Operation Raccoon City ignores everything that made Resident Evil a fun and frightening series.
Veterans of the Resident Evil franchise will find the story to be relatively coherent, but far from essential. You play as a member of Delta Team under the order of Umbrella to recover a viral sample from a laboratory in Raccoon City. Under direct order from Resident Evil mainstay, HUNK, the player goes through the game, following the events of Raccoon City's viral outbreak. The amount of fan service delivered in Operation Raccoon City is respectable enough for long-time followers of Umbrella, but for those who aren't familiar with the mythology, there isn't much reason to empathize with any of the characters, even at the game's conclusion. Cameos by Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield help a bit and are appreciated. However, the characters are far from fleshed out. The storyline is an interesting spin on the Resident Evil mythology (since you do get to play as the "bad guys"), but the team is far from charismatic and the tried-and-true roles tend to show their fan service skills more than their demand for a truly captivating purpose.
Controlling your character of choice in Raccoon City is clunky. Though it shares the Resident Evil 5 control setup relatively well, the cover system is awkward and difficult to use effectively. Instead of pressing a button to sidle up against cover, players must tilt the analog stick toward the cover, where the game automatically glues the character to the wall. This is a problem that makes the firefights difficult to navigate, as your character will stick to a wall with the slightest tilt of the analog stick, muddling up the battles' pacing. This is increasingly obnoxious when you're outrunning a monster, where the camera will get confused, leading to instant death. The gunplay itself, on the other hand, makes shooting too easy. The laser-sight introduced in Resident Evil 4 makes the gunfights drag on and on, swarm after swarm of easy-to-battle, cookie-cutter enemies. But even something as simple as picking up an herb for health turns out to be cumbersome when the inventory system is so mindlessly constructed. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City doesn't do much to make its controls as fluid as its peers. With an overly sensitive cover system, simple gunplay and a schizophrenic camera come together to make exploring Raccoon City a real chore.
Fear has been in the blood of Resident Evil since its inception, but it's grown increasingly apparent that the series is beginning to bleed itself dry. There isn't a single trace of concentrated and purposely implemented fear in Operation Raccoon City. The tension of Resident Evil is canned and processed into a form that's dull and boring. Seeing a monstrous creature burst from the walls is a bit disorienting at first, but after ten or so quick-time-events, the novelty wears off rapidly. Very much like the cooperative element in Resident Evil 5, having a crew to back you up doesn't make the game scary: it makes you always feel like your back is covered. It's very clear in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City that Capcom and Slant Six wanted to change the Resident Evil formula for a new age, but when so much of the core essence is drained away, the end result is something so derivative and dull that you're better off playing another Slant Six team shooter. To be frank, it's an inarguably unneeded game.
The multiplayer offers a solid amount of modes for the price, including Heroes Mode, which lets players take control of some of the more iconic Resident Evil characters. The Nemesis Mode even brings in Nemesis from Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, allowing players to test-drive his own skills. These modes are entertaining, but don't take a significant amount of creativity. The multiple zombie types scream Left 4 Dead, though it's the clumsy controls that make the modes much more irrelevant in their design.
Though Resident Evil 4 and 5 remain great looking games for their respective times, Operation Raccoon City's presentation is pretty uninspired. The low amount of scary moments is hindered further by some muddy textures and bland design. Glitches are also overly present and even the character models themselves feel derivative. None of the monsters in Operation Raccoon City set the bar past what's been seen in Left 4 Dead and past Resident Evil games. The audio is decent. The voice acting does move a bit past Resident Evil's older cheese factors, but there's nothing to write home about. Compared to the groundbreaking Resident Evil 4 and the shimmering visual spectacle of Resident Evil 5, there isn't much in Operation Raccoon City that distinguishes it from other, much more creatively made shooters.
The Resident Evil series has had its ups and downs this generation, but Operation Raccoon City is a bizarre low for this iconic franchise. It just doesn't feel like a Resident Evil game; the developers didn't do much to make it feel that way. The controls are sensitive, touchy, and cumbersome. When picking up an item is more of an ordeal than taking out a colossal zombie creature, there's definitely something wrong with the control setup. The mode count compliments the multiplayer focus, but distances the game from the Resident Evil vibe, which in Operation Raccoon City, is downright ignored. A bland presentation and obscure storyline don't do much for Operation Raccoon City's case either. Though there are moments of potential for a team-based shooter experience in the Resident Evil universe, Operation Raccoon City is a serious misstep for the franchise, thanks to fundamental control issues and a lack of Resident Evil essence. You wouldn't be hurting anyone ignoring this flawed game.