The Umbrella Conspiracy was the first entry in a series of novels based on the popular Resident Evil video games that eventual reached a length of seven books. The original Resident Evil game for the PlayStation, the title this book is based on, is one of the greatest and most influential video games of all time, so it’s obvious that gamers (such as myself) have pretty high expectations for a novelization of the game.
Of course, life is full of disappointments.
About a week after I read Zero Hour (review), the series prequel which I rather enjoyed, I decided to pursue the series and read more of S.D. Perry’s RE novelizations. When I picked up The Umbrella Conspiracy, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what kind of quality to expect based on my experience with Zero Hour: a mostly faithful, largely nostalgic novelization of one of my favorite games that manages to hold my attention and entertain me throughout the experience.
While almost exactly what I wanted, The Umbrella Conspiracy still manages to disappoint on multiple levels.