Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
An interesting chapter to the ‘Resident Evil’series is due for release later this year; ‘Operation Raccoon City’sees you take charge of a squad of sinister Umbrella Corporate mercenaries during the T-Virus outbreak of the second game.
Signs are that this is a wider example of Japan recognising the effect and power the shoot ‘em up genre has around the world. Whilst Tokyo itself has always been reluctant in pandering to the western proclivity for blasting as many enemies away with a gun as possible – on screen of course – the industry has realised the financial gain that come from doing so. The Japanese audience has changed as well and has become more inclined to playing shooters usually reserved for western audiences. Capcom has been watching carefully it seems and decided to see if they can cash in on this change.
Many critics will argue that the past two Resident Evil games were more shooter then survival in any case, but 4 & 5 were more a mash of puzzle and shooter and still focused heavily on not dying with limited ammunition. Operation Raccoon city is a squad based shooter more in the vein of ‘Left 4 Dead’then any previous instalment of Resident Evil. In it you get to control four members of the Umbrella security services sent out into the city to eliminate the remaining police forces still present.
Not only has Capcom taken a risk with their biggest franchise by moving away completely from the survival horror that made it so famous, but it has done so knowing full well that fans are waiting to pull the game to pieces should there be any missteps. Due for release in winter 2011 only time will tell if Capcom’s gamble has paid off.
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