The Practicality of Evil

[Becky's Butt]

As we all know the RE series isn't what you call....realistic. It takes a lot of liberties with certain things.

However that doesn't mean everything in it is s total farce. The underlying idea of Umbrella, using viruses to create powerful tools of warfare, is an intriguing one.

But how practical is it?

The point of this topic is, which monsters do you think could actually be useful in combat situations? Also what uses could they be put to in fights?

To start off with, a few BOWS to consider:
Hunters
Tyrants (Mr. X, Nemesis, TALOS, etc.)
G-Virus Creatures (this one I'm not sure if it would be advisable to use)

[PracticalAl]

Haha, I don't think any of the BOW's are practical! Maybe Nemesis and Mr. X since they can be given directives, but even then, they aren't very efficient.. I'd have to say the virus that gave Wesker superhuman abilities is the most practical combat-wise, since he can retain his intelligence..

What about you Becky's Butt? What do you think?

[Becky's Butt]

I think TALOS is the only truly efficient one since it can be directly controlled and it has both armor and armament.

Well truly efficient in larger-scale combat.

If it was just taking down a small squad of fighters than I'd say any Tyrant except the Proto Tyrant is capable of that. Something like a Mr. X would be perfect for security detail ya know. Since it was mass-produced as well you could literally have a small squadron of superhumans to protect you.

Hunters are interesting as they're both intelligent and deadly. I'm just not sure to what end you could put them.

[Vector]

BOWs are not very practical at all. It's the idea behind biological warfare that's effective. Deploy a virus in a massive populated area or in a water supply. Terrorism. It's not even really militaristically practical. Could you see, for example, Saddam Hussein deploying the T-Virus in Kuwait or something? Yeah, you'd eradicate armed forces but you'd also have a large number of virus carriers. Other chemical weaponry would be more effective.

[Wrathborne]

Hussein might not have been the best example, he wasn't crazy enough.

[Det. Beauregard]

I wrote a paper about Hunters in an ethics class once. In college. And I got an A on it.

The paper was supposed to be about proposed solutions to the war in the Middle East, and I discussed the development of biological weapons (I didn't call them B.O.W.s since the "organic" bit is completely redundant) that were essentially super-soldier "lizard men" with the sole mission of eliminating specific targets. They would be created in a similar fashion that the Hunters were, by the genetic engineering of human and reptile DNA. They would be controlled by a digital device installed in their brain, which would also contain a fail-safe that would kill the creature if they got out of control. Of course, none of this was possible with current scientific technology, but this wasn't a biology class, either.

I think that someday in the distant future, something like this could be a reality. It may just be with actual human beings as opposed to "lizard people," but the idea of the super-soldier is something that I'm sure the military is working on underground. Thus, I find the Tyrant-type enemies in Resident Evil to be the most realistic.

[Vector]

Hussein might not have been the best example, he wasn't crazy enough.

It's not about the level of craziness...it's about being as efficient on the battlefield as possible.

[TheSelfishGene]

I don't think any of the BOWs are particularly practical for warfare purposes. They certainly aren't realistic.
Any biological weapon that would be deployed in the real world would be microscopic. And it wouldn't necessarily have to kill the opposing army. Even something like a particularly toxic strain of cholera could cripple an army, which would be much easier to defeat, and wouldn't destroy infrastructure like a bomb would. That's one great advantage to chemical and biological weapons.
The other key to biological warfare is that whoever deploys the weapon could/should have the vaccine to the agent, so their forces are unaffected by it.

The BOWs seen in Biohazard can attack both sides, would probably be WAY more expensive to produce than microbes or viruses which are easy and simple to cultivate, and their efficiency seems to vary wildly.

[Dracarys]

Well the plagas seem pretty decent. Type 2 anyway. I think most B.O.Ws created are more a brute strength type of attack, just drop them in and let them do damage, much less risk of infection lingering about for whoever moves in next.

[Becky's Butt]

I think the problem lies in the aftereffects. Thanks to Spencer being a total nutjob the T-Virus can basically infect anything. You start up an infection to destroy a city or military installation and next thing you know you got giant mutants like Grave Diggers going around. Terrible boss it might have been but it is a good example of how the T-Virus is the weapon that just keeps on giving in the absolute wrong way.

[Reston]

TBH, Spencer never really seemed to care for B.O.W. manufacturing. if anything, he pretended to care and made it seem important but only to distract others away from the Progenitor-virus and his goal of becoming immortal and god-like. If you think about it, it sorta made sense as to why the company hired all these nut jobs as they all were ego-maniacs and were so distracted by themselves they never frankly paid any attention to the man who had his own agenda. Capcom hinted at this and discussed it in the second Wesker Report when Albert is informing the reader that B.O.W. manufacturing is not a money making business and it really makes no sense to develop these creatures for a profit.

The only thing that seem to be profitable is the Progenitor-virus type which was used on the Wesker Children and it was not for sale.

[News Bot]

Infantry-type B.O.W.s (Hunters, for example) are replacements for human soldiers and were particularly effective since they were stronger, faster and more agile killing machines.

Tyrants are essentially unstoppable super soldiers. Once perfected like the Ivan, they would be extremely practical as bodyguards and for lone retrieval missions and such. One Tyrant could potentially decimate an entire unit and still live to decimate a few more. In that sense, it's very practical.

[alexdz]

I think it depends on the situation the B.O.Ws are going to be used and the cost/benefit of using them instead of conventional metods. Let's pick T-ALOS, the most powerfull B.O.W. ever created by Umbrella, he took down choppers, tanks and a Spetsnaz squad, which is impressive, but does the costs of creating or buying and maintaing him overcome the costs of trainning or hiring soldiers to do the same thing? The same aplies to the other B.O.W.s, then there's the risk of them going out of control and if you don't have a failsafe you're screwed.

But I'll say, the Ivans seemed like very decent bodyguards, I think it was the B.O.W. that lived for the longest time in the series, from 1998 to 2003, without problems and they didn't mutate during Wesker's fight.