Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City DLC buyer's guide
Like most critics, our Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City review was less than effusive; but months later the game's still going strong after players move on from other online shooters. Apparently the prospect of online multiplayer in a Resi world proved more enticing than critics anticipated and it helps that this was probably the game's most solid component.
Another reason for ORC's ongoing success is the game's healthy roster of downloadable content, which continues to feed players new experiences long after the single-player mode's rubber-headed AI nitwits have ceased to elicit howls of frustration. But is it all worth your while, or are some of Raccoon City's additional offerings more enticing than others? Let's have a look through exactly what add-ons Capcom's peddling...
USS Wolfpack Uniforms
If you preordered Operation Raccoon City, you'll already have free access to these alt-threads for the single-player game's protagonists. Don't spoil the joke for post-release buyers, though: surely everyone should be able to experience for themselves the thrill of paying 240 MSP/$3 for a basic palette-swap. We will say this, though: what these reskins lack in practicality, they certainly make up in flamboyant charm.
Worth it? No
Nemesis Mode
Capcom's day-one DLC items continue to polarize fans and critics alike, with some suggesting that an item like Nemesis a 360-exclusive multiplayer mode in which one team gets limited control of the RE3 villain ought to be the birthright of every player. Capcom reckons 320 MSP is a perfectly fair price for the bonus, which is in such high demand that PS3 players don't even get a shot.
Worth it? Maybe
Elite Weapon Pack
Best Buy preorder customers got free access to this pack, but newcomers can pay 160 MSP/$2 for the privilege of taking a Perforator (a pretty fancy name for a new Combat Shotgun) to enemies. You'll also get access to the Combat SMG, whose blurb points out the gun's unique looking appearance. Um, it's a gun. There's a trigger underneath and a hole at the front for the bullets to come out. Couldn't someone at least have painted a skull on it or something?
Worth it? No
Echo Six Prologue Mission
Previews for ORC suggested that players would experience the game from the perspectives of both USS Wolfpack and Special Forces operatives but the disc's campaign mode followed only the former. Still, Capcom technically made good on the promise with this free download, effectively a demo level from the episodically-released Special Forces campaign content which would follow. Quibbling aside, it's hard to fault the value of a free item, right?
Worth it? Yes
Renegade Weapons Pack
If you went rogue and ordered Operation Raccoon City from online mavericks Amazon.com, your nonconformism was rewarded with free access to the game's Cowboy Shotgun and a Machine Pistol with trs-ballin' flame accents. You button-down sheeple living out your days in status-symbol land can still get the Renegade guns for 160 MSP/$2, but don't think it'll make you a real renegade. You need an Amazon Prime account for that.
Worth it? No
Echo Six Expansion Pack #1
Continuing the story begun in the Prologue Mission DLC, the first Echo Six mission pack sends players on a mission to help Jill Valentine uncover the Umbrella Corporation's dirty secrets before USS agents have a chance at a coverup. That's the basis for three missions through largely pre-explored terrain containing familiar faces, new setpieces, and (unfortunately) more of the AI-strangling frustration that plagued the game's original campaign. Still, if you're playing co-op, this is probably the kind of thing you bought the game for.
Worth it? Maybe
Power Weapons Pack
Facts is facts: whatever you're up against, you'll probably do better with an Anti-Material Rifle. After all, zombies and enemies are made of Material, and this gun is Anti-that! The GameStop preorder bonus kills enemies in only two shots: pretty unrealistic for a weapon designed for use against tanks, but let's not go down that road. You also get a Combat Shotgun, so if the game's four default scatter-shot weapons aren't enough for you, feel free to pay 160 MSP/$2 for this one?
Worth it? No
Classic Weapons Pack
Pay 160 MSP/$2 for this pack and you'll get the Classic Launcher, which assaults your enemies by launching copies of Aristotle's Poetics and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at them; as well as the Matilda, whose precocious antics will amuse and deli-- hang on, no, this is just another Grenade Launcher and a pistol that shoots a bit faster than other ones. Well, knock yourself out, if that's your thing.
Worth it? No
Echo Six Expansion Pack #2
Winding up the parallel narrative begun in the first two Echo Six DLC packs, this Expansion adds three new missions and three long-awaited additional multiplayer maps: Dispatch, Sniper Alley and Cemetery. If you've gotten this far in the game's single-player campaign, you've risen far above getting angry at the game's doltish AI or that part of your brain's atrophied forever. Or you've been playing lots of co-op.
Anyways, point is, at 800 MSP/$10 for new missions and maps, this is probably the best value as far as playable content goes.
Worth it? Yes
Killed anything good lately?
So that's our rundown on the Operation Raccoon City you need - and the parts you can safely put aside. Are you still going strong on RE:ORS? Let us know which parts of the game are providing the best value for your gaming dollar below.
