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RE: Operation Raccoon City - Captivate Trailer and Preview

Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_FsHWhp-h0

Preview
Operation Raccoon City is being developed by Slant Six, a studio whose history thus far consists entirely of SOCOM games. That background is evident the moment you pick up a controller, because Operation Raccoon City feels much more like a traditional third-person shooter than any recent Resident Evil game. There's a cover system, you can actually fire while running, and the whole thing moves at a much faster clip than what you've come to expect from anything bearing the Resident Evil name. The new and the old have a way of intersecting in some interesting ways, like when you peer down your gun's iron sights only to pull back and notice a low more zombies surrounding you than before.

However, don't mistake this for some bog-standard military shooter. There have been some pretty huge changes to the standard Resident Evil formula, but it's still a Resident Evil game. In fact, in a lot of ways, it's a game that harkens back to earlier titles in the series' history--back before this newfangled daylight business became all the rage. What we saw of the co-op campaign showed zombies doing their shambling thing in dimly lit city streets and shadowy alleyways, with no shortage of dark corners housing God-knows-what. It's clear Capcom and Slant Six want to return to the series' horror roots and use that as a contrast to the more fast-paced shooter action.

Said shooter action can be played in a variety of styles depending on which character you choose. In the co-op campaign, you'll be joining up with Umbrella Corporation's black ops/tier one/really-good-at-shooting-guns security squad. There are four characters to choose from, each with what Capcom says will be distinct skills and personality. Their names, in order of ascending awesomeness, are: Vector, Spectre, Bertha, and Beltway. Vector's the stealth expert; Spectre is the surveillance guy who can use infared goggles to sniff out special enemies; Bertha is the medic; and Beltway is the heavy who excels in demolitions work. Capcom insists that the campaign is designed in such a way that everyone will need to rely on one another, though we didn't get to see much of those class-specific skills in action during the brief campaign demo.

While co-op is nothing new to any Resident Evil fan who took part in Chris and Sheva's Great African Safari of 2009, the recently announced Operation Raccoon City represents what might just be the series' boldest leap into the world of online teamwork. It's a third-person shooter whose story campaign will see teams of four players make their way through the titular Raccoon City zombie outbreak that provided the setting for Resident Evil 2 way back when. In an odd reversal from that particular game, you'll actually be assuming the role Umbrella Corporation's special security troops--each relying on one another's class-specific abilities--in a hunt for Leon Kennedy.

Operation Raccoon City is being developed by Slant Six, a studio whose history thus far consists entirely of SOCOM games. That background is evident the moment you pick up a controller, because Operation Raccoon City feels much more like a traditional third-person shooter than any recent Resident Evil game. There's a cover system, you can actually fire while running, and the whole thing moves at a much faster clip than what you've come to expect from anything bearing the Resident Evil name. The new and the old have a way of intersecting in some interesting ways, like when you peer down your gun's iron sights only to pull back and notice a low more zombies surrounding you than before.

However, don't mistake this for some bog-standard military shooter. There have been some pretty huge changes to the standard Resident Evil formula, but it's still a Resident Evil game. In fact, in a lot of ways, it's a game that harkens back to earlier titles in the series' history--back before this newfangled daylight business became all the rage. What we saw of the co-op campaign showed zombies doing their shambling thing in dimly lit city streets and shadowy alleyways, with no shortage of dark corners housing God-knows-what. It's clear Capcom and Slant Six want to return to the series' horror roots and use that as a contrast to the more fast-paced shooter action.

Said shooter action can be played in a variety of styles depending on which character you choose. In the co-op campaign, you'll be joining up with Umbrella Corporation's black ops/tier one/really-good-at-shooting-guns security squad. There are four characters to choose from, each with what Capcom says will be distinct skills and personality. Their names, in order of ascending awesomeness, are: Vector, Spectre, Bertha, and Beltway. Vector's the stealth expert; Spectre is the surveillance guy who can use infared goggles to sniff out special enemies; Bertha is the medic; and Beltway is the heavy who excels in demolitions work. Capcom insists that the campaign is designed in such a way that everyone will need to rely on one another, though we didn't get to see much of those class-specific skills in action during the brief campaign demo.

We did see a lot of shooting, though. Seems the streets of Raccoon City have seen a noticeable uptick in zombie infestation since the events of Resident Evil 2. There are swarms of normal zombies, who aren't an especially huge threat until you begin to take damage. That's when they can smell danger and begin to charge after you in full force. Aside from them, there are some more uncommon special zombies that roam around, including some pulled directly from early Resident Evil such as the hunter. And, naturally, when you do find yourself feeling a little worse for the wear after all this zombie fighting, you'll still find random green herbs scattered around the darkened alleys. The city may be overrun by zombies and perpetual darkness, but it's still a fine place to grow medicinal herbs.

In addition to the story-based co-op campaign in which you play as the bad guys in a hunt for Leon Kennedy, you'll also be able to slaughter dozens of shambling zombies in a competitive mode as well. In this scenario, it's once again the four class-based Umbrella Corp. employees against four similarly talented US military spec ops soldiers. As in most zombie outbreaks, the military has been sent in to quarantine the area, but they've found quite a bit of opposition from Umbrella Corporation, so now they have no choice but to team deathmatch one another in a battle of supremacy. What's interesting about the competitive mode is that there are still plenty of zombies roaming around who couldn't care less about what team you're one. It's a points-based contest in which you get one point for a zombie kill, 10 points for killing an enemy teammate, and so on based on good deeds you do for the team and special zombie types killed.

So all this is more or less what you can expect from Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. The elephant in the middle of the room is certainly this game's resemblance to Left 4 Dead, another zombie apocalypse series with four-player co-op. Anyone who's played the Left 4 Dead series knows what a high bar was set for any game trying to imitate it. But whereas Left 4 Dead built a lot of its success on varied makeshift weaponry and a profoundly awesome sense of humor, Capcom seems to be banking on the class system and the more serious atmosphere distinguishing this game from the competition. We'll see how it all turns out when we get closer to the game's release later this year.

http://uk.gamespot.com/events/captivate11/story.html?sid=6308326&tag=top_stories;title;3

Video Interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWfGG86H9eY

Screens

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Hrm.


Eh. It's just not doing anything for me.

I'm not like "OH MAN OFFENSE TO THE RESIDENT EVIL SERIES OMG". It just doesn't look fun or interesting or particularly well made.
 
Z

ZombieFred

Unconfirmed Member
Looks a lot better than I thought, given the early stage it's still in. Can't wait to see much more at E3.
 
I got EVERY SINGLE POINT I MADE RIGHT in that teaser thread. Every single one of them.

Well, I guess we now know why every preview said that you will be able to kill Leon: because the trailer shows you killing Leon.
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
The game sounds interesting but the look and story make it seem like a fan's mod or something as opposed to an actual entry in the series.
 
I said in that previous thread that this will have a crappy cover system and even that 2 second clip in the trailer with cover looks kinda bad. And the "look at me I run so fast there's motion blur" thing is in too.
 

Chinner

Banned
I really don't know how they could have got this so wrong. I mean, its just so boring. Why not to do a proper campaign set in Racoon City where we just play as normal people?
 
meltingparappa said:
So the main selling point of the game is the ability to kill the one character in the series that people almost universally like?
No you get to kill all the people in the series people almost universally like!
 
It looks good, the only thing i hope for is that you dont have a lot of ammo and are forced to run and pick your fights, ill at least take a mode with that option.
 
meltingparappa said:
So the main selling point of the game is the ability to kill the one character in the series that people almost universally like?
Does Capcom really hate Leon and thinks that everyone else does, too?

Is this some weird anti-Mikami sentiment there?
 

Korigama

Member
meltingparappa said:
So the main selling point of the game is the ability to kill the one character in the series that people almost universally like?

First Capcom herped, then they derped.

"It ends here" one of them said...how could it "end" there when it never even started with Leon yet?
 
giancarlo123x said:
It looks good, the only thing i hope for is that you dont have a lot of ammo and are forced to run and pick your fights, ill at least take a mode with that option.

Yeah it sure looks like it when that 2 minute trailer has more bullets flying than there is in RE0,1,2,CV and 3 combined

And while I am whining, even that Slant Six logo is ugly
 

Raide

Member
I am in the camp of "I like killing zombies" so this looks interesting to me. Could be the SOCOM version of Nazi Zombies. :D

I also don't think the hostage thing is that bad, as long as they add something where the zombie can struggle free and might actually bite you. Also, they seem to be only useful against other people with guns. Everything else won't care.
 

KAOz

Short bus special
Why do they hunt Leon?

Did they look into the future to see what he was getting up to, so they decided to go after him? Or did they have a really boring day at work, and they decided to pick any random guy who shows up in the city for the first time, for his first day on the job, and pick him as a main target?

Shit doesn't make sense!

Still, would love to shoot Leon in the fucking face after Resident Evil: Degeneration.
 

SmithnCo

Member
Clearly RE Mercenaries 3D takes place in an alternate timeline where Leon was shot in Raccoon City. It all makes sense now.
No it doesn't
 

Plasma

Banned
Gameplay looked too fast in that trailer and the zombie shields don't look that great.

I like the idea of the game being set in Raccoon City but I think that is where my interest ends.
 
I don't think the concept of this game is all that bad, but the animations and the complete directing of the action look very unimpressive. It's just a really meh trailer. :I
 

Vrakanox

Member
The whole deathmatch 4v4 with zombies also attacking you sounds pretty cool to me. I'm a bit dissapointed though that the US spec ops guys all look exactly the same while the umbrella guys each have their own unique look.
 

Barakov

Member
The game itself looks pretty good but the whole thing about changing RE history is just dumb.

I just rather they make a new story in Raccoon City with new characters than go down this what if road. Ideally you should play as Hunk and only as Hunk.
 

VaLiancY

Member
I don't know what to say about this, I'm not disgusted but I'm not on the boat with this. It's just not appealing even with this universe that I like so much.
 
Post RE2, Leon turns down the offer of statutory rape with the president's daughter and saves "that dog" who wanders the earth, fighting various gigantes until she finds out she is actually a reincarnation of Amaterasu. Discovering this truth makes her take the mantle of her true form, and she goes on to defeat Galactus and space Wesker in single combat. To avoid this fate, Galactus sends Vector (the chaotix crocodile) back in time to assassinate Leon.

The boulder in RE5 was also a clone of Hunk (or the "Husky Uniformed Cloned Keepsakes") who was so stricken with regret for killing Leon, let his hygiene go to shambles and become covered in dirt until he was perfectly spherical. Chris discovered this upon touching him and didn't have time to deal with, which is why he was able to punch him until he got out of his way.
 
KAOz said:
Why do they hunt Leon?

Did they look into the future to see what he was getting up to, so they decided to go after him? Or did they have a really boring day at work, and they decided to pick any random guy who shows up in the city for the first time, for his first day on the job, and pick him as a main target?

Shit doesn't make sense!
Preaching to the choir here, man. Absolutely face-palm inducing and total retcons. Whoever came up with the idea for this game needs to be FIRED and sent to some stupid company that makes banner games in ads.
 
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