Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City is a spin-off that shifts the series for the first time into the team-based third-person shooter genre, instead of the traditional survival horror fans are used to. The game was developed by Slant Six Games rather than parent company Capcom, and players command a four-member Umbrella squad tasked with covering up the traces of the virus outbreak in Raccoon City - including eliminating witnesses, among them characters well known from Resident Evil 2 and 3, such as Leon Kennedy or Claire Redfield.

Gameplay relies on cover, team cooperation, and specialized character classes, each with its own abilities, gear, and combat role - something the classic entries never dealt with, since they were built around one or two heroes without any division of roles. Battles take place not only against zombies and mutants but also against squads of US special forces sent to uncover the truth about the incident, making the game essentially a two-front conflict against both humans and the undead at once. Multiplayer also offers a Heroes Mode, where one team plays as Umbrella agents and the other as the series' iconic heroes, a concept that doesn't appear anywhere else in the main Resident Evil line. The level design is built around dynamic firefights and cover positions rather than puzzles or resource management, which makes Operation Raccoon City stray furthest from the series' main line of any spin-off so far.

What was mainly controversial was that the game shifts the established perception of the Umbrella faction from villains to playable protagonists and rewrites some famous scenes from the other side's perspective, which sparked mixed reactions among part of the fanbase already at launch and remains one of the most discussed spin-offs in the series to this day.

Why play: Operation Raccoon City is for players who want to experience the Resident Evil world as a team action shooter with friends, and for series fans curious about an alternative view of Raccoon City's fall through Umbrella's eyes.