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Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City wasn’t exactly met with glowing reviews across the board, but it proved to be a commercial success and has become the highest selling non-numbered entry in the franchise.
I enjoyed the game a great deal for what it was: a squad-based shooter set in the RE universe (specifically during the events of Resident Evils 2 and 3). But the overall experience could’ve been much, much better. And that’s where the, not free, Echo Six campaign comes in.
Playing as Echo Six in their DLC missions proved to be a much better experience than playing as the Wolf Pack in the main game. Frankly, had their campaign been included from the get-go then I would’ve definitely given the game a much higher score. Sure, it’s still not up there with some of the classic entries in the series, but it’s still an enjoyable action-packed ride through Raccoon City. And with this 7-mission long campaign (with the first mission being free and the remaining six being split into two expansion packs for $10 each) I found myself enjoying the ride even more playing as the good guys.
So for this week’s reHorror column me and Rourke have teamed up to provide you guys our review of the Echo Six campaign. Rourke takes a look at the first four missions while I take a look at the final three. Hope you enjoy, and be sure to leave your own opinions in the comments below.
Rourke: Prologue + Expansion Pack 1 (Missions 1-4)
The first mission, “Eye of the Storm” was thankfully FREE (a price I am ALWAYS willing to pay- although it did not add any achievements or trophies) didn’t really have all that much to it. You can play as any one of the 6 Government Spec-Ops agents deployed into Raccoon City to investigate the citiy’s sudden blackout. Soon enough, the men and women of Echo Six discover that there’s a lot more going on in Raccoon City than the phones not working.
This first chapter adds a new Nemesis boss fight, and Jill Valentine, who up until now has been MIA in ORC. Oddly, while the USS campaign really didn’t mess around with the cannon too much (there’s really only one instance of Leon interacting with the Wolf Pack during the events of RE2), the Spec Ops campaign is significantly more lenient on its treatment of Jill’s canon journey through Resident Evil 3. Jill actually stops to have a chat with you at one point, revealing that all this is the fault of one not-so friendly corporation, and later on in the paid DLC you work with Claire, side-by-side. So this campaign has a significantly higher “what-if” thing going on than the disk campaign.
There are a couple of cool highlights in the first mission, from an interesting nod to RE2, where ORC reveals that the bus Leon/Claire have to walk through at the outset of RE2’s “A” scenario to get to the R.P.D. station was put in the middle of the road by none other than Nemesis himself- or seeing Nemesis fight side-by-side with USS soldiers against Spec Ops in an all-out war.
Then we have Expansion Pack 1 (housing missions 2-4). These new missions add a good 2-3 hours of playtime to ORC, which considering my first clear time was 4 ½ hours for the USS campaign, that’s a very good thing. Taking place slightly before the events of the USS campaign (as evidenced by the timing of Jill’s actions during this- Resident Evil 3 takes place about a day before RE2, at least for the first half) these new 3 chapters add Carlos Olivera to the mix, who is actually pretty cool in this game. I was skeptical at first- namely because of a particular shot of him from the Heroes Mode debut trailer, and because of how grossly Umbrella Chronicles mishandled him (at least in my opinion). Carlos’ Hispanic accent is still missing, but his character here feels closer to the way he felt in his original debut in RE3.
While this DLC does re-tread a few of the USS missions’ environments (Raccoon City Hall, St. Michel’s Church, etc.) they have been significantly modified. From the entire color pallet changing (Most of the USS missions bathe the game in red, while the Spec Ops seem to have a more blueish gray thing going on. Of course, most of the outdoor stuff is blueish gray anyway, but if you play the same area back-to-back you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how different they really are) to new parts of these areas opening up. Sometimes it’s just another hallway, but, for the most part the re-trekking of old environments is simply a way of getting to all-new environments.
At one point in mission 3, shortly after reenacting one of my favorite moments from Resident Evil 3, Nemesis actually blows open a fence that was sealed for the USS campaign, unveiling a whole new area that takes up the rest of that chapter. The final fight with Nemesis is one of the most rewarding so far in the game, and Nemmy finally gets his rocket launcher!
The fourth and final (for the moment) DLC mission is by far my favorite, however. Despite the fact it’s mostly an escort mission, it’s probably one of the funest- and above all SPOOKIEST levels in the game. All that complaining about a lack of ambiance in ORC seems to have been answered with this level, as you fight your way through pitch black sewers, having to through a flare every five to ten feet or so to see. Zombies and lickers poor out of everywhere, appearing out of the darkness, only lit by your flares. It invokes a sense of panic and spookiness that had, up until now, been almost completely absent from the game.
The sewers level design is one of the most interesting in the game. Much like the Labs from the USS campaign, this environment has been COMPLETELY redesigned, only vague similarities between this new iteration and the way it’s been presented before- but that’s be a good thing. The sewers from RE2 where little more than a series of brightly lit green brick hallways with fences every couple of feet, and the Darkside Chronicles version was more or less the same (albeit a tad more complex). Now it is shown as being dark, disgusting, and rotting. Blue light pours down from overhead ventilation fans, and grime crusts over every wall. The design is somewhat reminiscent of Dead Space and maybe BioShock.
Overall, I’m VERY impressed with these new DLC chapters, and am honestly enjoying them more than the USS campaign that came on the disk. They feel more intense, and the story is more interesting. I really hope ORC gets a “complete edition” down the line, it isn’t right to keep such a clearly superior campaign as a download only. It really rounds out the game nicely, and I think if it had been included on the disk, the game would have gotten higher scores.
Jorge: Expansion Pack 2 (Missions 5-7)
The Echo Six campaign brings forth a level of quality and excitement that should’ve been present in the main game we spent $60 on. Unfortunately, players had to spend $20 extra to experience said campaign. Well, that’s business as usual, and I’m sure there will be a “gold edition” like Rourke suggested down the line compiling this and any other DLC Capcom may have in the works for the game. So now let’s take a look at the final three missions that make Echo Six’s time in Raccoon City end with quite a bang. Well…not really end…but…no spoilers! *Hanging from a cliff*
Mission 5 starts thing off in quite a dark way, literally. You have to make use of flares to help you navigate through corridors as you make your way deep into a secret Umbrella facility. This gives the game an actual horror feel (mores so than anything in the main USS campaign) as you start to get ambushed by parasites and zombies from all sides surrounded by darkness, with the only light being emitted by your thrown flares. There’s also a neat little projection in one of the rooms that gives you a brief little history of Umbrella’s plans for the T and G virus which I thought was pretty cool.
Things don’t let up, and you’ll soon find yourself in the middle of the ever so classic facility-wide self destruct scenario that’s been a series staple. This particular moment in the mission was quite intense and seeing everything around you fall apart and go up in flames as you’re being attacked by Hunters, zombies and a loose Tyrant definitely got my blood pumping. It was the perfect way to end a mission that started off with a slower pace as we made our way into the facility with barely any source of light. And it’s not a completely short mission either, which is another good thing (I mean, you are paying ten bucks for this pack!). Then we go on to the next mission…
Mission 6 takes us back outside into the corpse-ridden, zombie-ruled streets of Raccoon City as Echo Six make their way to the beloved Dead Factory from Resident Evil 3 (which sadly doesn’t get explored all that much here). Personally, I found it truly breathtaking to be taking on hordes of zombies and seeing the Dead Factory in the distance, as we got closer and closer to it. This mission also gave us more USS soldiers to fight, too. And with that comes a downside.
Mission 5 introduced an enemy turret deployed by the USS. To take it out you had to make your way from cover to cover until you reached a terminal near it to shut it down. Of course, the turret is surrounded by USS soldiers, which makes things a bit harder. It gets even more tedious in mission 6 where you have a couple turrets set up and a large group of soldiers and zombie hordes to take on in a long street. I found myself dying many, many times here until I found a shortcut through the street. It did feel quite epic, though, since you were once again fighting side-by-side with other Spec Ops soldiers as you pushed through the USS’ defenses. And once you do get to the Dead Factory, man oh man do things get crazy…
Remember in Resident Evil 3, where Jill confronts Nemmy for the last time in his blob form? There’s a rail gun there that you use to do a great deal of damage on Nemmy, and there’s also dead Tyrants littered around the area. With this mission’s epic final moments we get to play the events leading up to that (despite not being 100% canon). Echo Six put up one hell of a fight and I was at the edge of my seat the whole time as I fought a group of Tyrants all at once. I can only imagine how insane this battle is in professional mode. This truly is one of the highlights of the entire Echo Six campaign, and hell, the entire game, too. But then we have this campaign’s actual final boss fight in mission 7, which was quite memorable.
I won’t spoil it completely, but the campaign final boss fight is actually against a new BOW. It’s comprised of two BOWs we’ve already faced in the game itself. I’ll leave it at that. Before you actually get to this fight, that takes place in a new environment, you have to go through waves of USS forces as you’re racing to get Leon, Claire and Sherry to safety. It pretty much plays out like the main game’s final mission, only this time you’re playing as the good guys. So I wasn’t really too fond of this final mission, until the final boss battle. That’s where I was just blown away.
Looking at it as a whole package, the Echo Six campaign was truly a better product than the actual main game. And like I said at the beginning, if this was included alongside the USS campaign right from the beginning, I would’ve definitely given the game a higher score (the same score I’m giving this DLC campaign below). There were some truly outstanding moments here, some nice interactions with classic characters, a good dose of variety, and even moments where you actually felt like you were playing a survival horror game as opposed to a straight-up squad-based shooter. This is what the main game should’ve been.
