TheR2View: FREAKIN’ JILL SANDWHICH!

WARNING! CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR RESIDENT EVIL 1, UMBRELLA CHRONICLES, AND POTENTIALLY THE WHOLE RE SERIES!

A little bit of backstory before I get too far into this…..

I NEVER PLAYED RESIDENT EVIL, RESIDENT EVIL DIRECTOR’S CUT, OR RESIDENT EVIL REMAKE! I’ve only played Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles and RE5. And like 20 seconds of 4.

So when I picked up Resident Evil Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy by S.D. Perry I didn’t really know what to expect.

I mean it’s a book based off of a game….you read any of those? They’re weird let me tell ya…..

So there is a RE0 Novel that takes place first, but I know even less about that then RE1 so I passed it over.

Anyways basic summery, there has been numerous murders around the edge of Raccoon City. Irons (the mayor….I guess he’s important in 2 which I also haven’t played) brings in STARS to investigate. BRAVO team is sent in first but their helicopter crashes almost instantly. Then ALPHA team (No…not the LEGO guys) heads out to rescue them. Unfortunately all they find is the crashed Helicopter, Zombie Dogs, and a freaky mansion.

After the pilot does the only sensible thing and runs like mad, with the helicopter, the rest of the team is left to fend for themselves in the supposedly abandoned mansion. Without Ghost Capturing Vacuums. Go figure, they’re fighting Zombies not ghosts. After being split up they start to uncover what is going on and SPOILER ALERT, Captain Albert Wesker, their leader, is partially behind it all. Umbrella being behind him.

Well they kill some zombies, rescue the only BRAVO survivor, blow up a super monster, zombie, thing….I guess?.....and then escape. THE END….or is it?

Yeah it is.

So compared to the games, it basically follows the same plot.

It has some differences but those are all good changes for the book. They also add a few things. Like scenes before ALPHA hit the field, Irons, and some guy named Trent who is a novel exclusive.

I don’t know, he didn’t really do anything except pull some strings from behind the scenes.

I also like how the book jumps back and forth between Jill, Chris, and Barry. Sometimes Barry is replaced with a Wesker section, and sometimes Chris is replaced with a Rebecca section, but that’s okay. Heck even Brad gets a section and he hardly does anything.

Heck, Barry wasn’t even in Umbrella Chronicles so this was my first introduction to him. And I have to say, he just became my favorite.

The book also takes most of its plot from the ORIGINAL RESIDENT EVIL, but keeps it serious. It doesn’t seem goofy to me what so ever.

The Book isn’t all good though; there are some serious flaws as well as some minor ones.

Starting with the minor ones, I’m left guessing what the creatures are called. I mean I got Zombies, crows, snakes, Big Snake, one dead Spider, green reptile man thing, and zombie monkeys that I don’t remember being in Umbrella Chronicles. I mean in the Wesker sections, he actually calls them by their technical term, but I don’t know, I’d rather get a name, or a better description. The zombie dogs are pretty well described, but as far as the big snake, he could just be a big snake, not even a monster snake. The Shark might even just be a regular Shark.

Also my former favorite Richard Aikens dies off screen….er page…..whatever. Rebecca and Chris find him already dead. It was a bit disappointing for me as Umbrella Chronicles made him kind of cool….ish….not really. But he was my favorite, so I at least wanted him to do something before he died. Like in the games…..

I also have a problem with Chris and Rebecca. While Chris is sorta potrayed as the main character in the games and is awesome in some instances, he’s potrayed kinda….pathetic in the book. Almost every time him and Rebecca (who stick together pretty much the whole time, which was actually okay) trigger a trap or get attacked, it’s Rebecca to the rescue. Chris fights the snake, he gets defeated, Rebecca rescues him. Chris finds a diary of one of the researchers getting a hint on what is happening, Rebecca finds the actual data. Chris goes looking for clues, Rebecca finds them. Chris shoots at things, Rebecca….well okay, Chris actually does most of the zombie killing but everything important Rebecca does. Also Rebecca is a freaking Mary Sue. She never screws up, she never gets hurt, and she solves almost all the puzzles by ‘accident’. AND SHE’S THE YOUNGEST MEMBER OF THE TEAM! Everyone is worried she’s incompetent but she does more work than Chris does.

Okay onto some major problems.

Remember me saying Wesker is evil? No surprise there right?

No really, in the book it wasn’t a surprise at all. Ignoring the fact that the book mentions he was just put in charge of the team a couple months back, and that he mysteriously disappears, the book FLAT OUT TELLS YOU! Like right after they get to the mansion. He disappears on Barry and Jill and then BAM, he gets his own section where he FLAT OUT TELLS THE READER WHAT IS GOING ON! So much for suspense. Heck the Enrico warning Jill and Barry about the traitor?

Pointless…we already know who the heck it is.

Freaking Wesker.

Also I didn’t feel any impending doom for any of the characters. Only when Jill was trapped in the room with the roof coming down. And that lasted like…one or two pages. I’d feel bad for Barry’s family as he’s getting blackmailed by Wesker, but during Wesker’s big reveal to the reader we already learned he made it up. Anytime Chris and Rebecca aren’t running and avoiding danger, Rebecca is Mary Sueing them through everything. Jill is the only one who really is in any danger, except she isn’t. She just never gets hurt.

HECK CHRIS FREAKING SPARTAN KICKS THE SHARK AND THEN DRAINS THE WATER!

Okay briefly Chris was in danger (while Rebecca made a super poison to insta kill the Plant monster) while fighting the shark, but he gets away so quickly, and kicks it in the nose, that it’s not that big of deal.

The book is supposed to be a zombie survivor. I’m supposed to be worried about the characters chance of survival. Doesn’t happen.

It’s not that the author didn’t make me like the characters (save Rebecca who was boring as heck), on the contrary, they give backstory, motivation, and personality to all the characters. Even stone faced Wesker. I just never felt the heroes were in any immediate danger.

Complaining aside the book did what Jurassic Park 2 did wrong, it made the characters believable and you cared about them…..you just didn’t need to worry.

Heck they even ended with the canon ending that doesn’t happen in the games!

Overall I’d have to say Resident Evil Fans may be a bit disappointed, but it isn’t bad by any reason. In fact I quite enjoyed it. Sort of makes me want to play the game.

I’d have to say Perry may not have gotten Resident Evil Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy perfect, but there is still hope for the rest of the books in the series.

And hey, at least there isn’t any freaking Alice!

I give the book a 7/10, not perfect, but good enough to pass by.