Operation: Have some fun

[Smiley]

Okay so we've seen Operation Raccoon City and at some point I'm sure all our feelings have been mixed. There's things we looked forward to and other stuff we dread to come across. But personally how are you going to play the game?

I ask this because it's clear some are in this for a different reason than others. It's not like Revelations where the general consensus is to go back to playing a survival horror game again. No, ORC has divided a fan base that wants or expects different things from it.



I can tell you that when the early news came out I was pretty excited. Playing as Umbrella baddies. Interfering with the "canon". Killing Leon. Good times right?

But not everybody felt the same way. Especial hardcore fans. The idea of messing with the canon in any way seemed like a bad idea. So we then learn that the game can be canon and you don't have to do all these terrible things to f*ck around with it. But now the shit really did hit the fan. Resident Evil gamers were picking apart the little details and separating it as non-canon.

The stuff written off and excused in previous RE games but with this one we're now dealing with serious business here. Because a new developer is working on the game and we can point the finger away from Capcom for the time being.


Pictured above: Pointing fingers at each other while using others as a flame shield.

You got confusion on dates, character events out of whack, etc. That's when things got bad....

After people saw more trailers, looked at the viral marketing and saw some demos the feedback was rather harsh on the authenticity of this game as part of the main canon.


Leon was in utter shock because he realized what kind of a mess he was taking part in. He wishes now that he had opened up his schedule to instead be in Mercenaries 3D. So then people at least would write him off for being in an obvious cash in as opposed to this betrayal of the Biohazard name. He couldn't bear the thought of being in another game so bad that it would be declared non-canon. Nightmares of Gaiden flashed before his eyes.


Claire shakes her head in disbelief because her character is pretty much over from this point on. No one can figure out what to do with her anymore so they throw her in spin off games taking place over the course of events she was already a part of back when she was in her prime. The only sigh of relief she gave for doing something original was Mercenaries 3D, but then she realized how pointless her presence was compared to the characters who gamers were already familiar with in those games. Looking at how many times she must return to Raccoon City, Claire is on the verge of face palming.


Ada proceeds with caution knowing that if she's not careful the fans will ravage and force her to wear the ridiculous red dress she had on in Resident Evil 4. In the hopes that she would be taken seriously as a spy and not merely provide fan service Ada looks in horror at the over-the-top action schlock and braces herself for what's to come.


Jill doesn't want the developers to force her into the doctor's chair and have more work done on her face. Out of fear she runs away.


The real Carlos Oliveira refused to take part in Resident Evil again after he realized how butchered his scenario was in Umbrella Chronicles. Watching Resident Evil: Extinction didn't help matters much either. So instead the developers found the closest cosplayerrrrr "body double" to fill in as a replacement. But it's okay because you can't tell the difference between the two and our new Carlos intends to keep it that way so gamers will be happy.


Nicholai is not amused. He cuts himself shaving after hearing that the game is canon. He knows the fans are as mad as a jackal and so he takes it upon himself to make things harder for the Wolf Pack and for Slant Six. As he sets up his rifle he waits patiently for the chance to take down those responsible for this disaster. Before it was business. This time it's personal.


So you can see there's a lot riding on this game for not just the fans, but the returning characters as well. The Wolf Pack exist for the sake of mingling in this canon. Their presence alone changes the course of Raccoon City and all the chaos surrounding it. They were created to eliminate and destroy. Question is, will you be exploiting that or is your aim to preserve the canon as much as humanly possible?

Keep in mind that this is a very hard thing to do in some cases. It's impossible to achieve the "canon" ending to the first Resident Evil game for example.

When you play these games you look at the character and the situation they're in. With the first RE game the aim was to survive and locate other members of your team. Depending on you, some of those members do not make it out alive if your actions dictate a separate path. But knowing the protagonists you aim to do good and save as many people as you can besides yourself.

With ORC I wonder if gamers are aware that this game is all about being bad. If the USS is ordered to kill Leon then as characters why shouldn't they. Only the gamer has a conscious drive to protect the canon they hold dear. From a story and narrative standpoint I don't see any reason for the USS to refuse such an order if their purpose is to destroy evidence and look out for the best interests of their employer.

So gamers, with that in mind I want to know what you'll do. I'm sure most of you will play it all the way and see each alternate path. But for your first (primary) play through how are you going to go about it? Preserving the canon or doing Umbrella's bidding?

[Darkmoon]

Part of the problem isn't that Slant are making it so you can alter canon - it's that they're getting it wrong, so often. I love Alternative Universe stories, when they're done right, but this one is pretty obviously just done really, really badly as an excuse for shooting canon cast members. Honestly, it tastes kinda like the RE movies in terms of bad fan fiction. 'You think that Leon guy is cool? Well, MY character can go invisible and kill him. Who's cool now!?'

Plus, a lot of bits just don't make sense no matter how you twist them to fit. The Wolfpack hunting survivors doesn't make much sense. They can't kill enough survivors to make a noticeable difference, not in the kinda chaos Raccoon City is suffering from. Hell, they shouldn't be able to make a noticeable dent in just the cops. Killing off Jill I can see. She's a high enough priority target to send a band of elite killers after - or, you know, a single eight foot killing machine. But having them mow down random cops? If anything, it's going to make whatever primary mission they have less likely to succeed. 'OK, guys, we have to search every one of the two thousand apartments on this street, room by room, to make sure that rookie cop isn't here. So long as those apartments are all completely empty, we won't waste any ammunition we need to live or take wounds that will cause us problems.'

So, the elements of the story they've used are sometimes wrong. The new elements are fanfic grade quality (even by Resident Evil standards, not a bastion of creativity) and often don't make sense. I don't like run and gun for fun games - I don't have fun with them. And let's face it, logging on to the forums and seeing a spambot has been here is more terrifying that this game.

Others do, however, and don't care about the plot, characters or stories - they wanna mow down a hunter with a gattling rocket launcher that has a light saber strapped on. And that's fine, and this is the game for them. Others just wanna play a Resident Evil with mates, and again, this does it. But this has nothing I want and a ton I don't, so I'm not touching it.

[Smiley]

'You think that Leon guy is cool? Well, MY character can go invisible and kill him. Who's cool now!?'

I'd think the latter from the sound of it.

But I kind of see what you mean. However you're saying it's wrong "so often" and by that I have to wonder what kind of list can be conjured up based on the information we know thus far to show that an alternate path can be done wrong. Perhaps someone (Newsbot) will chart one out one of these days, but till then the idea doesn't seem that far off.

If there's something we know about Umbrella it's that they're willing to use and abuse anyone including their own employees to make sure things run accordingly. Others are just paranoid or bat shit insane. The USS hunting down surviving RPD officers doesn't sound as absurd as having tyrants deployed to retrieve samples and target STARS members either. Jill was a STARS member who uncovered the truth behind Umbrella and tried to warn others. Marvin acknowledges this and says they should have listened. If any capable officers were to escape they too could pose a problem. Perhaps they uncover too much. We know at least one does, and he's just a rookie.

But that's if we take the canon into account. Doing nothing ensures that what few survivors there are out there uncover such things. If we follow orders and wipe them out then they're protecting Umbrella. The only thing I can't see the USS accomplish is preventing their stock market from crashing. Not unless Umbrella finds a way to manufacture stealth camo, but who'd want to invest in that?

Perhaps if Slant Six created new targets besides the fan favorites then you might be more inclined to go easy on them. Like political figures being lead to safety who could use their influence in the US government to compromise Umbrella. Thought of that off the top of my head.

You are right about something though. I can see some type of influence reminiscent of the movies. The action, using newly created characters to tangle with recognized game icons. Where the films differ is the use of new characters. I thought the first RE movie was decent because even for a bunch of forgettable characters the bulk of them still fought to the bitter end just to survive from the madness Umbrella created. And these were Umbrella employees in their own right.

I'd rather have a USS team clash with bad boy Nicholai than to have a super human rouge do all the handiwork herself while goodie two shoes Nicholai becomes dog food.

[alexdz]

Since it's just a spin-off title I'm okay with it being a squad based shooter, I think that if the're going to make games that deviate from the surivval horror genre they should leave that to non-main title games. The idea of killing monsters on Raccoon City with a bunch of people is great and I like the Wolfpack guys, yeah they are generic bad guys and all but I like their designs.

As for the canon thing. At first I thought this game could be a nice addition to the series canon but as we learned more about it I just gave up hope of anything on it being regarded as canon. They're using stuff from the Wiki for fuck's sake.

When I play it for the first time I'm inclined to do the non-canon ending.

[Dark_Chris]

In my first playthrough I will try to follow canon path and see how much good is ORC storywise.

[aris13]

I think I'll skip this one. I don't really care for spin offs especially the ones that look - and will probably play - like shit. Plus, I have other games to buy in March.

[Dracarys]

Plus, a lot of bits just don't make sense no matter how you twist them to fit. The Wolfpack hunting survivors doesn't make much sense. They can't kill enough survivors to make a noticeable difference, not in the kinda chaos Raccoon City is suffering from. Hell, they shouldn't be able to make a noticeable dent in just the cops. Killing off Jill I can see. She's a high enough priority target to send a band of elite killers after - or, you know, a single eight foot killing machine. But having them mow down random cops? If anything, it's going to make whatever primary mission they have less likely to succeed. 'OK, guys, we have to search every one of the two thousand apartments on this street, room by room, to make sure that rookie cop isn't here. So long as those apartments are all completely empty, we won't waste any ammunition we need to live or take wounds that will cause us problems.'

That isn't a main point of being there though, they are to cover up/destroy evidence of Umbrellas involvement before the government can get to it. While doing this they will kill anyone else they come across.

[News Bot]

Like most of the Chronicles games it is a pointless and unnecessary experiment of a new genre being used to give an awful developer an actual reputation. They are not aiming for consistency and the storyline is at the mercy of a bunch of hacks that don't seem to have played or read anything related to the series in general, except the Anderson movies, comics and the pathetic Wikia.

Can't wait until they include Holiday Sugarman as the true identity of HUNK or some shit.

[Grem]

I think that the slant six guys are sincere when they say that they are fans of RE and that they want to do something awesome for the franchise. But they just don't have the same level of knowledge about the series than us. It takes quite some time to completely assimilate every details about the plot. They are probably fans, but they just aren't as hardcore as us.

[News Bot]

I think that the slant six guys are sincere when they say that they are fans of RE and that they want to do something awesome for the franchise. But they just don't have the same level of knowledge about the series than us. It takes quite some time to completely assimilate every details about the plot. They are probably fans, but they just aren't as hardcore as us.

All of the information they got wrong is readily available in countless sources and in the games themselves. It's not a case of how much they like the series or how deeply they read into it, it's a case of sheer laziness and ineptitude.

[Darkmoon]

If there's something we know about Umbrella it's that they're willing to use and abuse anyone including their own employees to make sure things run accordingly. Others are just paranoid or bat shit insane. The USS hunting down surviving RPD officers doesn't sound as absurd as having tyrants deployed to retrieve samples and target STARS members either. Jill was a STARS member who uncovered the truth behind Umbrella and tried to warn others. Marvin acknowledges this and says they should have listened. If any capable officers were to escape they too could pose a problem. Perhaps they uncover too much. We know at least one does, and he's just a rookie.

But that's if we take the canon into account. Doing nothing ensures that what few survivors there are out there uncover such things. If we follow orders and wipe them out then they're protecting Umbrella. The only thing I can't see the USS accomplish is preventing their stock market from crashing. Not unless Umbrella finds a way to manufacture stealth camo, but who'd want to invest in that?

The Wolfpack's abilities are kinda odd. Why is Umbrella rigging up super computer controlled Tyrants if a Wolfpack member can control B.O.W's? Why aren't they making trillions selling optic camo?

This may be my ancient, rose tinted glasses but I find Nemesis hunting S.T.A.R.S more feasible than the Wolfpack making a dent in the RPD cops. If only because I can see them using Raccoon City to test out how effective Nemesis is, and taking out S.T.A.R.S is just a bonus. Whereas the Wolfpack must be proven to be doing the job they're doing, but can't do it effectively - unless they have some mystical gadget that tracks cops they'll find...what? Maybe 200 officers in a city the size of Raccoon City. Umbrella can want them dead all it wants - it's a lot more practical to just kill any surviving public officials after the outbreak and cover it up. For a start, it might actually work.

If it's eliminate cops as you have a chance to do so, that's one thing, but what we've seen shows them hunting Leon with a real will.

Perhaps if Slant Six created new targets besides the fan favorites then you might be more inclined to go easy on them. Like political figures being lead to safety who could use their influence in the US government to compromise Umbrella. Thought of that off the top of my head.

That would help. It would make more sense - that kind of force would likely have body guards with radio chatter to listen into and locate, and would be a real and significant threat to Umbrella. Compared to cops that may or may not be using there radios, and may or may not be working in small groups, on there own or back in the precinct where, frankly, it would be nuts to attack.

You are right about something though. I can see some type of influence reminiscent of the movies. The action, using newly created characters to tangle with recognized game icons. Where the films differ is the use of new characters. I thought the first RE movie was decent because even for a bunch of forgettable characters the bulk of them still fought to the bitter end just to survive from the madness Umbrella created. And these were Umbrella employees in their own right.

I'd rather have a USS team clash with bad boy Nicholai than to have a super human rouge do all the handiwork herself while goodie two shoes Nicholai becomes dog food.

I mean comparable to the movies in the level of Mary Sueness. The Wolfpack all have super gear, super talents and super cool code names. If they were basic USS troops with various skills (no stealth tech) then it might be better, but they have gear that, frankly, stretches belief. Still, I very much doubt it'll be as bad as Alice. Frankly, I can't think of many bad fanfics as bad as Alice, and |I've read some pretty fucking awful fanfics.

That isn't a main point of being there though, they are to cover up/destroy evidence of Umbrellas involvement before the government can get to it. While doing this they will kill anyone else they come across.

And how does killing Random Cop #13 or Civilian Joe help? If they saw the Wolfpack doing something, sure. Otherwise they could, I dunno, lie and say they're there to do something important and direct them to a fictional evac site? Why waste bullets and risk lives killing people that are unlikely to be a threat? People have already escaped Raccoon City - shooting the people in it is pointless. Cops I can kinda see, so long as it's a case, 'Look, cop, kill him' rather than hunting them down. Even then, there's no way to kill the spread of S.T.A.R.S tale - they'll be off duty cops outside the city, civillian friends who've heard the tale who aren't there, loved ones across the country told by phone in a, 'Hey, you'll never belief it, some crazy cops are asying Umbrella is making zombies and they're killing people in the mountains. I know, right!?' kinda way.

As Smiley suggests, taking out the Mayor, Chief Irons, major Umbrella employees and burning files and such? Makes sense. Hunting Leon through zombies, down alleyways with hunters and shotgun fucking lickers to get him doesn't. It just makes doing the above, actually useful things less likely to happen.

[News Bot]

Wolfpack is completely redundant in general.

Retrieval and destruction of evidence was the job of the Monitors. And there was no need to assassinate police officers because they know fuck all, and many people already escaped into the custody of the U.S. Army before the outbreak and in its early stages (such as the mayor, who happened to be, like, taking bribes from Umbrella). Umbrella was also working with the U.S. Government in covering up the incident, and the U.S. Government are bastards in 1998 who bought a lot of Umbrella's bio-weapons, colluded with the company, sent a Special Forces unit to steal the G-Virus with a fucking magnetic rail cannon which just so happened to be called the "DEMON SWORD OF PARACELSUS". Then they blackmailed Leon into joining them.

Whereas in this game they're a bunch of white knights in a unit with the most absolutely dumbfounded and moronic name possible.

[imacwesker]

I am not sure what the big fuss about "canon - not canon" is. We know since the very early days this game was announced that we can kill Leon "and change the storyline [of the RE series]" - or something like that.
Which mean, "not canon".
Once you understand that this game is not part of the official storyline, it is up to you to enjoy it or not. I don't like RE spin-off and I certainly don't like FPS so I won't play it, but that's only me.

[News Bot]

I am not sure what the big fuss about "canon - not canon" is. We know since the very early days this game was announced that we can kill Leon "and change the storyline [of the RE series]" - or something like that.
Which mean, "not canon".
Once you understand that this game is not part of the official storyline, it is up to you to enjoy it or not. I don't like RE spin-off and I certainly don't like FPS so I won't play it, but that's only me.

Everyone says that it is not canon, which is the obvious conclusion. However, both CAPCOM and Slant Six insist heavily that it is fully canon and contradicts nothing. Yet it contradicts so much. This makes it a contentious issue.

[Dracarys]

If you ignore supplementary material (which has its own contradictions) it doesn't really contradict much. If Capcom approves of this and had montly input it shows how much they really care about supplementary material. A money tool more than anything I would imagine, like for most franchises.