Saturday, March 23, 2024

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City Review for PS3

As you’ll find out through this review, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City tries its hand at concocting many experiences, but succeeds in delivering almost none. It’s not often that you get to work with something as massive as the Resident Evil franchise, but developer Slant Six Games seems to have blown its chance. Fan boys be alerted. Expecting this RE game to shower you with what you so lovingly adore about the series is as off-limits as Leon is to a decent haircut. Let’s admit it, spin-off stories are always enjoyable with their behind the scenes tidbits, and the same applies to RE: ORC’s narrative, without doubt. However, owing to questionable choices, new faceless characters and the overall feel, at times it becomes hard to believe that you’re in the realm of a Resident Evil universe, let alone relishing the story.

RE: Operation Raccoon City Art

At first glance, what interests you about Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is its story. The infamous Umbrella Security Service is out dispose of any traces of its involvement in the outbreak incident that had us shooting zombies all over the place in RE 2 and RE 3: Nemesis. You’re on the other side of the conflict this time around, as members of the Delta Team sent by Umbrella to cover up evidence. Three-way fights manifest, since in addition to zombies, the United States military is on the prowl, and somehow you manage to get onto their radar. Some uninteresting plot twists and forgettable gameplay later, the title reaches a stage where you need to decide whether to bump off Leon or not. We chose both these decisions one by one, and none changed our lives much in any way, chiefly due to our overall disappointment with the game.

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RE: Operation Raccoon City 1

Being a tactical shooter, the game has you enter as part of a four-member team, with six faceless characters to choose from. These counterparts can be rightfully labeled as good-for-nothing if they’re AI controlled. They feel free to wander off or even die during crunch situations. And you’d be lucky if their bullets actually manage to assist in killing enemies. Online partners are therefore a must if you wish to squeeze some excitement out of this game. But here’s where another dilemma slips in. The same whacky AI transcends onto the foes. Sometimes you’ll walk right past them completely unnoticed, and sometimes they’ll charge you all guns blazing. On occasion, ten shots will be sufficient to dispatch a foe, while at times it may take you thirty. This imbalance hits your adventure immensely and to add to that, there are also a few difficulty spikes scattered here and there.

RE: Operation Raccoon City 2

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Despite the focus being placed on tactics-based shooting, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City does try its hand at being scary, but those attempts often fall flat. Zombies continually pounce on you from behind closed doors, and after some time, you start expecting these situations. Character design is one department that seems to have a good amount of work put into it. The enemies look dangerous and impressive, and other characters like Leon, Claire and T-Birkin too manage to capture your attention. The shooting mechanics of this game are satisfactory. The same can’t be said about its melee system though, which is completely out of place, as it is not only unbalanced but also wayward at times. There’s even a cover system in place that works fine, but there are certain cover positions that, annoyingly enough, prevent you from shooting.

RE: Operation Raccoon City 3

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City even has a few control issues that dog you from time to time, blacking out the controllers for a few seconds. Its environments have been built to suit the episodic structure that the game adopts. It has been proven that a game’s art has a lot to do with creating lasting impressions on the minds of players. Perhaps RE: ORC should have taken a leaf out of this book; the entire game has you moving around in hackneyed surroundings that in no way echo the Resident Evil brand. The voice acting that has gone into the game is inconsistent and bears really clichéd dialogues which fail to grab your attention. On the graphics front, the title performs well, and displays its cut-scenes in a rather splendid manner, with the lighting being ideal as well. Slant Six Games’ Hexane engine deserves some acclaim here.

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RE: Operation Raccoon City 4

The online multiplayer components within the game will feel special to some as one of modes lets you play as Leon, Ada, Claire and other known characters from the RE universe. Multiplayer matches offer four modes that each support a maximum of eight players. But the hiccups in gameplay prevent these modes from being enjoyable. Unlike what the developers might have wished, these modes do no good to the replay value of RE: ORC.

RE: Operation Raccoon City 5

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Final Word: Taken as a whole, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City looks like an experiment gone terribly wrong. Issues like poor game balance, pitiable AI and an absence of the RE feel turn this one into a humdrum experience which plays out on a linear graph. At the end, you either save or kill Leon, and that’s where you start believing that you’ll at least get to witness something exciting. But unfortunately, that’s where the developers decide to roll the credits. There’s also an air of hastiness around everything, perhaps indicating that the title was rushed to meet a certain deadline. That’s believable as Capcom would definitely want some breathing room before October shines through with Resident Evil 6. Nonetheless, RE: ORC doesn’t manage to deliver the thrills it promises, and that’s final. Here’s our score for it.

Graphics: 7/10
Sounds: 5.5/10
Environments: 6.5/10
Gameplay: 5/10
Replay Value: 5/10
Overall (not an average): 5.5/10

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