An Unbiased Review of a fanboy's nightmare.

User Rating: 4.5 | Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City X360
To start this review let me make something very clear: This is only my opinion, the opinion of a non-partisan individual looking for a fun game to play to pass the time, not a hardcore fanboy or a video game snob. Now, I enjoy the Resident Evil games, but would never really consider myself a fan. That being said, I had no expectations for this game one way or the other. I grabbed it from Redbox at 1 this morning specifically with the intention of posting a review that is truly unbiased. I can honestly say that this game is a disaster. By this I mean that it's all over the place. Clunky controls, poor character animation, shoddy graphics, glitches galore and abysmal AI (both on your side an not) all contribute to an experience that is, for the most part, mediocre at best. The story for the campaign is damn near nonexistent. You have objectives which loosely tie into Resident Evil 2 and 3, but overall this is just a generic 3rd person shooter that is taking advantage of a group's adoration of a beloved series. If this didn't say "Resident Evil" on the cover this game would just come off as a poor attempt to recapture the magic of a group game like Left For Dead. The graphics are acceptable but mostly lackluster with a bit of "Smoke in Mirrors" effects to push them farther up the scale (ie lens flares, some canned fire etc.). The voice acting doesn't add anything here either, just continues to show exactly how generic the whole experience is. This all being said there is an upside: the campaign isn't great but the pain doesn't last long (like pulling off a bandaid) its only about 5-7 hours depending on play speed and commitment to grabbing collectibles.

After stripping away the Resident Evil label, what is left is frustrating controls that try their best to be "Gears Of War-esque, but what it ends up being is frustrating and clunky, and worst of all restricting. The fact that pushing a direction is the only way to enter cover and there is no real way to dodge or combat roll make it really hard to navigate around a battle with any real finesse. Not to mention that you consistently get stuck on objects while in your most fearsome voice you scream at the screen "WHAT THE %^&% ARE YOU ^&^*#(@ DOING YOU @#$% IDIOT?!!" The worst part, though, is the melee system. Never have I experienced a less rewarding, more shoddy and ineffective melee system. Deftly smashing B and watching your character blindly (it seems) lash out at everything around you dealing no real damage is truly the epitome of unsatisfying. Now this will be the only moment in which I nitpick but: Resident Evil has always had good melee weapons, or at least a feeling of control with them. The knife from RE1 to Code Veronica and beyond were staples of zombie survival, but here, you're better off just forgetting about it.

Now there are aspects that are a bit of fun in here. By "aspects" I pretty much mean killing zombies. A past time that is always enjoyable and relentlessly rewarding. The zombies in this game are fun to kill, losing limbs and body parts as you unload whatever weapon you're carrying in their general direction. What gets in the way of this fun are the Spec Ops guys who attach you in herds ("they DO move in herds"). These guys are the same-old-same-old point and shoot fare that we have been fed ad nauseum. My biggest problem with dealing with these cretins is not that they are incredibly dimwitted and seem rarely to miss you at the same time, but the fact that head shots mean nothing here. They can take 2-4 shots straight to the "Dome Piece" before they go down and lets not even get into how many damn bullets these sponges can absorb straight into the body. All of this gets in the way of doing what comes oh-so-naturally to us, again, killing zombies.

Multiplayer proves to be a bit more rewarding when it comes to team work but all that was mentioned above continues to plague the experience and make it harder to continue playing this game instead of just switching over to one of the hundreds of better titles out there. Now, is this game worth playing? I can never answer this question as i firmly believe that all games are worth playing, there's only so far another gamer's opinion can take you, in the end it's entirely up to the individual's personal tastes and feelings on the subject. All I can say is it certainly isn't worth the $60 price tag and the self loathing that buying it entails. That being said there is some fun to be had with it especially if you team up with friends to fight the undead. Rent it if you can, or wait until it's used at Gamestop and utilise that fantastic 1 week return policy and see for yourself. I'll just close by saying this game isn't for me. Too much gets in my way to completely enjoy the experience, but it was worth the $2 to be able to try something new and do what nerds do best: Complain about it on the internet. I came, I saw, i conquered, I ejected it and ran it straight back to the Red Box for someone else to try out. Happy Gaming.