Resident Evil Outbreak

Written by Tom Clare in PS2 Game Reviews, Thursday 24 August, 2006

A Biohazard Disaster?

It doesn't feel like it, but it has now been over a decade since the original Resident Evil (or Biohazard, if you're Japanese) title burst onto the then still-youthful PlayStation scene. 1996's best game was serious, violent and controversial, but also intelligent, challenging and gorgeous to look at. It came to define 'survival-horror' as we now know it today, and with two rip-roaring sequels following over the next four years, Capcom's series was assured 'classic' status by the time the PSOne-era came to a close.

However, Capcom aren't renowned for the 'quality over quantity' train of the thought; their mantra is probably more along the lines of 'never too much good thing'. Just look at Street Fighter - a great franchise, but you can hardly go a month without discovering another hyper-turbo-super-special-collection-anthology-edition is just around the corner. Resident Evil hasn't quite gone down that road yet, though it's early forays into next-generation gaming proved less than sparkling. The series' first PS2 iteration was the former Dreamcast-exclusive Resident Evil: Code Veronica X. It was, despite what many magazines of the time claimed, a bland and lacklustre affair; a world away from the fun and innovation of the early games. Could Capcom's Resident Evil: Outbreak, released in 2003, put the series back at the forefront of the survival-horror genre?

The story is rather a simple one. A biological weapon has infected Raccoon City (that's right - the place that got nuked in RE3) and its inhabitants are turning into flesh-eating zombies. So who you gonna call? Well, er…those who aren't yet zombies of course! The game is split into five large levels, with eight playable 'survivors' taking centre stage, from such diverse trades as a waitress; a cop; a doctor and a plumber!

First impressions, it has to be said, are rather daunting. It's similar to the previous Resident Evil's, only this time you are teamed up with two other characters, though you are still very much the brains behind the operation. Pressing 'start' brings up your inventory screen; though you'll find with some alarm that it doesn't pause the action, meaning you remain susceptible to attack while it is open. Then you'll notice that you have only four inventory slots, so carrying all the guns, ammo, healing herbs and key items left lying around is quite a task. The first level, "J's Bar", takes place in something of a rush as zombies are in constant pursuit. As a result, you are rushed into finding important items and progressing without a backwards glance. You never quite shake the feeling that you're playing to a time-limit, and this is enhanced by the ongoing 'Virus Gauge' that continues to head towards the dreaded 100% mark (meaning zombification and death), moving faster when you are attacked or injured. This is slightly frustrating as I've always enjoyed playing the Resident Evil games at my own pace wherever possible, combing over each room for clues and items.

The concept of teamwork is the main gimmick on show in Outbreak and whilst it's a brave idea, it doesn't quite come off. Sadly, for the most part, your teammates are complete idiots. Clearly the player is encouraged to interact with them and because of the tiny inventory space, it is often necessary to pass items over for safe keeping. A good idea perhaps, but in practice this can prove irritating, with your colleagues often dropping important items, leaving you to risk your neck having to backtrack and find the again. Each character has their own special ability - for example, Yoko has extra inventory space, Alyssa can pick locks, and David can combine certain items to create new weapons. These are quite novel, but have been spread too thinly across eight different people, and so despite these unique abilities, most levels play more or less than same with each figure. Your buddies also have the occasional tendency to die when they really aught not to and regularly ignore your commands requesting them to 'follow' or 'help' - it's because of their so-called 'personalities', apparently. Their only real saving-grace is their ability to back you up in a fire fight, though still decide a few maggots are worthy of wasting grenade launcher ammunition upon.

Being a Resident Evil game, it has a stab at creating some excitement and action, but largely fails. Though all the usual weapons are present and correct, there's little satisfaction to be gleaned from killing the various creatures encountered in the game, as many of them disappear as soon as you've offloaded a sufficient quantity of lead into their corpses - plus the shotgun can no longer decapitate zombies, so if you've previously perfected the ability of blowing several heads off a row of zombies, then it will be wasted here. Then there are the poorly-executed controls to think about. If you wish to play it in the manner of the early RE games, the D-Pad allows for the '3D' method of control (whereby "Up" always equates to 'walk forward' and left/right rotates the character) but delivers easily the most cumbersome and sluggish mode of movement in the series history. Play it with the analogue stick and you'll discover controls more akin to Grand Theft Auto - the direction held is the direction the character moves in relation to the screen. The problem with this is, when the camera-angle changes (which is frequently), so does the perspective, meaning the controls are often all over the shop.

The puzzles, which for so long have been an integral part of the Resident Evil experience, are also a tad disappointing. Generally, each level requires you to find little more than the odd key or code to keep things moving forward. Gone are the great multi-item challenges of yesteryear - replaced by lots of backtracking and the odd ludicrously-cryptic challenge (the 'Clock' puzzle on the final level is nigh-on impossible to solve without a walkthrough) that aren't logical unless you are an absolute genius. On the flip-side of this, once you know where to look, the levels can appear suddenly rather sparse and linear; a great deal of the rooms within Outbreak bear little relevance to the completion of the level in question. Whilst it took me over an hour to finish the "J's Bar" level first time through, I've since managed to polish it off in less than nine minutes.

Okay, it isn't all bad. The levels themselves are quite nice. "J's Bar" makes for a stylish and energetic opening sequence taking place firstly in the bar itself and then on the streets of Raccoon City. Elsewhere, there's a large burning hotel with several floors to it and a finale that sees you battling an old adversary on the grounds of a university. Most memorable however are the second and third levels - locations that will no doubt bring a smile to the face of many a fan, as portions of the Umbrella Laboratory from Resident Evil 2 and the Hospital from Resident Evil 3 take centre stage. You'll appreciate the comparison and details, though part of the problem with Outbreak is how poorly it stands up to its predecessors - these sections were more fun to play through on the PSOne…

Graphically it's fairly smart. The cut-scenes and FMV sequences are good and the general design 'n' detail lavished upon the environments is top-notch. The presentation is also typically excellent (as is to be expected of a Capcom game). The attention-to-detail on the main characters is great and the zombies look suitably creepy, though some of the other enemies - particularly the spiders and lickers - could do with a fair bit of work as they look rather plain in truth.

Elsewhere though, the signs of sloppiness start to resurface. Voice-acting has, lets be fair, rarely been a forte of the survival-horror genre, but the developers and translators could at least have checked that the subtitling was correct. Level-endings are frankly embarrassing as you'll witness your character saying something completely different to what is running across the bottom of the screen. It's the same in-game too when giving commands; it's just plain laziness on Capcom's part.

Loading times are too long, and there are too many stoppages in the early levels - it feels at points like you can't move for cut-scenes. Still, when all's said and done, Outbreak is good enough fun to play through, though rather lacking in the sparkle and allure of the original trilogy. The various new ideas it tries are commendable, though many of them cloud a successful formula rather than complement it. Perfecting the A.I. of teammates is a notoriously difficult art to perfect (just look at tactical-FPS games) and often creates the feeling that your companions are more of a liability than an asset. The small inventory is just an annoyance as there are tonnes of items scattered about each area, and whilst I can appreciate that the developers wanted you to think about the items you obtained and left behind, this is far too restrictive - plus small keys once again take up the same amount of space as shotgun's and heavy artillery. Oh well, something's never change I suppose.

The main plus point Outbreak has going for it is its longevity. The Resident Evil series has never been especially renowned for its lifespan, though with five fairly large levels, eight characters to play through them with and four difficulty settings, there's plenty here. After each successful level, you are awarded points to spend on all sorts of bonus extras; ranging from simple things such as bonus artwork and music, to extra playable characters, difficulty settings and movies. It's tremendous, and is the primary reason for encouraging you to play on past completion.

Pegi have slapped a 16+ age recommendation on it. I can't really argue with that - if my memory serves me correctly, I think Outbreak is the first Resident Evil not to carry an actual BBFC certificate. There's a fair bit of violence, both in game and in some of the FMV sequences, so isn't the wisest choice of game for children. Don't worry though kids - you ain't missing much!

Resident Evil: Outbreak pioneers some interesting concepts and is much longer than your average survival-horror title, but even if you ignore the fact that the teamwork/cooperation ideas hamper the flow of the gameplay, you are still left with a fairly average action game, which is actually far less playable than its older PSOne-based siblings. Gameplay feels more tiring than exciting and there are hints that the series has begun to stagnate, with some rather ominous signs of complacency on Capcom's part. Buy the original trilogy - they'll collectively cost around the same and make for a far more convincing lesson in survival-horror gaming, even after all this time. The wealth of extras will make it worth while for die-hard fans, though for everyone else, Silent Hill 2 and 3 make a far better fist of the survival-horror art on the PS2.

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