It's a great decision to not retcon any of Resident Evil's ridiculous lore

Something that the Resident Evil series has in its favor is a long history of experimentation. First-person, third-person, dual protagonists, action gameplay, stalker enemies, a guy made out of leeches who turns into a beautiful opera singer — if you can name a horror trope or even just a vague concept, it’s probably shown up in one of the Residents Evil or the franchises. Are some of these ideas ridiculous? Certainly. Have some of the silly parts of the games affected the overall horror? You know what, I don’t think they have! In fact, I think the fact that the developers refuse to retcon anything — anything! — is kind of genius, and it’s part of why Resident Evil Requiem works so well.

The most popular and influential Resident Evil games (the original, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 4) have been remade and re-released, capturing the best parts of the campaigns while honing down some of the rough edges. The franchise has a long, ridiculous, nonsense history, and seeing the developers return for these deep cuts is quite satisfying. It’s also appropriate for Requiem to have these throwbacks; it’s a game all about returning to Raccoon City and exploring the fallout of Umbrella’s failed experiments and the resulting nuclear bomb.