Resident Evil returns to Raccoon City

Halo: Reach returned the series to an earlier setting in the timeline. Taking place before Halo: Combat Evolved, Reach was a huge hit for Bungie. Now, Capcom is taking a page out of their book with Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City – except Capcom is changing up the formula quite a bit. While Resident Evil has forever been known as a survival horror series, Operation Raccoon City will be moving the series into the realm of tactical shooters.

Taking place during the events of Resident Evil 2, players will control a team of special forces soldiers looking to remove any trace of Umbrella’s involvement in the Raccoon City disaster. Players will be able to take on the game by themselves or with up to a team of four cooperatively. Though the genre has shifted, the emphasis of Operation Raccoon City will be centered squarely on action.

A short teaser trailer was released earlier today and showed quick clips of the action but what we got to see was pretty great. Plenty of zombie killing, explosions and even hand-to-hand combat – because who hasn’t wanted to boot a zombie in the chest and stomp its head? We even got to see a glimpse of RE2 protagonist Leon Kennedy and a large, shadowy figure – could Nemesis or even Albert Wesker be featured in Operation Raccoon City? Only time will tell.

This game only came onto my radar days ago but I’m already keeping my eyes open for any new info on the game. RE 4 & 5 were great games but I’m digging the new direction the series is taking and more than ready to bring the zombie killing back to Resident Evil. Other bits of info I’ve gleaned about the game are that while you will assume the role of an Umbrella operative, in what I’m assuming will amount to a single player campaign, is that you will also have to contend with the U.S. military. When the government found out about the outbreak and Umbrella’s attempts to cover it up, they send in a team to stop the Umbrella operatives. It’s also been implied that part of the game will revolve around taking out Leon Kennedy.

While the new direction and return to familiar territory have me excited, Capcom is having Vancouver based Slant Six Games handle the development of ORC. The recent teaser trailer didn’t know off enough of definite gameplay to pass any real judgment but the visuals didn’t look too great. It’d be neat if this wound up being an Arcade/PSN game but I’d also be surprised if that’s what it ended up being. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is slated for a late 2011 release.