The Capcom booth at Wondercon 2012 held several games and one of them was Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. With just one quick look, you could immediately tell the game was far more fast-paced than its counterparts. The action was quicker, more intense, and the game played more like a straight-up third person shooter.

If you regularly play shooters on the console, you’ll be able to pick up the controller and immediately start playing the game. The controls aren’t any different from your standard shooter, third-person or not, which is a good thing so the learning curve isn’t too high.

In the game, you get to play as one of six different characters in a squad, but only four of them can be chosen. I did not get to try them all as the preview was done in 4-player co-op mode with three other random people, so I got to play as “LUPO”, the team leader of Woldpack and the only female in the squad. Each member has their own unique abilities and as for Lupo, well she’s a “trained killer” so her special abilities granted me faster reload, infinite ammo skills, and more armor. Basically, she doesn’t get stealth or anything special, but the basic features in the game are enhanced when you play as her, which is fine by me, because I love to shoot stuff.

The game seems to emphasize cooperative play. Yea, you can play it by yourself, but what’s more fun than slaying tons of zombies with friends? I had fun even with 3 other players I didn’t know. You’ll notice right away that when you get into a firefight, there are A LOT more zombies to kill than your typical Resident Evil game. Which makes sense because you can now move while shooting… Took them long enough! And there are also four people at once, so more firepower means more stuff to kill. The game is faster and it’s very fluid for a game with a bunch of action sequences going off on the screen which was very pleasant.

All in all, the game is good. It’s pretty much a third-person Left 4 Dead game with quite a bit more technicalities than your average zombie-killing game. The story looks really fun and if you’re out on the market for a game with good co-op for up to four players, then this game is for you.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City releases March 20^th, 2012 for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3.