Two months after one horrific night in the Spencer Mansion, the nightmare did not end — it swallowed an entire city. Raccoon City, a quiet industrial town in the American Midwest where the pharmaceutical giant Umbrella was the biggest employer, collapsed into chaos in late September 1998: citizens attacked and ate one another in the streets while the authorities were paralyzed. On the very night the city fell, two young people drove into that hell from opposite directions: Leon S. Kennedy, a rookie police officer reporting for his first day on the job, and Claire Redfield, a college student searching for her brother Chris Redfield, who had gone silent since the mansion incident.

This article retells the story following the 2019 remake — the version that rebuilt the second game from the ground up, keeping the framework of the original released in 1998 on PlayStation while expanding many details: the RPD station became one seamless maze, Mr. X hunts the player relentlessly, and young Sherry Birkin's storyline was deepened into the emotional heart of the game. The Leon and Claire campaigns run in parallel; this article tells their combined route and clearly notes where the remake differs from the 1998 original.

📌 Quick summary: In September 1998, Dr. William Birkin is shot by Umbrella's special forces, injects himself with the G-virus to survive, and smashes vials of the T-virus — sewer rats carry the virus into the water supply and turn Raccoon City into a city of the dead. Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield meet at a gas station, shelter in the RPD station, are hunted by Mr. X, team up with spy Ada Wong and young Sherry Birkin, descend into the NEST laboratory to obtain the DEVIL vaccine for Sherry, defeat the Super Tyrant and the final G form aboard the escape train before dawn.

The fall of a city: rats, sewers and one week of hell

To understand why Raccoon City died, go back one week before the story's main night, down to the secret laboratory codenamed NEST deep beneath the city. There, Dr. William Birkin — one of Umbrella's leading scientists — had just completed the work of his life: the G-virus, a virus that forces the body to evolve continuously, far beyond the T-virus behind the Arklay disaster. But Birkin planned to betray the company: he was secretly negotiating to sell the G-virus to the U.S. military. Umbrella found out and ordered a USS (Umbrella Security Service) team led by HUNK to seize the samples from NEST.

The seizure turned into a massacre. Birkin resisted and was shot and left dying. On the laboratory floor, he did the one thing only a man obsessed with his own work would dare: he injected himself with the G-virus. The virus saved his life but began devouring his humanity. Transformed into a mutating monster, Birkin hunted the USS team through the sewers and killed nearly all of them — and in the chaos, the T-virus vials the team had collected were smashed. Sewer rats fed on the infected debris and carried the pathogen throughout the city's water system. Within days, the water supply of more than a hundred thousand people became a slow poison, and Umbrella — the only party that knew the truth — chose silence over warning them.

By the night of September 29, 1998, Raccoon City was a corpse of a city: burning cars, streets full of the dead. Out on the highway, an exhausted truck driver, eating a burger and listening to a radio show about zombies, ran over a "woman" walking in the road — and when he climbed down to check, she stood up and sank her teeth into his neck. The driverless tanker kept rolling toward the city. That is where Leon and Claire's story begins.

The Mizoil gas station: two strangers meet among the dead

Leon S. Kennedy, 21, is a newly graduated officer assigned to the Raccoon City Police Department (RPD). He should have reported earlier, but the department strangely ordered him to "stay home and wait" — a symptom of the RPD collapsing from within. On the night of September 29, Leon still drove into the city through the rain and stopped at the Mizoil gas station on the outskirts because it was unnaturally silent: an abandoned police car, smashed glass, not a soul in sight. Inside, he saved a sheriff's deputy being mauled by a rotting-faced attacker — but the deputy did not survive, and the dead began converging on the station out of the dark.

At that same station, Claire Redfield had just stopped her motorcycle. Claire is a student and a motorcycle enthusiast who came to Raccoon City for a very personal reason: her brother Chris Redfield, the S.T.A.R.S. member who survived the Spencer Mansion, had been out of contact for weeks after publicly accusing Umbrella and being turned on by the whole city. At the station entrance, Leon and Claire aimed at each other for a split second before realizing both were alive. Together they broke through the horde, jumped into the abandoned police car and raced into the city, hoping the police station was the safe refuge the broadcasts had promised.

That hope faded street by street, with no living soul left to save. Then the runaway tanker from the beginning of the story appeared, heading straight for them, its driver long slumped over the wheel. Leon and Claire leapt out on opposite sides just before the police car was smashed aside and both vehicles erupted into a wall of fire across the road. Through the flames they shouted that both were alive and agreed to meet at the police station. From that moment, the two were split into two parallel campaigns — each about to face a different half of the same conspiracy.

The RPD station and Lieutenant Marvin Branagh

The RPD building was once an art museum converted into a police station: a main hall as wide as a church, a Goddess statue at its center, and countless doors locked with ornate spade, heart, diamond and club keys. When the protagonists arrive, the station is a dying fortress — most of its officers are already dead. In the east wing, players witness the most haunting scene of the opening hours: Officer Elliot Edward, trapped under a shutter, crawling out while his colleagues pull — and torn in half by the zombies inside, right before the protagonist's eyes. Elliot dies, but leaves behind the vital clue: his notebook mentions a secret passage out of the station, opened by the Goddess statue mechanism using three medallions hidden across the building.

The only man still running the situation is Lieutenant Marvin Branagh. Bitten and knowing his time is short, Marvin spends his final hours watching the security cameras, guiding the protagonist and delivering the line that became a series classic: do not hesitate to shoot, even if the one in front of you once wore the same uniform. The RPD's officers had fought for days to protect the civilians who fled into the station — and were losing for a reason none of them knew: their own chief had deliberately sabotaged every defense and evacuation effort. When the passage opens, Marvin refuses to follow: he stays alone in the main hall to await his transformation. In the second character's campaign, Marvin has already turned into a zombie in that same hall — the player is forced to finish off the officer who saved them in the first run.

Inside the station, Leon and Claire also meet once more through a locked chain-link gate after a police helicopter crashes into the second floor, and each discovers creatures far worse than zombies: the Licker, a blind monster that crawls on ceilings and lunges at sound. But the RPD's greatest fear walks on two legs, wears a long coat and a hat — and never runs.

Mr. X: the giant who never stops

While the protagonist is still searching for a way out, an Umbrella helicopter drops a special "package" into the station yard. Out steps a giant over two meters tall, grey-skinned, wearing a long black coat and a wide-brimmed hat to hide his inhuman face: T-00, a Tyrant of the T-103 line — mass-produced humanoid bioweapons. Players know him by the legendary nickname from the 1998 original: Mr. X.

Mr. X's mission in the remake has two parts: silence — kill every survivor in the station, especially officers who could testify against Umbrella — and recover the G-virus sample. Unlike the 1998 original, where Mr. X appeared only in the B scenario, the remake puts him in both campaigns and turns him into a continuous stalking system: he truly patrols the station, hears gunfire and running, and opens doors room by room hunting his prey. Bullets only stagger him or drop him to one knee for a moment; no ordinary weapon in the station can kill him. Most of the time, you do not fight Mr. X — you run from his footsteps through corridors you thought were safe.

The hunt peaks in the holding cells, where Leon meets Ben Bertolucci, a journalist jailed for digging too deeply into Chief Irons' dirty deals. Ben insists Irons takes Umbrella's money and that the corporation is behind the disaster — but before he can hand over proof, Mr. X reaches through the bars and crushes Ben's head in front of Leon. Umbrella's message could not be crueler: no witnesses, no evidence, no one left alive to tell the tale.

Claire's route: Sherry Birkin, the locket and Chief Irons

In her campaign, Claire reaches the underground facility beneath the station and finds a little girl hiding behind crates, trembling because a "monster" is looking for her. She is Sherry Birkin, 12 years old, daughter of William and Annette Birkin. Her parents were so consumed by the laboratory that Sherry grew up nearly alone; when the city fell, she fled through the station by herself, following her mother's instructions, carrying one single possession: the locket Annette gave her for her birthday. Few know that this small locket is the key that opens the chamber holding the DEVIL vaccine and the G-virus samples in NEST's P-4 level laboratory (in the 1998 original this detail was different: a G-virus sample was hidden directly inside the locket).

The man hunting Sherry reveals himself soon after: Chief Brian Irons — the rotten core of Raccoon City. Once investigated for sexual assault allegations as a student but shielded by Umbrella, Irons became the corporation's man inside the RPD: taking bribes to bury investigations into Umbrella, hiding the truth about the Arklay murders, and, when the outbreak began, deliberately paralyzing the defense effort while detaining and tormenting refugees inside his own station. Irons kidnaps Sherry to the city orphanage as a hostage, then phones Claire demanding she bring the locket in exchange for the girl's life — he knows exactly what that key is worth.

Claire storms the orphanage, but in Irons' office she only arrives in time to witness the traitor's "reward": the G creature has implanted a G-embryo in him. Because his genes are incompatible, the embryo develops at terrifying speed and tears Irons' body apart from the inside in front of Claire. Claire escapes with Sherry through a hatch beneath the office, but Mr. X is waiting at the end of the tunnel. In the elevator down to the sewers, the G creature suddenly slashes Mr. X apart with its giant claws — Umbrella's two bioweapons disposing of each other — and Claire and Sherry fall into the sewer system below the city, where Dr. Annette Birkin emerges from the dark and takes Sherry away.

Leon's route: Ada Wong — FBI agent or spy?

In Leon's route, in the pitch-dark parking garage, as a pack of zombie dogs attacks him, a mysterious woman in a long coat and sunglasses appears, shoots them down and turns to leave. She is Ada Wong. Claiming to be an FBI agent sent to investigate the leak, Ada says she is hunting Annette Birkin — the woman she blames for the disaster — and needs Leon's cooperation. The rookie, whose faith in his own department died with Ben, decides to follow her: Ada is the only lead he has.

The way down leads through the gun shop of Robert Kendo — one of the game's quietest tragedies. Kendo aims his gun at Leon and Ada in panic; behind him, his young daughter Emma is infected and slowly turning. Kendo begs them to leave quickly, closes the door, and stays behind with his daughter to do what no father should ever have to do. Deeper in the sewers, the two face a giant mutant alligator — a leftover of experiments flushed straight into the drainage system — before meeting Annette Birkin for the first time. She does not negotiate: Annette fires, and Leon throws himself in front of the bullet meant for Ada.

While Leon lies unconscious, Ada pursues Annette alone and falls into the waste disposal incinerator trap — the steel door slams shut and the countdown begins. Leon, barely awake with an unhealed wound, drags himself through the sewers to free her just in time. Among the wreckage, Ada kisses Leon — a kiss neither of them will ever be sure was calculation or sincerity. Moments later the G creature attacks again; Ada's leg is pierced by a metal shard as she saves Leon, and he must carry on with her deeper, toward NEST.

William Birkin: the father hunting his own daughter

Every tragedy in Resident Evil 2 traces back to one name: William Birkin. Umbrella's young genius, schoolmate and quiet rival of Albert Wesker, Birkin devoted his life to creating a virus superior to the T-virus. Where the T-virus merely turns people into mindless dead, the G-virus promised something far worse: a body that evolves without end, healing itself and mutating to a new stage with every grave injury. The price of that ambition was his family: Annette, his wife and colleague, sank into the laboratory with him, while Sherry grew up in the absence of both parents.

The G-virus also carries a cold reproductive mechanism: a G creature instinctively implants embryos into other human bodies to breed, and an embryo only "accepts" a host closely related by blood to the original gene source. That makes Sherry — William's own daughter — the most perfect host on Earth. The monster therefore does not hunt Sherry out of hatred or hunger: it pursues her by the virus's reproductive instinct, a warped fatherhood that even Annette must admit, in tears, means "that thing is no longer my husband". When Sherry is implanted by her father while separated from her mother in the sewers, the countdown begins: the only way to save her is the DEVIL vaccine deep inside NEST — and the key to its chamber is the locket Annette gave her daughter.

One point players often get wrong: the monster fought across many battles — from the pipe-wielding G1, to the ceiling-smashing claws of G2, to the many-armed, many-eyed G3 — is one and the same William Birkin. Every time he seems defeated, the G-virus forces his body into a new, more distorted stage. In a sense, William Birkin the man died the moment he pulled the trigger on that syringe in the laboratory.

NEST, the DEVIL vaccine and the last train before dawn

From the sewers, both campaigns converge on NEST: the honeycomb laboratory complex directly beneath Raccoon City, with its bioweapon plant greenhouse, security zones gated by electronic wristbands, and a central shaft leading down to an underground escape train. Here the two campaigns split into opposing missions. Claire races to obtain the DEVIL vaccine: she uses Sherry's locket to open the chamber in the P-4 area, while Annette — gravely wounded by her husband in the G3 battle — administers the vaccine to her daughter and dies beside her, finally a true mother in her last moments. Note that DEVIL does not eliminate the G-virus from Sherry's body; it suppresses and halts the transformation — saving her life, but leaving consequences for later entries.

Leon, meanwhile, is steered by Ada into the opposite task: retrieving a G-virus sample from NEST's storage as "evidence" for the FBI. Removing the sample itself triggers the security protocol: the self-destruct countdown begins. On the bridge across the central shaft, Leon confronts Ada with what the dying Annette revealed: Ada is no FBI agent — she is a mercenary spy hired by a rival organization of Umbrella's to steal the G-virus, and Leon was her tool from the start. Ada aims at Leon just as Annette shoots her in the shoulder. The G-virus sample falls into the abyss. Ada slips from the bridge's edge too; Leon catches her hand, but she lets go and falls into the darkness of the collapsing facility. Leon believes she is dead — longtime players of the series know better.

The final minutes are a race down to the escape train. Claire and Sherry reach the train first and hold off the G4 form while the train is lowered onto the rails. Leon, on a separate cargo lift, faces his final enemy: Mr. X is not dead — his coat burned away and his power limiter destroyed, he has mutated into the Super Tyrant, with giant claws and his heart exposed outside his chest, blocking Leon's path on the burning platform. As Leon nearly runs out of ammunition, a rocket launcher is thrown down from the darkness above — Ada is alive, and that is how she repays her debt. Leon destroys the Super Tyrant and leaps onto the moving train. But Birkin has not given up: in his final G5 form — a colossal mass of flesh, teeth, eyes and tentacles — he clambers onto the train from behind, and the second-run character must hold him off long enough to detach the last car and leave it to burn in the exploding NEST behind them.

Dawn, September 30, 1998. The train stops beyond the tunnel. Leon, Claire and Sherry — a cop who lost his station, a girl who has not found her brother, and a child who lost both parents in a single night — walk hand in hand down the highway in the first light of day. Shortly afterward, the U.S. government will be forced to erase Raccoon City from the map entirely with a warhead to contain the outbreak. But for these three survivors, the vow was already spoken on that morning highway: Umbrella will pay.

What happened to the characters

Leon S. Kennedy leaves Raccoon City with Sherry — and is almost immediately "invited to cooperate" by the U.S. government: because Sherry is a precious G-virus carrier who must be protected and monitored, Leon accepts becoming a government agent in exchange for her safety. Claire Redfield parts ways with them to keep searching for Chris — a journey that takes her to Umbrella's headquarters in Paris and to Rockfort Island in Code: Veronica. Sherry Birkin grows up under government surveillance; the G-virus dormant in her body grants her extraordinary regenerative abilities — a central point when she returns as an adult in Resident Evil 6.

Ada Wong survives the supposedly fatal fall and leaves the city with her own agenda. William and Annette Birkin both die in NEST, leaving Sherry an orphan. Marvin Branagh turns into a zombie in the RPD main hall; Brian Irons dies from the very G-embryo implanted in him. Mr. X (T-00) is killed by Leon in Super Tyrant form; and HUNK, the only USS operative to survive the massacre in the sewers, escapes the city alone with a recovered G-virus sample for Umbrella — the corporation, despite losing an entire city, still got what it wanted.

Common misconceptions

Does Sherry's locket contain the G-virus?

In the 1998 original, yes: the locket hid a G-virus sample and was hunted by Ada and Umbrella alike. But in the 2019 remake — the version this article follows — the locket contains no virus: it is Annette's birthday gift to Sherry and doubles as the key that opens the chamber holding the DEVIL vaccine in NEST's P-4 laboratory. This is one of the clearest lore changes between the two versions.

Is Mr. X the same creature as Nemesis?

No. Mr. X is T-00, a T-103 line Tyrant dropped into Raccoon City to silence survivors and recover the G-virus. Nemesis is an entirely different bioweapon — the Nemesis-T line, sent by Umbrella Europe to hunt the surviving S.T.A.R.S. members in Resident Evil 3, which unfolds at almost the same time. Both wear dark clothing, stalk relentlessly and have a final mutated form, so they are easily confused.

Which campaign order is canon — Leon first or Claire first?

The 1998 original used an interlocking A/B scenario system: playing Leon A made Claire B its matching counterpart, and vice versa — so the "correct" order was debated for years, with the community often leaning toward Claire A / Leon B. The 2019 remake dropped that tight interlock: its two runs play in parallel, with overlaps and minor contradictions, and Capcom has never declared one single order absolutely canon. This article therefore tells the combined route.

Did Ada Wong really die at the end of the game?

No. The fall into NEST's central shaft is staged so that Leon — and first-time players — believe Ada died, but she survived, threw Leon the decisive rocket launcher in the Super Tyrant fight, and vanished before the train departed. Near-death escapes followed by traceless disappearances are Ada's trademark across the whole series.

Theories & mysteries

Who does Ada work for? The game only says she was hired by "a rival organization of Umbrella" to steal the G-virus, and later entries hint that the man behind that spy network is connected to Albert Wesker himself. How much of Ada's loyalty belongs to the organization, to the money, or to her feelings for Leon is a question deliberately never answered outright. Will the G-virus inside Sherry ever awaken? DEVIL suppresses rather than erases the virus, and Sherry's healing abilities in later entries prove G remains active at a low level — a detail fans file under Capcom's "loaded guns left on the shelf"; so far it remains fan speculation, not a confirmed event.

A smaller mystery: why was Irons so determined to get the locket? The remake never states it directly — that he knew it was the key to the DEVIL chamber is only implied by his behavior and his position as Umbrella's insider. Likewise, Robert Kendo's ending is told entirely through sound and a closing door: the game never shows what he does about Emma directly, and any more detailed description is player speculation.

The legacy of Resident Evil 2

The 1998 original was one of the best-selling games of the PlayStation era and the entry that turned Resident Evil from a phenomenon into an empire: the two-character, two-campaign structure, Raccoon City and the Leon–Claire duo became the foundation for nearly everything after it. The 2019 remake achieved something rarer: it became the standard every later remake is measured against — rebuilt from scratch in the RE Engine, faithful in spirit yet redesigned in full, with sales of over ten million copies. Mr. X, a side boss of the 1998 B scenario, rose into a horror icon and a precedent for the wave of "unkillable stalker" design in later survival games — a tradition that even modern landmarks like The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II inherited in their own way.

Within this series on Truyện Game, Resident Evil 2 is the piece that follows the Spencer Mansion story of the first game — and the doorway to Raccoon City's final disaster in the third game. See every article in the series on the Resident Evil series page.