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Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
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Graphics & Sound:
For the first bit of the Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, you’re in the standard metal bunker surroundings. It's the typical black shadows, lots of metallic grey. Your Umbrella guys and the enemies tend to blend in, which isn’t a whole lot of fun, but in later surroundings, this isn’t as big of a problem. I don’t really see a need for such high end requirements for this game. It’s not full of lush vegetation, millions of glass walls or endless waterfalls. It’s really pretty standard on the environment side of things.
There are also some shortcuts taken, it seems. Bodies melt away into bubbly pools of goo, even the human, uninfected ones. Parts where you’d expect a lot more going on in the PC version are just identical to the console version, such as security monitors that just show static images. There isn’t a ton of detail you’ll get here over the console version of the game. In fact, it’s hard to tell the difference for the most part.
The soundtrack is pretty good, reminiscent of the Mercenaries tracks from Resident Evil 5. It doesn’t rise past this kind of techno root, however, so don’t expect any emotional movie scores here. Your teammates are campy, extreme caricatures, but they play these parts pretty well. It is a little in line with that RE tradition of B-movie goodness. Still, don’t expect the lengthy, Hollywood style cinematic scenes you’re used to from previous Resident Evil games. |
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Gameplay:
Man, work sucks. In Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City you’re part of a group called the Umbrella Security Service (USS) that’s running Umbrella’s errands. And when the T-Virus breaks out and Raccoon City goes to zombie hell, you’ve got to clean up Umbrella’s mess before they’ll let you off the clock. Oh, and they blame you for the whole outbreak incident. At least command for Umbrella, in contrast to S.T.A.R.S. and B.I.A.A. commands, gets all the niceties out of the way up front: they sound evil, they act evil, and you probably signed an evil contract to get this gig. An even eviler dude named Nikolai is also trying to sabotage everyone’s plans. Just hope you’re getting some evil overtime for this.
The game doesn’t have that suspenseful feel of the classic Resident Evil games. It’s really not very scary or atmospheric at all. Heck, even the enjoyable campiness is just not present here. It pretty much just hops right into shooting. You are on a team with the inside info this time, so maybe that does make sense. That doesn’t mean there aren’t *gasp* double-crosses and other twists and turns. It just means the heroes of this game are kind of expecting this level of b.s. Still, the story is a bit weak here. As much opportunity as the game has to put a new spin on the events of the Raccoon City outbreak, it just feels disconnected from the series, and a bit tired.
This is more of a fast-paced shooter game, though it is still in 3rd person like the previous games. There’s still some fetching and item collecting, but it’s way streamlined. You’ll just pick up green herbs and gobble them up on the spot, as opposed to holding inventory and combining herbs and such. There’s a few QTE events as well, just to keep up the traditions, I suppose.
There is a new leveling system that allows you to purchase abilities, passive and active, for each character. Since each character has access to unique abilities, it adds a bit of replay value to the game to figure out which character you prefer. Some other new gameplay twists include infection, which requires you to dose yourself with antiviral spray. If your teammates can’t get to a can of spray in time, they’ll turn into super-fast zombies and attack the team. Still, even with these new features, they really don’t change the experience enough to make it more interesting or exciting.
The multiplayer is undoubtedly a big draw for this game. For me, it’s not amazing. It’s a standard run-and-gun multiplayer setup. At least in Mercenaries for RE6, you had a feel that there was some strategy involved. There was something to learn, and it felt addictive. There was that feeling of “just one more try” and “we can get it if we take out these big guys first, then run to this side.” It had your standard versus modes, but you still had a feeling of getting better as you learned the secrets of the map and the best character for your playstyle. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City has the standard multiplayer games like a Capture the Flag style game and a kind of Deathmatch game. It’s fine if you’re into that, but rather repetitive if you’re expecting a true RE game here. |
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Difficulty:
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City has a good range of adjustable difficulties, so it’s possible to tweak it to the level you are comfortable with. Some frustrating mechanics issues do make the game harder than it needs to be.
For example, some of the bigger concerns are that enemies often don’t react appropriately to being injured. There are several bosses that I simply could not tell if I was damaging. They just didn’t fall back or recoil to give distinct feedback on what was a weak point. Another annoyance is that laser sights can show an unbroken line to your target, but when you do take the shot, you find it’s blocked by a box or a wall. There are more little problems like this throughout the game, but that’s just a whole lot of writing that no one really wants to read.
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Game Mechanics:
I do long for a controller on Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, but I’m not the biggest PC gamer, so that does factor in. Still, there’s a lot of controls packed onto the keyboard here, from a separate Stomp and Melee button (it seems like those two could have been combined), to an Escape Grapple button. Oh boy, I’m going to remember that one when I need it, I’m sure. For the most part, this is a straight up shooter, so you won’t be wandering the keyboard that much. But if you are coming from a controller, you’ll have a long learning curve to hurdle before you get proficient here (although the 360 version had just as many “extra” controls).
For all its extra controls, there’s also a distinct lack of a roll, something that would make escaping grenades and other close situations much easier. The game also suffers from some sticky walls and other objects. It seems pretty easy to get stuck on an obstacle-free wall when you’re running next to it. There’s also no quick-turn, an RE tradition, which makes this feel even less like the series it’s supposed to be connected to. In another minor gripe, the menu controls are non-intuitive. You expect to be able to get out of each menu with Escape, but it only works at the root level of the menu. You’ll have to use Backspace through the rest of it. Believe me when I say it just doesn’t make sense.
The short story is, I don’t think this counts as a true Resident Evil game. It lacks the overall feel of the series, and the polish. It’s an ok shooter, but that’s about it. If you need something to hold you over until RE6, then this might work out for you. Otherwise, just wait patiently. |
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-Fights with Fire, GameVortex Communications AKA Christin Deville |
Minimum System Requirements:
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 2.8 GHz, 2 GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB or ATi Radeon HD 3850 512 MB, 8 GB of free disk space
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Test System:
Win7 64bit, 8 GB, Intel Core2 Duo CPU E7500 2.93 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 |
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