Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Rent it first"

Resident Evil:
Operation Raccoon City

Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Slant Six Games
Platform: Xbox 360
Rated: Mature
Released: March 20,2012

Visuals:
The visuals for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City are just good enough to be slightly better then any of the last games that were on the PSX or for most the original Playstation and with the visuals for this game are good in detail with the character's you get to play as and with the detail of the legendary city of Raccoon City is done well with the art design and all the zombie's and all the B.O.W's all look pretty decent to look at and this game's design is pretty easy on the eyes, but they are pretty dated for this late of this generation of consoles and yet it still was pretty easy on the eyes. The visuals for this game does have it's flaws and yet it seemed to work for most part of the game with it decent visuals and at the same time they are just simply dated and it showed that the visuals of this are in the same category as Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and just slightly better to look at then Resident Evil 2.

So with detail to the playable character's of this and you have about 6 to choose and they are pretty decently detailed and not bad to look at and the detail to the legendary city of Raccoon City was detailed pretty well and it really brought me back to the day when I played Resident Evil, RE2, RE3: Nemesis and those game's of this series were way better to play and look at. The detail's to all the zombie's and B.O.W's all looked pretty great and decent but they were still a little dated. So in short for this game's visuals are pretty straight forward and the are just plain decent and it was just like Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City was built on the old engine from the past and in one made the visuals for this just plain decent, for this gen which is pretty much coming to an end soon.

Audio:
The audio for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is well let me say and point out that it is a little bit better than the visuals and in fact the audio for this is quite good enough with the pretty good voice work and the same goes the same for the sound effects and the game sound track/musical score. So I'll talk about the game quite good voice work and with the voice work for all the six character's of the U.S.S that you get to choose from are all quite good to hear and are quite good with being on the mark with their one liners in heated situation or in just and if you you picked up the special edition like I did then you get a prologue mission for the Spec-ops team and the voice work for there respective role's are quite good as well and the dialog is quite filled with some profanity trough out the game you'll get to hear it. The sound effect's for this game quite good as well from the moan's of the zombies, dogs and other sound from the B.O.W's and the explosions from the games grenades and from some cars that will explode and from the barrels as well, the explosions sound pretty good. The sound track/musical score of this game is pretty impressive and with the games music for this game works quite well and really helps with setting the tone when you get in to intense situations and even when you are in moments where they are not that intense and the music just really goes well with the game no matter the situation you are in.

So in short for the audio for this game is that voice work is the real shining spot because the sound effects are good but not that impressive and the sound track/musical score really does well with setting the mood for the game's intense moments or even in the not so intense moments of the games audio and the it is just simply that the voice work is the game greatest spot. So with all that said for the audio for this is that and if I have to shape it up with one the audio is just plain good and is really nothing to shake a stick at.

Gameplay:
The gameplay for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is well how can put it with being biased in anyway, because I am a fan of the series and I guess I have to say it that I was a little disappointed in this game's gameplay like the movement and the controls were a little clunky, but for most part the camera movement was pretty decent and at time's you do get to move the camera around and their are parts in this game where you have no choice but to deal with the bad camera placement that this game provides you with in some of the games supposed cinematic sequences were the game is trying to keep you playing in the game where it did not seem to work I'd rather have QTE's (Quick-time-events) in those parts rather then these sequences which their were QTE's in these sequences but no cut scene, but it plays like one but it does not do the game any justice. So the shooting mechanic was done well with some of the weapons you get to use in this game but most of the weapons just seem to unbalanced and very under powered when you are just shooting the zombies it makes sense with some of the weapons being unbalanced and under powered against the B.O.W's.

So in this game you play as on of 6 member's of U.S.S ( Umbrella Security Service ) that are deployed to the city of Raccoon City to destroy any evidence of Umbrella's involvement in the out break and for most of you all ready know about the story of the Resident Evil series and you know as well as I do what happened but for most of you new comers to the series I'll shed some light on the story which basically leads up to this game's plot. So the time and location is/was September 1998, place was Raccoon City which is located in the American mid west which fell victim to a large scare out break and the cause was a leak of the T-virus which is a biological weapon developed by an international corporation known as the Umbrella corporation and people and animals got infected by the virus and became ravenous zombies who attacked those uninfected. The highly contagious virus that swept through Raccoon City with devastating results. Their the best I can do for some of the new comers to the series and if were not educated on this series.

With the games gameplay mechanics their really was some fun with the games CQC/melee ( Closed-Quarters-Combat ) situations and depending on which character you get to choose from the 6 and you can just simply kill a zombie up close with you knife combat which is pretty fluent but a little broken and the fun that I'm talking about is when you use your knife and get a zombie a little dizzy you can just tap the B button to grab hold of a zombie and do a special move like take zombie for a shield or attach a grenade into a zombie's mouth and push it into group of them to relieve the pressure with blowing up an entire group of zombie's and that is probably the on good part of the combat. In case you have not played this game yet and if you a fan of the series and this game is more action oriented then the last game's in the series where they were more survival horror then action oriented and the game allows you to play on your own or with up to 3 other player from around the world, so basically 4 player Co-Op if on-line and if off-line I believe their is no off-line Co-Op, so you will have to deal with the bad friendly A.I. in this game well they are not that bad, but that best way to explain it cause at times they are quite good and other times they are quite bad and so if you play alone you will have to deal with killing your A.I allies if they get infected and that will mean the same fate for your on-line partners as well if they get infected and if they do on-line or off-line you better be ready to take them out before they take you out and this is pretty cool and makes perfect sense for this kind of game.

So in short for this game's gameplay is pretty straight forward and is with this games flaws and with this game good parts it is just simply a decent game and their is some fun with the campaign when you play Co-Op or by yourself but their is to many missing pieces to make this a great campaign experience.

Multiplayer:
So now the on-line for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is just simply not that great and it is very forgettable and the on-line has four game modes or types and the first is Team Attack and that is where the players get split in to the U.S.S and Spec-Op teams and try to score enough points that you earn from killing creatures and you enemy players. The team that reaches the point limit or has more points then the other team when the time runs out wins, The second mode is called Bio-hazard and this game mode is quite fun and you earn points by retrieving samples of G-virus and returning them to your area. The team that reached the point limit first wins, the third mode is called Heroes and this puts players in control of Hero character's from various games from the Resident Evil universe . So the team that kills all of the opposing team's Character's wins and the last mode is called Survivor and in this mode each team must cooperate to survive until a rescue helicopter arrives. There are a limited number of seats on the rescue helicopter so you may and you will have to outwit your teammates and their is another mode but you will need to get in the DLC pack and this is called Nemesis Mode and this is where teams battle for to capture a point on the map and hold it from the enemy and it has a terrifying twist and that there is a Nemesis some where on the level and if you come across it and find the special control's you can have it wreck Havoc on your opponents and basically turn the tide of the battle.

So in short the on-line is okay but lack that real play ability to keep you interested for some time and their are some nasty lag issues when playing on-line and the weapons really feel under powered and in some parts when you play the on-line it also felt like the matchmaking was very unbalanced. So basically the on-line has it's moments but not enough to keep you intrigued for long you end going back to whatever you were playing before this game came out.

Overall:
The overall for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is the fact the campaign is good for what it is worth and with the flaws this had with most parts of the game the big one where basically where this game was stripped of the second campaign of the Echo Six mission put into three mini expansion pack where you get the prologue for free for most people and then the next two with three missions each and also taking out the Nemesis Mode for DLC was a bit of a low blow, but in general even with this stuff out it just made this playable enough to simply be just playable for basically for fans of the series and possibly some ones and so this game is just plain decent and the score I'm about to give this game might be fair enough from me who as been a fan of this series for some time. Here to Resident Evil 6 being a lot better than this game and plating this game was just brief glimpse of what is to come in 6 and this game is simply a pass from me and I never thought I'd say this and that is their way better games out at the moment at the asking price of this.

The score for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is:

5.5 out of 10