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[Dusk Golem]

I played the first four episodes of the main game with some friends a year or so ago and REALLY didn't like it at the time I played it, so didn't go back to it a while.

However, today decided to just marathon and beat it with a few other friends, so we stood our ground and played all 14 missions in the game (the main game and the Echo Six DLC expansion missions).

I can't believe really that I'm saying this, but I actually warmed up to the game substantially than from when I originally played it. If you had asked me even just yesterday what I thought of Operation Raccoon City, I would of responded that I really didn't like it, the shooting felt unresponsive, the levels felt dull, and it was my second least favorite RE game next to Gun Survivor 2.

Replaying through the first four missions, I enjoyed myself more than I did the first time. I played the same class, same difficulty, so I'm not really sure what changed, but I found myself enjoying myself more through it. Still, I would of only classified it as an okay at best game going off the main campaign. The bosses weren't really fun, the levels weren't designed all that great, the story was ehhhh, only a few music tracks stood out, co-op made things more fun, but that can be said for any game almost. It was hardly remarkable, but I would of classified it as not terrible as I initially thought of it.

That is, until we got to the Echo Six expansion side of things.

This is going to have to be my weirdest recommendation I've made in a long time. The main campaign was ehhh to okay to me, but for some reason, I really liked the Echo Six DLC expansion part of the game. It was literally better than the main game in every way.

First of all, it was just as long as the main game, so 4-5 hours (split between 7 episodes). I wasn't really expecting much from it, as by the time ORC had been coming to a close I had been getting a bit tired of the formula and expected these episodes to drudge on me. But they didn't. They're harder than the main campaign, sure, but I also came to feel that they were much, much better designed.

More than that, it progressively got better. The first episode alone was better than any episode from the main game in my opinion, but on-top of that the episodes got better and better as they went on. The people I was playing with agree'd with me.

The Echo Six DLC Expansions are split into two parts, with part one have three episodes and part two having four episodes. The first half, the first three episodes, mainly retread locations from the main campaign with a few new areas sprinkled in. A lot of this campaign of these are tied loosely to Resident Evil 3, as you run into Jill and Carlos on multiple occasions and have scenarios with Nemesis throughout the first and third episodes. What I noted here from the start was that they had substantially decreased the encounters with enemies with guns in this campaign, which was only a plus. And this remained true through most of the episode, enemies with guns were kept to a minimum and most of it (like 80-85%) was spent fighting zombies and BOWs.

Next thing I noticed was that enemies that were really underplayed in the main campaign played a much bigger role here, and there was twists on enemies as well. This also applied to objectives, which changed how you approached levels and gave you new, more interesting things to do than before.

More than this, I liked the characters more, the music was better, and the story while still not brilliant was better.

What surprised me the most is that the bosses in these first three areas were not only more frequent, but also more enjoyable. I just overall found it a more enjoyable experience.

Then came episode 4, and my opinion blew a lot higher for the game.

Episode 4 is the beginning of Echo Six DLC Expansion Part 2, and they did a lot here. Firstly, the second part of the DLC takes place almost exclusively in brand new areas with only the rare returning area, but drastically changed.

Secondly, the graphics department got a BIG upgrade. The lighting looked substantially better, and more than this, the art direction seemed to have a big upgrade as well.

And on-top of this, they introduced suddenly a lot of new gameplay mechanics. There were now areas in complete darkness where you had to light it up with flares to progress, a presence of a stalker enemy that was more prevalent and fun to avoid. The encounters were even better paced and designed, and more twists to gameplay was added both to enemies, hazards, and the stages themselves. There were a few dips here and there, but the Echo Six Expansion quickly became leagues better than the main game for all of us, and it concluded with an actually unique and fairly enjoyable final boss encounter.

More than all of this though, the last five missions of the Echo Six Expansion actually caught moments that felt like it was Resident Evil, rather than some weird other thing set in its universe. It actually had some good atmosphere in places, and while still shoot-shoot, bang-bang, was a lot more tense and the areas, design, and just how it all came together felt more in-line than the rest of the game.

Honestly speaking, I don't know what happened between the main game and the Echo Six expansion, but the content there was actually leagues better than the main game. There was even moments where it felt like you were playing a survival-horror game, and even handled some of its horror elements better than RE5 or RE6, surprisingly. I think the game would of been much better received if he DLC was actually the main game. As it stands, it's some bizarre situation where I wouldn't recommend the main game really unless you were a series die-hard and don't mind a sort of meh game with co-op, but I would recommend the DLC as it was legitimately enjoyable and was better than the main game in every way, and only got better as it went on.

 

[cvxfreak]

I have no idea how Echo Six ended up being leagues better than the main campaign, but somehow that's how it ended up. Echo Six had a great final boss fight, too.

 

[akilshohen]

Almost makes me want to go back to play that campaign. The release just made it sound like it was a cash-in as DLC. Horrible if its that good to just end up as forgotten DLC.

 

[Dusk Golem]

I have no idea how Echo Six ended up being leagues better than the main campaign, but somehow that's how it ended up. Echo Six had a great final boss fight, too.

I'm trying to process specifically what about it makes it better. I mean, most of the enemies are the same, only a few new ones are introduced. The gunplay didn't change any. There are some obvious things, like I thought the music was better, and I liked the characters and story more. Also the last four episodes had an upgrade in their lighting engine that actually impressed me a few times and had better art direction in my opinion as well. And obviously, focusing far more on the zombies and BOWs over people shooting you is appreciated.

I'm almost tempted to say that maybe some more people from Capcom and the RE team got involved in the project on the DLC, but I have no proof about that. Just the DLC saw a rise in quality, pacing, design, atmosphere, and overall better quality, Just something about it felt a lot more Resident Evil-like than the rest of the main campaign too.

And I agree with you, the final boss was actually pretty fun. More than that, the other bosses were too, which is weird since literally I found no boss in the main campaign fun, but found every boss in the DLC pretty enjoyable. My two favorites being the final boss and when you face Nemesis in the factory area.

 

[Cheddahz]

Yeah, I actually ended up having a blast with the game (even though it wasn't all that great). If you can pick it up for around $10 and enjoy a good niche/B type game, then yeah, pick this one up

 

[dark_chris]

The game was actually fun. I thought it was great, but the story sucked. I only played the campaign of the Umbrella ops and thought the ending sucked ass. WAY too short.

 

[Dusk Golem]

Almost makes me want to go back to play that campaign. The release just made it sound like it was a cash-in as DLC. Horrible if its that good to just end up as forgotten DLC.

I'm so split on this. I would say if you have the DLC and have the game, go for it, the DLC is honestly better than the main game, substantially so. But on the other hand, you have to pay more to get the DLC, and if you absolutely despised everything about the main game I would think you wouldn't like this. But I do think it is better than the main game in every way, and kind of wish they had sold it for $20 separately as its own thing as honestly it's a better experience in my opinion than the campaign counterpart. Still had problems, but I and the people I was playing with had a good time.

Yeah, I actually ended up having a blast with the game (even though it wasn't all that great). If you can pick it up for around $10 and enjoy a good niche/B type game, then yeah, pick this one up

In its own regards yes, but as I was saying, I am still settling my overall thoughts and not sure if I would fully recommend it. Still have to try the multiplayer modes though, so I guess there's that side of it I can't judge yet.

The game was actually fun. I thought it was great, but the story sucked. I only played the campaign of the Umbrella ops and thought the ending sucked ass. WAY too short.

The ending to the regular campaign was ehhh, though a bit more amusing for my friends and I since they were toyfully beating each other up the whole game and completely unintentionally when we got to the 'choice' at the end, they all decided to side with Leon while I decided to go against, making me the final boss and just.. Pft.

This said, if you liked the main campaign, I am going to heavily suggest the Echo Six DLC campaign. It also has a much better ending and actually a pretty cool final boss.

 

[Metalmarc]

Too much screen tearing for me, otherwise i'd go back to it

 

[Dusk Golem]

Too much screen tearing for me, otherwise i'd go back to it

That might be an issues on consoles. No idea as I was playing the PC version.

 

[Menome]

Myself and three friends got Operation Raccoon City at launch, full-price. We were fully prepared to play a "bad" shooter, we just have fun on lots of games with co-op regardless of objective quality. However, none of the reviews we'd read mentioned the abysmally short playing time, so we were done in two evenings.

As such, we traded it in as quick as possible to get the maximum resell value and thus missed out on the Echo Six expansion. Reading now about how it was better than the main campaign does bum me out that we didn't get to do it, but I don't think I could ever convince the guys to buy the game again then pay for DLC for another short-lived experience.

 

[Hellraider]

You guys have peaked my interest with the Echo Six DLC talk. Main game was pretty meh all around but I'd gladly give the DLC a try.

I guess it's not available on the GFWL version so I should wait for a xbox marketplace sale. If there ever is one.

 

[Dusk Golem]

You guys have peaked my interest with the Echo Six DLC talk. Main game was pretty meh all around but I'd gladly give the DLC a try.

I guess it's not available on the GFWL version so I should wait for a xbox marketplace sale. If there ever is one.

DLC is available on the GFWL version, know this as I just played the DLC with friends earlier today on the PC version. It's Echo Six Expansion 1 and 2 on the Steam Store, though maybe it might get a sale one of these days of the Summer Sale? I picked up the game for $7.50 a year or so back, and picked up the DLC for $2.50 each.

 

[Hellraider]

DLC is available on the GFWL version, know this as I just played the DLC with friends earlier today on the PC version. It's Echo Six Expansion 1 and 2 on the Steam Store, though maybe it might get a sale one of these days of the Summer Sale? I picked up the game for $7.50 a year or so back, and picked up the DLC for $2.50 each.

I dunno why I expected it to not be available. Anyways, I really doubt Capcom will put a sale on a GFWL game/DLC of theirs. They have pretty much forgotten them (RIP RE5). They can prove me wrong anytime they want, though.

20euros is what I paid for both my copies of ORC together. I'm not paying as much for its DLC.

 

[grandwizard]

Would Echo Six be decent in single player?

 

[sleepykyo]

I gave up after I kept dying at the part

Spoiler

where Nicolai runs off as the lickers swarm in from the ceiling

Spoiler

. Do I have a lot left before it ends? For that matter do I need to finish the main game?

 

[Dusk Golem]

With a few hours of thinking, I think I know the main reason we liked Echo Six more than the main game.

In the main game, the pacing is absolutely borked, the design is sloppy, and the scenarios they often throw you into are just not fun. There are a few interesting concepts, but they're not really utilized to the fullest. The first mission in Operation Raccoon City for instance is a boring cover-based tutorial level with forced 'sniping' through most of it, and then a kind of interesting idea of being chased by William Birkin, but that while more interesting still doesn't really feel fun and feels very underutilized. And the game does this a lot in the main campaign, and the difficulty is all over the place with random difficulty spikes, and not a lot of what you're doing really feels that compelling. It's more fun to overcome obstacles with friends, but I found in the main campaign we spent a lot of time beating each other up and my friends weren't really paying attention to the story, because it was very uninteresting, and the scenarios we found ourselves in were mostly uninteresting with a few exceptions. Most of the gameplay came to three forms, cover-based shooting, on the move to the next waypoint, and crowd-managing with zombie type enemies to not let them get too close. It wasn't terrible and we weren't not having fun, but it lacked engagement, variety, and good design.

In an overall sense, I would say the campaign was mostly meh, with the fun I was having with friends mostly kind of stupid fun.

On contrast, the Echo Six missions.

I think the main difference between the two is its pacing, design, and how it brings everything together. It's not fully noticeable at first, in the first couple missions I thought they were better than the missions in the main game but they were much the same sort of thing from the main game, just harder and a few new mission things (like the part where you have to barricade the doors to stop Crimson Heads from bustling in, or the part where you have to save spec-op soldiers from Nemesis from a rooftop). But around Chapter 3 it started going into new directions and taking more on its own spirit.

I think they successfully changed up pacing so that it felt progressive and varied. While the original game was rather samey a lot of the time, Echo Six amends this by giving a variety of tasks that create new obstacles and challenges rather than just going to the next waypoint and shooting up more enemies, Objectives like leading an invincible stalker Nemesis to use a rocket launcher he's aiming at you to destroy a gate, in a completely dark environment so you have to use flares to see, aiding Sherry through the dark and from harm's way, tackling a battle as a giant turret sits and makes getting out of sage areas deadly and involve timing and distractions... Among many other things, the variety of task is expanded, and makes the gameplay substantially more interesting.

Next up, the bosses. The bosses in the main game often felt like bullet sponges, and all you had to do for all of them in the main game was shoot them until dead and then move on, making them just feel like tougher enemies, and didn't break any tedium. I like how the bosses in Echo Six's were different than the main gameplay while also being built up to, and the bosses being tackled with mechanics outside of just shooting them that also tied in with either the monster or the level itself, with mechanics from previous encounters coming into play. For example, you fight Nemesis with a gattling gun in the main campaign, which is kind of cool but in the end very meh outside of concept, as all you really do is take cover and shoot him, like anything else. In Echo Six, the fight with him is much more interesting as he's more like the stalker enemy sort who's invincible to your bullets, and instead you have to avoid him, and try to lead him to areas to be poured on with molten metal to get damaged and stall and avoid him, which both is more in-line with his character but also a far more interesting boss fight. And the same applies to most other bosses, all of the bosses in Echo Six had more mechanics that just "Take cover and shoot it," and the mechanics were actually fun.

Also with that, the nostalgia factor is stronger as the events that happen in the campaign are more in-line with events with Resident Evil 2 and 3. There were a few moments in the main campaign, but often they felt too different that or were too brief to really have any effect. In the case of Echo Six, the events feel much more tied with the events of RE3 and RE2, and while the game is mostly not canon, it provides interesting 'answers' to certain elements in RE3 and RE2, as well as what you do is more closely related to the events of those games.

They also tone down from going shoot-shoot, bang-bang all the time. That is still very much the game, it is still definitely a third-person shooter action game, but they play up elements from the series more, and more interesting elements as well. They allow segments of no enemies, there is build-up to things and payoff, and introduce new gameplay mechanics that successfully make you feel like you're doing more than just shooting and progressing, and work well with the game's mechanics and character abilities.

On-top of this, even when the game had the occasional shoot-out, I thought the arenas you fought in were much better designed with more thought put into it.

And the music was better and the lighting was prettier, that too.

Would Echo Six be decent in single player?

Probably not, I played co-op and I guess you could, but Operation Raccoon City as a whole to me feels like a co-op focused game. Even with single player, you'd still have three AI companions.

I gave up after I kept dying at the part

Spoiler

where Nicolai runs off as the lickers swarm in from the ceiling

. Do I have a lot left before it ends? For that matter do I need to finish the main game?

It's not a long game, but I believe that's towards the end of mission two of seven. If you mean to finish, I think it depends. On one hand, I think the main campaign is rather meh. But on the other, Echo Six is harder than the main game, and I think the knowledge of how to take care of Lickers

Spoiler

and Hunters

well enough is beneficial beforehand, as there's more of them in Echo Six, so if you had no idea what are good strategies against them, I could see them being a problem as there are some sections in the DLC where they're kind of rampant later in and tossed in with other enemies.

I dunno why I expected it to not be available. Anyways, I really doubt Capcom will put a sale on a GFWL game/DLC of theirs. They have pretty much forgotten them (RIP RE5). They can prove me wrong anytime they want, though.

20euros is what I paid for both my copies of ORC together. I'm not paying as much for its DLC.

Definitely understandable, and I'd agree. The Expansion Six missions are just as long as the main game (around the same length hours-wise, same number of missions), but then I almost feel they should be part of the main game, is my biggest problem with it. Capcom seems to be avoiding putting it's GFWL games on sale, which is a shame as the service has been expanded, and the prices are a bit too steep for the game. I would say that it was worth it at the 75% pricetag it was something like a year, year and a half ago, which would be five euros it seems.

 

[Neff]

A fine contender for the worst RE game ever made. Even Gaiden is preferable imo.

 

[Dusk Golem]

A fine contender for the worst RE game ever made. Even Gaiden is preferable imo.

That was my opinion until yesterday, with the exception of what I've played being Gun Survivor 2 as the worst.

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

I enjoyed it some.
Heroes mode in multiplayer was awesome though.

 

[NIN90]

A fine contender for the worst RE game ever made. Even Gaiden is preferable imo.

You should play Gaiden again. It's downright unplayable because the player can unknowingly sequence break themselves into a corner. ORC is just boring.

 

[Neff]

You should play Gaiden again. It's downright unplayable because the player can unknowingly sequence break themselves into a corner. ORC is just boring.

Yeah, but at least it's funny.

 

[whitemex88]

Bought it used form gamefly for like $2. played 30 minutes. went to gamestop and got $14 for it. Bought NBA 2k13 instead. best investment I've made in gaming

 

[NIN90]

Yeah, but at least it's funny.

It also had incredible designs like Leon (my avatar) and this:

 

[Randam]

even the biggest crap is fun when you do coop.

 

[old manatee]

I almost just convinced myself to try it, but the game + DLC is still $40 during a steam sale.

 

[Jawmuncher]

My biggest problem with ORC was the damage output. I had to play it solo and all the enemies took way to much damage to die. Had they died quicker it would have been better. The melee was pretty shit and worthless to. Lastly bosses needed health bars they could take forever to die and it felt like you weren't even damaging them.

I played through the game 3 times and these were the issues I always ran into. Shame since I liked the idea of the game but the final product just had to many amateur mistakes in it.

 

[kuYuri]

This not being on sale is really odd. I bought the complete pack during Steam summer sale 2013 for like $10. I originally played it on console, but rebuying it for cheap on the PC was even better cause it includes everything including Echo Six and better graphics/framerate.

 

[SargerusBR]

There was a party for this?

 

[legacyzero]

I've played worse games, for sure.

 

[Dusk Golem]

Thought I might bump this since Operation Raccoon City is on sale again on Steam for some reason, can get the game and all of its DLC for $9.99: http://store.steampowered.com/sub/16896/

 

[mr_chun]

Nice to see some impressions of it. All I remember from its release is Audrey Drake's remarkably poorly-written review.

 

[kamineko]

I think it's a fun enough game to play with friends, especially the DLC content

I wouldn't play it alone, but if you like shooting stuff with your buddies this is an alright way to go about it. I think $9.99 is a good price for the whole package

 

[ChoklitCow]

This might be the encouragement I need to take mine out of the shrink wrap!

 

[bryanee]

Its fucking terrible. I played it at launch and hated it then and I played it in co-op (to the end) around two months ago and hated still.

One of the worst games of last gen with the absolute worst cover system I've ever had to use not to mention piss poor combat. The final combat section was also god awful. The most fun we had with it was recreating this glitch that made characters slide around.

That being said I fucking love the idea of it. I'd like another attempt at this that doesn't fuck it up so bad.

 

[Dusk Golem]

This might be the encouragement I need to take mine out of the shrink wrap!

If you have no one to play with and don't own the DLC, I wouldn't recommend it. XD; I haven't tried single player, but I can't imagine it being fun. And the main game is... Ehhh. I initially hated it, I thought it was terrible. But it kind of grew on me, but even then the game was still bad, at its best it was just okay.

Until the DLC, which for whatever godforsaken reason is actually okay to good, better than the main game in every way, I'm not sure I'd recommend it unless you sort of know what you're getting into, I thought I'd bump this though since ORC hasn't been on sale in years, and the whole complete pack with the Echo Six expansion stuff is included, so some may be like me and give it a try but if you have no one to play with it, I wouldn't recommend it, and I wish the Echo Six stuff was available stand-alone.

I think it's a fun enough game to play with friends, especially the DLC content

I wouldn't play it alone, but if you like shooting stuff with your buddies this is an alright way to go about it. I think $9.99 is a good price for the whole package

Basically my thoughts, though I should mention I played medic and did like the task variety in the DLC since there were non-shooting elements a LOT better implemented.

Its fucking terrible. I played it at launch and hated it then and I played it in co-op (to the end) around two months ago and hated still.

One of the worst games of last gen with the absolute worst cover system I've ever had to use not to mention piss poor combat. The final combat section was also god awful. The most fun we had with it was recreating this glitch that made characters slide around.

That being said I fucking love the idea of it. I'd like another attempt at this that doesn't fuck it up so bad.

The idea is interesting, but I don't blame you at all for thinking that of the main game, that was my initial take-away from it, and even now the main game is bad, with the best it ever obtains being 'okay' in specific parts. But I also assume you didn't play the DLC, which makes sense, I think only a few have, but for some reason it's frustratingly better, which gives me such conflicted feelings when talking about ORC now. I don't want to recommend it since the main game is... Ehhhh. But the DLC actually is pretty decent, with a few parts that are actually good, especially in missions 3-7 (the last five of the 7).

It's a very bizarre feeling and consensus I've formed on the title along with the people I played with.