Resident Evil series Every game in the series is set in the fictional American metropolitan area Raccoon City until its destruction at the end of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Subsequent games featuring Valentine take place on an international scale: namely Russia, Africa, and the Mediterranean Sea. The original game is set in July 1998 in a mansion on the outskirts of Raccoon City, which Valentine and her team enter into while searching for colleagues. Working with partner Barry Burton, she discovers the property is a façade for a biological warfare laboratory operated by the Umbrella Corporation and its undead occupants are the scientists who developed the T-virus mutagen. Her commander Albert Wesker is revealed to be a double agent for Umbrella. Valentine and Redfield are among the five survivors of the incident, who form a strong friendship and become passionate opponents of bioterrorism. Valentine did not appear in the 1998 sequel, as the production team used new protagonists (Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield) to preserve the original game's horror elements: Mikami believed Valentine and Chris Redfield would be too experienced to be scared by the events in the sequel. She returned as the sole protagonist in Resident Evil 3 (1999). Mikami – the lead producer of both Nemesis and the concurrently-produced Resident Evil – Code: Veronica (2000) – wanted each game to highlight a female character who had previously appeared in the series; Valentine is the protagonist in Nemesis, while Claire Redfield is the lead character in Code: Veronica. Commentators suggested these decisions were made as a result of the success of the Tomb Raider series, which featured Lara Croft as the protagonist. Nemesis occurs two months after the first game, during which time Valentine joined the Raccoon City Police Department (RCPD) to protect as many civilians as possible from the T-virus. The reason given by Capcom for her informal clothing in this entry was her resignation from the police immediately before the city's population was infected with the virus. She quit in protest over the failure of law enforcement to take action against Umbrella but remained in the city to investigate the corporation. The police uniform she wore in the original game was replaced with a less formal blue tube top, black miniskirt and knee-high boots. In Nemesis, she escapes Raccoon City before its destruction from a nuclear strike as part of a U.S. government cover-up. She is