Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (Xbox 360) review "Resident Evil games have become a prime inclusion is gamer diets over the years. It’s a brand that has pushed boundaries in the survival horror genre, fastening itself onto the gaming world like a parachute waiting to engage and open. The storylines have always been profound and intriguing, gory and frightening. If you delve your head and mind into the under soil of these games, you will find gold. Capcom worked tirelessly to rejuvenate the genre, back in the nineties, with Resident Evil one and..."

Resident Evil games have become a prime inclusion is gamer diets over the years. It’s a brand that has pushed boundaries in the survival horror genre, fastening itself onto the gaming world like a parachute waiting to engage and open. The storylines have always been profound and intriguing, gory and frightening. If you delve your head and mind into the under soil of these games, you will find gold. Capcom worked tirelessly to rejuvenate the genre, back in the nineties, with Resident Evil one and two, both games pushed Capcom through the over skin and into the spotlight. Back then, both products gave children nightmares, but they also marked the skin of quality and imagination. Some of the characters in Resident Evil games have become iconic; it really is a franchise worthy of a silver lined status.

Years later we have had many Resident Evil follow-ups, some have enlightened gamers and some have failed to the grasp the concept. In 2012, we have been given a freshly baked additive to the long running conveyer belt, this addition is called Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. But is it something that will make you open your lungs, will it make you shout? Is it something that will make you jump in a coliseum of jubilation? In my opinion, it’s a giant no. We are given something that is drab, unimaginative, and repetitive. It hurts me to downgrade such a name, such a brand, I love Resident Evil and all it stands for, but I just can’t love the ugly face of Operation Raccoon City.

Capcom inducted Slant Six into the creators throne, famed for their Socom exploits, maybe Capcom made the wrong choice of developer, because bringing them in has cut the throat of the franchise badly, and the blood is cold to touch. Basically we have been given a shooter, a repetitive shooter, bullets fly like kites and blood splashes the floor of replication. Yes replication, all we get is spec ops soldiers that belong in a different game, they shoot like warmongers, but we do get zombies, which gives the game flair. There is also a little reminiscing going on, as the player, you find yourself amidst the rampage, you are thrown back to the nineties, when the outbreak started, you get to meet old faces like Leon S Kennedy. That gives the game some needed appeal.

In Operation Raccoon City, you get to choose between six characters with different attributes, they all are highly trained. You choose four, four sinister war tyrants that are ordered to bring Raccoon City to its knees; you are ordered to eradicate every ounce, every piece of notability, every last molecule of life. The Umbrella Corporation wants to leave nothing of its whereabouts, the infestation and infection never happened. Do to this, you must kill any survivors, you must claw out any remaining skin and bone.

There are rare glimpses of hope in the game, when you meet old foes like Nemesis, which in one level, you have to bring down. He is such a colossal beast, but if you use the right initiative, you can empower him. Healing yourself is pretty easy, the green plants make an appearance once again, as well as the green spray, and these are little morsels that make the game. The missions take you into old outlets like Birkin’s lab, the hospital and the library. These additions make you go through the game just to see what happens. The controls are rather sluggish, its difficult to shoot the enemy, the game just feels lazily produced, and the missions can be rather repetitive. Shooting spec ops all day, burns brain cells, and creates a rather disliking for the game. Killing zombies can be fun; they are hordes of them throughout, so bullets and blood galore.

Overall, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City offers a little history. It does delve into the past. But as a game, its pretty poor and generic, it offers nothing new, nothing original, the graphics are some of the worst I have seen on a next gen game, I just hope Resident Evil six blows open the door, to a land of opportunity.

Community review by Alk31997 (March 25, 2012) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.