Operation Raccoon City is a squad-based third-person shooter that takes place during the Raccoon City incident covered most famously by RE2 and RE3, though it's been revisited a number of times. There are two campaigns with 6 playable squad members who each have individualized abilities and specialties based on their class. You play as a group of 4 of these characters through each of the missions, achieving a variety of objectives that typically involve mowing down or rushing past hordes of zombies and getting into firefights with the opposing faction, which is playable in the second campaign (though I think that campaign is DLC? I didn’t have it available in the version I just replayed).

I do not like this game, basically at all. I can say it is a finished product and does not so much suffer from a lack of design as it does poor design. Given it's not just total unplayable crap, it clears my relatively low bar to not be a 1-star game, but I'd probably give it more of a 1.5 since it only just barely does so. Part of this is just the kind of game it is. It is very much an action-based third-person shooter with very little emphasis on story or character, and is all about the gameplay, which is middling at best. This kind of non-narrative quasi-military shooter is just not up my alley in general. But beyond that, the game is just riddled with issues that make it a poor exemplar of the genre itself.

First of all, the game probably would've been better if it hadn't bothered to be a Resident Evil game. There are obvious ways in which it is. ORC features some iconic locations, monsters, and even characters from the mainline series. The zombie hordes roaming Raccoon City clearly come from the series canon. There's even an infection mechanic that offers another way for you to die. But the way these set pieces and plotlines are incorporated still manages to feel random and disjointed when you're playing a squad-based shooter so unlike the mainline games. Half the time, you're not even dealing with monsters but are instead firing from cover against the rival faction comprising similarly-armed humans. Further, it's clearly an alternate canon considering some of the character interactions do not take place in the mainline games and you can break continuity for instance by executing Leon. While I don't feel we really need any more games rehashing or re-evaluating Raccoon City at this point, this game doesn't offer the kind of perspective I appreciate from games like the Chronicles or Outbreak duologies. Instead, we're just playing a crappy re-skinned SOCOM in a Resident Evil fan fiction.

The idea of characters with individualizes abilities is a decent one, but the game is so frustrating to play I eventually just wanted to go with the more assault-focused build to just try and blast my way through the game more quickly to get it over with. Perhaps I would’ve enjoyed it more if I’d played around with the more ability-based characters, but I quickly realized I mostly wanted to get missions over with rather than play with the mechanics. The cast of characters also suffers from the fact that said characters themselves are incredibly boring with almost no real personality. In fact, you can't even really see their faces and they're so geared up that there's little to differentiate them from a design standpoint beyond their builds and armor styling. While the story and gameplay didn't engage me as it is, the characters certainly didn't add much.

While I could go on and on about specifics, the bottom line is that the game is just not very fun. That’s a pretty big problem for a game to have. A decent story and setting can help make up for it, but this game has the opposite of that. I wouldn’t recommend Operation Raccoon City to most anyone but those wishing to really see all the strange places the Resident Evil series has gone.

My other Resident Evil reviews:

• Resident Evil (1996) - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 2 (1998) - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 3 (1999) - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil: Survivor - ★★★
• Resident Evil: Survivor 2 – Code Veronica - ★★
• Resident Evil Remake - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil Gaiden - ★★
• Resident Evil 0 - ★★★
• Resident Evil Dead Aim - ★★★
• Resident Evil: Outbreak - ★★★
• Resident Evil 4 - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil Outbreak File #2 - ★★★
• Resident Evil Deadly Silence - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles - ★★★
• Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles - ★★★
• Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D - ★★
• Umbrella Corps - ★
• Resident Evil 2 Remake - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 3 Remake - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 4 VR - ★★★★★
• Resident Evil 4 Remake - ★★★★★