RESIDENT EVIL: OPERATION RACCOON CITY
Launching during a period when Resident Evil was going through the worst identity crisis of its life, Operation Raccoon City was emblematic of everything that was wrong with the series at the time. Capcom had moved away from the franchise’s survival horror roots entirely, and were prepared forgo tradition for the sake of heavy profits as they looked to turn Resident Evil into an explosive blockbuster shooter. Operation Raccoon City was one such attempt at doing just that, and it was a spectacular failure.
Co-op gameplay is not something Resident Evil was a stranger to even though (in fact, it attempted it quite successfully in the Outbreak games), but Operation Raccoon City was a straight up third person shooter- and a pretty low budget one at that. The game just wasn’t fun to play, it was painfully transparent in how it was chasing trends, and most of all, it just wasn’t what a Resident Evil game should be. It came with a single player component as well, but that was best left ignored as well. Operation Raccoon City may not have been billed as a major new entry in the franchise, so it wasn’t like people’s expectations were sky-high to begin with- but even so, it ended up being a major disappointment.
