A video game series started by Capcom in 1996. The first game took place in a ficticious place called Raccoon City where reports of canibalistic murders were taking place in the mountain area. The police search and rescue sqaud, S.T.A.R.S. is sent in to investigate these murders, but stumbles upon an estate out in the woods that holds a deadly secret. The city's biggest corperation, UMBRELLA, had been producing bioweapons. A leak occured when the founder of the progenitor virus, Dr. Marcus, had been ressurected by his leach-like test subjects and set forth to have his revenge on UMBRELLA and Spencer for his assasination. In the first game, you play as either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine of the S.T.A.R.S. and set out to expose UMBRELLA, while attempting to survive the zombies at the same time.

There were many sequals to follow the game's success:
Resident Evil 0 (Playing as Rebecca Chambers and Billy Coen)
Resident Evil: REmake (Playing as Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine)
Resident Evil 2 (Playing as Claire Redfield or Leon Kennedy)
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (Playing as Jill Valentine)
Resident Evil: Code Veronica (Playing as Claire and Chris Redfield)
Resident Evil 4 (Playing as Leon Kennedy)

There have also been many spin offs to the series, such as the Gun Survivor series and Dead Aim, Resident Evil Gaiden and Resident Evil: Outbreak (or RE: Online).

Although the game took a decline after the REmake, being unable to compete with other survival horror games such as the Silent Hill franchise, the game has recently re-invented itself with the 4th installment of the series; Resident Evil 4 for the Gamecube and PS2.

There has also been a teaser for the 5th game leaked on the internet, which shows the return of Chris Redfield to the series.
The Resident Evil series is also well known for it's horrific voice acting and corny dialog

Barry: Wow, you are almost a Jill Sandwhich
by JoeSue December 27, 2005
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A very good game wich tests your puzzle solvng skills as well as your will to survive. Although many games have spawned to take the horror throne, there is always a place for Resident Evil. Recently the series lost the zombies, but smart super-human creatures and monsters are a hell of allot tougher to defeat than dumb zombies and semi-smart lickers.

RE will never be bad enough to make some of its fans loose intrest, and the game just keeps getting better and better
"I knew you'd be fine if you landed on your butt."
~Leon, Resident Evil 4

Hunnigan: Ive sent you a playing manual.
Leon: Ill take a look at it, thanks.
Player: He knows he is in a game?
by zeroPSI August 31, 2005
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A great PSone game which is still great to play today. Involves a special unit called the S.T.A.R.S. team being sent to the Racoon forests to investigate what happened to a Bravo team who were investigating a series of bizarre murders (done by zombies). They find a downed helicopter with all the equipment inside, but none of the members. When they search for clues, a certain individual named Joseph Frost finds A SEVERED HAND(!). He then gets chewed to bits by a pretty nasty dog. They then all run for a scary looking mansion (bad move) and hide inside it.

What follows is a 10 year old game (at time of print) still going pretty damn strong. Even though the notoriously bad dialogue is even worse today, and even though some of it isn't as scary, some parts are still very, very creepy. The music in the hall still sends shivers down my spine. And when you discover the first zombie? A classic sequence.

Graphically, Resident Evil is relatively still extremely good. Considerung this game is 10 YEARS OLD, it looks pretty fine.

If you do see an old copy of Resi going for cheap, do not hesitate to pick it up. It is a genuinely brilliant game. It may have lost a lot of the sparkle it had in 1996, it's still has the elements which made it so great in the first place. Even though this game has had several sequels, to my mind, the original PSone game is the best. The claustrophobic, trapped feel of the mansion hasn't really been done again in the whole seires since, as it moved on to bigger, more epic locations.

A great game.
'You go check for clues, Jill. I'll be here examining this (a pool of blood)'

'Barry, thank you for saving my life.'

Classic.

Buy Resident Evil today. Now.
by Antony July 28, 2006
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The first two were quite scary, but more recently, the games have become more on the dull side. Once called an "Resident Evil clone" the series wordSilent Hill/word has pretty much taken the throne of all Horror Games. Resident Evil is still a great game however, even if it doesn't have a high scare factor anymore.
Tyrant is the coolest monster in Resident Evil. Still though, no creature is scarier than Pyramid Head.
by adonkeyisaass March 22, 2004
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Hey when are we gonna go check out that new Resident Evil man?
by Team LX September 18, 2004
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Resident Evil is a game first made in 1996, and spawning over 10 sequels. It involves a group called S.T.A.R.S. that investigates a mansion in the woods, and finds zombies and other creatures, created by a spill of a chemcial called the T-Virus.
Resident Evil is the best game... except for DDR.
by Razor, the DDR Guy October 28, 2003
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A kick-arse video game series (albeit with corny dialogue that's gradually geting less corny each time round), a series of bloody good books by S.D. Perry and two better than average films.
I don't care what anybody else says I think Resident Evil is much better than Tomb Raider.

Jill: Barry!
Barry: What is it?
Jill: Watch out, it's a monster!
Barry: Let me take care of this!

That part always cracks me up
by Robert Bavister July 16, 2005
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