Kudos to Capcom! I think it took a bit of courage to take the Resident Evil franchise in a new direction. While overall Resident Evil Outbreak may not be the most outstanding game ever, credit must be given for taking a chance and the improvements that were made.
I'm not real sure how the hardcore Resident Evil fan is going to take Outbreak. It is all Resident Evil and retains the creepy atmosphere that makes these games so distinctive, but it scrimps on the actual plot that has been, while convoluted, one of the strongest points of the series. In Outbreak the game is broken into five disjointed scenarios that really don't add up to a story. Guess the fan reaction is something only time will tell.
The overall mission here is to get out of Raccoon City alive as the zombies overrun the place and before the government puts the mass decontamination blast on the place. Along the way players solve puzzles and keep from becoming a snack for the dearly not-so departed. Simple, yes?
The kicker is that in Outbreak the player is not some super character from S.T.A.R.S. The eight playable characters are all just citizens in Raccoon City that get caught up in the T-virus disaster. Kind of gives a nice Dawn of the Dead feel to it. The characters range from a cop to a subway worker. Each has different strengths that affect how the player will play through the game. The cop, Kevin Ryman, is killer with a pistol. Cindy Lennox, a waitress, has the ability to heal other players with herbs. Jim Chapman, the subway worker, has the special move of playing dead to avoid attack. It is rather fun to explore using these different characters, and the eight available can generally satisfy any playing style. The different characters really should add significantly to the replay value of this game.
Gameplay is where Capcom really took a chance with Outbreak … and where the few faults lie.
The game starts in J's Bar. Our group of average citizens is just winding down after a hard day at work when a bunch of deadish patrons that aren't looking for the tomato juice Bloody Mary come busting in. They're looking for the real BLOODY Mary. From there the game is on.
In the single-player mode the gamer chooses one character to start with. Two other AI-controlled characters will join the player to help him … kind of. The theory is that these other two characters help you survive as you make your way through the game, employing their own special talents to make things go easier. That is the case sometimes. I've experienced a few very timely rescues by my computer-controlled teammates. Other times they wander off and disappear, return later when you really don't need them, and generally don't quite live up to their end of supporting the team.
That segues well into talking about the four-player online mode. This is where Capcom really shook things up and where diehard Resident Evil fans are going to flip … one way or another. In the online mode four people get together to try to survive Raccoon City's little viral accident. (This is only possible with a broadband connection.) While this mode can conceivably be played every-man-for-himself, cooperation is the key purpose of this component. Since players are trying to cooperate, why isn't there any way to really communicate with other players? Neither voice nor keyboard messages are available. You're stuck with a bunch of canned phrases and simple, selectable answers. Since so much of the game is about working things out to progress, it would have been nice to actually be able to talk things over with your teammates.
One interesting gameplay element that has been added to Outbreak that has not been seen in previous Resident Evil games deserves a bit of a note here. At the beginning of a game all players are infected by the T-virus. As the player just goes about playing the game his virus load will increase. Getting attacked by zombies further speeds up the infection. Healing agents can help control the virus load. In the single-player mode once the virus load reaches 100% the game is over. In the online multiplayer mode the player becomes a zombie. Pretty cool!
Disc load times must be mentioned. They are both frequent and excessively long. The game does take advantage of the new PS2 hard disc drive to shorten loading times, but it just seems the load times in PS2 games I've played recently are getting ridiculous.
