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Resident Evil Outbreak
GameRatio Review
PS2 |
View Full Game Info
Published by
Capcom
Released on
2004-03-30
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| 76% GameRatio |
90% GR% Review |
xenoranger
Reviewed on
2004-04-16
The Evil is now online.
We have seen 4 incarnations of Resident Evil, 2 side games (RE: Survivor and RE: Dead Aim), and 1 feeble attempt on Gameboy Color (RE: Gaiden). All of these games have told the story of a handful of characters who survived the incident beginning in Raccoon City. In every game, the survivors were in direct contact with the Umbrella Corporation or one of their laboratories. Either way, they all had some connection with the Raccoon PD. Special people with special training is all they were. This gave the games more of an infiltration feeling. With Resident Evil Outbreak, you play as normal people in unusual circumstances.
The start of the game is in a local town pub. Everyone’s favorite waitress, Cindy Lennox, is serving the drinks. In the corner, a journalist (Alyssa Ashcroft) is writing what may be her biggest story. The local college student (Yoko Suzuki) is taking a bathroom break. Meanwhile, Mark Wilkins (Security Guard), George Hamilton (Doctor), Jim Chapman (Subway Employee), David King (Plumber), and Kevin (RC PD) are enjoying drinks at the bar. A strange, limping customer enters the bar. The bar tender goes to investigate this “odd customer” when he is viciously attacked. Barely managing to usher the zombified citizen out the door, the bar tender locks the door. A horde of zombies begin pressing themselves up against the front window. The question is, how long can these random 8 citizens survive.
Survival is completely based on your ability to use the surroundings to your advantage. Since only a few characters actually have firearms, you must use your surrounding to your advantage. Players can pick up iron poles, pesticide sprays, and concrete slabs as weapons. If you’re lucky, you might even find firearms. Players who choose David will find that some items can be combined to make more powerful weapons. Since David carries vinyl tape, he can tape a pesticide spray can to a lighter and make a miniature version of a flame thrower. There are other possibilities, so enjoy exploring this.
Weapons are not the only key to survival. After all, you need to use your surroundings to your advantage. For instance, in the Outbreak Scenario, you will find a stapler gun. The first instinct of players is to use it as a projectile, but if you can find some loose wood, perhaps you can barricade a door. Pushing objects is also very crucial. When there’s a narrow passage to which zombies can swarm through, you should move objects to block it. Destroying scenery is also important while getting to safety. Sometimes you can even blow something up to kill zombies. With all of the strategy here, it’s easy to prevent zombies from getting to you, but it’s hard coordinating the barricades at times. If a player falls behind, sometimes they’re better off left for dead.
Since each set of players has their own strengths and weaknesses, you have to cooperate well. Resident Evil Outbreak doesn’t just force you to act as a team, but it beats you down until you think nothing but team work. The selfish player only goes so far. Since each character has their own traits and abilities, you should base your escape plan off of the group. By ensuring that you give the correct items to certain players, you can guarantee success. For instance, Cindy can carry tons of herbs without having to combine them. It may be a good idea to keep her safe and give her all herbs. But, the doctor can use herbs to make more powerful medicines, so you may want to use a combination of him and Cindy to heal the party. The main offensive force is Mark and Kevin. Since they start with pistols and are fairly resilient, teams should try to give them ammo and have them fend off zombified onslaughts.
This is the first Resident Evil game to allow online play. Capcom has two servers. One of the servers allows player to play through the game normally, but with a random set of players from the web. The other server allows players to set up game rooms of their own. In these, you can choose who you will be playing with as well as use hidden characters. The gameplay is the same, but the Scenario Server is the preferred one for people who are just starting out because most of the online gamers in the Free Server play on the harder difficulty settings. You can also play the game offline, but when doing so, the limited AI of the other characters is sometimes staggering. Players may not be able to make it as far since you will often need something coordinated, but your AI counterparts will just walk around according to their preset behaviors.
The breakdown of team work can sometimes be attributed to the lack of communication. There are only 10 character voices that can be used during gameplay. These voices include a cry for help, motion to go ahead, and a follow me. When properly using all of these, most online players have created a primitive form of indicating what needs to be done. There is an Ad-Lib button in addition to the 10 preset voices. This will randomly blurt out profanities or useful information. If a player picks up a valve wheel, sometimes he will notify other players of his discovery. Other times, he will yell obscenities at the players. As amusing as this is, it doesn’t help when attempting to formulate a strategy for getting in or out of a room. If you are lucky enough to get experienced players on your side, you can use the limited communication very well to get your point across.
There are 110 unlockable items in Resident Evil Outbreak. Capcom has put the credits system in effect, so the better you play the game, the more credits you earn. The unlockable items range from additional characters you can play as to harder difficulty settings. There are even hidden costumes for the original 8 survivors.
Despite the normal aliasing of the PS2, Capcom has also done a great job of capturing the feel of the game. Though some scenes are very dimly lit, Resident Evil Outbreak isn’t that bad on the eyes. Especially in the Outbreak scenario, players will have to run through extremely dimly lit areas where you may need to adjust the brightness of your screen. In other areas, the rooms are well lit. My biggest complaint about the graphics is that in most areas, the characters do not seem to blend with the backgrounds. 3D models look out of place against their prerendered world, however, by themselves, the characters are well comprised.
Resident Evil has come a long way from the cheesy audio used in its earlier days. I think this may be because voice actors are taking games more seriously these days, but the dialog doesn’t seem to be as hokey as in the previous games. Those who are playing their characters are playing them well. I can’t say this is an award winning performance, but the lines are delivered well. In addition, the attention put into voices like the hunters gives an eerie feeling that sends chills down your spine. My biggest complaint about the voices of RE Outbreak is the over usage of profanity. When hitting the Ad-Lib button, players will curse more often than saying something useful.
The engine imitates any previous Resident Evil game, but most notably Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. Since you are on the run, you have to interact with the scenery. But beyond that, the gameplay is just like other Resident Evil games. You raise your weapon and fire. Some characters have additional moves they can use like shoulder tackles and kicks to move zombies back. This only difference in the engine is the virus gauge. When your virus gauge reaches 100%, you die. A dead player then joins the dead as a zombie. This if fun for terrorizing other players, but killing your partners may not make many online friends.
My largest complaint about RE Outbreak is the learning curve. Without a strategy guide, players will have to take some time to figure out what can and can’t be used to survive. Capcom made sure to put enough into this game for players to have seemingly limitless options concerning their escape route. As a result, a straight blitz is rarely the correct answer nor is it advised. Due to the limited amount of ammo, players also have to keep in mind where ammo is and what enemies are coming up. Knowing this will allow you to budget for the next room. Expending too much munitions proves just as fatal as in the previous Resident Evil games.
My final words on RE Outbreak are that this is a sound game. Players will find the high learning curve frustrating, but once you have a handle for play, it is quite enjoyable. There is definitely a blind fun factor in which players will loose sight of any resentment for the game. Though you can play the game Solo, online is where players will find the most enjoyment. Unfortunately, you must have broadband to play RE Outbreak online. Whether you’re a fan of the Resident Evil series or not this is a game to check out.
Xenoranger
ガルシアかるろす
GameRatio review by xenoranger
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