Resident Evil Survivor

Pictured: the less commonly encountered psychokinetic zombie.

The red-headed stepchildren of the Resident Evil series.

The Gun Survivor games are sort of an experiment with the franchise's gameplay mechanics, in that they're largely presented from a first-person point of view for gunplay, but they're not Rail Shooters. Yes, they use light guns, but movement is still controlled by the player.

Most people agree that, while they're an interesting idea in theory, they weren't executed very well. Whether by design or because of complaints surrounding the games from fans, they are largely ignored by the rest of the franchise under the tidy banner of Gaiden Game, though they are apparently still considered canon within the series as events in the first game are referenced in Resident Evil 0. Eventually Capcom realized the formula wasn't popular with the fans and made a legitimate rail shooter in the form of The Umbrella Chronicles and The Darkside Chronicles for the Wii.

Capcom made four entries in the Gun Survivor series, three of which are RE-related:

1. Resident Evil: Survivor (PS) — An investigator named Ark Thompson gets trapped on Sheena Island during a t-Virus outbreak and must escape.
2. Resident Evil: Survivor 2 - Code: Veronica (Arcade, Play Station 2) — A re-visitation of the events of Code: Veronica, except modeled as an arcade-style shooter, with coop play enabled with players controlling both Claire Redfield and Steve Burnside.
3. Resident Evil: Dead Aim (Play Station 2) — A government agent, Bruce McGivern, boards a luxury liner called the Spencer Rain, owned by Umbrella and itself another site of a t-Virus outbreak.

The fourth (actually the third to be released) can be found under the entry for Dino Crisis as Dino Stalker.

Tropes used in Resident Evil Survivor include:

• All Just a Dream: The ending of Survivor 2 reveals that the events of the game were part of a long dream Claire was having during the events of Code: Veronica.
• Bag of Holding: Survivor is one of the few games in the franchise which gives you a limitless inventory.
• Chinese Girl: Fong Ling.
• Continuity Nod: Survivor explicitly got a mention in Resident Evil 0's intro, which led to THAT game being declared non-canon by some rabid fans.
• Cut and Paste Environments: Survivor recycles a lot of enemy assets from Resident Evil 2, and Survivor 2 naturally takes liberally from Code: Veronica.
• Did Not Do the Research: Weakly handwaved by adding the word "Custom" to its description, but Nambu 14s cannot chamber 9x19mm handgun bullets.
• Easy Amnesia/Identity Amnesia/Laser-Guided Amnesia: Ark Thompson in Survivor.
• Emergency Weapon: Survivor and Survivor 2 both give the basic handgun(s) infinite ammunition, though they still need to be reloaded.
• Even the Subtitler Is Stumped: Sort of, in Dead Aim, everyone is understandable, but the subtitles have a habit of deviating from what anyone is saying.
• Frickin' Laser Beams: The Charged Particle Rifle in Dead Aim.
• Gas Mask Mooks: The Umbrella Trashsweeper unit and their leader, the UT Commander.
• Gender Bender: Morpheus Duvall after he becomes a Tyrant seriously looks like a female to the point of apparently growing breasts.
• Ghost Ship: The Spencer Rain.
• Hide Your Children: Averted with Lott and Lily Klein.
• Immune to Bullets: Tyrant Morpheus from Dead Aim, due to generating an electromagnetic deflector shield.
• Implacable Man: The Nemesis.
• It's the Only Way to Be Sure: Sheena Island is set to self-destruct to contain the infection and destroy the evidence.
• Kill Sat: Used to try and kill Fong Ling in Dead Aim after China pays off Duvall to try and not turn their country into a radioactive zombie wasteland.
• Light Gun Game: A control option from the second game onwards.
  • The Japanese and European version of the first game also featured GunCon support. It was taken out from the American version, since the game came out around the time that light gun games and first-person shooters were under fire from Moral Guardians due to the unfortunate timing of the Columbine school shootings.
• Long Title: Dead Aim's full Japanese title is Gun Survivor 4: Biohazard - Heroes Never Die.
• No Export for You: America never got Survivor 2.
• Pin Pulling Teeth: Fong Ling does this at the beginning of Resident Evil: Dead Aim.
• Promotion to Parent: Lott after his and Lily's parents are zombified.
• Quest for Identity: Ark again.
• Third-Person Shooter: Dead Aim was sort of a hybrid between this and an FPS, the player could move in the third person perspective, but would have to switch to first person whenever aiming.
• Timed Mission: Survivor 2, due to its arcade nature, gives each level a time limit. Let it run out, and the Nemesis comes for your blood.
• Who Names Their Kid Lott