While making a run against time through the zombie-infested Tall Oaks with his new partner Helena, Leon comments at some point in Resident Evil 6 that he is having "a bad case of déjà vu".

 
But how much of a déjà vu it actually is? Well it's much more than it seems, as throughout the story of nearly all his campaign, it is like he's having flashbacks of his past adventures. On first level, it's basically from Resident Evil 2, but looking deeper into the details, this flashback goes back to nearly all the events he has lived, witnessed or was connected to so far.

The zombies are the most prominent element of this "déjà vu". There were zombies then in Raccoon City, and there are zombies now, in Tall Oaks. The difference is that back in 1998, Leon had no idea about this kind of situation and pretty much improvised as he went along; while in 2013 he is more than experienced in this field and knows exactly what to do, and when.

In 1998, a pretty clueless young Leon is shooting random zombies in the infested Raccoon City

In 2013, decorated elite agent Leon is forced to shoot his close friend who has become a zombie

When Leon arrived in Raccoon City back in 1998, he found a town inhabited by zombies, and the only other human being was a young girl, Claire Redfield. Together they had to make their way through the nightmare that the once peaceful town had become, and take all means to survive. In Resident Evil 6, the year is 2013 and we see him in the office of the Tall Oaks University, face to face with the President of USA (and his personal friend), freshly turned into zombie, while everyone else in the campus has already had the same fate. The only other human being is a young woman (and, as it turns out soon, also his colleague) Helena Harper. Together they have to escape from the campus and later from the town with dozens of zombies breathing down their necks.

Claire's first meeting with Leon is one she will surely remember for the rest of her life

Helena seems to know way too many things, including Leon's name and identity

Claire arrived at Raccoon City looking for her brother Chris, an officer of a special division of the Raccoon City Police Department, who had disappeared. Helena on the other hand is looking for her sister with whom she has lost contact after both of them became victims of a cunning trap. Claire didn't manage to reunite with Chris until much later, after the events at the Rockfort Island and Antarctica (namely, in Code Veronica), while Helena found her sister quite soon, albeit in a really bad state. The reunion of Claire and Chris had a happy ending, but things didn't work out that well for Helena and her sister.

The reunion of Claire and Chris in Code Veronica is a lovely, touching scene

Helena finds her sister quite soon, but she has nasty surprises awaiting

As Leon and Claire try to find a way to make it safe from the zombies, they spot a police car and they jump in. Back to Tall Oaks, Leon and Helena rush out of the campus and find a police car conveniently parked in a side-street.

Leon and Claire rush in the police car while the zombies gather around them

The police car at the end of the street is again the only salvation

While in the police car, Claire finds a handgun in the glove compartment. In Tall Oaks, Leon searches the glove compartment looking for the keys (there is no need to find an extra gun here, as both he and Helena are both armed already thanks to their status).

Once upon a time, zombified cops would leave their handguns in the police cars

Times change, and now obviously they take them with them leaving the glove compartments empty

It would be naive to believe that in a zombie-infested place you can just drive your car down the street undisturbed. Naturally there is a zombie lurking somewhere, ready to attack at the most inconvenient moment. In Raccoon City, it popped up from the back seat where it was obviously taking a nap. In Tall Oaks, it surprised Leon by showing its face (well, kind of) at the front window.

Now, that's an intrusion of privacy, mister!

How the hell did she get on the roof of the car?

Such a surprise can never have a good result. In Raccoon City, Leon lost control of the car and it crashed on some other cars that were parked in the middle of the street, blocking the way. An oil-transporting vehicle that was being driven by a zombified man came speeding towards the police car, leaving Leon and Claire no other choice than to get out, each from their side. The vehicle crashed on the car, causing a devastating explosion. Leon and Claire, with the fire caused by the explosion between them, decided to make their way separately as they had no other option, and try to meet up at some point. In Tall Oaks, Leon lost control of the car again, causing it to tumble and crash on other parked cars, catching fire. He and Helena managed to get out of the damaged car and continued their way through the sewers.

Claire is at the other side of the flames but it's not a good idea to try to get to her

The car is fubar

The oil-transporting vehicle in Raccoon City that caused all the mayhem and resulted in Leon and Claire separating from each other, had departed from a gas station a few blocks away. It's not unusual to see a gas station in a zombie-themed story; going back to the iconic Night of the Living Dead, the film that defined zombie movies and became the main source of inspiration for zombie games, the gas station there was a major turning point in the plot. In Tall Oaks, Leon and Helena come across a gas station, where a group of survivors are trying to defend themselves against the zombies.

The deserted gas station in Raccoon City

The zombie-infested gas station in Tall Oaks

Among the gas station survivors in Tall Oaks, is a young cop who is a rookie in his very first day. Back in 1998, Leon was a rookie cop on his first day when he arrived at Raccoon City. As we know already, things turned out quite well for Leon after the Raccoon City incident was over, but unfortunately for his colleague in Tall Oaks events took the most tragic twist.

Leon introduces himself to Claire

The Tall Oaks rookie seems to be more clueless than what Leon was back in 1998

As Leon tries to find his way to the Raccoon Police department, he comes across a gun shop. It belongs to Robert Kendo, and it looks like it was a rather popular spot back in the good days. In Tall Oaks, Leon with Helena and the group of survivors find shelter in a gun shop that is near the gas station. They lock themselves in temporarily, trying to fend off the zombies that swarm outside, wanting to get in from the windows.

Leon has just arrived in Kendo's Gun Shop and is posing for a souvenir photo

The Tall Oaks Gun Shop seems to be a zombie attraction

In Raccoon City, Leon has a brief chat with Kendo and then leaves from the back door. However upon trying to get back in, he hears screams and when he re-enters, Kendo is already dead and the zombies that killed him are strolling around the room. In Tall Oaks, the gun shop owner manages to get all the survivors safe up on the roof of the building, from where they all escape via a back ladder and go down to the street, where a friend of his has arrived in a bus. After they all get in the bus, they have some trouble leaving for a few moments, as a huge zombie is blocking the way. During all that mess, a zombie grabs the gun shop owner from a bus window and throws him on the street, where he shares the ill fate of his Raccoon City colleague.

Poor Robert Kendo (right) is lying dead and Leon has to face more zombies

The gun shop owner of Tall Oaks (left) and one more survivor (right) become dinner of the zombies

While exploring the creepy undegrounds of the Tall Oaks Cathedral with Helena, Leon comes across Ada Wong, a most familiar face. Leon had met Ada back in Raccoon City, where she was supposedly dead after she was (seemingly) fatally attacked by a hideous B.O.W. In 2004, he crossed paths with her again in Spain, where he had been sent to locate the kidnapped daughter of the (then) President of the USA (namely, in Resident Evil 4). In all three instances, she never disclosed to him (or to anyone else, for that matter) the real goal of her mission.

Leon with Ada in Raccoon City

Leon with Ada in Spain

In Tall Oaks, Leon and Ada spend a brief sequence of on-screen action together

After the events in Tall Oaks, Leon goes to China with Helena, in pursuit of the story's arch-villain. In the way, he bumps onto Sherry Birkin, whom he had rescued with Claire back in Raccoon City.

Leon with Sherry at the desert railroad after they left Raccoon City with Claire

Leon reunites with Sherry in China, at an airplane crash site, where she had arrived with Jake Muller

A bit later, Leon comes face to face with Chris Redfield, Claire's brother from Resident Evil 2. Chris is leading a team which is chasing another villain, a woman who has stolen Ada's identity and is closely connected to (actually, responsible for) the virus outbreak that hit both Tall Oaks in the USA and Langshiang in China.

Leon makes a deal with Chris before they part ways

When Leon crosses paths with Sherry in China, she is accompanying a young man, Jake Muller, who has antibodies for the C-virus. Sherry is following orders to bring Jake safely back to her boss's headquarters, so that his blood can be tested and used to produce vaccines (or so she's been told; the truth is somewhat different). Jake is a mercenary, and has served in missions in South America. Just like Jack Krauser, Leon's companion in Operation Javier, a mission that took place in 2001. Leon was sent in South America to find a drug dealer that had connections with Umbrella, and Jack Krauser was commissioned to help him cross the mazey jungles of the area. Jack was seriously wounded in that mission, being forced to retire soon after. When that mission was over, Leon was informed that Krauser died in a crash, only to meet him again in Spain in 2004, more alive than ever.

Jake talks to Sherry about his South-American experience as a mercenary

Jack Krauser with Leon in a South-American jungle

The legendary duel of Leon and Jack Krauser in Resident Evil 4

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that when Leon sees Jake for the first time, he is probably feeling like he just came across a young Jack Krauser in the making, as apart from the profession, Jake Muller and Jack Krauser have even more things in common: their first names sound similar, their surnames sound both like they are of German origin, they share a snake-like gaze and they both have a big scar on the left side of their faces.

Jake is too proud of his scar to go fix it

Jack's scar is much more elaborate and deeper

Even if Leon has never come across Albert Wesker officially, it looks like the super-arch-villain of the Resident Evil saga somehow managed to get involved in Leon's life and profession trials as well: in 2013, Jake Muller is revealed to be  Wesker's son, albeit he's never really met his father. Albert Wesker was the one who, back in 2001, helped Jack Krauser heal from his serious injury by treating him with a virus that gave him superhuman powers. And he was the one who hired Jack in 2004 to murder Leon in Spain.

The connections between Resident Evil: Code Veronica and Resident Evil: Revelations 2

While playing Revelations 2 for the first time, and seeing the familiar intro with Claire waking up in a prison cell, I started getting very strong Code Veronica vibes, even to the extent that I was almost certain at some point that Claire's final boss would be a resurrected, mutated Steve.

Of course there was no Steve in the end; but this didn't make the game less fascinating or enjoyable. In fact, despite its somewhat vague plot, and although the action keeps shifting from Claire to Barry and ends up focused on three characters that were introduced to us for the first time (Natalia, Moira and Alex) instead of our two familiar heroes, its eerily bizarre atmosphere is captivating, and although it looks simple in concept, it's particularly immersive, especially when it comes to depicting the creepy, monster-inhabited countryside and the post-apocalyptic city, deprived of any sane and healthy human being. 

Claire wakes up in a prison cell

In both games Claire wakes up in a prison cell, set on an isolated island that she has no idea where it is. This was done on purpose by the creators, as a tribute to Code Veronica which also starred Claire.

In Code Veronica, Claire had been imprisoned after she was caught while attempting to enter an Umbrella Facility in Paris, where she was looking for her brother Chris.

Where am I?

In Revelations 2, she was abducted with other members of the Terra Save organization where she belonged, and found herself captive in a cell.

Where the hell am I again?

Soon after she's back to her senses, the gate of her cell opens so that she can get out. In Code Veronica, it's her guard, Rodrigo Raval, who unlocks the cell. Seriously injured, he can't risk leaving Claire locked in while the whole island has been attacked and is slowly being overwhelmed by zombies.

Claire finds herself in a prison where the only other human being for now is a fatally wounded guard

In Revelations 2, Claire wakes up in the cell of a prison that looks almost destroyed and abandoned, and sees she has a bracelet on her wrist, that she cannot remove. Keep your eyes peeled on the left side of the screen during the opening cutscene, and as soon as the beep sounds and the doors are unlocked, you will notice a shadow sliding silently and then disappearing. It is Alex Wesker, who unlocked the cells as part of her plan to lure Claire and the other Terra Save prisoners to the place where she can test who is vulnerable to her virus and who is immune.

The Revelations 2 prison seems to be abandoned for quite some time

A paranoid enemy is haunting her

In Code Veronica, as soon as Claire escapes from the prison area, she gets spotted by Alfred Ashford, the psycho commander of the island. For whatever mysterious reason, Alfred is convinced that Claire is responsible for the attack on his island and sets on a mission to exterminate her.

This guy is obsessed with guns!

In Revelations 2, Alex Wesker, aka The Overseer, is constantly monitoring Claire as well as the other prisoners. It was her who trapped them on this island and is seeking among them a host that will be the medium for her future resurrection as an omnipotent god of sorts.

Alex has the twisted tendency to talk to people via the bracelets she has attached round their wrists

Revelations 2 Claire quotes Code Veronica Steve early in the game

After leaving her cell, Claire finds Moira further down in another cell and they start exploring the mysterious prison where they are. At some point, while searching the body of a dead guard to get the necessary keys, Claire also takes his handgun. When Moira asks her if she is actually going to use the gun, Claire says that a gun is more reliable than any person.

It's actually the line that Steve told her back at the Training Facility of the Ashford Mansion, after getting the dual machine guns in his possession.

Claire is connected to a guy who becomes a monster and wants to kill her

Although in Code Veronica we are not exactly sure that Claire is actually in love with Steve (she has way bigger problems to solve before dealing with her love life), we do know that she likes him a lot and has tender feelings for him. When Steve mutates in the end, he chases her yielding an axe, trying to kill her under the orders of Alexia, but in the end, when he sees that Alexia has trapped her, his love for her prevails and he saves her, sacrificing his own life.

 Steve starts chasing Claire down the corridor, and all she can do is run the hell out of there

 

 One of the few tender moments of the game

In Revelations 2, it becomes quite clear that Claire has feelings for her boss, Neil Fisher; we also do suspect early on (at least I know I did) that Neil is not very honest and that something bad is going to happen at some point, involving him. To prove us right, he gets mutated to a gross Tyrant version and Claire has to fight him. In the end, Moira kills him, saving Claire's life. Poor girl has never been lucky with men.

 Neil, where's your pretty face?

 

While he is still mutating, he tries to show his feelings, but it's too late

The creepy dolls

When Barry arrives at the lair of the Overseer with Natalia, we see it's a creepy place overwhelmed with damaged dolls. There is no clear explanation, plot-wise, as to why Alex has all these dolls hanging from the ceiling and lying about; they are also there in the final chapter, as Barry and Natalia leave the mansion and head towards Alex's final hideout. I guess they are one more sign of her twisted mind and also show her attempt to scare Natalia who, being a little girl, should love dolls.

Not the kind of doll anyone would like to play with

In Code Veronica there was this terrifying huge doll hanging from the ceiling at the entrance of the Ashfords' secret residence.

Oh my stars!

Alfred seems to be quite obsessed with dolls too. There are all kinds of dolls in the secret residence, in every nook and corner, in the corridors, the bedrooms and even in a big glass case down in the hall.

Psycho siblings

Alex is chasing Claire in Revelations 2, and she is the sister of Albert Wesker who has been chasing Chris since forever. In Code Veronica, the big boss that Chris has to fight is Alexia, whose brother, Alfred, has been chasing Claire all along.

The Wesker siblings in harmony of black and white

The Ashford twins in the disturbing film that Claire discovers in Alfred's Army Museum

A family member comes to save the day

At some point in Code Veronica, Claire manages to send a message to Leon Kennedy who, in turn, contacts Chris and informs him on the whereabouts of his sister. After passing through all sorts of obstacles and trials, Chris discovers Claire trapped in a cocoon, in a Spencer Mansion replica in Antarctica. He rescues her and finally brother and sister are reunited.

Chris and Claire finally reunite in a lovely scene

Whereas in Revelations 2, Barry Burton travels to the Russian island in search for his daughter Moira, who had been left behind after Alex Wesker's Monument (why is it even called like that?) collapsed, with Claire being totally unable to help her. Although Barry was not even sure whether Moira was alive or not, he arrived at the island determined to find her. And so he did, managing also to fix his tumultuous relationship with her to some degree.

Reconciled Barry and Moira leave the cursed island with Natalia and a renewed Claire

There is always a Wesker

In Code Veronica, there was Albert Wesker who had caused all that mess at the Rockfort Island. He returns as a Nemesis, first beating the hell out of Claire, then attempting to do the same with Chris, but their encounter ends abruptly with Chris managing to escape and a scorched Wesker promising that he will be back.

"See you down the road, Chrissy!"

In Revelations 2, Alex Wesker is defeated by Barry, but before that she has already managed to resurrect herself in Natalia, subtly controlling her mind, unbeknownst to the Burton family who adopted her or anyone else for that matter.

"Natalia" is reading a Kafka text with a lot of meaning

Notice the little teddy bear sitting on a chair? I wonder if someone managed to buy a toy identical to Lottie for Natalia, when the nightmare was supposedly over, or whether the evil in her (aka Alex) was actually able to resurrect Natalia's destroyed toy as well during the process of reinventing herself.