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Review

Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City

Operation Racoon City is a mediocre game. Its biggest fault is that it wasted potential to freshen up the franchise. This isn’t to say that the game is unplayable or lacks any redeemable qualities. On the contrary, there are parts of the game that get it really right, which is why when the games faults stand out, it reminds you of the game it could have been, a better game. This is a huge franchise and mediocre should not be acceptable.
 

The developers are mostly to blame for high expectations. Capcom has set such an outrageously high bar for action content in the series that you can’t help but feel cheated with the short campaign and lack of characterization, narrative and action missing from these seven missions. This is ironic because there is one free DLC mission called the Prologue which introduces completely new characters (Spec Ops squad) and is far more interesting gameplay-wise than the entire game as a whole. In fact there are a series of DLCs, seven more missions, which I presume when combined together with the on-disc missions offering “another side” of the story, the game will feel more complete. Those two DLC packs are $10 each at the moment, so $20 extra for what could be the better content in the game?

So let’s cut this game a break? It was originally conceived to be a co-op multiplayer game, so judging it by its solo campaign is unfair. Fair enough. I must admit here that I don’t really play co-op games, unless it’s an MMO, so the prospect of a multiplayer shooter game, especially a Resident Evil game which are known to have long solo campaigns, doesn’t sound appealing to me and I’m probably not the right audience for it. However, I did play a bit of online for a week, and it was pretty fun playing with random strangers.

This game doesn’t have an identity of its own. The first three or so missions revolve around soldiers shooting each other in hallways. It’s more like the Resident Evil films than previous games. This is fine, but not revolutionary. The second half of the game introduces zombies and enemies of varying types. This is where the game stands out and is more reminiscent of previous games, especially when revisiting events from Resident Evil 1 & 2. Actually, these parts are pretty great! But here is another issue that sticks out for me.
 

Allow me to explain. In cover based shooters you play in more of a defensive style. You duck behind objects and shoot enemies that pop up behind their cover, rinse and repeat—move forward. In zombie type games, you can’t really stand for too long or you will die being attacked by mobs. You have to keep moving (running) forward and try to make it to your destination while preserving ammo. Actually, some games like Dead Island punish you by deteriorating your weapons if you use them too much, so you have to level them up and use sparingly.
 

In this game there are sections where you advance forward by clearing out enemy soldiers with your squad, which is fine, and then there are times where you are running and evading zombies and trying frantically to survive wave after wave of mob attacks which is fine—just don’t take cover because staying down too long will get you killed. And here is the problem with this game. There are moments where the action on the screen “bottlenecks” and you have to deal with soldiers shooting at you and also zombies trying to grab you, so you can’t take cover because you’ll get attacked, but if you don’t take cover, you will get shot. Add to this a roaming Boss to deal with as well. Did I mention the spongy nature of most enemies the ones that absorb tons of ammo before going down? Add that the gameplay as well.

I realize that this “bottleneck”, “Wrestlemania”, “kill all the things”, gameplay is what Resident Evil has become, and it’s definitely here too. The action emphasis in this game is very apparent during these scenarios, and with an open mind can be fun, but challenging—and I like challenging. It is what it is.

I honestly don’t really hate the game. I finished the campaign a couple of times, including some online sessions. I hate that we missed an opportunity for a much better game, so it’s mostly disappointing. I will be on the lookout for DLC discounts for this game. It isn’t the first time that DLC for a game makes it a much better game, ex. Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2, and I think that might be the case for this game. My main issue with this game comes down to lack of content. I would wager that a lot of the negative reaction came down to the full price game with little content, but I’m not sure. Some people like and love the game. I want to love the game, but I kind of just like it. I’m in the middle on this one.

Score: 3/5 Umbrellas.   

Verdict:
If you love the RE series I’d say it’s worth it just to run around Racoon City one more time with nicer visuals and action oriented gameplay. Also recommended for co-op, if you like that sort of thing.

  asrealasitgets@pixlbit