Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first hour has a simple, slightly guilty pleasure: you are not desperately conserving ammunition in a haunted house, but advancing as Umbrella Security Service through a city-wide outbreak with a squad at your back. Operation Raccoon City makes a hard pivot from survival horror into a cover shooter, and it is most enjoyable when you accept that premise rather than wait for classic Resident Evil tension to take over. Shooting infected and hostile forces, ducking into cover, and throwing in melee attacks gives the action a brisk, scrappy rhythm.

Choosing four members from Wolfpack’s six-person roster lends missions some replay value. A Recon, Medic, Field Scientist, Demolition, Assault, or Surveillance choice is more than a label because each comes with distinct passive and active abilities. Spectre’s expanding set of scans, visions, item detection, and proximity information can be especially useful when you want more awareness of the fight. Experience also unlocks more tools and weapons, so there is a tangible reason to keep pushing beyond a first run.

The trouble is the single-player setup. You control only one operative, cannot switch to the AI-controlled squadmates, and therefore have to live with their decisions. That is a real drag in a game built around four roles cooperating. Four-player co-op is where the class system has room to breathe: friends can divide responsibilities, react to trouble, and make the mess feel intentional instead of merely unruly.

Its better ideas are often the ones that disrupt ordinary shooting. Bioweapons can turn infected or allies against one another, while a bite can drain your health until infection takes hold and your character temporarily attacks the squad unless an immunisation spray is used. These systems create sudden pressure and force you to watch more than the crosshair. Multiplayer also has more variety than the campaign alone suggests, from Team Attack and Biohazard to Survivor and Heroes Mode; Xbox 360 owners additionally get Nemesis Mode, which lets one person take control of Nemesis.

Graphics

The game uses a behind-the-back camera suited to its cover shooting, keeping your operative, nearby infected, and the wider firefight in view. Raccoon City and Umbrella’s facility give the action a recognizably Resident Evil backdrop, while the match modes put Wolfpack, USSO operatives, and familiar series characters on opposing sides.

Story

This is an alternate, non-canon detour through September 1998, running alongside the period of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. You play a Wolfpack member ordered to enter Umbrella’s Raccoon City facility, work with HUNK, neutralize William Birkin, and secure the G-Virus before it can reach the American government. For a series fan, that villain-side viewpoint is the hook.

It also gives the campaign an enjoyably cynical slant. The T-virus has already spread across the city, infected civilians are everywhere, and Umbrella’s Biohazard Countermeasure Service is supposed to help protect Birkin—until it becomes clear they are not dependable partners. The setup puts you in the middle of competing armed groups as well as the outbreak, which suits a shooter much better than a quieter horror structure would.

Still, the story works more as an excuse to revisit a famous disaster from another angle than as essential Resident Evil lore. Heroes Mode is the most direct fan-service payoff, pitting Leon, Claire, Jill, and Carlos against Ada, HUNK, Nicholai, and Lone Wolf. It is fun to see that roster gathered for a fight, but the non-canon framing means the stakes land lighter than they do in the mainline games.

Overall Experience

Operation Raccoon City is a flawed but understandable experiment: a Resident Evil spin-off that wants the chaotic teamwork of a military shooter more than the careful dread of survival horror. That choice is not inherently wrong. In fact, with three friends, its four-person squads, role-based abilities, infection hazards, and competing enemy groups can produce the kind of unplanned co-op confusion that makes everyone talk over one another afterward.

Alone, the AI squad and inability to change characters make the rough edges much harder to forgive. The campaign’s strongest moments come from systems colliding, not from the reliable satisfaction of its moment-to-moment structure. If you want a more established action-oriented Resident Evil, Resident Evil 5 is the safer recommendation. If Umbrella’s side of the Raccoon City outbreak and a class-based four-player shooter still sound irresistible, this one can be worth a discounted co-op session.

At 5.6, it lands exactly where it should: more interesting than consistently good. Give it a chance for the alternate Raccoon City premise, the Wolfpack/USSO matchup, and the chance to play with friends. Do not expect it to deliver the focused horror or polished action that made the name matter. For additional game history and release details, see this Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City overview.

Retro Replay Score

5.6/10