NYCC: Hands On Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

I got a chance to get my grubby hands, well more chubby than grubby honestly… But besides the fact, on the new Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City. Throughout all four days of Comic Con, not once did I see the line/mosh pit disperse except when everyone was pushed out the door so they could lock down the convention center. Jumping in the hot seat, right off the bat you get to select one of six special ops Umbrella agents, each with a unique special ability. After picking the team leader Lupo, we waited till the load screen passed (a load screen in a Resident Evil game?!) and were treated to one of the original cut scene of where Leon and Claire become separated by a big fuel tanker driven by a zombie. You’re then lifted in by chopper to take to the streets in the heart of Raccoon City.

The battle starts as soon as your squad touches down on the pavement. A way point on your mini map lays out the direction that the team should be heading out towards. The game lets you freely roam however you like within the area, but if you stray too far you’re definitely guaranteed to get eaten by zombies, or at least wounded enough to make you run like a screaming girl in a horror movie back to your squad mates. The shooting mechanics and game play feel really tight like SOCOM, but movement and shooting feels more precise. Throughout the stage we ran into either hunters, or soldiers fending off zombies, which also tend to shoot at you and your team as well. One great thing that I noticed while playing was that enemies can possibly come from everywhere; vents, shafts, even by helicopter dropped pods. After reaching the way point a cut scene of the Tyrant plays, signaling a boss or mini boss fight. Unfortunately the demo ends there, leaving my itchy zombie killing trigger finger yearning for more. Guess we’ll just have to wait till March 2012 for it to come out till we can really get into the nitty gritty, but this is definitely one Resident Evil game that changes the playing field in a fun way.