Resident Evil 2: Story Summary (Spoilers)

Story Summary for Resident Evil 2 (Spoilers)

Resident Evil 2 is part of a trilogy of games that details the origins of the series’ story and lore. Taking place shortly after the first game –which is really a sort of prologue– it marks the beginning of things getting seriously out of control in Raccoon City. If you’re looking for a story summary of Resident Evil 2 and its remake, you’ve arrived at the right place because we’re going to break everything down.

Where Umbrella’s dubious bio-weapon experiments were before isolated to a mansion in the woods, Resident Evil 2 picks up the action as the T and G-virus outbreak is exploding to a full-scale disaster.

Here, we’re going to dive into a story summary of Resident Evil 2 and the fate of its main characters, so expect spoilers. Go play the game first if you haven’t already.

We recommend reading our Resident Evil 2 review if you’re just interested in impressions of the game. Alright, let’s dive into the story summary.

Resident Evil 2 Story Summary – Origins & Police Station

As we mentioned before, the first three Resident Evil games are closely linked to each other.

As we pick up the action in Resident Evil 2’s opening scenes, Leon S. Kennedy, a rookie police officer heading into town for his first day on the job meets Claire Redfield, the sister of S.T.A.R.S member Chris Redfield from Resident Evil.

Pursued by zombies as they head to the city’s police station, the two are separated after a car accident. And so begins the tale of two separate stories within the same game, which players can experience from both Leon and Claire’s side.

Leon’s primary concern is searching for survivors in the police station as he seeks an explanation for what is happening.

He does have a brief encounter with one surviving officer right before he’s taken by zombies, then later stumbles across Lieutenant Marvin, who helps him secure a way out via the station’s basement floor, but ultimately he finds the station void of human life.

Meanwhile, Claire also isn’t having much luck. She doesn’t find her brother, who as it turns out has gone on vacation and isn’t in town. You’d have thought he’d let her know, right?

Both Leon and Claire do bump into each other in one of the police station’s courtyards, but they’re not able to unlock the door to be reunited.

Suddenly, a helicopter that has collided with the station explodes, attracting the attention of several zombies. Once again they go their own separate ways.

Basement and City Streets

Making their way down to the underground areas of the police station, they both encounter a hideous monster with a giant eye protruding from its shoulder but manage to overcome it.

As it turns out, this is William Birkin, a scientist who we later discover has injected himself with the G-Virus. It is here that Leon and Claire’s individual stories branch in different directions.

In the underground car park, Leon meets Ada Wong, an “FBI Agent” who claims to be working on an investigation to blow the lid on the Umbrella Corporation’s bioweapon experiments.

Ada isn’t very forthcoming with information, but Leon pursues her to police station’s cells.

Here, he meets a survivor, who says he’s a whistleblower, locked up because Chief Irons feared he would blow the lid on his nefarious dealings with Umbrella. The survivor is then decapitated by some sort of creature on the other side of the prison wall.

Meanwhile, Claire meets a young girl named Sherry Birkin. She’s William’s daughter, which explains why she refers to the hideous monster with one eye protruding from its shoulder as her father.

After fighting Birkin, they move toward the underground car park and encounter Chief Irons. He isn’t very friendly.

In fact, he forces Sherry to tie Claire up and then makes off with Sherry to a nearby orphanage while Claire is trapped in the carpark.

She does, however, have some sort of pendant that Irons desperately wants. He instructs her to bring the pendant to him, otherwise, Sherry will die.

Soon after, back up in the police station as they each try to find the car park’s card key, Leon and/or Claire (depending on who you’re playing as) encounter the Tyrant, a behemoth creature of incredible strength that seems hellbent on eliminating them.

The Tyrant is unlike other monsters they’ve encountered so far, as it seems to be specifically pursuing them.

As Leon, the Tyrant is temporarily halted by Ada, who crushes it against a wall with a police van before the two make their exit to Raccoon’s city streets.

As for Claire’s story, players briefly take control of Sherry as she tries to escape Irons in the orphanage.

She’s almost successful after burning him with some sort of acid, but then Birkin arrives, infecting Irons with some sort of creature. The action then returns to Claire.

Arriving at the orphanage, Claire bumps into Irons, who promptly dies as something bursts from his chest. She’s then reunited with Sherry and the two make their way out of the orphanage. Unfortunately, the Tyrant then drops in and pursues the two of them.

Luckily for them, just as they’re both cornered in a broken elevator and about to get killed by the Tyrant, Birkin stabs it in the back. He then jumps on the elevator and all three of them tumble down the shaft.

The Sewers

Awaking to a babbling female scientist, Claire meets Sherry’s mother, Annette Birkin, whose fretting about the state of the creature’s evolution. Annette pretty much blows Claire off and then leaves her through a locked door.

Claire then descends into the sewers, where she later sees Sherry speaking to her mother (via a security camera). Sherry collapses and Claire then sets about trying to access the room she’s trapped in.

Meanwhile, Leon and Ada have made their way out of the parking lot, through the streets, and then into a local gunshop.

Here, they meet a father protecting his infected child in a brief cutscene, which ends with the two parties leaving each other to their fates.

Entering the sewers, Leon and Ada move through the sludge, manage to avoid a zombie alligator, and then encounter Annette Birkin, who shoots at them.

With Leon injured, Players then take control of Ada as she pursues Annette in search of the G-Virus, and is in turn, pursued by the pesky Tyrant.

Unfortunately, Annette is one step ahead of Ada, knocking her off a platform where she falls into a disposal room. Ada is then injured, herself, and players retake control of Leon.

Leon makes his through the sewers, where he watches a video recording of a special forces team being chewed up by Birkin.

Making his way toward Ada, he encounters Birkin himself just before reaching her. After being pursued, he knocks Birkin off a platform and is able to reunite with Ada. The two then make their way to a cable car that descends to the Umbrella lab.

Back over with Claire, she discovers that Sherry’s collapse is because she’s infected with one of Birkin’s embryos.

She’s told by Annette that there’s nothing she can do to save her, which Claire isn’t very impressed with. Claire then carries Sherry to the cable car and descends to Umbrella’s lab.

If you’re ready to see how the game ends, go ahead and make your way over to next page, you were warned however!

Story Summary for Resident Evil 2: Umbrella Lab

Resident Evil 2 Story Summary – Leon Ending

In the spooky depth’s of Umbrella’s lab, Leon searches for the G-Virus at the behest of Ada. She wants the virus secured so that they can avoid another disaster in the future. In the hands of anyone else, she claims, the world is at risk from contamination.

Leon makes his way through the lab. On his way through, he watches another video, this time showing Birkin injecting himself with the G-Virus after special forces come to take it away from him.

Believing they have killed him, the special forces report their mistake to some sort of higher authority before leaving the scene.

Annette then discovers William still alive, and can’t believe that he’s injected himself with the virus.

After unlocking the lab’s west side, Leon is pursued by the Tyrant once more. He makes it across to the west side and then finds the G-Virus and removes it from its container, which triggers an area lockdown.

He then bumps into Annette who claims that Ada is actually a mercenary. She threatens to kill him if he doesn’t hand over the virus.

But an even more mutated William Birkin then appears and Leon is forced to battle him one final time. After killing Birkin, Leon finds Annette terminally wounded.

The two part ways after Annette explains that they never meant for the G-Virus to cause such devastation.

Leon then bumps into Ada, who he confronts about being a mercenary. Ada admits her guilt and draws a weapon on Leon demanding the virus.

But before she can get her hands on it, Annette appears, fires a shot at Ada, and knocks the G-Virus off the platform they’re both standing on. Ada also falls, seemingly to her death.

Leon then makes his escape from the lab as it begins to self-destruct. But once again, the Tyrant appears in hot pursuit.

Leon manages to evade the Tyrant but is then forced to fight it on a funicular railway. Leon battles the Tyrant but only manages to kill it after being thrown a missile launcher. As it turns out, Ada isn’t dead after all…

Leon then makes it to the train, which is promptly leaving. He scurries aboard and finds Claire and Sherry. All three make their escape and the game ends.

Claire Ending

When Claire descends to Umbrella’s lab, she takes her to a bed to recover and then goes in search of the “Anti-Viral Agent” cure. She then watches the same video of William Birkin injecting himself with the G-Virus and then bumps into Annette.

Annette explains that she had the chance to kill William but couldn’t pull the trigger, but confesses that she and William were more in love with their work than each other. William then bursts in, injuring Annette, and Claire is forced to fight.

After taking care of William, Claire and Annette return to Sherry, who has awoken after the anti-virus has taken effect. Unfortunately, Annette is terminally injured and dies.

The two then make their escape from the lab and find the escape train, where Claire has brief contact with Leon, who tells her to escape without him.

William then appears again, and Claire battles him as the train and the platform it’s sitting on descend toward the underground track. After seemingly defeating William for last time, Claire and Sherry scramble inside and recover, where they meet Leon.

But, oh uh, there’s a big bump and judder. Claire goes to check it out and discovers Birkin clambering up the rear of the train. A final battle ensues.

William really does die this time, and the three make it out of the underground train tunnel. Emerging in a deserted wilderness, the three then share a lighthearted moment. A lorry approaches and Claire worries that the infection may have spread. As it turns out, though, the lorry driver is very much human, albeit not a very friendly human.

The game ends with Leon vowing that if the infection has spread, they’ll all fight it together.

That does it for our story summary of Resident Evil 2! Be sure to check out our review for our full impressions of the remake.