Capcom: REORC will be Slant 6's best game
"Their games get better and better."
Capcom's Resident Evil producers reckon team-based third-person shooter spin-off Operation Raccoon City will be SOCOM developer Slant 6's best game.
Slant 6, founded in 2005, has three SOCOM games under its belt.
Eurogamer awarded 2007 PlayStation Portable game SOCOM: Tactical Strike 7/10. 2008 PlayStation 3 game SOCOM: Confrontation slipped to 5/10. 2010 PSP game SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 currently sits on a Metascore of 74.
Operation Raccoon City, which Eurogamer previewed this morning, features a four-player co-op campaign set during the Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 timeline and four versus four competitive multiplayer modes.
The game feels very much like a SOCOM title, with fast movement, smooth controls and the ability to move and shoot.
"I've played their previous games," producer Masachika Kawata told Eurogamer. "One thing I feel from them is as they iterate they always increase their quality. Their games get better and better and better as time goes on. I really like the PSP versions of SOCOM as well. They were received favourably.
"The game they're working on right now, I'm confident when it comes out everybody's going to say, 'Yep, this is the best game they've ever worked on.'"
While Kawata admitted Slant 6's early games could have been better, he insisted Capcom's heavy involvement in the REORC project will ensure it ends up being great.
"Certainly you look at their early games and you see areas where improvement could be made," Kawata said, "but every time they make a sequel they increase the quality of their games. That's something in Capcom we value, being able to improve and constantly iterate and increase the quality of your games. And they definitely do that.
"The other great thing about working with Slant 6 is it is a true collaboration. We're not just telling them, 'Go ahead and make this,' and they're not just making whatever they want, either.
"We're really working together, with Yasuhiro Seto [Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles] as the director. We've also got artists on our side who are involved deeply in some of the decisions.
"It's wonderful to have that collaborative atmosphere. It's a true partnership and that's in the end going to be a big plus to the quality."
Capcom settled on Slant 6 as REORC collaborator because of the developer's eagerness to work on the title.
"When we were shopping this around looking for partners to work with, the impression we got from Slant was they were incredibly eager to work with us, incredibly eager to jump into the project and collaborate with us on this," Kawata revealed.
"We felt there was a good chance and possibility to build a partnership with them. It was just their eagerness to get started on the game that got us eager to work with them, too."
