Resident Evil opens with a monologue, in which we find out that there have been several bizarre murders in the area. Bravo Team was sent in to investigate, but contact with them was lost. Alpha team lands, and they find Bravo's helicopter. As they poke around the grass they make an even more horrifying discovery... a handgun, with a severed hand attached to it. It isn't long before they realize that they aren't alone in the forest, since Alpha Team member Joseph Frost, is viciously attacked by strange dogs. The dogs look dead, and they don't go down easily, even when they're shot repeatedly. The surviving members of Alpha team have no choice but to run. As they do, their helicopter starts taking off without them. They have no means of escape and the only refuge they find is a Mansion in a clearing of the forest.

They find themselves in a large Mansion that seems to be completely deserted... However, it isn't long before they find that it is far from deserted. Zombies wander the halls, and most likely have killed most of the members of Bravo Team. They must investigate this strange house to try and find a way out... Or even better... find out what's really going on. What does the old Mansion have to do with the murders in the forest... if anything? And who's really behind these strange creatures?

At the title screen you are able to choose between two different characters: Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. Chris is stronger, and a marksman, but Jill has a lockpick by default, so she can access certain areas of the Mansion much more quickly than Chris can. Jill also gets an extra weapon that Chris doesn't get, which makes his game much harder around the middle portion.

This game is often the source of ridicule because the voice acting was... well... pretty terrible. But then, I always found the voice acting to be funny, and it gave me some humor during a game which is rather difficult, and frightening. Now, one might think that this means the Voice acting killed the mood of the game, which... in my opinion it didn't. However, it did make Jill look pretty stupid. Either that, or it made the later versions of Jill look very smart.