City of the Dead
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Author(s):	S. D. Perry
Country of origin:	United States
Publisher:	Pocket Books

Resident Evil: City of The Dead is a novelization of the video game Resident Evil 2 published in 1999 by Stephani D. Perry. It is the third Resident Evil novel written by Perry and the fourth novel in chronological order.

Plot

It follows the scenario Leon A - Claire B, where Claire is pursued by Mr. X and Leon fights William Birkin.

The third novel starts with an introduction of newspaper articles (as in the first two novels) detailing information in the setting. Raccoon City is revealed to be hiring at least ten to fifteen new officers in response to the city's worries about the attacks that plagued it a few months before. The S.T.A.R.S. have disbanded due to Umbrella's influence, and are no longer present in the city. The last article details an attack on a woman by a supposed "drunk" stranger...

On the night of October 3 (Even though the official game storyline starts on September 29), Leon Kennedy, a rookie officer, is due to arrive at Raccoon City that day, but winds up being late, due to over sleeping, and New York traffic. As he heads to the city, he muses over the cannibal attacks, and aspires to solve the attacks shortly after he arrives. Lost in his thoughts, he nearly has an accident as a Cerberus runs in front of his jeep. As he arrives in Raccoon City, he notices that the city is seemingly abandoned. Not knowing why, he sees a flock of crows leave the corpse of a partially devoured woman in the street. After examining the woman, he hears groans behind him, and is surrounded by zombies.

Meanwhile, Claire Redfield is on her way into Raccoon City, looking for her brother, Chris Redfield. She thinks over the lack of contact with Chris, and about the trouble with reaching him, noting that the lines seemed to be dead when calling anyone in Raccoon. Arriving in the city, she notes the city is abandoned as well, and stops at the diner where she and Chris usually meet when she frequently visits him however, the diner is empty. As she's about to leave, she hears a grunt in the corner. The grunt is revealed to be coming from a zombie as it devours a waitress. Claire is about to flee, when she sees that more zombies have assembled outside the front door. As she flees through the back door, she meets Leon. They run to a police car as zombies slowly outnumber them, before speeding down the streets. Unbeknownst to them, a zombie was in the backseat, Leon purposefully crashes the car to keep it from biting Claire. As they recover, they see a truck speeding toward them, both escape by mere seconds before they're separated by the resulting explosion. Leon tells Claire to head to the police station and that they'll meet up later. Both make their way to the RPD.

The book follows pretty close to the game scenario listed above, but almost all of the puzzles and keys needed are ignored entirely, or worked around to save time. The book also explains that Ada Wong has either solved most of the puzzles, or already had the keys beforehand. This in turn also explains how she was able to travel through the areas effortlessly. Ada's relationship with John Clemens is further explained as well.

Differences from Resident Evil 2

The novel uses the non canon Leon A Claire B scenario. This is probably because Leon's name is listed first on the character select menu (since you read left to right in English). However, this is illogical, because it would mean the police car is either European (with a driver's seat on the left), or Leon and Claire switched places right after the crash, as Leon is clearly seen driving the vehicle.

The ending is different - in the game, Claire heads off still looking for Chris. However, in City of the Dead the S.T.A.R.S. Exeter, Maine branch arrive and evacuates the survivors.

Being released before Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, it has some continuity errors with it.

This is the first Resident Evil story to include Marvins' surname, "Branagh." This name is later used in Nemesis as it was the first official game to include his actual name.

Instead of starting with the VP-70 (which Claire picks off of the Deceased Brian Irons), Leon begins with the custom Desert Eagle. This was later referenced by the airsoft manufacturer Tokyo Marui, who included a replica of the custom Desert Eagle with the name "Leon" engraved on the grip in their Biohazard line.

Ada Wong was sent by Trent to retrieve a sample of the G-Virus, rather than by Wesker.

Leon finds the Shotgun in the RPD ammo storage instead of the 3 locations in the game; none of the others including Claire's Grenade Launcher are found or mentioned by the other characters.

When Leon enters the Kendo Gun Shop, the owner is already dead.

HUNK is never mentioned, nor has any role in the story, but his team is only mentioned as "the men in the gas masks" by Annette. This is the only reference of them in the entire book.

Time Line