus. The scale is huge, but the narrative is uneven. Still, it pushes every major character into a final showdown.
Why it still matters: Leon’s arc continues in Requiem. His skills, history, and trauma all build from this period. RE6 is flawed, but it closes arcs and raises the stakes.
2017 to 2021: The Mold and the Village
Ethan Winters searches for his missing wife in rural Louisiana. He ends up fighting the Baker family, all infected by a Mold organism tied to a group called The Connections. The Mold is not just a biohazard; it alters memory, perception, and biology.
In 2021, Ethan travels to Eastern Europe to rescue his daughter. He learns about Mother Miranda, the cult leader behind the region’s horrors. She is also connected to Oswell Spencer, having inspired his ideas for Umbrella decades earlier. The Megamycete, the core of the Mold, is revealed as a possible source of everything.
Ethan dies stopping the Mold’s spread. His daughter Rose inherits powers and becomes a target of interest.
Why it still matters: Miranda’s link to Spencer shows that the Mold story is not a side arc. It ties back to the Umbrella mythos. Requiem may follow this thread more than people expect.
2026: Resident Evil Requiem
Leon returns as a lead character, this time alongside Grace Ashcroft. The game takes place in the destroyed remnants of Raccoon City and a location called the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center. These settings imply the narrative will revisit the psychological fallout from the original outbreak.
Capcom has confirmed a February 27 release. The game runs on the RE Engine and features what the studio calls a new level of cinematic realism. Reports suggest flashbacks, hallucinations, and story elements that will blend past and present.
The presence of Grace Ashcroft suggests a link back to Alyssa and the Outbreak survivors. Whether she is a daughter, niece, or just shares the surname, the connection is unlikely to be accidental. Some leaks point to RPD archives and deep Umbrella files surfacing during the game.
There is also speculation that Requiem could set up new character arcs for post-Village developments. Some fans believe we may see references to Rose Winters or additional background on the BSAA, which has grown increasingly secretive. If the Mold threat is still active in some form, it would make sense for Capcom to bridge both timelines.
What to Play Before Requiem
Catching up does not mean playing everything. A selected set of games covers nearly all the history, characters, and locations that Requiem is pulling from. These picks focus on Leon, Raccoon City, Umbrella’s roots, and the threads Capcom keeps circling back to.
- Resident Evil 2 Remake: Covers Leon, Claire, and the RPD setting. Essential.
- Resident Evil 4 Remake: Shows Leon’s evolution into a hardened operative.
- Outbreak Lore Recap: Watch a video or summary about Alyssa Ashcroft and the citizen perspective during the fall of Raccoon City.
- Resident Evil Village: For Umbrella’s founding myth and the Mold’s deeper role.
- Resident Evil 0 and RE1: To understand how Umbrella began and how far the conspiracy goes back.
- Resident Evil 5 and 6: To follow Wesker’s downfall and global bioterror escalation.
Bonus Context: 2037 and Beyond
Shadows of Rose, the post-Village DLC, takes place over a decade later. Rose Winters explores a dreamlike memory realm connected to the Megamycete.
While not confirmed to link to Requiem, the themes of memory, legacy, and altered perception align with the rumored tone of the next game. If Capcom brings Rose back in the future, this could be the bridge.
This Story Never Let Go
Whether you are coming back after years away or just catching up, Resident Evil’s lore has layers worth digging through.
Requiem is not a clean slate. It is a mirror pointed back at the past, and the more of it you understand, the more powerful that reflection becomes.