Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City has been unveiled as an all-new team-based multiplayer Resident Evil game from SOCOM: Confrontation developer Slant Six for Xbox 360 and PS3!
Fans of the Resident Evil series as a whole will definitely be reminded of the online team-based Resident Evil Outbreak PS2 series that included RE: Outbreak and the sequel, Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2, and it looks like Capcom may finally be reviving that idea with Operation Raccoon City.
In Operation Raccoon City, players take on the role of “Umbrella Security Services”, a task team sent into the overrun city to destroy all of the zombies and survivors that they come into contact with. As the “Raccoon City” name suggests, the title will take place circa 1998 during the Raccoon City outbreak period as seen in Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3. And not only that, but in a past “wish list” that players hoped they’d see in Resident Evil 3 (but it didn’t happen), in Operation Raccoon City players will even run into the main franchise characters from that era, such as Leon S. Kennedy, Claire Redfield and Jill Valentine. Exactly which characters you’ll come across is an unknown at this point, but hopefully it will run the game from Ada Wong to Sherry, William and Annette Birkin. During the a demo shown to OXM magazine, you were tasked with “Killing Leon”. Hopefully you’ll also be given the order to “Kill Carlos”. 😉
The big hook of Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City though is the fact that there are more than one faction that you will play as. So while the Umbrella Security Services will be tasked with killing Leon, the “US Spec Ops” will be tasked with trying to save him before the other team reaches him. The games tagline will be about allowing you to “change the history of Resident Evil” by killing off one of the main characters. At least that’s what I presume given the information available.
Also of highlight is the fact that Operation Raccoon City will have a much darker tone than previous Resident Evil games. The USS Squad also feature four characters that were inspired by the infamous “Hunk – The 4th Survivor” from Resident Evil 2 (who made playable appearances in the Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5 Mercenaries minigames). In addition to earning experience to unlock new abilities and weapons, combat will be more in-depth than simply taking out enemies with headshots, as you can lure zombies to attack opposing soldiers and whatnot.
The game will apparently be released this Winter.
Here is a video from Resident Evil: Outbreak, now try to picture this in modern times!
Don’t forget that there will also be Code Veronica X/Resident Evil 4 HD, the upcoming Resident Evil 6 (which we’ll probably see at E3 2011 in June) and two new 3DS games, Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D and Resident Evil Revelations.
It’s a good time to be a Resident Evil fan!
Via 1UP