Operation Raccoon City was intended to show another angle of a legacy. Instead, it shoves its own down your throat.
Operation Raccoon City's claim to fame was to showcase the oft-considered "What-If" scenarios but it quickly becomes apparent that all the game managed to accomplish is utterly fail at emulating the legendary franchise it was based on and transform into something else entirely thanks to a poor outsourced job. Graphics of a lower resolution than the earliest PlayStation 2 games, animations stiffer than the ones in the first Deus Ex, and some of the worst design seen in the 2011-2012 video gaming years, this game committed itself to being one of the grand failures of the new decade.
Developed by Slant-Six, the company known for the badly received SOCOM series was given the go-ahead by Capcom to develop a game in the Resident Evil/BIOHAZARD universe that would touch upon the beginnings of the franchise. Advertisements and hype included the ability to kill iconic characters of the series, such as Claire Redfield, Leon S. Kennedy, and Ada Wong. In Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (henceforth known as RE:ORC or just ORC in this review) puts you under the vapor masks of six super-soldiers known as Wolfpack, or USS Delta Team whose job is to destroy all evidence incriminating Umbrella in the outbreak of Raccoon City and to kill any survivors.
Along the way they deal with the volatile nature of Umbrella's corrupt upper management, United States Special Operations (Spec-Ops) soldiers, and the bloodthirsty zombies shambling among the rabid B.O.W.s recently escaped from Umbrella's compromised laboratories. The stage is set for a different take on the familiar locale of Raccoon City, but do the actors take their play seriously?
Not really. In fact, the director was dead drunk passed out in a fountain somewhere.
The first thing everyone notices about a video game is the visual direction, and the ones in this game are none too pleasing. Even the online mode of Uncharted 3, known for its severely downgraded graphics, looks nicer than this game. All of the environments are terrible. I know that's not exactly in-depth analysis but the truth is in the cards, and the cards show the fate of a grey, metal corridor - forever. The flat colors and semi-decent modeling are all you will get to look at for the duration of the game. The blood is even worse, but don't even get me started on the fire effects. The shadows are squares, there is no smooth edge in this game to be found because there isn't even a 1x anti-aliasing going on, not even 0.1x.
The lighting is much more intolerable, believe it or not. When you start playing this game you will notice that it has the same thing going for it as Doom 3 did, where everything was so ungodly dark that it made it nigh unplayable for some. Even turning up the gamma in the game, and on my TV no less, I was still at a loss in some rooms. It was about the second level I started to question why I had no flashlight on my weapon, especially when the weapon I was using was called a Tactical SMG. Apparently Umbrella only equips its army with armor, two guns, and nothing else. None of the playable characters or even NPCs possess a single solution to the darkness in this game. Your best bet is to use certain character's abilities, like Spectre's Biothermal vision or Four-Eyes' Infection-Sensor. Of course, there's always the tried and true method of firing your gun and using the muzzle flash to guide your way, but then you would just be begging the answer to: "Why was it like this? Was it really that hard to program a simple light source in this game?"
The hair textures on Bertha, the USS Team's medic and Lupo, the USS Team's Leader each look like fabrics my mother sews with in her spare time. Lupo's hair resembles sweater fabric and Bertha's hair is as featureless as a square of low quality leather. Finding a follicle separate from the rest on her head is like trying to find anything else appealing about this game's destitute art.
Even the weapons look like dry mud, their only excuse would probably sound like this: "You'd never see them anyway." when there are a lot of people who DO look at them and want to get an eyeful of the detail.
The game also boasts a wonderful and consistent frame rate of 24fps despite, yes, despite all of that. It is constantly dropping. When it does, it's always in the same place due to the unvaried nature of the game design, but more on that in a bit.
Also complementing the ugly mess you're left to saunter through are wood-like animations that do not flow well and leave you vulnerable in cover. When taking cover, you *can* still get shot in it, even if there's no possible way you could be. The normal jogging animation is as good as it gets in ORC. The diving animation is stiff and doesn't flow well with normal movements; it's abrupt and sudden. The 'taking-cover' animation leaves you exposed way too often, and there aren't even a pack of animations of characters interacting with their environment, save for just THREE things in the entire game. No lie, you can actually count how many times the characters genuinely interact with their environment on your fingers. That's just downright unacceptable, especially in a game where camaraderie is strongly encouraged to survive in a military engagement of epic standards.
It's true. Your characters never interact with number pads, you never see them open a door by the handle; it all just opens magically like you would see in an FPS. If this game were just a hardcore FPS, it could be forgiven, but in a world that demands total immersion, it's definitely not. There are times you set fire to objects and they just ignite with no cause by your character. They do not press elevator buttons, etc. Anything a human would have to do to operate something in their life and in their way isn't required, basically. In fact, the only times you see characters actually touching their world are when you extract a parasite from the skull of a deactivated Tyrant, and even then it's a weak jab that only lasts about three seconds.
Another is when Birkin knocks you over in the beginning and you engage in a simple QTE that involves the wicked, insanely hard action of just rolling your movement stick to the left or right to not get smashed by his imposing bronze pipe and ultimately rise up and run off so you don't get smashed by an enemy with a glowing weak spot so obvious that you could theoretically win but the impenetrable plot armor protects him! Details, details…
The third is when the Tyrant grabs you by the head and pulls you up where all you really have to do is just….press the shooting button to live…
Really, that's it. Animations that involve the melee kills don't count either, and there are a grand total of just four execution kills, with a special one for each character that is mostly useless as well and it even uses up your ability gauge in some cases, wasting powers for when you need them most! Sit back and enjoy the same head stomping, knife in the skull action for just seven missions that is ultimately pointless and not even fun to look at after the twentieth time you do it. In all seriousness, the melee isn't viable because it leaves you completely vulnerable. Headshots at least do what they're supposed to in this game unlike certain others…
Coming up on the naughty list is the game play itself. You cannot jump in this game, nor can you roll. This has the beautiful result of completely limiting your actions and making sure you are glued to a ground and world that lacks even the simplest physics.
The closest to physics you get in this game are discarded weapons sliding down stairs.
Even when in thin cover, you can't just jump over it and keep moving without going around it. This presents numerous problems because you automatically take cover whenever you bump into something, it's all completely automatic and you have no choice in the matter. But see, the best part about cover in this game? Half the time, you can't even fire from it. You can hold your aim and fire buttons all you want, sometimes your character just can't act for whatever reason. Oh, and don't try to throw a grenade from cover, because you'll only hit the wall and nuke yourself, wasting a valuable item in the process.
There are many good and bad things about the system used in this game, but I'll go over the most obvious or most gameplay enhancing/hampering, and a few other things in between.
First off is always my biggest and greatest gripe when it comes to any action game and the one I'll always decry the moment I see it: hitscan enemies. For those unaware, hitscan refers to enemies who, as long as they see you and attack, even with guns and it shows them missing, they're still hitting you. Welcome to ORC, it uses that concept in spades. Tie this little idea into the problem with cover and you've got a pleasing mix of hair-pulling and flipping the bird at your television. Wait, there's more! When you get killed, you lose your first aid sprays, your anti-viral spray(for curing infection), and all of the grenades you accrued! You also lose the weapons you carried and you re-spawn with what you selected at the start of the game unless you are one of the characters with a skill to spawn with this or that.
The idea is nice, but it's way too easy to die in this game unless you're exploiting the flaws in the AI, of which there are plenty but that giant elephant can go wait in the corner for now.
For some reason, handguns have no crosshair, and are almost impossible to aim until you realize that the "aim dot" in the center of the screen is where it fires, but it's so small and pinpoint a lot of older gamers would struggle with that. Confounding the whole thing is that when you hit someone, you see a red hit indicator showing you damaged it, but why can't that be the crosshair? Only your main weapon has a crosshair, and most of the time it doesn't even help you. The sniper rifles in the game are incredibly inaccurate because for one of them, which uses the Russian -^- scope style, it's a struggle just figuring out where the bullet is even landing. For those willing to play, always aim slightly higher than what your sight is showing you to accommodate for the lack of physical balance.
Oddly, the characters rarely talk to each other. In this kind of environment, that's something you would frown upon, but it's true. This also ties into the animation problems in that I think everyone on the USS being in gas masks saved them from having to lip sync anything or even work on facial animations. In fact, if you watch carefully in the first scene of the game you can see clearly that models don't even show indications of damage. When HUNK breaks the neck of the UBCS guard, his eyes are completely still. This also ties in to the large enemies you fight, there's just no indication of anything whatsoever. When you fight enemies like Tyrants, you'll be shooting them in the head for minutes on end and they show no injuries or anything to indicate to players how good they're doing. There is a point in the game you fight two tyrants at once.
This game tells you nothing, there is no information to be found on anything aside from basic elements. Want to know the difficulty of the game you just joined? Sorry no! Is friendly fire on? Sorry, don't know! Want to know how much experience you've got at base now? Sorry, no can do! Want to know how much ammo your partners have so you can coordinate? Ha-ha, who do you think you're kidding?
The only semblance of inventory you get is the ever-present directional pad telling you what you have in stock and what you don't. You can never tell who is carrying around the key items, you can't tell if your team mates have this or that, and you can't even give voice orders from each character. You can't say "Requesting assistance!" "Follow me!" Split up!" "I require a can of first aid spray!" I desperately need an anti-viral spray!"
Taking a break from going on the war path, figuratively speaking, why do the USS soldiers need anti-viral sprays when they get infected? If they are able to find and carry around T-Virus antigens, then why can't they just be vaccinated before the mission? If the antidote exists, then why not the cure? Leon and Claire were able to synthesize a cure to Birkin's G-Virus which was totally new and unseen at the time of RE2, so the T-Virus, which has been in development for years even at this early in the series should have a cure. It's a shoehorned concept that while cool is also stupid. It would make more sense to have them all naturally immune to the T-Virus because of them working in Umbrella's top task force, and have the Spec-Ops team, who you can't even play yet in a story mode, in constant danger of infection. The USS team is meant to be imposing, badass, hardcore, etc, and they come off as bumbling fools due to their lack of communication, teamwork, and merciless behavior that each of their personalities would lead you to believe them capable of.
You never find any survivors except for the characters from past RE games, and you cannot kill any of them. For a game claiming that you could effectively change history, you're limited to only killing Leon and subsequently off-screen Claire as well which only happens at the very end of the game well-after they have already accomplished all of the events of their story in RE2. You encounter Nicholai Ginovaef early in the game but he is only there to somehow be so awesome and action-game stereotyped that six highly-trained soldiers in top-of-the-line equipment can't stop. After the third mission he just leaves and you never see him again. You also never see Jill Valentine, Carlos Oliveira, etc. It should also be mentioned Claire only makes an appearance in the story at the very end for only ten minutes.
The most disturbing thing is the misleading trailer that showed the USS team squaring off with the Echo Six team. You will never fight them in the story campaign; they never make an appearance. This is truly mind boggling. They built up this great climax between both parties and nothing ever happens, you only shoot the same three Spec-Ops mooks and five different zombie models in every level and sometimes a few hunters and lickers. Slant-Six also had the massive, unparalleled arrogance and laziness to cut and paste two objects from Resident Evil 5, two boxes, to fill their empty void of a game. One is a wooden box with shoddily nailed together wooden planks and a red box with a triangle on it, except in this game they were dipped in a vat of doughnut glaze so you probably wouldn't have noticed it anyway.
Here they are, but I don't have the Operation Raccoon City versions. I will tell you where to find them though. From RE5, these are the ones in question.
In Chapter 3 "Light's Out," get to the entrance to the park with the EMP devices. Before you go into get the first one, you will find it just off to the right of that side path you are forced to take.
In Chapter 5 "Expendable," start the game and just head down the ramp, the red box should be there I think. If not, you'll find it if you like to explore.
They are part of the rubbish lying around near dumpsters. This act can be interpreted as their feelings towards the franchise they emptied their bowels on.
Funny I mention RE5, actually, because the similarities don't end there. Slant-Six also claimed to add new B.O.W.s for the heck of it but all they really added that's new are Las Plagas rip-off parasites that are merely spider-like parasites that move around like the third form Plaga in Resident Evil 4. Only difference is they died in a single hit in RE4, I wish that was the case here. Like in RE4+5, they take over a human body and start attacking you, but they latch on from the outside. Not like in RE4+5, they move around on their own and are sentient and don't require an injection into the body. It's not exciting or interesting, but very, very annoying from a game play standpoint.
Keeping up my combo, the game can be compared to Lost Planet 2, which I also reviewed. Like that game, once you play a level once, you've seen it all. There are no random placements of Data you collect for points, enemies are not randomized, weapons are not randomized, and so forth. They're all in the same place, the only difference is when the enemies drop items, and yes, zombies can drop bullets for your .50 caliber sniper rifle. There are points in this game where it looks like they were trying cutely to scare you with zombies breaking through stuff, but the boring sound effects accompanying something you already don't fear when you are geared up and with three other people made me think it was just for show. "Hey, we can break doors too! Look!"
In this game, you collect the Data that contains incriminating evidence against Umbrella Corp. You turn it in at various laptops throughout the levels and get EXP, which you use to buy weapons and skills and upgrade skills for characters. The problem? If someone else, another human player, takes the data, you're not getting the EXP he's going to get. If one player gathers more than others, his score will be better. And even worse? One character has a skill that shows him up to 20 meters where all of the items are, so he can rush in and get everything before anybody knows what's going on. Most of the levels have enough data that totals up to at least 1000 or more extra EXP, but collecting a lot gives you a better grade which means better reward. The pool isn't united, and this breaks the cohesiveness of the unit.
Most of the characters have skills, but a lot of them are utterly useless in the long run and only a few of them essentially shine as the best in the game, such as Four Eyes' Induce Infection which can turn up to three zombies into crimson heads and set them against all of your enemies and not harm the player. The zombies rush forward with their new strength and take all of the damage and let players sweep on through. If there are no enemies, the zombie remains idle so you can just kill it before it turns against you. It also works on soldiers, and if you kill them they have a chance of turning. Even better, she can also use a skill that lets her take control of up to 5 of any zombie or B.O.W. enemy in the game, which turns them off from attacking players essentially and lets her silently "order" them to attack another enemy. This skill also works on bosses, making them a breeze.
The same can be said for weapons. Most of them are useless. All of the handguns save for the Samurai Edge are completely worthless and do nothing for you due to their slow rate of fire and low damage. None of the weapons have anything unique about them either, and you can't upgrade them which would have been a better addition then just having a lot to choose from.
Grenades don't fare too much better but when they work they at least do what they're supposed to. They take a while to explode and cannot be cooked. Human enemies will run away from grenades, making them a waste unless you hit the wall with it and then they don't care at all. Even so, the kill range is pretty poor. You can also throw it from farther away but there's very rare an opportunity to get it just right.
AI is the last big thing to mention on the list. It is without a doubt the worst AI seen the past few years. Any squadmate not controlled by another person is so braindead that they will literally walk into laser tripmines, walk into fire, walk right in front of a horde and get killed, take cover next to the enemy, and more. Even Left 4 Dead 2 had a competent set of computer-controlled allies, but here? They couldn't even tie their shoes let alone sit down without having a parent or guidance counselor help them bend their legs.
You can't give the AI orders, and you can't even look at what items they are carrying, but they'll pick up First Aid Sprays and grenades on the ground only to never use them and then eventually die and lose it, which will only get you killed in the long run and cost you better points. At least they *sometimes* have the idea to heal you when you only have a single bar of hit points left, but they never use grenades so say good bye to the ones you wanted to save because you can't trade weapons or give items.
The enemy AI on soldiers is pretty weak, but it's somehow better than your team's AI. A big problem with human enemies is that they share the same abilities (and animations) that you do, except for skills. They do the exact same melee, they take cover the exact same way, and use similar weapons. The problem is that when they melee you…you get stuck and they can stunlock you. For people unaware of the term, stunlocking refers to when a person is trapped by a series of attacks from their attacker and are completely unable to help themselves and are at the merciless brutality of their attacker's combo. This happens a lot in the game and makes going into CQC with enemy soldiers (or just about anyone really since melee is so weak) a death sentence as their combo will shave off half your health if they connect just once, but you'll also be getting shot at from across the map most likely as well. Also, the enemies can push you into a corner sometimes and just outright kill you, with no chance of getting away. This happens a lot with the Tyrant enemy, but when you fight two at once, then it's just plain unfair.
My streak comes to an end here. There are, in fact, good things about the game. It's the only co-op game that's actually made an effort to seem that it relies genuinely on teamwork, because it does. The skills of all characters can be combined to great effect to form a truly genuine death squad, but most of the time it's completely unnecessary therefore they are just filler ways of doing special things on the field.
The levels are very long and all points of it take place in a single game. Once the level starts, there aren't any more loading times, which I found to be pretty impressive. They had a lot of size to work with but they just couldn't bring it to its potential. It's doubly sad that there was no non-linearity in choosing which of the series' great characters you could take down and change history with. The USS team never gets into skirmishes with the Echo Six team despite all of the build-up and all of the chances they could have throughout the game.
The fact you can combine your skills and really help each other out is a great thing. It shows a lot of attention put into the game play that just wasn't executed well enough.
The music in the game is really nice, and the stage preparation theme was great. It set the tone for getting into the action and for once in an action game, in months, I actually felt like the music was backing me. It's rare to see a game try with its BGM if it's not an RPG anymore, so I'll give credit for that. Most of the sound effects, however, just aren't as good as the music.
I have to say the one thing that looked really good and interesting about the game from the exact get-go was the main menu screen with a mutated fetus they've got there. Sadly it just makes the game seem deeper than it actually is, but it does look really nice and is a good touch on a game where virology reigns.
There were a lot of missed opportunities for context-sensitive actions, such as helping your squad off the ground from getting knocked down by zombies or climbing up things or lifting broken doors, kicking through walls or blowing something up etc. If those things could have been added and a lot more elements to allow players to help one another through thick and thin, the game could have been a lot better improved visuals or not.
When a team mate goes down, you have to revive them. It's the simple act of just holding a button while looking at their corpse but it makes no sense. They just re-appear, and your character does nothing. It would have been more immersive if they brought out some kind of defibrillator or other such item and raised them from their state. Also, sometimes when your teammate gets infected and turns into a zombie, you have to kill them, and when you do, it sometimes destroys their body, like destroying their head or blowing off their upper half. At that point, it would have been more interesting if they were just out of the game forever, making infection a lot more dangerous than it is and something to truly fear.
There are numerous minor bugs such as enemies getting stuck in geometry, lickers getting stuck in ceiling holes, and more that make the game more or less a child's silly and innocent attempt at making a violent video game. Enemies die and get stuck in the walls and lickers will just hang from the ceiling by their claws if they get killed there.
Sometimes it actually seems like the graphics are actually better than they seem and they were simply compromised too much to allow for bigger levels and more enemies on screen. If they were more frugal with how they handled things, it might have been a better game in that area as well.
In closing, it's a fun co-op romp. It's a lot more fun than some of the others out there, such as L4D2, it has a lot of ways to work together but in the end it just leaves the taste of morbidity in your mouth. It can go from extremely easy to extremely hard in a heartbeat, the difficulty pacing and pacing in general are just poorly conceived and applied in ways that detracts from the value the more you play. It had a lot of potential and could have been the answer we needed for a new Resident Evil: Outbreak, but it failed in almost all of the possible ways and never came close to fruition.
This is the kind of game a group of college friends would buy just for kicks and sit around all night playing it and having fun, the next morning forgetting about it. It should be rented first or found in the bargain bin someday, as willingly paying full price for a game that basically screams unfinished at this point is a symptom of the G-Virus.
No, not that kind, I mean the Gullible kind.