Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is a new title in the Resident Evil Franchise that has been put out to tide us over until Resident Evil 6 is released. RE: ORC takes you back to RE: 2 and 3 and lets you see some events unfold through a different perspective. RE: ORC also lets you make an interesting hypothetical choice at the end of the game that would change the entire series if it were to actually unfold down this path.
Presentation : A
Graphics / Animation / Sound
The look of this game gives you an instant arcade feel. The opening title menu and selection screen direction are in the vein of the last two RE games, but once you start the campaign its a different look. Although the 6 characters you get to choose from to start the game are all wearing a mask of some sort (who blows away zombies with no face protection?), they still all have a different look, and the character models are done quite well.
I do think it’s worth noting, that the lighting especially blew me away. Just in the streets alone in the game, there are all kinds of car lights, street lights, or turned over police motorcycles flashing and glaring in your face. It is really impressive and possibly some of the best lighting work I’ve ever seen.
The overall look of the game looks great, though there are sometimes bosses or cut-scenes with moving vehicles that are fuzzy.
The animation of the cut-scenes look good, but seem to be two different styles. Anything that has to do with RE 2 or 3 (Nemesis, Tyrants) look like HD upgrades, while anything made new for the game looks totally up to date. It’s not necessarily a big deal, but it does look a little weird to see them spliced together.
I actually really enjoyed the sound. Different item pick ups have the same sound effects as the prior games, and the new sound effects are appropriate. The music in the game is great…even if im the only person who thinks so. I felt that the music built up the game great at times, and I really enjoy the fast paced feeling that the character select screen produces. To be honest, this game has more memorable music than the last few RE games.
Single Player : B
Game mechanics / Length / difficulty
This is a warning, especially to Resident Evil fans: This is NOT a regular Resident Evil game. Please know this before playing. If you are looking for a quest type game with long campaigns and insanely deep story lines wait for RE6 or play the previous titles. What they did with RE: ORC is put a pure arcade shooter in your homes and tie it in with some of the original story line so you could see side effects not experienced in RE 2 and 3.
The arcade goodness is very fun and addicting. Honestly, I really enjoyed picking through characters, mix and matching their special abilities and weapons, then taking my crew to the streets and blowing away Spec Ops soldiers and zombies. Lot’s and lot’s of zombies. Sometimes in the game you will come upon 60 -70 zombies at a time. Head shots take them down faster, or you can make them suffer by blowing off their limbs. There are plenty of types of guns to choose from; machine guns, shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles…you name it pretty much you’ve got it. The guns have a good weight to them, and responded like I expected them too. You can also come across a flame thrower and a grenade launcher. They do a good job of spreading health and replacement ammo around the game so you don’t have to count every bullet. Since this is an arcade type shooter, the melee CQC has been made stronger, and lets you do more than swing and stab like it’s your last resort. You can actually take a lot of zombies out in this manner so you don’t get sick of using only guns. You can curb stomp zombies as well, which is always fun.
One really cool aspect of the game, is if you get infected, you need to find the spray to neutralize that infection, or you will slowly turn into a zombie. If that happens, your team mates will kill you. If you bleed out, zombies will go into a blood frenzy and attack you like you stole something. It all adds to a really cool atmosphere.
The special abilities you can unlock are really cool, and there are a lot of unique abilities for each character. The only problem is they are not implemented well. For example, when I saw Spectre had thermal vision I could unlock, I instantly worked on that. Once achieved, when you put it on, you can’t see the zombies attacking, because they have little to no heat source. I can see the Spec Ops enemies, but the game mostly has zombies so it’s really of no use. When I use Vector’s active camouflage, it doesn’t work when I shoot, or fight bosses. When I try to control other zombies with Four Eye’s programmable B.O.W.’s the games moving so fast it’s not even worth taking the time. Same with trying to heal my crew with Bertha’s medic arsenal. All really cool ideas, but none really worth taking the time to use.
You earn XP in the game to unlock weapons and upgrade your special abilities. The fastest way in the campaign to gain XP is to collect data spread throughout the levels. You earn other XP once you have completed the level and they show you an earned XP screen. You can earn a lot more XP, and earn it faster by playing the online games.
I will say the story plays out more in your head than in the game. The cut-scenes are cool, but the ones they play when the levels are loading are longer. I can’t help but liken them to the Time Crisis arcade franchise, just for reference. They do a good job of explaining where you are and what your goals are, but they are short. To avoid spoilers, I won’t talk to much about the ending, but after playing both choices, you don’t really get an explanation about what is going on during the final battle. It just kinda of happens, and is slightly disappointing.
Ok…so this game is short. After I beat the game, I checked my game save, and I beat it in 5 hrs 37 min. I replayed the last level, to choose the alternate ending, and it took 19 min. Unacceptable. This is really my first true complaint about the game, it’s probably the shortest campaign I’ve played on this generation of consoles, and maybe even the previous two.
This game is not difficult, though at times it wants you to try to outrun the zombie horde instead of fighting it. You do have to pay attention to that. There are markers to lead the way through the levels, and those definitely help.
Multiplayer : C
Game mechanics / features / Online features
I’ve said it time and again…I hate it when developers leave out the split screen. I know I’m old school, but I like people to come over and play in person better than playing online. So no split screen, but you can do co-op campaign, which is the only redeemable feature of the multiplayer. The other modes are kind of cool, but your going to lose your interest really fast. You can play a ‘Capture the Flag’ type of game, where you retrieve and guard samples, but its sluggish and hard to tell who’s on your team and who your fighting. One game mode called ‘Survivor’ is the most fun. You try to survive until a helicopter extraction arrives, and it only holds a certain number of people so you have to fight for a spot on it. If your last you get left behind and lose. These online games don’t really provide any replay value and are not very fun. You can also choose other playable characters, but they don’t really provide anything special.
Really, without split screen play, the only good quality online content is the co-op campaign.
Replay Value : C
Lasting appeal / Bonus Content / DLC
Playing this game as an arcade shooter is very fun. I’ve gone back and replayed a couple of cool levels like the Graveyard and Police Station. Because the game is so short though, it’s replay value is limited.
Right now you can get some alternate costumes, extra guns, and play as alternate characters. RE usually does a good job of adding extra content so they probably will be supporting this for at lease a few more months.
The only thing you can really unlock besides in-game weapons and abilities are some concept art pieces which are cool for a few seconds, but I don’t really like unlockable concept art in any game so I wasn’t that impressed.
Most people who review this game say it’s terrible and don’t bother playing it. While most of them do bring up some valid points, I think a lot of them are missing the point. These games are for our entertainment and specifically, RE: ORC is an arcade style shooter, and is not the normal Resident Evil game. They did a great job of letting is go back to the beginning of the franchise and mess around with it. If this game were in a wooden arcade cabinet, it would get most of our quarters. It’s a really neat game, and yes it has many flaws, but is still fun to play. Though I can recommend this game, I cannot recommend spending full retail price as it is WAY too short, and there is not split screen.
Overall : B
