Resident Evil 5: Dead and Buried?

Okay, this may actually kinda sorta qualify as a SPOILER, but not really. I mean, we all know this, if you watched all the trailers of Resident Evil 5.

Jill Valentine is DEAD. In case you missed it, this was first revealed in a trailer (TGS2008, I think) which showed a quick flash of a gravestone marked with the name of Resident Evil’s first female zombie fighter.

Well, that has been confirmed now by the voluminous article in the latest issue of Official Playstation Magazine, as part of a long and exhaustive Resident Evil Storyline/Timeline wrap-up. Apparently two years ago (2006), Jill was killed in the line of duty as an agent of the BSAA (the Anti-Bioterrorism Service group thingie). This will apparently be revealed in a flashback for Resident Evil 5, and it’s this event that haunts protagonist Chris Redfield as he delves into his latest adventure, with a new partner at that.

SPECULATIVE SPOILERS AHEAD.

But I’ll bet good money of course that we won’t be seeing the last of Miss Valentine- you just can’t keep a good heroine down, and I’m pretty sure she’s the female seen hibernating in liquid in the earlier RE5 trailers, and probably the cloaked, hooded figure Wesker was about to unmask at the end of the latest trailer. It’s so obvious but who the heck cares… Capcom and videogames aren’t in general known for being subtle… I actually want it to happen. Jill’s too good to stay dead.

So, was she really killed, and is this one a clone? Or was her death staged, with Jill kidnapped and taken control of? Will you have to fight her in RE5? Can you save her? Or will she be gone forever?

Needless to say, Biohazard/Resident Evil fan that I am… I am NOT going to miss this game. Resident Evil 5 is out in March on both the PS3 and Xbox360.