The Outfit (Xbox 360) review "The Outfit is definitely an energetic WWII title (and it's not a FPS for a change *gasps*), getting things into gear the moment you begin the first mission. As you walk around your supposedly safe base, still getting accustomed to the controls of one of the three main characters you chose (each having a different main and secondary weapon), a bunch of Nazis drop down from the sky trying to ruin your shit. You can easily take them out yourself, because you're obviously a manly man (or.... ..."

The Outfit is definitely an energetic WWII title (and it's not a FPS for a change *gasps*), getting things into gear the moment you begin the first mission. As you walk around your supposedly safe base, still getting accustomed to the controls of one of the three main characters you chose (each having a different main and secondary weapon), a bunch of Nazis drop down from the sky trying to ruin your shit. You can easily take them out yourself, because you're obviously a manly man (or.... womanly woman?), but the game advises that you call for the aid of fellow soldiers with the Destruction on Demand button. This feature may not seem like much at first, but you need to learn how to use it fast, because the key to your survival in every mission revolves around using this. With it, you can buy all sorts of stuff (with points you gain by taking out the enemy), anything from anti-tank guns and jeeps to machine gun nests and tanks.

The first mission is basically a demonstration of Destruction on Demand, throwing you into situations that require a different purchase at every turn. Your G.I. Joe-wannabe and his merry Army Men will have to plant anti-tank guns on a beach to protect a captured Nazi outpost, then go shoot down planes with a decked out gun nest, and eventually order an air strike to blow up a blocked path. All of this and the chaotic action of the first mission give you a fun first impression of the game, making you eager to see what The Outfit has to offer next. Well.... the rest of the missions (13 in all) basically offers the exact same thing, only in different environments (places like a submarine dock and a heavily-guarded zeppelin base). That's not to say it's a bad thing. More of the same can be good, especially if it's fun. However, as you get through some of the missions as they get a bit tough (and a bit repetitive, I admit), you'll start to notice small nuisances that affect the fungevity.

The first one you'll probably notice is how difficult it is to kill Nazi soldiers with grenades and heavy machinery. I swear, I lost count of how many times I made a direct hit or a near direct hit of a group, only to see all of them get back up as if it was nothing. It's ridiculous. Then there's the fact that when you have one soldier right in your sights, with the cursor turning red to confirm this, and you shoot..... the shell flies right by him. The developers could've tinkered with the hit detection or aiming a bit to rectify this problem. But these don't even compare to the biggest annoyance in The Outfit: getting killed... A LOT. One minute you're having a blast and kicking ass (hey, that rhymes), the next minute you get blast to pieces, trampled by a tank, cornered by Nazis, crushed by a falling crate from your side (no joke)...... the list goes on. What's more aggravating than that is going back to the scene of the crime after respawning and having the exact same thing happen. It's a good thing you have unlimited respawns, because this would be the most frustrating thing ever if you had to restart the whole mission again.

I wasn't really expecting The Outfit to be an incredible game to begin with, but I was thinking that it could be at least an enjoyable romp. It had the potential to be a fun title, however, it didn't go far enough with its execution. Instead, it just offered the same type of experience throughout the whole game, and in the process, made you deal with a few problems along the way. In the end, The Outfit feels like an "in-betweener" title for the Xbox 360. Wait for something better.

Featured community review by dementedhut (April 06, 2006) My earliest exposure to Dragon Ball Z was when the original Japanese broadcast was still airing, right in the middle of the Androids storyline. So you can imagine my surprise when I heard the English VAs and music for the first time.