Gradly

Chris Redfield drives across the African savannah in his humvee towards Kijuju. Kijuju, an area of a “fictional” African country (it’s actually Nigeria) has been sealed off by the army after a massive surge in violence, rioting and the murder of foreign residents. Whilst the BSAA is not sure if it’s a BOW outbreak or just an outburst of nationalist sentiment, they are investigating the situation and have already infilitrated the area. Chris meets up with his new partner Sheva Alomar. Sheva is there to help “smooth over” interactions as the government has recently been replaced after a bloody civil war and the natives still fear any colonial interference by the West.

The two approach the gate to Kijuju and have to bribe a local army officer to get past. They explore the village, taking in the hostile attitudes of the locals and casual violence. As they head towards their contact, a siren sounds and the village clears. After meeting up with Reynard Fisher and obtaining their equipment they head towards the town square to look for any leads on finding an arms dealer called Ricardo Irving. The pair witness the brutal implantation of a Plagas paraiste into a local. They progress to the town square just in time to see Fisher’s execution and are forced to hold out against the Majini hordes. After a BSAA chopper takes out the gate they press on. They fight their way through the town, encountering foreign girl Allyson along the way only to have to put her down when a Plagas parasite explodes from here head. They reach the sewers where Alpha team has been wiped out. The first Uroboros BOW makes itself known to them and they tap it in a furnace.

Moving through a trainyard to a mining office the pair finally encounter Irving, only for him to be rescued by a mysterious masked woman. The two agents search the files Irving left behind and find a flash drive with Jill Valentine’s picture on it. Chris has a minor flashback and upon searching the rest of the files, discovers that Irving is heading towards an oil field. After pitch black caves, roads and cliffsides a truck crashes out of control in front of them. Popokarim, a giant bat BOW, emerges and attacks. After being defeated it flies away and Chris and Sheva are picked up by Josh and another agent in a humvee. After checking in with HQ they are given the order to withdraw from the area due to the scale of the problem. Heading towards the extraction point, they are pursued by motorbikes and trucks. As darkness falls they reach the village, only to learn that the other BSAA team has also been wiped out, this time by an El Gigante. After killing the troll Chris states his intent to disobey HQ’s orders, saying he must find out what happened to Jill. He tries to convince Sheva to leave but she sticks with him. They head off at first light to the refinery on an airboat.

Sheva convinces Chris to tell him how Jill died. Chris and Jill were given a tip on where Ozwell E. Spencer was hiding out, but when they entered they found Wesker standing over Spencer’s body. They immediately opened fire but Wesker easily dodges the bullets and disarms them. After throwing Jill against a bookcase he prepares to dispatch Chris for good, but Jill tackles him and they both fall out the window. Both Wesker and Jill were presumed dead. Chris and Sheva approach a group of islands with seemingly primitive dwellings on them. They are attacked by tribal Majini and even crocodiles in the swamps. They search to find a piece of a crest on each island in order to assemble it and use it to open a gate blocking their boat’s path. They finally arrive at the refinery and meet up with Josh.

After fighting their way through yet another horde and a set of lifts they see Irving on a monitor. Irving tells them they’re about to be blown to bits along with the refinery. Josh radios them to say he’s secured a boat. Chris and Sheva observe Irving leaving on a gunboat, with the mysterious woman heading in a different direction on a speedboat. They fight to the docks and escape in the nick of time with Josh. Next they blast their way through a set of gates and continue into the swamp, before literally running into Irving’s gunboat. They board it and confront Irving. Irving has a small flashback of his own to the refinery where the mystery woman demands to know how he will deal with the pursuing BSAA. Irving laughs it off but when the woman threatens him he agrees he will do something about it.

Irving injects himself with something and mutates into a hideous sea monster. In his death throes he is interrogated by Chris. Chris threatens to shoot Irving but Sheva restrains him. Realising who Chris is, Irving directs Chris to a cave, delighted to be the one who will cause Chris such emotional torment when he catches up with his former compatriot. Meanwhile Excella is injecting Wesker with a syringe marked PG67A/W. She makes it clear her desire to rule Wesker’s new world at his side. Wesker brushes her off. The mystery woman enters and informs them the BSAA are approaching. She leaves with Excella, and Wesker has a small flashback to his confrontation with Spencer. Back with Sheva and Chris, they are making their way through a complicated ziggurat that has steps that can be raised and lowered. Popkarim returns for one last battle before they leave. After dodging a bunch of lasers and then solving a puzzle involving refracting laser beams the pair come across a crop of brightly coloured flowers growing underground. Chris spies the Umbrella logo and some Tricell equipment. An AK74 can be found here as well as a bunch of lab animals in cages. Unfortunately something else is hiding in the darkness. Lickers. Dozens of them. And they are incredibly tough taking three grenades to be put down. They also have an instant kill move where they leap on top of you. If you do not shake them off in time, they tear your throat out. However you can circumnavigate some as they are still blind, although for some reason they dissolve like Ganados when they die. Inside a lab area they find the flowers in tanks, with some sort of substance being extacted from them. In the next room is a giant lift filled with hundreds of people in incubation tanks.

Chris calls up Jill’s name on the computer and activates the lift. Halfway down an alert sounds and the lift stops. U8 appears, a gigantic crab-like BOW. During this battle it showers you in its offspring. After begin shoved off the side the lift continues down to Jill’s pod. The pod opens up to reveal… nothing. It’s empty. A woman appears on the monitor. Sheva recognises her as Excella Gionne, head of Tricell’s West African branch. As a member of an NGO composed of pharamceutical companies against the proliferation of BOWs, Tricell was able to influence the BSAA’s leadership to make them order the withdrawl. It was also Excella who sent U8 after them. She claims to know nothing of Jill and advises they leave if they want to live. They don’t.

Going down another elevator they accidentally pick up some comm chatter from Excella asking Wesker how he’s holding up. At the bottom they are confronted with Plagas infected soldiers, armed with AKs and flash grenades. Unlike the Majini at the beginning, they do not pause for a while before attacking. They empty their entire clip into you. This marks the beginning of cover becoming prevalent throughout the levels. The pair enter a waste disposal facility that incinerates scrap and in some cases dead bodies from failed experiments. Here you can find the SIG556. Next they find themselves in the area from the trailer with the pipes marked Uroboros and the aerosol missiles. They also encounter their first Mantis, a chimera-like BOW that can discharge poison from its body and also has its own instant-kill move, where it holds you with its uper set of pincers and jabs its lower set deep into your torso.

Finally they catch up with Excella in a testing chamber, except she’s in the control room above and the test subject is in the room below with Chris and Sheva. Chris asks where Jill is and Sheva demands to know if they’re going to sell Uroboros to terrorists. Excella says that it is simlar to other BOWs created by the Progenitor virus like the leechman but it won’t be sold, it’ll be used for evolution. As the test subject rises Excella says that those who have worthy DNA will be transformed into a superior race. Uroboros tentacles suddenly explode out of the subject and Excella remarks that he wasn’t worthy. In thiss boss fight a flamethrower is dispensed from a wall. It decimates the Uroboros, but when it runs out of fuel the flamethrower must be replaced so its tanks can be filled. After killing it we come to another industrial area filled with soldiers. You can pick up the PSG1 here. You go round in a circle eventually returning to the huge lift shaft where you fought U8. You set it rotating, all the while dodging the Majini shooting at you from on high.

This brings you to some more ruins, filled with more lickers. In this part Sheva goes it alone whilst Chris covers her with a sniper rifle. Finally you reach Excella. Chris and Sheva point their guns at her and order her to halt. Excella remains unfazed and out of nowhere appears the cloaked woman. She attacks them both but Chris manages to shoot off her mask. She backflips across the room as Wesker makes his entrance, confirming to Chris that he’s still alive and meeting Sheva for the first time. He pulls down the mystery woman’s hood to reveal a blonde Jill Valentine. Chris tries to talk to her but she attacks him. Sheva manages to get a clear shot at her head but Wesker super-charges across the room sending her flying. He remarks he only has seven minutes of free time as they gear up to fight. In this boss battle Wesker and Jill wipe the floor with you, with Wesker dodging everything from knife swings to grenades. Sheva and Chris decide they need a new strategy: hide. They flee into small maze with Wesker and Jill stalking them. Jill carries dual machine pistols but if you kill her you get the “Your partner has died” screen. You can find a Desert Eagle here which improves your odds. After seven minutes have elapsed Wesker moves to leave and receives a call on his PDA. Using this distraction Chris and Sheva draw teir guns on him, but once again Jill appears and disarms them, pinning Chris to the ground. Chris begs her to listen to him and for a moment he reaches her. Wesker remarks how amazing it is that someone at that stage can still resist. He activates his PDA causing Jill to convulse. She rips open her top to reveal an electronic device implanted on her chest. This marks the beginning of the next boss battle where you must first snipe the device on her chest, avoiding hitting a very aggressive cat-like Jill, and then use non-lethal attacks to stun her. Then one of you holds her down whilst the other tries to rip the device off. This also must be the first boss battle in history to have a “press X to reason with her” attack.

They finally succeed in removing the device. Jill recovers, saying her ordeal was like having her mind intact and aware but not being able to control her body. Chris doesn’t want to leave her after just getting her back, but she pleads with him saying he’s the only one who can stop Wesker destroying the world. After all, “don’t you trust your partner”? Chris and Sheva leave and spot Wesker and Excella boarding a cargo ship. Chris and Sheva climb up onto the deck and battle through infected dogs, Majini with grenade launchers and a new type of Plagas Majini that has its head protected by a natural shell, forcing you to target the parasite poking out its side. They find Excella, but she runs off carrying two briefcases. They open fire causing her to drop one. She seals the door behind her as Sheva picks up the PG67A/W syringes that spilled out te briefcase. The alarm is activated and Majini armed with sniper rifles and even a minigun appear. After picking up a keycard they next encounter Majini armed with RPGs. They use the keycard to activate a lift and go down, all the while being observed by Wesker on camera.

Wesker has a flashback to the Spencer Estate. Spencer is talking about how a Progenitor virus experiment created some super-humans called the “Wesker children”. Even though only one survived it was a great success. Wesker asks if this means he was manufactured instead of born. Spencer says he was meant to become the God of this new race, but all was lost with Raccoon City. He is dying of old age, and he stuggles to his feet from his wheelchair so he can look Wesker in the eye. Wesker states that the right to be a God is now his, and punches through Spencer’s chest, dismissing him as an arrogant old man with no right to Godhood. In the present Wesker remarks that with Uroboros, he now has the right and the means to become a God.

Chris and Sheva come across a huge pile of Majini on the top deck of the ship. Excella is also there stumbling in pain, clearly dealing with the effects of a virus. Wesker betrayed her and taunts the group over the intercom system. He says Uroboros rejected Excella and she isn’t worthy. Uroboros tentacle shoot out of Excella’s body, abosorbing the huge pile of bodies next to her, creating a gigantic BOW. Chris and Sheva flee back inside the ship in an extended QTE. The Uroboros creature is tearing the ship apart with its tentacles. Chris and Sheva arrive at the ship’s bridge and find a file on a satellite laser weapon. Conveniently, the laser designator is located on top of the ship. The creature is no match for the laser and is blasted apart. Going back inside the ship the two see an assault bomber and Wesker on the CCTV monitors. Sheva remarks that no country will shoot the bomber down as it crashing would cause a viral outbreak. Chris gets a call on his PDA from Jill. She tells them that Wesker’s strength comes from a virus, but it’s unstable. He needs regular injections of PG67A/W like the one Excella gave him. However it must also be a precise amount, too much would be like poision. Sheva still has the syringes she took from Excella’s briefcase.

A loudspeaker announces a fire in the engineroom and seals it off. Chris and Sheva make their way though unlocking the bulheads, battling the remaining Majini soldiers and some Mantis. At the end two minigun majini and a whole group equipped with stun rods attack you. Finally you reach Wesker in the hangar. They confront him but Wesker throws his sunglasses at Chris who catches them, only to find Wesker standing over him. He disarms Chris and retrieves his shades. Chris says he won’t stop fighting against BOWs until he’s dead. Wesker retorts that he’ll just have to kill him quickly then. After some somersaults Wesker throws Chris and Sheva over the railing next to the plane. He leaps over to join them and the next boss battle begins. You have to stun Wesker enough so you can inject him with the syringe. Wesker is still adept at wiping the floor with you. He can even catch an RPG in his hands and pick up one of the plane’s giant missiles and throw it at you. During the fight Wesker says that the world is overpopulated, only a handful of people truly matter and the rest are chaff. People’s superior DNA will mark the out for survival. Once you inject him Wesker is racked with pain and his vision blurs. He retreats and leaps onto the plane. Chris chases after the jet as it launches from the cargo ship deck. He outpaces Sheva but she manages to get on just in time.

Wesker is still feeling the effects of the virus and is going into overdrive mode. He says that in five minutes they will reach the optimum altitude to fire the missiles and release Uroboros into the atmosphere leading to complete global saturation. In a big QTE fight Wesker charges at Chris and Sheva who dodge. Wesker shoots at Sheva to his side whilst dodgin Chris’s fire. Sheva hides behind a metal support as Wesker puts his gun to Chris’s head. Wesker jumps onto the ceiling but Chris manages to shoot him. Wesker kicks him away as Sheva attacks with her knife. Wesker blocks it… with his arm. he starts to choke Sheva but she flips him over. Chris grabs him in a hold and stabs him with another syringe, exclaiming “I’ve had enough of your bullshit. You’re just another one of Umbrella’s leftovers.” Chris goes for the override lever whilst Sheva covers him. Wesker leaps over her and punches at Chris, just missing him as he pulls the lever. The bomber’s loading ramp opens and the plane depressurises. All three try to not get sucked out. Sheva is holding onto a support near the ramp with Wesker holding onto her boot. Chris looks back at them and has a flashback of losing his previous partner. Just as Sheva loses her grip, Chris lets go, catches her and grips another support. Wesker says he’s taking the two of them with him. Sheva replies “Like hell you are.” and draws her pistol and shoots him in the head at point blank range. Wesker falls out of the plane as it crash lands into an active volcano.

Chris and Sheva are sitting on the side of the crater catching their breath when a shirtless Wesker appears. He punches into the downed bomber’s Uroboros tanks and the telltale tentacles wrap themselves round his arms, holding pieces of the bomber’s fuselage like a Tyrant’s arm-blades. Chris and Sheva fallback and get separated as the volcano’s rocky ridges collapse. Wesker goes after Chris. Chris and Sheva cover each other until they’re able to meet back up. Sustained fire causes Wesker’s heart to be exposed. After launching round after round into Wesker the rock benath him collapses and he falls into the lava. A chopper piloted by Josh turns up with Jill there to throw out a ropeladder. Chris sends Sheva up first as the remaining rock begins to sink into the lava. He jumps onto the ropeladder just in time. Wesker surfaces from the lava screaming Chris’s name. He shoots his tentacle up and wraps it round the helicopter’s skid. Jill directs Chris and Sheva to use two RPGs conveniently on board the helicopter.

Chris: “Ready partner?”
Sheva: “Locked and loaded.”
Chris: “Suck on this, Wesker!”
Sheva: “Your time’s up you son of a bitch!”

As the chopper heads into the sunset, Chris thinks back to the question he asked himself in the intro: was it all worth fighting for? Looking at Jill and Sheva, he decides yes, it was.