Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City Review [XBox 360]

Boredom is the infection, and it kills Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City off within the first hour...

By Stuart W. Bedford / March 25, 2012

rating:1.5

Ugh where do I begin? I was dubious of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City from the off. Theoretically, it could have been great. Theoretically. But there are two types of tie-ins: those made with love, with care and due diligence, appeasing long standing fans while delivering something fresh and previously unexplored. Then theres gaming abortions like this; a stilted, uninspired and largely broken snooze-fest of a shooter, with a franchise title slapped on the front of the box in a vague ploy to fool fanboys into parting with their soft earned geek-dollars. Operation Raccoon City takes us back to where it all began. The game is set during the initial outbreak, which mainly spans the timelines of Resident Evil 2 and 3. Fans of the series will see some familiar faces and set pieces from the originals from time to time, but even as a Resi follower myself I found these to be cheap derivatives, similar only in aesthetic while carrying none of the original resonance. In fact, the story mode in and of itself was dire. Theres no new exposition into who Umbrella are and why theyre such assholes, theres no interesting character development or indeed any kind of characters at all worth caring about (even Leon and Clair, who I already cared about, did absolutely nothing of interest except shoot). And frankly, I see this as a cardinal sin for an entry into the Resi franchise, in which traditionally interesting character development and heart-pounding plot are a main draw.

Ok, so story mode is particularly poor, but Operation Raccoon City is a multiplayer so lets operate under the assumption that its team-based game dynamic is the main focus. Does its campaign mode at least work as an online team shooter? No. No it doesnt. ORC is broken in so many ways that playing through the games co-op campaign, with either fellow humans or CPU bots, is as frustrating as buttering toast with a fork. For a start enemy AI is incredibly poor the smartest thing your non-zombie enemies will ever do is dive away from a grenade. The rest of the time theyll follow a predictable pattern through cover and sometimes theyll even just stand there in front of you doing nothing as though theyre inviting a bullet to the chops. But even that isnt as bad as your supposed teammates. Operation Raccoon City is theoretically meant to be played online, with a squad of human players and that does admittedly solve a portion of these issues, but even still these are some of the worst CPU controlled bots Ive played alongside in a long while. If theyre there at all, they should be at least half a help, right? Not here. You can't give them orders or control them in any way and this leads to problems. They often ruin your line of sight, stepping right in your way just as you line up that perfect head shot and in general you feel more like their care-worker than their squad leader. Often times, one of my team would die and I just wouldnt care; they literally bring nothing to the table. Theyll storm ahead allowing themselves to be surrounded by Zombies, or into a tripwire, setting off a mine as though theyve given up on life altogether. Maybe they realise just how bad the game is and hope for a quick, painless death before the reviews flood in. More likely though theyve been programmed all wrong, by a team with little time and even less of a care.

There are just too many problems present here to even start thinking about idle things like fun while youre playing Operation Raccoon City. Its aiming system is largely flawed; youll be getting definite headshots that dont register while your enemy ducks back into cover unharmed. When they do finally catch the bullet to the face, theyll usually just flinch a little before firing back somehow their body armour took the bullet instead of their brain. Either that or the devs forgot to put their brains in. And the games blind-fire from cover works around 50% of the time, which effectively renders it 100% useless as it cant be relied upon when its needed. Youll die often Im sure, and it wont be your fault either. The true skill in a game like this has nothing to do with your aim or your ability to prioritize targets, but everything to do with your willingness to keep playing long enough to learn loopholes through the shitty game design. Operation Raccoon City uses an automatic cover system, which basically means youll stick to any surface you approach. If it was done well then fair enough, but in ORC it translates to sticking to every wall you dont want to, while never quite managing to get fully into the cover you intended to without taking a quarter health bar worth of damage. And there are portions of the game where youre dealing with some of the franchises monster races; Zombies, Lickers and Hunters for example. Here, taking cover is largely useless, but thanks to the auto-cover system you will end up accidentally sticking to a filing cabinet at the worst possible time. If cover was needed at all then we should have been given the option to activate it ourselves, or dont include it at all. As it is, it just doesnt serve its purpose. There was definite potential with Operation Raccoon City. The Resident Evil Universe is large by now, and theres much potential enjoyment still to be mined from those original stories, but it feels like the developers didnt really give much of a shit about all that; that the Resident Evil name enough would do their job for them. Of course we, as discerning consumers, know otherwise. Its justboring. The short campaign yields more frustration than fun, with or without human team mates, and the massive flaws in the game engine are felt just as much in its multiplayer mode the same issues with the core mechanics exist there too, except now your enemies are largely (and will most likely be entirely in a weeks time) disgruntled Resi fanboys making believe that this is in fact a good game. There are four competitive multiplayer modes available aside from the co-op campaign, holding up to eight players, although why youd want to extend your experience beyond even the first twenty minutes of gameplay is beyond me. Heroes mode puts you in control of some of the series key players (such as Leon and Claire) in a 4 vs. 4 deathmatch. Theres also a capture the flag in the form of Biohazard mode, except replace flag for g-virus. Survivors mode pits you against hordes of enemies until an extraction chopper arrives and Team Attack mode is essentially your standard 4 vs. 4 team deathmatch. These are all fairly standard inclusions into a game of this genre and theyre all well and good in principal, but thanks to the dire engine and shoddy core mechanics that they house, its as bad here as it is everywhere else in the game. In all, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is a resounding disappointment. It is what it feels like: a cheap knock-off of the beloved Resident Evil, the grandfather of Survival Horror, produced only to cash in on the iconic name. Its the Movie all over again, in game form. I practically felt the need to shower after the short time I spent swearing my way through the campaign and multiplayer modes. Avoid it like the plague. Youd have more fun surviving the actual zombie holocaust.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is available to buy now on XBox 360, PS3 and PC.