Situated in the mid-west of the United States of America, Raccoon City started out as a small rural town community that through the many developments ushered in by Umbrella, soon flourished and prospered into a city. Prior to Umbrella's actual involvement, Raccoon was built upon the hard work of its citizens. In 1969, the Kite Brothers established the first underground railway system. While the system was initially very basic, it was fully supported by the citizens of Raccoon who used the railway regularly and made many contributions towards its success. Building upon this, they soon created their own company. By 1968, Raccoon had developed into a city. From this point on, it would be known as Raccoon City.

in May 1998, the T-virus was leaked,  with this act, the virus slowly began to seap into the surrounding area, infecting countless forms of plant life and slowly making it's way towards Raccoon City itself. Guard dogs from the Arklay Research Facility also managed to break loose, and the ensuing months were littered with reports of mysterious, grisly murders caused by countless organisms from the facility. The explosion caused by the self-destruct mechanism within the Arklay Research Facility became public knowledge, but the exact details were covered up by Umbrella and the Raccoon Police Department.

On September 11th, large mutated insects were reported having attacked campers in the forest. Zombies soon began to roam the forest, and countless Cerberus began to prowl. Eventually, the mutilated corpse of a young woman was discovered. Soon enough, more reports began to surface, including the murder of a family of three in the western area of the Arklay Mountains, a 39 year old man in the Mendez River dock area and an elderly couple. Eyewitness reports of creatures matching the descriptions of Zombies and Cerberus were also on the rise. By July, over 30 murders had occured.

Umbrella itself immediately took an interest in the reports, and with the Arklay Research Facility now completely decimated due to the outbreak, began the "X-Day" procedure. The destruction of the facility (or rather, the mansion) was covered in local news, but the exact details behind the incident were insidiously covered up by Umbrella.

More and more sightings of strange creatures surfaced in Raccoon City at an alarming rate and by late September, the T-virus that had been slowly leaking into the city from the outbreak caused by James Marcus had reached critical levels in Raccoon City. On top of this, the recent G-virus retrieval mission was met with failure, and William Birkin had transformed into a towering creature and smashed countless T-virus vials in the sewers. Subsequently, rats began to spread the virus throughout the city sewer system, and into the city itself. This brought the outbreak to critical levels, and soon enough, most of the city was infected.

Zombies littered the streets, leaving many citizens completely helpless. As the Raccoon Police Department staged countless attempts to quell the horror, they were all met with failure thanks to Chief Brian Irons meddling with the ammunition and weapon stockpile, causing a mismanagement which would prove deadly. However, zombies were not the only creatures the helpess citizens of Raccoon City had to contend with. The city was crawling with monstrosities like Cerberus, Lickers, and so on...