Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City - Special Edition Announced - 3.20.2012

[quote name='Ink.So.Well.']That's a pretty damaging review, 007. Much appreciated. I'm still going through with my launch day purchase though since I usually end up enjoying games most people hate (Alpha Protocol for instance...) somehow. Controls are a huge deal for me though and hearing they aren't user friendly in any sort of shooter doesn't bode well at all.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I felt sort of bad for raking it across the coals that badly, but those are just my concerns after two hours with the game. Everyone please remember, too, that I'm playing the offline mode of a game that's very obviously been designed with multiplayer in mind. I don't think I've addressed too much that would directly relate to that, but it's an important point to make.

On that note, having gone through another mission, I've hit on something that's been bothering me... this just doesn't feel like Resident Evil. I finally made it into Raccoon City and saw some familiar sights, but I still don't feel like I'm in the same universe that RE2 existed in. I can't even totally put my finger on why, but I can't shake it. It's a nitpicky thing, too, but the zombies don't even sound right. RE zombies shouldn't make Left 4 Dead horde noises when they're going to show up. For all the RE sounds (Green Herb, item pick up) the game used, all of the aural atmosphere of Raccoon City is just... missing. Anyone who played RE2 or 3 can immediately 'hear' Raccoon City from memory, but it's just not here.

The best illustration I can think of in terms of my feelings are... ok, did anyone play The Umbrella Chronicles for the Wii? Remember how the game was pretty great when it really adhered to the original games, and then the Nemesis section showed up and it was dark flashlight tag in the subway, and the Nemesis itself talked like a robot all of a sudden? Operation Raccoon City is like that. You see what they tried to do, but you can't help but sit there and go 'gee, what the hell does this have to do with Resident Evil?'. That's a fucking bizarre analogy, but I'm hoping someone gets what I mean.

I admit, the control issues I have might hugely stem from having just spent 50 hours with Mass Effect 3, which has supremely tight and fine-tuned controls.



... oh, and for the record, I fucking loved Alpha Protocol. :lol:
 
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Damn...and just like that my hopes of getting this game has been crushed. Granted, its just your opinion but your obviously a big RE fan and wanted this game to be good.

Also, not being able to press a button to get into cover is dumb. And if the rest of the controls are as bad as you say they are then I definitely wouldn't want this game. I guess i'll pass on this and maybe think about getting this when its cheap. Thanks for your thoughts.
 
[quote name='007']Yeah, that's counting multiple physical copies of the canon series games. If I was counting digital versions, it's closer to 35. So, yeah, I'd say I have what could be nicely called an 'RE problem'.[/QUOTE]

I can understand this, I'm a huge RE fan.. even going as far as to start a sleeve on right arm with a Nemesis portrait being the centerpiece (with Umbrella Corp and RCPD emblems under it with a portrait of Wesker). I need to hurry up and find some damn $$ to finish the thing..

Thanks for the review, I'm still going to get my SE I have pre-ordered and hope I can get some enjoyment out of the game. After playing Revelations on my 3DS and enjoying it immensely, I was really hoping that Operation Raccoon City would be decent..
 
I finally slogged through and finished the campaign on single player. So, more thoughts...

First and foremost, I need to stress again that this is seriously, seriously designed as a multiplayer game. The scenarios they toss at you, particularly boss battles, are obviously meant to have four human players and become reasonably broken without that. The companion AI is terrible. Let me say that again: terrible. As someone who had absolutely no problems with Sheva in RE5, I despised the people in this game. Huge boss? Yeah, they're going to go ahead and just sort of charge in, doing little to no damage before getting demolished. For the majority of boss fights, I was left to my own devices, dealing nearly 100% of the damage. The medic is decent at healing when she isn't dead, but that's the best I can say about them. Just... ugh.

Speaking of bosses... bullet sponge isn't even the term. Some of the lesser enemies, like the Hunters, aren't much better. Again, it's a game designed to have four coordinated human players directing bullets into these targets. You wouldn't think I'd need to basically use up all of my SMG ammo to take out one Hunter, but Slant Six obviously disagrees.

The story is... well, there isn't really one. It's a loosely connected series of vignettes that make just about as much sense as the ending of Mass Effect 3 (too soon?). In fact, be ready for an 'ending' that makes you scratch your head just as much as the aforementioned game. In fact, it was so baffling that I need to spoiler alert it and hit the highlights:
The final level is you going after Leon. But wait, now Claire shows up and it tells you to kill her. As with other sections of the game, it's not a fight, but a 'get from point A to point B without dying' scenario. You get to Claire and... cut to Leon standing on a platform. The game puts up a text box that tells you that Claire got away, focus on Leon. Again, the game tells you to go kill Leon, but it's another 'make it to point B' scenario. You get up to where he is and it shifts to a cut scene. The four of you stand over him as he's kneeling and bleeding, obviously shot. By who? Who the fuck knows. Claire and Sherry show up, since Sherry is apparently who we wanted. Or something. Anyway, Leon asks why you're doing this, Claire and Sherry run, and you get a choice... Execute him or Defend Him. Yeah, what? You choose one and BAM, it transitions to a totally different place and becomes a deathmatch arena. I chose to kill him, so two of my teammates side with him (what?) and I have to kill all three of them. THERE IS NO INDICATION OF WHY ANYONE HAS TURNED or, frankly, WHY YOU DIDN'T JUST CAP HIS ASS WHILE YOU HAD HIM CORNERED, ON THE GROUND, AND SHOT IN THE STOMACH. Just... it's just bizarre. Like, seriously fucking bizarre. I mean, it's not like this was a strong narrative throughout or anything, but this just came out of nowhere. I hate to keep comparing it to Mass Effect, but seriously... picture the ME3 ending and it's level of disconnect from the rest of the game, but picture the preceding game being shitty this time. Same thing.

Like I've stressed before, I haven't played multiplayer. That might be the most amazing game in the world, but I wouldn't know. What I can say, and this is just my opinion, but this completely fails as a single player experience and as any sort of Resident Evil fan service game. You wanted to spend time in the RE2 environments? I guarantee that out of about 7 hours of playtime, I was in a previous-game-related area for maybe 30 minutes of it. I might even be overestimating here. Want to do what they claimed and 'change the events of RE2'? You get one chance, it's at the end, and you don't get to see any of the aftermath of it.

So, yeah... if you were picking this up for single player and some RE2 sightseeing, I wholeheartedly recommend waiting for the sub-$30 range, if not lower. I'm conflicted on whether this was a game that started with good ideas and somehow went terribly wrong, or whether Slant Six had a squad-based shooter game sitting around and Capcom told them to slap some Resident Evil paint onto it.
 
Thanks for your input, 007. I've got the SE preordered from Amazon (for $60) and I'm still waffling on going through with it. I just found out that the preorder bonus for the SE (the weapons and the costumes) are available for $8 on Live. I don't care enough about a steelbook case or some shitty patches or anything to want to go through with it any more.

Seeing as how my co-op buddy/little brother won't be able to afford it right away, I should probably wait. Not buying an RE game day one is a really odd thing for me. Decisions...

Edit: I'm cancelling it. I wouldn't get around to playing it right now anyway, and the preorder/SE DLC is already on the marketplace so I'll wait for the summer when I could play it. Should be cheaper then too.
 
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damn 007 that sounds horrible no wonder this game isn't canon -- btw I'm also assuming hunk only has a minor role in this game?
I'm not gonna pick up my pre-order I'll just gamefly it now
 
[quote name='GUNNM']damn 007 that sounds horrible no wonder this game isn't canon -- btw I'm also assuming hunk only has a minor role in this game?
I'm not gonna pick up my pre-order I'll just gamefly it now[/QUOTE]

Hunk's in the first mission, where you go after Birkin's sample in the least exciting way possible. He's got maybe five to ten minutes of screen time, at best, and ten is probably pushing it.

I'm glad I got to do some write-ups on this, mainly to help people like me... RE fans who were lured in by promises of fan service, off-canon story paths, and getting to tool around the Raccoon City we remember in HD. I just honestly feel that they failed to live up to any of that. Like I said, if you're an online multiplayer kind of person, that portion might be great for you... but if you're a single player, campaign-centric person, there's just not a lot here to recommend.
 
Thanks, 007. You just saved me $60. Gonna miss not having the steelbook, though. Was really looking forward to this as the RE2 era is my favorite RE era. I may still give it a rent, but I definitely will not blind buy this.
 
I'll be canceling my order today as well when I hit town. A shame, but oh well. Thanks for the insight 007.
 
[quote name='007']Like I said, if you're an online multiplayer kind of person, that portion might be great for you... but if you're a single player, campaign-centric person, there's just not a lot here to recommend.[/QUOTE]

Even the campaign is meant to be played in co-op, don't forget.

Jeez, talk about a mass exodus away from the game... I am discouraged, but haven't decided whether to throw in the towel or not yet. Would rather hear full campaign impressions as well as multiplayer details first.
 
[quote name='eastx']Even the campaign is meant to be played in co-op, don't forget.

Jeez, talk about a mass exodus away from the game... I am discouraged, but haven't decided whether to throw in the towel or not yet. Would rather hear full campaign impressions as well as multiplayer details first.[/QUOTE]

Well, I haven't forgotten, which is why I stressed exactly the point you quoted. I meant 'multiplayer' in the most basic sense... multiple people.

Ultimately, this is a game that penalizes you for not playing with other people. You'll just have to take it on faith that I don't suck at games, but I shouldn't have to replay sections of a game over 10 times on Normal difficulty. I could get past that if I ever felt like I was dying because of something I did wrong... but most of those sections were ones where there's a bullet sponge enemy or boss that simply wasn't designed (or scaled) to fight without multiple human players.

My full campaign impressions? It's a lot of rinse and repeat soldiers/zombies/soldiers face-offs, sprinkled with bullet sponge Lickers and Hunters, a layer of unnecessarily long boss fights, topped off with a story that I could basically hit the highlights of in less than a paragraph. This game has about as much plot as your average Left 4 Dead scenario.

Which, frankly, is my single biggest complaint, and why I keep going back to the 'well, maybe the multiplayer will be the thing' point... I read the OP of this thread and sort of wonder where *that* game went. The one with promises of traipsing through RE2 and changing the events in meaningful ways, or even some 'new perspective' from the 'people who started it all'. It's just not here. The characters you play as have no personalities, no stake in anything, and generally blunder through the events of RE2 as Umbrella's Keystone Cops. The plot makes no sense, with an ending that has the same level of baffling disconnect as the one in Mass Effect 3. You don't change anything, and you barely become involved in the events of RE2 or RE3. It's like a Family Guy Resident Evil episode, where they're just tossing things in the game, poking you in the ribs, and going "Oh, man, do you remember *this* guy?!?!?'. It's references with no substance.

To help illustrate that, let me go ahead and leave you with this... As a game sold on the basis of re-living Resident Evil 2 from a different perspective, you'd expect a lot of screen time and involvement from characters like Leon, Claire, Sherry, Ada, and Hunk, right? The returning character that you have the most meaningful interactions and screen time with in Operation Raccoon City? Nicholai.

I can't wait for the sequel, Operation Rockfort Island, where every NPC is Steve. Only Steve. FAAAAAAAAATHHHHHHHEEEEER!
 
ah well gamefly won't be sending this to me even though I had it in my queue for two months guess I won't get to experience this game
 
I knew as soon as I saw that epic trailer that that's as good as it was going to get for this game. It was apparent that they wanted to get in on the Left 4 Dead money train as well. The fact that Capcom isn't developing, just publishing, it as well made me weary. Plus I could never get into the controls scheme of RE games, nothing to say other than not my cup of tea (I've played too much Gears, Mass Effect, Splinter Cell, and GRAW to spoil me on intuitive controls/movement).
 
[quote name='007']So, uh, apparently it wasn't just me:
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/122/1221156p1.html
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/20/resident-evil-operation-raccoon-city-review/


Ouch.[/QUOTE]


I got my copy Monday and was able to find some online co-op games and I didn't think it was that bad.

Graphics aren't great and if you are playing single player the AI (your teammates) is awful like you mentiond... I had to bump into them several times to get them out from a position where they were stuck facing in a corner for no particular reason.

I still have to give it an honest play through but I've played worse... not a great day for capcom though
 
[quote name='GBAstar']I got my copy Monday and was able to find some online co-op games and I didn't think it was that bad.

Graphics aren't great and if you are playing single player the AI (your teammates) is awful like you mentiond... I had to bump into them several times to get them out from a position where they were stuck facing in a corner for no particular reason.

I still have to give it an honest play through but I've played worse... not a great day for capcom though[/QUOTE]

I do agree that I've played worse games, but my sticking point is... well, I didn't buy $70 Special Editions of those games. For a $20 or less pricepoint, this isn't a terrible game to pick up and dick around with. However, I'm guessing most people reading this thread had full-price (or close to it) pre-orders in.

It's a shitty situation, though, because I guarantee that the online community will be barren (or filled only with hardcore assholes) by the time the game drops low enough to make it a reasonable purchase. It's a no-win.

Regardless, I can see why Capcom let this fly under the radar for the past few months, including a release-date review embargo.
 
I've put down a few trade ins towards it, so it's nothing out of pocket. Yet I'm thinking of cancelling. The one thing that is steering me to get it is the fact that everyone seemed to have hated Homefront, and I loved Homefront. So it may be one of those things.
 
I'm disappointed that the professional critic reviews rate this game so poorly. Granted, I didn't have high hopes for ORC to begin with, but hope springs eternal.

Still, I've enjoyed plenty of games that the reviewers didn't like over the years, and I'll likely enjoy OCR as well once the price drops a bit.

Heck, I'm still waiting on a console-based Dead Island to drop to $20 or less (damn its hand-to-hand combat), so I can wait a while on ORC as well.
 
So I went ahead anyway and picked it up at GS (along with a $10 MGS4 and $5 SW:FUII at the nearby SonyStyle) and just beat the first mission.

This...is not a great game. I won't go far into it because everyone else already has. But yes, it can be clumsy, yes, it doesn't feel too much like a RE game, and yes, that part with William was cheap as hell, as are the dogs which are unblockable apparently.

But I'm not mad, I'm going to beat it anyway and enjoy it. It's zombie killing. That's never a bad thing.

EDIT: Finished the second one. It gets better, though I ended up ditching my team after
Nikolai sics the lickers on you and the building is burning down
. They were just holding me back.

ProTip: Play on Casual. The amount of hits to take down enemies becomes more reasonable, and there is still a bit of a challenge moving forward.
 
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Gotta thank 007 for the early impressions. I had been very much on the fence about this one, but held onto my Amazon pre-order. It would appear that the professional reviews confirmed what 007 had to say, and I am so glad I saved myself $60.
 
i just picked it up now and if anyone wants to play with me add me: snakemaster2389 and is the nemesis online mode worth it or not? i also got this game called Blades of Time for PS3 and if anyone wants to do some coop on that then add me: solidsnake231989
 
wow, IGN gave it a 4.0 :( Glad I skipped it.... perhaps I will get it when it goes to 20-30.

This game looked like it had so much potential. What was the point of making this game? We have already visited the RC scenario so many times. I am starting to get worried about RE6.
 
[quote name='MSUHitman']Also the game is available via Redbox if you want to rent for a night or two (360 only.)[/QUOTE]

Def recommend doing that, I would say it's very rental worthy. Level up, then buy it again when it's $20 for the MP.
 
[quote name='whoknows']I bought it.

It's not a great game, but I'm having fun with it.[/QUOTE]

Are you on 360 or PS3? I'm looking for people to play through with on PS3.

Snake, you're on 360, right? Otherwise I would.
 
I didn't cancel the Amazon pre-order, I got the envelope but I'm still debating on refusing the package or opening it up and trying it out...decisions, decisions....
 
Maybe you PS3 guys ended up in the wrong forum by mistake? ;)

Guess I'll pick up my preorder after all. Destructoid's reviewer liked it despite the problems.
 
or maybe nobody posts in the ps 3 thread? Its not bad linkin if you have co-op friends it'll be a more worthwhile experience. Redbox it for a day and see if you like it
 
[quote name='GUNNM']or maybe nobody posts in the ps 3 thread?[/QUOTE]

Must be because they're posting here instead. But PS3 matchmaking is off-topic, methinks.
 
[quote name='GUNNM']or maybe nobody posts in the ps 3 thread? Its not bad linkin if you have co-op friends it'll be a more worthwhile experience. Redbox it for a day and see if you like it[/QUOTE]

This.

I'm starting to find myself almost addicted to the game. One of the reviews out there stated the same, that something about the game makes you come back for more. Thing is, Virtua Tennis 4 has a stranglehold on me. When Coach said this is the last tour, I got sad. Been a whole since I've been sad a game was almost over.

Anyway, I'm getting back on soon. I'm hoping things keep going the way they were, because the game is solid at this point after a (very) rocky start.
 
Yeah I really like this game a lot. Then again I'm only on level 2. Btw anyone know if you can get the MP achievements in private?
 
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