Multi-Plat Operation Raccoon City

[Alereth]

So...I gave Raccoon City two solid play throughs. The game, sadly, does not come even close to the hype.

The squad A.I. is garbage:
Honestly, this is probably the single worst AI I have ever encountered in a game. Ashley from Resident Evil 4 was a far more competent AI than the entire U.S.S. squad combined.

The weapons all suck:
At first, I was pleased at how wide the weapon selection was. There are at least five of each type ranging from Assault Rifles to LMGs to Sniper Rifles and Shotguns and Pistols.

The problem? They all royally blow.
In most cases, you run into two problems:

1) Ammo Capacity - If you have good ammo capacity, your weapon is either too weak or horribly innacurate (or both.)

2) Accuracy - All weapons except the Shotgun and a couple of the SMGs are highly inaccurate. It doesn't matter if your targeting indicator is on the enemy, you'll still miss. A lot. Even with sniper rifles. (More on that below)

There is a third problem covered in the next section.

Pistols are all but useless until you get either the Lightning Hawk (Magnum) or the Samurai Edge. The LH fires slow but has good power behind it. The Samurai Edge fires rapidly and can down a zombie in a few shots.

Enemies have ungodly defense and accuracy:

Clips. You can unload entire clips of ammo into (or in the direction of) a Spec Ops soldier. Half your shots will likely miss, depending on your weapon. (Burst fire can somewhat alleviate this.) and it still takes a fair amount to bring them down or to bleeding status.

Also, enemy accuracy is incredible. You can be halfway down the street and the enemy will still find you with a fully automatic weapon, but god forbid you try the same thing.

Speaking of long distance shooting:

The sniping mechanic in the game is garbage:
Much like the A.I., this game has the single worst sniping mechanic in almost any game I've played. Just because your target is directly in your sights doesn't mean you're going to hit them. And that's IF you can get them solidly in your sights. The enemies twitch and move so often, it's hard to get a bead on them. You can pull off easier headshots with your pistol.

Also, headshots aren't always going to kill human enemies. Some of them aren't even wearing helmets!

The dodge mechanic is passable, but poorly executed:
First off, there is no tutorial message telling you how to dodge. The first indication I got that there was a dodge function at all was a loading screen tip on the third mission. You have to initiate a sprint by clicking the left stick, then press A and the direction you want to dodge.

It's passable, but cumbersome. You CAN make split second dodges, but you have to pray the game recognizes your sprint click.

The cover mechanic fails.
Once again, another mechanic I have not seen done worse than in this game. You can enter cover by running up to anything the game deems you can use as cover. Unfortunately, your cover doesn't always provide cover. In many cases, the enemy is still going to hit you and while the game provides a blindfire option, it's often disabled for unknown reasons, even though you're either getting shot or there is nothing visible stopping your blindfire.

T-103 Tyrants and T-02 Nemesis Tyrant - Working as it should, but probably not intended:
While I would like to credit the developers for this, I think it was a fluke and they simply made these things stupidly hard scaled against how they made the Human enemies.

T-103's are a respectable boss type enemy and do the Tyrant legacy from the other RE games justice. They have bulletproof limiter coats, so their heads are the only vulnerable point. Because of how inaccurate your weapons are, you have to get in fairly close to make sure you hit. Being close to a tyrant is not a good thing, but it adds to the survival atmosphere on the game. It takes about 10 minutes to kill a T-103 with conventional weapons and about 30 seconds with the flamethrower.

This durability was extended to, and increased, for the T-02 Nemesis. The problem? Your accuracy still sucks and Nemesis has a gatling gun. Oh! And there are Spec Ops in the area too. Nemesis has the same ungodly accuracy as the rest of the ranged enemies in the game, and it's unforgiving. This battle was less enjoyable after the 7th attempt.

Which brings me to my next point:

They will gun YOU down at any cost:
For some reason outside of any logic, every enemy that can wield a firearm will specifically gun for YOU if you are outside of "cover". Even if your entire squad is out in the open, the enemy will prioritize the player character. This is especially evident and annoying in the above mentioned Nemesis fight.


....


I want to go on, but I see how long my post has already gotten. My final score for this game is a 4/10.

I was so pumped for this game but....damn. If you're an RE fan, you can somewhat enjoy your first play through, but ultimately, I feel the game is trash.

:banghead3::banghead3::banghead3::banghead3::banghead3::banghead3::banghead3::banghead3:

 

[Strid]

Out of all of that, that isn't personal opinion, all I got from it was "I've never played Socom before." That said, it isn't your fault there isn't a warning on the case that reads: "This isn't Resident Evil, this is Socom with monsters!"

Hype: This game ever had any to begin with?

AI: Yes, they are garbage, but also a treasure. They are garbage if you want them to play their class or pick you up, a treasure if you're just looking for cannon fodder, hell, they'll even stand in your line of fire like retards to this extent. I've heard a lot of bad about the A.I., even seen it, but to counter your very last problem, I've never had the issue of the enemy A.I. prioritizing me over the team A.I., save for the snipers on End of the Line. In fact, without being Vector it'd be damn near impossible to get Ada to move in Redemption (in the laser mine area) if she wasn't shooting at friendly A.I., I never use Vector in campaign.

Weapons and Enemy Defense: Your weapon problems are largely your problems, scoped weapons aside. This game has zero sticky aim, which this game is the only console shooter since Socom 1 and 2, that I've seen not offer it. Sticky aim is very important on consoles. The weapons being weak stem from this being a headshot game, if you're not shooting for the head, you're inviting inefficiency in droves. You could technically say the same for any game, in which headshots do extra damage, but here, it's the only way to play, seriously. Also, any sort of rapid fire is going to be terrible unless you're right up on someone with a sub-machine gun. There is a very good reason why most all of the automatic weapons can be fired almost as if they were semi-auto. Also, on the accuracy front, I'm sure you noticed the red laser dot straying from the crosshairs from time to time, if there are crosshairs on your screen, your bullet will land somewhere in the circle area, not always in the center, this again, another Socom thing.

Scoped Weapons: I don't know what the hell is up with these They just aren't accurate, save for the semi-auto rifle and Anti-Material Rifle, they seem fine, but I've rarely used them, could be my imagination. What I'm about to say is not an attempt to excuse whatever the hell is wrong with these weapons or their mechanics, but luckily they're completely useless. Also, sniper fire is also largly affected by no sticky aim, seriously, that's a huge deal here, and the hit boxes are very tiny, there is literally no room for error on shots, making them all the worse.

Last night I was helping someone finish their run, I was directly beside them and they scoped up to off one of the snipers on End of the Line, instead of the enemy dropping dead he got a nice team kill -.-' Seriously, I was right beside him, no where even close to in his sights.

Dodging: The Dodge system in this game is the same as it is in any Capcom game and the same controls as Lost Planet. Playing tons of Lost Planet, it is second nature to me to dodge this way. Being able to fire while doing so is a great gift in my opinion, to add to it. You also gain a small amount of invincibility frames at the start of it.

Cover: As is cover in any game, it's atrocious here. It's even worse though in that instead of this "A" button does everything mechanic, you just walk into it leaving you getting stuck when you're just trying to brush up near a wall to cut a corner. It does work though, it works perfectly fine, save for bullets you fire, if shooting over head, have a tendency to fire into the cover. You're probably just taking cover and thinking, "I'm in cover so I'm safe" that's not how it works here. Most times when you take cover on, say, knee high stuff, your head is still partially exposed.

Anyway, it's not a good game by any stretch of the means, but as a Socom fan I'm finding pleasure in the Versus modes. I hate the campaign so much, even with players, but Versus is a blast. I would highly suggest anyone looking for a Resident Evil title to not bother, if you're looking for the best Socom since 2, check it out, but even then it's only better than the rest of the lot minutely so. I can't recommend it any other way, not even if it was $20 could I offer it as a worthwhile product to have to even a Left 4 Dead fan, who just enjoys shooting zombies from time to time.

*TLDR (for people just looking for another opinion)* Only for Socom fans who are accustomed to the series and looking for their last thread of hope in ever having another even remotely decent Socom game in their system. Even then, if you're about to go spend $60 on a game with a heavy online emphasis, go buy Armored Core V and learn how to play it.

 

[Nicolette]

Found it boring and missing both the resident evil atmosphere and enjoyability. Returned it for credit on d3.