Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City Echo Six Expansion DLC Review

I played on: PC
I paid: £29.99 (Operation Raccoon City bundle including all DLC)
Available on: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Notes: N/A

Operation Raccoon City was a game with an interesting idea but more flaws than a New York skyscraper. Most, if not all of these problems carry across to the Echo Six missions included across 2 DLC packs. I will be reviewing all 6 missions in one review just to avoid repeating myself or talking about this game any longer than required.

To start with the graphics, animations, sound and just overall presentation is terrible. It's possible to see zombies mutate into Crimson Heads, T-103 Tyrants mutate into Super Tyrants and so on. While this sounds cool in theory it looks awful. The creatures simply glow red and the new character model forms around them with a sparkly shine around the edges. If I saw this in a PS1 game I'd think it was bad but seeing it in a 2012 era 7th generation game running on the highest settings on PC is embarrassing. Similar to the base game you will bump into characters from the original trilogy such as Jill Valentine or Leon Kennedy. Honestly tho, you'd be forgiven if you didn't recognize any of these characters as they look and sound nothing like their PS1 counterparts. This doesn't feel like Leon, it feels like a cosplay of Leon.

The biggest change over the base game is the plot and characters. Instead of controlling a squad of Umbrella Security Service Soldiers you're now in control of a US Military Spec Ops squad. These characters all lack any real backstory and don't add a lot to the plot as they are interchangeable with each other. As with the base story, you will be running around Raccoon City bumping into Iconic areas, landmarks, and characters. To my pleasant surprise, this included a lot more of Resident Evil 3's events.

The gameplay is simple, mindless and overly easy on PC. I found this game a chore on the PS3 when I reviewed the base game but on PC with the addition of a mouse to shoot it's far easier. There's really not a lot more to say about the gameplay because it's just Operation Raccoon City but with new character skins. The animations and actions are unchanged from when you were controlling the Umbrella Soldiers.

Despite all these problems and complaints something odd happened with this DLC that didn't happen with the base game. I enjoyed myself. Several moments of this campaign stood out to me. Fighting 3 T-103 Tyrants in the RE3 disposal facility that mutate in real-time as they take damage for example. Taking over the Nemesis Clocktower fight after Jill is injured so that Charlos is able to escape sooner to help Jill is another. Or even the final Boss that's an entirely new B.O.W that fits right in with the known lore and history of the series. While these moments are still marred by the same issues as the base game I do have to give credit to the ideas. Sure they look awful, sound just as bad, control like junk and lead into a story as basic as possible but at the end of the day, I had a much better time with them than I did the base game.

Overall not great but a step up from the uninspired, lackluster original.

Recommendation Rating: 5 out of 10