The novelisation of the original RE3 also showed what could have been. It has a lot more detail about the early stages of the outbreak, how Jill managed to get a number of civilians into a secure building, only for them all to get killed when it was overrun and her nearly giving up hope. Now that would have been interesting to see. In fact all 7 of those S.D Perry books are far better than you'd expect, and more faithful than any of the films.
I've been curious about those S.D. Perry books, but reading books about Resident Evil might be too nerdy, even for me.
What I'd really love to read are the Japan only light novels although looking at the illustrations online have spoiled plot points.
I love S.D Perry's novels, even with the early installment weirdness in the retellings of the first two games and her unhealthy fixation on Rebecca Chambers aside, they're still better than the movie and also a really interesting look into the Resident Evil fandom back in the pre-RE4 days since a lot of the hardcore RE fans in the 90's and very early 2000's either considered her books partially canon or used it as a source for their own fanon.
Pre-RE4 Resident Evil fandom and hell, even pre-2002 RE fandom was one hell of a different beast than it is now.
Because you didn't have the movies or the Action Era games and because a lot of the older canonical supplementary material was less widely known, there were a lot of unique quirks that were lost to time.
It is interesting how the series has gone through these phases, we have the original 1996-2000 phase or from the original game through Code Veronica (or Survivor maybe), that was when the series was cool as hell but also very cheesy, with a strong B movie vibe.
I came onboard with REmake, which that era was from 2002-2005, namely REmake, RE0 and the two Outbreak games (as well as Dead Aim I guess), this is when the production values were greatly heightened but still pretty cheesy, but now in a 2000s way instead of a 90s way.
This in my opinion was the series at it's peak or at least my personal favorite era, it's sad how short lived it was though, only 3 years, I really wish we could have gotten a third game in REmake/RE0's style, but then RE4 ushered in a new era just as this era was closing with Outbreak releasing a few months after 4.
One issue with that era was the movies though, I liked the first one ok but HATED the second one and never bothered to watch the others, the movies were all pretty dumb, but they got the name "Resident Evil" out there in the culture in a way that it wouldn't have otherwise and is probably a big reason why the franchise is as big as it is.
Then of course we have the action era starting with RE4 and lasting until RE6 where they started to take their cues from the movie and just blah, the period of time from 2013-2016 where the only worthwhile game was Revelations 2 and then finally the big comeback starting 5 years ago with RE7, which has been wonderful to see, hopefully we can see more classic series that ran out of gas have redemption arcs.
Fun little power level for you all, I distinctly remember on a Florida vacation to meet family in 2002, just after I had played REmake, talking to my aunt's 20 something Hispanic then boyfriend about the game and him telling me all about the other games and monsters like Lickers, as well as telling me about the movie which he said was "tight" because of scenes like Jovovich kicking a zombie dog, good times, good times...
I wonder if this guy, whoever he was or wherever he is now, was thrilled by the casting of Leon in the Welcome to Raccoon City movie? Anyway, it's cool that 20 years later Resident Evil is still this big franchise.
No joke, quite a few people thought that Devil May Cry 1 and Dino Crisis were somehow canon in the Resident Evil universe in some way.
I remember when I was in school, some of my friends thought that Wesker and his HCF goons were in league with Satan and that's why Wesker came back from the dead in Code Veronica and some even thought that Devil May Cry's demo being included in Code Veronica X was part of the evidence.
At first, I chalked this up to the fact we were in grade school and the fact that kids tend to come up with wild and dumb theories like that but apparently it was enough of a widespread rumor that guys like Thomas Wilde mentioned it in his Plot Analysis guide and how he was sick of trying to explain in-depth why DMC and RE aren't in the same universe and that Wesker's virus had no demonic origins.
I can see that making sense with regards to DMC and Dino Crisis.
I can't imagine what goofy fun online fandom in the late 90s and early 2000s must have been like.
