Resident Evil Requiemis now officially on its way, set to come out in February 2026, just in time for the franchise’s 30th anniversary. The classic survival horror title has become Capcom’s biggest money-earner, and has gone from strength to strength, from the action highs ofResident Evil 4’s Spanish spills, to the unnerving horrors inRE7’s Louisiana bayous.
But the most iconic location in the series isRaccoon Cityand the surrounding Arklay County. It’s where the horror began with the outbreak in the Spencer Mansion, and when Umbrella’s different viruses reached the city itself.RERis set to return to what’s left of the town, so now’s a good time to look back atall the titles that take place in Raccoon City, from main entries to spin-offs.
This list goes over the chronological entries in the Resident Evil franchise that feature Raccoon City and Arklay County.
If this list were stricter,Resident Evil 0andRE1wouldn’t count as theytake place further out in the Arklay Mountains. But the mysterious murders that occurred out there wereclose enough to the cityfor their police department’s Special Tactics and Rescue Service (STARS) to investigate the situation.RE0chronologically comes first, as STARS’ Bravo team was the first unit sent onto the scene.
The game saw Rebecca Chambers work with ex-con Billy Coen to take on William Marcus, or what was left of him after his experiments with the Progenitor Virus turned him into a gestalt entity of leeches. In this new form, he tried to get revenge on his old employers, Umbrella, but was ultimately foiled by Rebecca and Billy before he went on the run, and she left to regroup with the Bravo team at a certain mansion.
BeforeRE0changed things, people just assumed Rebecca was the sole survivor of the Bravo team, asResident Evil 1had the STARS' Alpha team take refuge in the same Spencer Mansion to avoid falling to the undead outside. While exploring its grounds, they find the other members of the Bravo team who have succumbed to the zombies, mutants, and other threats hiding in the building’s wings.
It was up to Alpha team members Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine to investigate further, figure out where these monsters were coming from, and learn what the mysterious T-Virus is. This was where theREseries all began 29 years ago, though it soon showed its age with its blocky graphics and dodgy voice acting. But it would establishthe survival horror genreand inspire a multitude of imitators across consoles and computers.
The originalRE1was a hit on the PS1, though series’ creator Shinji Mikami felt it had room for improvement.RE: Director’s Cutwas made to tide people over untilRE2came out, andRE: Deadly Silencemanaged to cram the game into a Nintendo DS with touchscreen elements. But Mikami’s ownResident Evilremake(orRemake) became the definitive version of the game.
It tells the same story, with Chris and Jill trying to see what happened to the Bravo team and what the Spencer Mansion truly is. But it offered new mechanics that made players think twice about their resources, like whether to kill zombies and risk them becoming Crimson Heads, or save their stock to survive Lisa Trevor, the game’s tragic yet horrifying stalking terror. For many fans, it’s still the best classicREgame.
RE0andRE1(and their remakes) pretty much take place in Raccoon City’s backyard.Resident Evil 2was when the action came home, as the T-Virus made its way into the city, contaminating the water supply and infecting everything from animals to humans. People died, and the undead mutated into monsters, forcing the city to be quarantined, trapping any survivors with the BOWs.
It left rookie cop Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield, Chris’ sister, trying to find a way out of the city. In the process, Leon would meet a seemingly ordinary woman called Ada and learn more about Umbrella’s corporate intrigue. While Claire would look after a lost girl called Sherry, who was more important than she looked. Unlike its predecessor, it’s held up well over the years, and still manages to be a shocking experience.
People loved theRE1 Remake, but for years, it was the only full-on remake in the series. ARE2 Remakewas considered, but Mikami didn’t want to divert resources away fromResident Evil 4, which had spent years in development by that point. Still, fans couldn’t help but think what a remadeRE2would be like. Whether it’d stick to its survival horror roots or dive deepintoRE4’s bombast.
By 2019, they no longer had to wonder, as Capcom finally remade the game. They combined the third-person action ofRE4and its follow-ups with the classic formula that kept players on their toes. Raccoon City and its levels remained as intimidating as ever, while being smoother to navigate. With its host of side content and alternate scenarios, it’s one of the best remakes in the series.
While Leon and Claire were handling the Birkin family,Resident Evil 3: Nemesissaw Jill Valentine try to escape from both the city and the Nemesis T-Type, a Tyrant variant set to target members of STARS. Her best chance of survival comes from the surviving members of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service (UBCS).
It’s from them that she learns the US government planned to bomb the city with thermobaric missiles to eradicate the viral outbreak. Their only hope of escape lies in reaching the city clock tower to contact a rescue chopper. If they don’t get there in time, and don’t get betrayed, get infected with one of the many viruses in the city, or the Nemesis' different mutations, they’d be torched to death instead. So, no pressure then.
Typical. Fans wait nearly 20 years for a newRERemake, and then they get two at once. SinceRE3also took place in Raccoon City at the same time asRE2, Capcom considered making theResident Evil 3Remakepretty much as soon as they started work on the newRE2. That way, they could have a complete trilogy of Raccoon City-based remakes for fans to pick up.
The gameplay is much the same as theRE2Remake, blending action setpieces with horror. It also tweaked the story a bit to make Jill and Carlos' escape grittier and more intense, and madethe Nemesis smarter and more resilient, while tying its events closer toRE2(and evenRE4). Though it’s a shorter game than theRE2Remake, it’s still a tense and testing experience.
Raccoon City was reduced to burnt rubble at the end ofRE3, but that didn’t mean Capcom was done with the place.Resident Evil Outbreakwent back to the town during the events ofRE2-3, where it would follow eight characters through their own episodic campaigns. Each one detailed how they tried to avoid becoming either zombie chow or getting roasted by the missiles.
Some characters stood out more than others, like Kevin Ryman, a Raccoon City cop and failed STARS applicant,and Alyssa Ashcroft, a journalist who’s been investigating Umbrella since 1993. The game was made to see how theREformula would work online, as players could work together to get through its scenarios. It could’ve been better, as the online mode only worked in Japan and North America, but it was a fairREgame.
The originalOutbreakwas made to see if classicREgameplay could work for online play. Though it only worked in Japan and North America, Capcom must’ve been pleased with the results, as they made a sequel,Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2. Kind of. It’s more of a collection of extra scenarios followingOutbreak’s original survivors, with a few gameplay improvements.
For example, Alyssa would end up back in the mountains, where she’d recover her memories of investigating Umbrella before STARS when she tried to escape via an abandoned hospital. While David King was in a race against time to get himself and his fellow survivors out of Raccoon City with a cure for the T-Virus before the missiles wiped them all out.
On-rails shooters have largely gone extinct, but they had a brief resurgence thanks to the Wii and titles likeResident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. It retells the events ofRE0,RE1,andRE3by letting players run through preset paths and shoot zombies and BOWs while picking up health packs. It didn’t add much plot-wise, as they largely follow their main game’s stories.
But they did add extra details here and there to explain what happened to certain characters. Like how Wesker and Ada managed to come back for more games following their debuts. It also recreated the 4th Survivor, an extra mode inRE2that followed HUNK, the only Umbrella agent to survive an encounter with the mutated William Birkin and retrieve the G-Virus for the company.
