Resident Evil Meets Left 4 Dead?!?

The next Resident Evil game to be a squad based shooter...


Now I can't say that I've been a huge fan of Resident Evil games over the last 15 years. In all honesty, the only RE game I've ever finished was Resident Evil 5, and that's pretty much the newest title. I think, I'm not sure.

Anyways, I really enjoyed RE 5, but like most of my fellow short attention span, sugar junkie, rush rush rush gamer friends out there, the slow paced horror games weren't always my cup of tea. So when RE made the change to a more action oriented gameplay I was intrigued. 

Considering I am an action junkie who likes fast things and pretty colors, it's no surprise that I was a big fan (and pretty much the best player ever) of Left 4 Dead. Fast paced, zombie-filled, and full of non stop shotgun action, many hours were spent ventilating zombies. But it did suffer from a lack of story, which is something the RE series has in spades.

So when I heard about Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, I was intrigued, no doubt. A squad based horror shooter set entirely in the RE mythos sounds too good to be true. But it is.

Topless Robot has the first teaser trailer:

There's a bit more about the game from CVG:

The game, which is being developed by SOCOM studio Slant Six, looks to be quite a departure for the Resident Evil series, with 4-player squad shootouts replacing the traditional slow-paced monster scares.

Producer Masachika Kawata told OPM France (via NeoGAF): "For us, it's about a new direction for RE. It's kind of a spin-off. That's why it doesn't have a number. It's not necessarily entirely in the canon, but it's totally immersed in the mythology.

Asked why Capcom chose to move the series into third-person shooter territory, Kawata-san said: "As you know it's our fifteenth anniversary, which is a long time for a video game series... Some players came to the series when it made a turn towards action [in Resident Evil 4] (still with horror elements, though). This design led the series towards third-person shooter.

"The idea [to work with a Western developer] came up when we were working on Lost Planet 2," he added. "We didn't have any other teams internally to work on it. Western studios are known for their ease of development, and in terms of gameplay, this genre. 

"We just bought a studio in Vancouver (Blue Castle) and when we were looking for external partners Blue Castle talked with Slant Six, and they were well known for their online games and their coding skills. We met them and they were big RE fans. A good starting point!"

He added, calming fan fears: "I want to clarify something, even though [this is] a shooter, there are still tons of horror elements."

Yesterday Capcom promised a "dark and sinister" atmosphere and "thrilling triple threat battle" for the shooter.


So it's a spin-off prequel type game that features Leon Kennedy, and 3 of your closest friends. Awesome. Part of the appeal of RE5 for me was the co-op campaign modes, and I honestly am very excited to be joining up with some L4D gamers to take on the Z's of Raccoon City.

There's other news concerning some older/newer RE games that they can tell you about over at Grizzly Bomb, and I will definitely be bringing you more news on this game, and pretty much anything else that involves shooting zombies, because that is what I love to do.

Until then, I'll be here waiting patiently for the eventual zombie outbreak, where my years of video game conquest will obviously put me in the running for Dictator of the New World, as well as most awesome survivor...


I need a girlfriend...

Game screenshots courtesy of GamersMint