Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, aka Left 4 Resident Evil

Capcom has decided to jump in on the four player co-op zombie action with Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. The game is set in Raccoon City in 1998 during the outbreak that was the backdrop to Resident Evil 2 and 3. You'll play as one of three factions: the Umbrella Security Services, tasked with killing the zombies and the survivors; the U.S. military's Special Ops, tasked with stopping the USS and killing the zombies; or Umbrella's out-of-control bioweapons (BOWs, in the language of the series).

The announced changes to the series are so obvious we could practically chant them in unison: this entry is much more action-oriented than its predecessors with a focus on gunplay. It's gear toward online co-operative and competitive play. Shooty shoot bang bang bang. You'll see familiar characters and items, like healing herbs, but this isn't your mother's Resident Evil.

Here's a teaser trailer:

I suppose a straight-up shooter is the inevitable direction the franchise has been heading in, but I can't say I'm thrilled about it.

(PS3/360/PC. Sorry, Wii gamers.)

Wasn't this what Resident Evil: Survivor was supposed to be? Maybe not Survivor, but I remember reading about an RE MMO-style game wherein the players could be survivors, Umbrella operatives, or zombies on Racoon City streets, with hilarity ensuing. I'm pretty sure they canned the project or at least completely uprooted it and made it something completely different, though.

This seems like it should be a thread necro from 18 months ago.

Seemed very much like Resident Left 4 Dead when I saw it earlier. There wasn't much gameplay in the trailer so I'm feeling indifferent. I'm not sure what else the RE series could bring to the table to be honest.

WipEout wrote:

Wasn't this what Resident Evil: Survivor was supposed to be? Maybe not Survivor, but I remember reading about an RE MMO-style game wherein the players could be survivors, Umbrella operatives, or zombies on Racoon City streets, with hilarity ensuing. I'm pretty sure they canned the project or at least completely uprooted it and made it something completely different, though.

Well, there was Resident Evil: Outbreak. It was basically RE co-op without voice chat. Players had a set list of commands and in game characters would shout like "Over here!" and "This way!" which other players could hear. Events were scripted. For example, the game would start off on the bottom floor with zombies busting in. So everyone has to run to the 2nd floor. Up there, you have the option of nailing wood planks on the door to block the zombies. Now, if you activated this event without making sure everyone was with you, you'd lock someone out and they'd die. If no one boarded up the door, it would be harder to move forward. Each scenario had these little events that a player could trigger or randomness like needing to spit up or someone being kidnapped by a giant wasp. And, if I remember correctly, dead players could rise up and attack the survivors.

It's coming out for PC too.

WipEout wrote:

Wasn't this what Resident Evil: Survivor was supposed to be? Maybe not Survivor, but I remember reading about an RE MMO-style game wherein the players could be survivors, Umbrella operatives, or zombies on Racoon City streets, with hilarity ensuing. I'm pretty sure they canned the project or at least completely uprooted it and made it something completely different, though.

Resident Evil Outbreak, I do believe. That game handled much like the older games albeit with the possibility of playing with others, although it being on the PS2 meant that the online functionality was shaky at best. I wouldn't mind seeing a revisit of that formula with the online functionality we have today. From what I've heard though, this game is definitely more action oriented than the Outbreak games.

Gumbie wrote:

It's coming out for PC too.

You are correct. I've edited the original post.

That's right-- Outbreak! I remember reading about it before its release, and it was supposed to be a 4 v. 4 v. 4 affair in which there are 4 survivors, 4 umbrella operatives trying to get to them, and 4 military/swat types trying to save the survivors from the zombies and the Umbrella folks. Outbreak is what they sadly (and understandably, given the hardware limitations of the time) dumbed it down to. Maybe this is the rebirth of that version of Resident Evil, now that the tech and demand seem to actually exist to support it.

So for reasons I can't explain, I think I'm a Resident Evil fanboy. Mildly, at least. I keep buying the games, and even though the stories are completely crap-tacular (except the story of the mansion from the first), I keep wanting to come back and play more of these games.

Normally I'd probably foam at the mouth with this game, but after reading a preview (what a dumb idea on my part) and being sated by Revelations' more traditional gameplay and excellence, I'm feeling a bit more open-minded.

I'd just need people to play it with.

In any case, if I get it, I'll toss thoughts in here.

As for Outbreak, poor Capcom. That game would have made a much better Xbox Live premiere title on the original Xbox, and could have even been a system seller in Japan. I'd like to see another attempt with that game, but I think Capcom sees that sort of gameplay as being for a niche audience and the shooty shoot bang bang being what makes the big bucks (hence Revelations on the smaller 3DS for niche audiences, and Raccoon City on big power consoles and PC).

I LOVED Outbreak. Like CC said, I would really like Capcom to take another shot on that side note of this series. I have many many memories playing that game late at night, working together and pulling through what seemed impossible. Great game, great sounds and characters.

As for Resident Evil: ORC. I'm really worried about this game. A lot of the previews seem really negative, I just hope they make changes to the core mechanics before it releases. Heck, push it back if need be.

Work load is light today, so I figured I'd drop some links.

First, Xbox gets an exclusive mode called "Nemesis"! ...for $4.

Second, Capcom pretty much confesses their console variants chasing the Call of Duty crowd. Hopefully Revelations sells enough that Capcom will consider more games of the original vein on the smaller platform.

Third, a preview.

I really wish there would be more campaign based previews outlined, though. I imagine I'll have more time to play by my lonesome than with friends online.

This been posted yet?

Not even slightly a Resident Evil fan, tried to play 4 on my PC once and couldn't rebind the keys the way I liked, so promptly gave up on it.

I checked out this trailer on Steam on a whim, if the game can live up to this, I'll be very interested indeed. It's only a cinematic of course, so it means exactly zip, but I'm liking the concept a lot.

I got to play it at PAX East, and while it's not too bad (and not like Left 4 Dead at all aside from shooting zombies), it's not polished enough in design or mechanics to be $60. I'd buy it at $30, but the real issue is this game clearly shines in co-op play. Which means you'd have to convince three other friends to buy it.

That's a tough swallow.

It's already down to 37 on Amazon. If it gets much lower, I could be persuaded to go in if we get a guaranteed squad to play together. that would be on 360, though.

Guys, you should really watch some gameplay of this one before you consider buying it. I watched some people play it on Twitch.tv about a week after release and it wasn't just bad, it was broken. And on the rare occasion when the game did actually work, it looked really bad. It looked very much like Slant Six slapped a Resident Evil skin on the horrible version of SOCOM that they made a few years ago and called it good.

At first I thought I just got a guy that was having some bad luck with it, but I watched four different streams and everybody was getting super frustrated with the game.

Thin_J wrote:

Guys, you should really watch some gameplay of this one before you consider buying it. I watched some people play it on Twitch.tv about a week after release and it wasn't just bad, it was broken. And on the rare occasion when the game did actually work, it looked really bad. It looked very much like Slant Six slapped a Resident Evil skin on the horrible version of SOCOM that they made a few years ago and called it good.

At first I thought I just got a guy that was having some bad luck with it, but I watched four different streams and everybody was getting super frustrated with the game.

Yup I gave it a fair shake but after 15 minute I realized the developer's hearts really weren't in this one. Terrible combat, janky movement, flat out broken AI and random animation glitches just made it unplayable for me. Fastest rental return I've ever made.

I don't understand how they could screw it up so badly. Just take RE5's mechanics (a game that's pretty old now), create typical RE maps with wider corridors, and throw in a few more people. I'd be all over that.

CptGlanton wrote:

I don't understand how they could screw it up so badly. Just take RE5's mechanics (a game that's pretty old now), create typical RE maps with wider corridors, and throw in a few more people. I'd be all over that.

Problem there is it doesn't appeal to the Call of Duty crowd enough, which is the honey pot Capcom wants to be licking from.

Maybe I'm more tolerant of certain things. I actually enjoyed my time well enough at PAX East with it. Not amazing, not mind-blowing, but even though my first play of it was clunky I still liked going back to it.

I had it from gamefly for a few days. I really enjoyed parts of it, shooting swarms of zombies, but the rest of the game (controls, AI,) just really took away from it.

Well I said I'd buy it if the game were roughly $20, and GameStop had it for $20. I bought it for PS3 since they didn't have it shrink wrapped for Xbox 360.

Don't suppose anyone here would be interested in grabbing it for some online co-op on PS3 of all systems?

EDIT:

Well I've played the first three missions solo. I should note that I'm evidently easy to please when it comes to shooters, as everyone else says Spec Ops: The Line is terrible in terms of gameplay but I found it to be fun. So it could be I have a total lack of credibility in that regard.

I do wonder why Capcom chose Slant Six as a developer. They are a relatively new developer with nothing but SOCOM games under their belt, and only the first (on PSP) received positive feedback it seems. Confrontation received much more poor feedback. Then again, Capcom has yet to team with a rather large Western developer for any of their projects. Maybe it is just easier to grab unknown devs.

In any event, the game's story is pretty much not even worth noting. This is Resident Evil, after all, and nothing makes sense. In the first level you and a few other UBCS soldiers are entering Umbrella's lab, and HUNK notes that you are to shoot any security team you encounter. Why? Well, Umbrella hired Mercenaries, and Mercenaries can be bought.

I don't remember how things went down in Resi2, but Umbrella must have been an impossibly large corporation to not only afford a special operations force of their own, but also mercenaries to act as security. In fact, wouldn't these Mercenaries have been aware of the experiments the whole time? What's to stop them from stealing sensitive materials and taking them to the highest bidder? Why not just have your own force, even though nothing is going to stop them from turning traitor either?

It's the most sorry excuse for trying to provide the player something to shoot at that happens to shoot back. There are no zombies until the second level.

Oddly enough, it's the monsters and B.O.W.s that are the least fun to fight. They all suck up an enormous amount of ammo, barely react to it, and in the case of Hunters are able to knock you down and then swipe at you while your character takes an excruciatingly long time to stand up.

These wouldn't be so bad if I had human partners, though. The A.I. certainly shoots things, but headshots don't even come into consideration. On occasion the A.I. will also heal themselves or others, though it doesn't seem to happen often. They only seem to pick up items that I happen to want as well (though this, fortunately, has only been a rare thing, nowhere near approaching how bad Left 4 Dead can be in this regard). I think the most irritating thing is the A.I. seems to have been given no program code to recognize environmental hazards. Is there a large stream of fire bursting from that pipe? No problem, try to walk through it.

At least they shoot the trip mines before walking through.

The game provides some additional ways to gain experience aside from just killing things (of which it gives no report of until the end of the map, and quite possibly you just gain 8000 experience for simply completing a mission). You can collect data that can then be inserted into a laptop in order to gain 50XP per piece of data. This is supposed to represent sensitive files that can link Umbrella to the events of Raccoon City, but sometimes these files are in spots that make absolutely no sense. I wandered through three rooms with at least five computer desks with no data, and then I saw some floppy disks sitting at the base of a fancy looking column in the middle of a hallway.

These are relatively easy to find. The security cameras, on the other hand, I wasn't even aware of until I happened to destroy one by accident with a grenade. Then the game gladly informed me that I can destroy the cameras and gain +50XP for each one.

Now let's just go into the "story" concept again and consider that destroying a camera does NOT destroy the video it already captured. The record of zombies, monsters and my passing through is still recorded somewhere.

Let's also talk about grenades. They're almost worthless. The A.I. on both teams is typically smart enough to know to run away from a grenade, which is nice for my teammates but bad for me. There is no option to cook a grenade, so you basically throw it and then it takes a few seconds before it explodes. It would have been nice if I could cook a grenade to get a more instant reaction while allowing enemy grenades to give me some time before going off.

As for actual shooting mechanics, let me give you some advice. Go into options, and if it sounds like it's a form of auto-aim or aim assist, turn it off. My character's default weapon had lasersight and at first I thought the game simply had God awful mechanics. The sight seemed to bounce around everywhere with no rhyme or reason. Then I noticed on zombies it was occasionally targeting the head automatically. So I went into the options and found not one, not two, but three different things that sounded like some form of aim assist.

I shut them all off, and now shooting behaves like shooting should. The enemies are still strangely reactionary to certain things (if they're in the middle of a "push back" animation from getting shot in the shoulder, then a head shot won't register as a head shot), but enemies go down a lot faster for me now that I turned that sh*t off than when I had it on. I can only wonder how much better this game would have done review wise if that was never on in the first place.

Cover mechanics: worst ever. I'm pretty sure there's no crouch button, either.

Oh! I just remembered, characters are able to use abilities. You aren't told which button uses them, and the game never really brings it up, but you can buy them and then use the Triangle/Y button to activate it. Too bad I never think about it because the game doesn't really call it to my attention. There are on screen indicators to inform you, of course, but nothing that screams to the player "YOU CAN USE A SPECIAL ABILITY NOW".

There are more things I could tear down, such as the final set piece of each map being really, really hard and not properly balanced when you have A.I. instead of human players, but I don't want to make it sound like this is the worst game I've ever played. I'm enjoying it, after all. I want to play more after playing through three maps.

It's just a shame because I feel like this idea had potential. I mean, I'm not against spin-off games. I had friends that were pissed Raccoon City existed because ResiEvil is supposed to be horror, but if Capcom wants to try and appeal to a different market with a spin-off I see nothing wrong with that. I actually think the UBCS and BSAA would make for great uses for a more shooter-oriented experience.

But this game needed more time to consider what it needed to be. You don't feel like a special ops force (do you ever?), there's a definite idiot ball being passed around, and the gameplay and enemies seem to be thought up in only the most superficial ways. Plus, co-op only serves to have characters with multiple classes and the ability to heal one another (which would work a lot better in co-op).

Speaking of idiot ball, my favorite part in the beginning of the second mission. They run into an Umbrella security guy. While this guy, with his own machine gun, is standing RIGHT THERE, someone asks "Should I get rid of the liability?" If you can't figure out that clever code, then the team leader (played by you) says "He'll get himself killed. It won't matter". WHILE SHE WAS LOOKING AT HIM.

So they basically had a conversation about killing him while he's standing right there with a machine gun.

Worst special ops team ever