Resident Evil Archives: Umbrella's Virus Uncovered by Bradygames (2005, Paperback)

This book is a fantastic companion to the Resident Evil series, it covers RE:Zero, RE1[remake], RE2, RE3 & RE:Code Veronica. It is great to remind avid fans of games from older days but also a nice idea for those who missed out on the earlier editions but want to know how things began.

The book starts by covering the storylines for each game, relayig events as they occur in the game & also showing interrelationships with other games & characters.
Then there are pages dedicated to each character in turn, this includes the playable & supporting characters so you get a good insight into some of those survivors (temporary as that may be) whom you don't get to know much about whilst playing. There are also some lovely pieces of concept art & designs which were unused for several characters.
A section dedicated to creatures of the featured games is a fascinating read which also shows the different styles of monsters which appeared in more than one title.

One of my favorite parts of the book is the concept art section- there are some wonderful sketches of our heroes in different outfits, drawn & CG models of settings, monster development plans. So much to look at. Hidden here are some unseen works for ideas which never made the final cut. Capcom certainly have some creative workers!

The other stand-out part of this book to me is found towards the final pages- the files section. When playing the games the first time you find it imperative to read every note & scrap of paper you find, paying careful attention to detail. However as time goes on you don't want to read everything again & often that paperwork you once memorized so well to ensure you didn't miss anything important begin to fade from memory. What did that diary say again?
This book gives you a hard copy of just about every key file you will find in each of these games, so you can refresh your memory & feel the nostalgia flowing back as you read them at your leasiure- a truly wonderful feature.

Overall this book is a wonderful item for fans of the game series, a pure must-have for infected devotees!

I'm a big fan of Resident Evil and with how helpful it is, I recommend it for anyone who has played the games. What I like about it is that it reviews the games, one through Code Veronica X, in order. It doesn't give away the whole game, it just provides an overview of what happens, but still leaves a few things unanswered, so you still can play the games and not know everything that will happen. It has a complete discription of all the items, enemies, and main characters, as well as a chart that shows interrelationships between all the different characters. It includes different scenes throughout the book of each game, so when it talks about a specific part of the game you can look at the photos to get a visual image.

Now what I don't like about the book is that because it was made over in Japan (I believe), and translated into english, there are a few grammer and spelling mistakes in it and I've also noticed sentences being repeated right in arow. All of these do not stop the book from being very good, but it gets slightly confusing at times to figure out the word or sentence structure that the book intends to have.

This book is a must have if anyone is a die hard Resident Evil fan.

very in depth coverage of resident evils 0 through code veronica, a MUST have for any die hard resident evil fan, my only complaints would be that it doesn't cover 4 or 5, but still a great item.

Love the book. If you are a Resident Evil Fan, then this is a must have item. The dislike i have for it is that it doesn't cover Resident Evil 4 or the Umbrella Chronicles, but that is because they released the games way after the book was published.

A great book. Lots of background stuff on RE series and good artwork. Very detailed its worth the price if you're a devoted fan of RE like me.