We prematurely evaluated Operation Raccoon City back in April and decided it had promise. I placed the game right above Doom 3 in how I thought it’d turn out when it releases later this year but after seeing some gameplay at E3 and the 30+ minutes you can watch below, I’m starting to have some serious doubts. My issue is that this game just doesn’t look like much fun. But before I get into that you should watch the below video.

Back? Good. When this game was first unveiled I was pretty damn exciting. It looked like a return to the series’ roots, with the Raccoon City setting, return of the zombies, and a darker story. But really, I just haven’t been able to warm up to the characters that are either too generic, like Beltway the bulky explosives expert, or border on the comical, like Bertha, the team’s resident dominatrix. Head past the break for over thirty more minutes of gameplay and to hear me rant a little longer.

Now, you could argue that the Resident Evil series isn’t known for it’s stellar characters. Sure, there are a few memorable ones, like Jill Valentine and Sheva Alomar, but a bland cast of characters won’t break a Resident Evil game. So that brings me to another issue I’m having: the gameplay.

You can strafe! You’re fighting soldiers, zombies, and BOWs! That should be exciting, right? You would think so, but I couldn’t even watch the above video. I hate to say it, but unless they’re holding out on us and not showing the good parts of the game, Operation Raccoon City looks boring.

So what about you? I could go on about what’s worrying me about this game but there’s little point in that when I’d much rather hear what you have to say. If the comments and ratings on the above videos’ Youtube pages are any indication, fans are pretty upset with Capcom right now. Are you worried too, or are you satisfied with how the game’s shaping up?