Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City Review (PS3)
The Campaign falls short of expectations by a long shot. Spread out into seven chapters, the Umbrella Security Service team – AKA Wolf Pack - must complete mission after mission to deny Umbrella’s involvement in the zombie outbreak or remove evidence that would implicate Umbrella in any way. These missions are, of course, based in Raccoon City in September 1998 with particular areas which bring back waves of nostalgia for fans of early Resident Evil games. There are few moments where the USS team actually collide with the Heroes of Resident Evil 2 and 3, which can be infuriating at first as so much teaser information swayed towards this game having a large involvement in the original story. Once the campaign is completed, however, it is a relief that the majority of events were not played around with and the only major event change possibility is merely tongue in cheek and not to be taken seriously.
The USS team are all new characters never before seen in Resident Evil games and have their own pasts and abilities, though, with the campaign story line being so weak, it is hard to care for these characters past their class and special abilities.
The team classes are: Assault, Demolition, Medic, Field Scientist, Recon and Surveillance and each class has their own active and passive abilities that become useful in different situations and whilst fighting against particular enemies. These abilities can be purchased and upgraded with Experience Points earned from both Campaign levels as well as Versus matches online. Experience points are also used to purchase weapons and costumes for characters and never feel like wasted points as they carry over for other characters. For example, buying a shotgun will enable you to use that shotgun from now on regardless of class or level. However purchasing abilities works slightly differently as buying an ability for Demolition Class will mean that ability is unlocked for all characters that are Demolition Class and that class only; though it is still a good way to deal with a levelling system as it doesn’t require starting from scratch every time you switch character.
Enemies are also reminiscent of the earlier titles including not only zombies but B.O.Ws such as the Nemesis, as well as Lickers and Crawlers.
Operation Raccoon City’s saving grace is by far the online multiplayer aspect. The Campaign can be played online as multiplayer, and may be required if attempting to complete the campaign on Veteran or Professional difficulty settings as the AI for other characters can leave a fair bit to be desired. However, the most fun aspect of playing online multiplayer is in Versus where there is absolutely no pathetic attempt at a story to contend with, merely the aims of the match.
There is a choice between: Team Attack, which requires you to kill the other team, Biohazard, which requires you to collect vials of G-Virus samples, Heroes, where you must defend your team’s heroes (Ada Wong or Claire Redfield for example) and kill the other team’s heroes, or Survivor where your team must race to a helicopter before the other team to be evacuated, all the while fighting through hoards of enemies.
In Versus there are many more characters available to play as, each with their own class as stated above. The teams are USS, Spec Ops and Heroes.
The Campaign is there for a player to learn the basics, Versus is for a player to learn how to play the game.
Graphics are mediocre, particularly in cut scenes with well-known characters from previous Resident Evil games as much more detail and fluidity is expected. There are few glitches and these mediocre graphics mean little when mowing down wave after wave of enemies in multiplayer feels so damn satisfying. The controls are simple and easy to manage, a few more functions such as Quick Turn (tapping a button to turn 180 degrees) would have been a welcome return from the series but do not leave a frustrating gap in the gameplay.
Overall, this game is immensely fun though is not seen as a “true” Resident Evil title in many hard core fans eyes.
Rebecca Foran
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