Not as bad as I feared, but nowhere near as good as I hoped.
I didn't really get what I wanted.
ORC is a team based shooter set during the outbreak in Raccoon City. You play one of half a dozen Umbrella operatives that were sent in with the legendary Hunk to tie up some lose ends. The general premise is pretty decent, your squad gets cut off from Hunk and you do get to visit some well known locations like the Raccoon City Police department as well as bump into characters from Resident Evil 2 like Claire, Ada and Leon.
Unfortunately despite being weaved into Resident Evil lore as best as I think it was probably possible it's the gameplay that really lets ORC down so badly. First thing I noticed when picking up the game is how awful and unintuitive the controls are. The simple acts of dodging, running and getting into cover are surprisingly cumbersome considering the whole combat system is based around these things as a third person shooter.
Aiming with guns is also surprisingly bad. Bullets never go where you expect them to and the reticule seems to lag when moving. You do adjust to it eventually but I was simply never comfortable with it. Guns themselves when they do fire just don't seem to have any feedback or give any real impact. A bit more like pellet guns than the overwhelming fire power you really expect from some kind of rifle or sub machine gun.
Just to top that off melee attacks are surprisingly awful. Quite hard to connect and often don't work. There should be a two button combo to essentially instant kill zombies. When it works it looks fantastic with a few animations of them killing them but often they will just do a standard melee attack, perhaps angle makes a difference? It was surprisingly awkward anyway.
Each of the different characters have different abilities that can be purchased between missions and will carry over to multiplayer. These abilities reflect their roles so Bertha as the medic heals more and can carry more first aid sprays than anyone else while Lupo as the soldier can use incendiary ammo or heavy armour etc. There are a nice mix of skills for each character with passive and activated skills available. Outside of combat though there is pretty much nothing.
The single player/co-op missions are pretty fun with quite a lot of varying locations and objectives but it's the multiplayer where Operation Raccoon City really shines. There are several modes where you get to play as varying factions. One of my favorites is heroes where you have to hunt down each others hero characters (Jill, Claire, Leon etc) and the first to kill them all wins. Other modes include survivor where you have to fight each other off and get to the helicopter first when it arrives, only four spaces available, standard deathmatch and capture the flag variants.
The thing I both like and hate about the multiplayer is that the maps are full of AI enemies like zombies, Lickers, hunters and even Tyrants. Killing them will get you points, though less than a human player and will give away your location on the map. It makes it feel a lot more like the breakout than if the streets were empty but they can be incredibly annoying in a firefight grabbing you from behind or in the case of Hunters following you across the map unless you kill it once they have your scent. Still it was certainly different and some of the multiplayer maps were really quite fun like the ORC hospital and train yard.
The presentation isn't all too bad. Voice acting for the most part is pretty decent, matching known characters well and the new characters stand out without feeling forced or overacted. The visuals are quite nice, not as good as Resident Evil 5 or other high budget title but they give off a dark gritty feel and are pretty detailed for the most part. Just some weak textures and areas here and there. Overall I can't complain on this front.
The game lasts a surprisingly long time, over half a dozen single player missions, plenty of cameras to shoot, ranks to obtain and intel to collect not to mention a surprisingly good multiplayer component. It does feel like the other half of the single player was intentionally left out though and released as DLC not long afterwards viewed from the Echo Six's view point. I tried the first mission which was free, it was ok but made it seem like you only get half the game
So all in all if you are a big Resident Evil fan and like multiplayer shooters you will get some enjoyment out of Operation Raccoon City. It's not deep, and the controls are awful but some surprisingly strong multiplayer and revisited locations can make it extremely fun at times. For cheap it's worth a shot.
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+ Great Resident Evil locations and tie ins.
+ Multiplayer has some great game types.
+ Nice variation of character skills.
- Controls feel uncomfortable.
- Aiming is terrible and guns feel underpowered.
- Melee attacks feel clumsy.