bloomer's Resident Evil: Outbreak File #2 review

It's so sad. I really wanted the Outbreak games to be succesful, or rather, well made. I really like the concept. Playing as an average joe instead of a teenage wonder and crack shot semeed infinitely appealing and returning to the roots of what really makes the zombie genre work. Team gameplay almost never works well in a third person setting, so I wasn't too optimistic about that, but I still figured Capcom might surprise me. I especially liked what I heard about the plots, that they were small, self contained, and almost universally ended in ruin for the characters. I like dark stuff like that. Getting to revisit Racoon City is never a bad thing, either.

So I decided to rent the first Outbreak, figuring that, as I was an RE vet, I'd have no trouble getting into it. Oh how wrong I was. I found the game basically unplayable. I couldn't get my character out of the first room, let alone equip a viable weapon or give orders to my buddies. I played about ten minutes (in which I died four times in the most frustrating and confusing manner possible) and decided I'd had enough.

If it's any consolation, Capcom, that's actually what I imagine a true zombie take over would actually be like.

Read this again, today, Bloomer. Brilliant review. I'm only sad you don't talk more about the zombie elephant.

Thanks a lot Zipp.

Yeah, if you find Outbreak 1 unplayable, Outbreak 2 would just make you want to shoot your face off!

I have a feeling that one rant in this review, about the train station from memory, got slightly out of control for my taste, and I meant to shorten it, but I'm cheaply refusing to reread the review for now to avoid the work.

I've seen some vids of co-op play on Outbreak, and read accounts too, and it seems it would be much improved that way.

Yeah, I think it was kind of an early precursor to what RE5 was all about and an all around good idea with the co-op inclusion. My main problem with it was how BULKY it was. There were so many controls and so many little things that were cool as far as the setting went but really had no place in a video game.