Headscratchers: Resident Evil
Dangerous Cannibals? Let's Split Up!
- Hey Alpha Team! We just found the wrecked and completely abandoned chopper of Bravo Team, the ones we've been searching for since dusk today, and in this chopper we found the mangled and mutilated corpse of their pilot. Lets wander around in the woods in complete darkness for hours instead of heading back to the city and telling the commissioner that one of their members has died horribly and the investigation will probably need federal help. For that matter, why did Alpha team decide to begin this operation so late in the day?
- They weren't wandering around for hours. They were on the ground for a few minutes, maybe, before their helicopter pilot freaked the hell out and left when they were attacked by killer mutant dogs.
- There was an obvious transition of time between Joseph finding Kevin in the helicopter and subsequently getting mauled to death, which shows they were on the ground longer than just a few minutes. Even then it doesn't really matter how long they were walking around after they found him, only that they didn't immediately drop everything they were doing and call back to the city for help.
- While we're on this; Hey Bravo team! Our helicopter is wrecked and we're stranded in the middle of the woods. Let's completely abandon our mission and search around for a war criminal who has killed his military escort single (and possibly bare) handedly and is probably much, much better trained than us. Even though this whole thing is probably way out of our jurisdiction. While we're at it, let's all split up so its guaranteed that should one of us encounter him, they'll be outclassed in every single way and probably get killed horribly. All in complete darkness!
- The splitting up is stupid, but an escaped prisoner who (they think) has committed multiple murders couldn't be more within their jurisdiction. They are basically the Raccoon city SWAT team, they don't have the luxury of saying "Whoa, this guy's dangerous, we should leave him to his own devices."
- Could this all be possibly be connected to the fact that Alpha team was being led by the same man who was planning to lead them into the zombie-infested mansion so he could get some test data on the bioweapons he helped develop, with the main goal of betraying Umbrella and selling the data to competitors? Basically, the answer is Wesker. Why did they go so late in the day? Wesker told them that leaving Bravo team out there another night wasn't an option. Why didn't they leave when they found the chopper pilot? Wesker told them to keep searching for Bravo team, and the rest of the team didn't feel like abandoning their comrades. As for why Bravo team abandoned their mission to track down Billy, they knew he was in the area while they didn't know where the cannibals they were hunting were, and they could have effectively found the latter while looking for the former. As for splitting up, my hunch is that they were supposed to stay somewhat close to one Bravo team member, they were armed and weren't expecting to be mauled by zombie dogs, and no one they were after had guns as far as they know. Splitting up meant they could cover more ground, and they intended to stick close enough so they could be within sprinting distance of each other (which is why Edward or whoever that Bravo team guy was fell into the train). Not perfect, but this is Resident Evil after all.
- While I believe what the above troper said about Alpha Team, I still think Bravo team splitting up was a stupid idea. What I'm talking about is less about how they decided to split up, but why. They knew that there was a group of around 10 or so cannibalistic people in the forest along with an armed and extremely dangerous convict, and they knew that should something go wrong they would have absolutely no way out of the forest beyond just running around and getting lost. Splitting up would also inevitably lead to everybody losing one another and possibly getting killed, WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS. The whole 'stay somewhat close to one another' theory is equally as bad. We know for a fact that Bravo team is the least experienced out of the two teams (hell, one of their members is a freaking chemist), so unless they kept in constant radio contact with one another, which is something only Enrico seems to be actively trying to do, they would inevitably lose one another and, you guessed it, get lost in the woods.
- This leads back to a whole bunch of other stuff that doesn't make much sense; What the hell was Bravo Team's plan exactly? Wander around the woods for a while or just comb the woods with a search light until they find the cannibals? If so, why did they arm up so heavily? Why did only 3 people out of the six man team seem to have radios? WHY DID THEY SPLIT UP? Why did they send the combat medic (who's apparently the most inexperienced out of the team) to wander away on her own instead of staying with somebody just in case they got hurt? Why was it that only one person in the entire team seems to be trying to keep radio contact with the rest of the group? How the hell did Wesker convince the team that it was necessary to bring a grenade launcher into a densely wooded area to use against a group of ordinary (cannibalism aside) people?
- Given how news in the town (the Scrapbook file says as much) reported that there were rampant animal attacks in the Arklay forest, it paid to be prepared, hence the heavy artillery. Bravo Team's plan was to go to the house in question (or fly and do reconnaissance or something) and put an end to the cannibals; but the plane was sabotaged: Hence the crash. They split up, because having a group of six armed men would've risked a faulty misfire and one of their own getting hurt. Rebecca was sent away to scout; and it wasn't like they were expecting to get eaten alive by undead killer dogs. Enrico may have been just barking orders and the others probably not talking back. That, or if I had to guess, Combat High: too freaked out by what they saw to respond to their leader.
- The novelizations of Resident Evil note that the S.T.A.R.S. are an anti-terrorist/anti-drug task force specifically trained to operate alone, rather than with partners as most police forces do. And it should be noted that under the circumstances, neither team did too badly: Alpha's only canon casualties were Joseph Frost (killed in the initial ambush) and Wesker. Bravo fared worse, but the team members who die early were the pilot and the chemist (who likely had less training than the others) and the sharpshooter (who was killed by a few hundred crows — not a good situation for a marksman to be in). Then there's Richard Aiken, who actually stuck with Rebecca until a giant snake ate him, and Enrico Marini, who was taken out by Wesker's treachery.
- It probably doesn't make a bit of difference and it doesn't make the situation any less confusing, but....as of Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Richard has also been someone who seems to be making an effort to stay in contact with Rebecca as well.
What's that moaning noise up there? Oh well, it's probably nothing.
- In Resident Evil, why do Chris/Jill/Barry not notice the zombie(s) on the balcony above the dining room when they are in the dining room? Yes, I know the real answer is probably due to not wanting to give away that there were zombies up there and likely technological reasons as well, but still...
- Well, they probably couldn't see the zombies because 1) people don't look up a lot, and as I recall it was pretty dark up there, and 2) They don't spend a lot of time in the hall (Except for Barry, who is too focused on investigating the blood). The zombies probably couldn't see them either, which was why they were just standing around idly instead of shuffling around and making noise.
The Spencer Mansion? Nah, couldn't be!
- Probably the stupid question of the hour, but how is it nobody in S.T.A.R.S. is aware of where they are the moment they enter the mansion? Notes found in RE 2 and 3 indicate the presence of the Spencer estate in the woods is common knowledge in Raccoon City. Why is it when they enter the mansion, nobody goes "Hmmmm....big ass mansion...Ah! I know exactly where we are now!"
- The Bravo team might have known but were all too busy dying to care. The Alpha Team, however, has at least one member who is out of touch with the events of the city. Mr. Redfield didn't know what Umbrella was, after all. Also, Wesker might have been giving them fake coordinates. "No, we're not in Arklay forest. We're in the OTHER forest on the outskirts of Raccoon City!"
- Likely they knew very well where they were, for all the good it did them. They're in a big ass mansion, surrounded by zombie dogs, in the middle of an apparently vast forest. Why would it impact that situation that they knew where they were?
- OP here: In the long run, it probably wouldn't have affected anything, I just think it's weird everyone's going "where the hell are we?" when they should know precisely where they are.
- As far as I know, all references to the mansion in RE2 and 3 are specifically regarding the mansion incident. The mansion was certainly common knowledge in the city after the S.T.A.R.S. survivors reported the incident, but there's no indication that it was well-known before.
- The infamous Keeper's Diary mentions a monster in one of it's pages that I'm certain does not appear in the actual game - I think it's described as being like a gorilla with no skin or something along those lines? So which monster is this meant to be? I vaguely sounds like one of the Lickers, but could it be one of the ape-based RE 0 monsters? It just doesn't sound like anything that appears in the game.
- I assumed that referred to the Hunters. They walk with a hunched over gait and long arms, so I gathered they were meant to look more primate-like in an earlier build.
- It's the Eliminators from Resident Evil 0.
- No it's not. It may seem like it is, but RE 0 wasn't created at the time of this game, let alone the eliminators were even conceptualized. It's most likely a reference to the hunters. Remember, what a guy describes may not be one for one.
Use of the mansion
- Did Umbrella staff make of the mansion itself for offices and such? You find offices that look like they've been used, but everything also looks long abandoned even though the outbreak happened recently.