It seems ages since i last played Resident Evil on the PS platform. That was 'Code Veronica' of course - which was a bit too slow and had some of the worst voice-over acting ever - but it had its moments despite its flaws. I have played 'Remake' and 'Zero' of course - and eagerly await 'RE4' on the Cube - but until then Outbreak is currently in my PS2 drive. This is a review of the single player game. Gameplay in Outbreak is new in some areas - familiar in others. Good in some areas - bad in others. Firstly - shame on you Capcom !! Not making Outbreak online capable in Europe is like sticking your fingers up at all the millions of gamers who have bought the RE series in the UK and Europe over the years!! This also made Capcom very rich in the process. May a 'Hunter' be let loose in your offices and show you the error of your ways !! Anyway - back to the game !! In the single person game there are some big dissapointments and some nice suprises too. Firstly the biggest flaw in Outbreak is not any particular gameplay short-coming as such - its biggest problem is actually the HORRIBLY LONG load times. And SO MANY OF THEM !!?? The game reloads every single time you open a door - and there are alot of doors!! What were Capcom thinking !!?? I can only guess that the designers were using the PS2 hard-drive to 'stream' this game when designing it . Without the 'speed bump' of the drive the load times become almost un-bearable. This kills alot of the tension that builds up in the game - as you stare at yet another 15 seconds of black screen. If you do play this game try and use the hard-drive - as this apparently solves this problem. Un-even and un-reliable AI is also a problem - in the single person experience at least - making your 2 NPC characters more of a burden than they really need to be. Control has been changed. This is probably not good news for hard-core Resi fans (like me) - but good news to everyone else. It takes a while to get used to and i wish they had put in a 'classic' set-up scenario in the controller options. The inventory system has also changed. You usually have 4 main slots for items - for all but one of the characters - and you can swap items with the 2 NPC's if needed. This becomes quite useful - although you can't drop items for some unkown reason. The silver lining to the horrible load times mentioned earlier are very lovely graphics. Similar - but not quite as nice as - RE Zero on the Game Cube. Much better than Code Veronica though. Some of the fire effects in particular are amazing. FMV's impress too - and the acting's not bad this time - although some actors verge on the wooden. Others are just plain irritating. Repetition of NPC dialogue make these seems worse than they actually are. The 5 scenarios re-visit alot of familiar areas from previous RE games that fans will instantly recognise - which sounds like a cop-out but is actually a nice touch. There isn't much of a tale to tell this time so dont expect a great story - all you have to know is that Racoon city has been over-taken by zombies and you have to escape any way you can. With or without your 'idiot' comrades !! This involves navigating classic RE style areas collecting card-keys, weapons, (precious) ammo and herbs to secure your path to the next area. The Scenarios (5 of them) are shorter than they should be - and the save system is very irritating - as only one save slot per game scenario is allowed. No ink ribbons to collect this time. (Well - maybe one if you look hard!!) This means lots of back-tracking if you die and replaying alot of the game again and again. Bummer !! There lots of un-lockables though - and eight different charaters to play through the game with - which means lots of replay value. The musical score and sound FX are classic RE - and get the job done. All in all - as much as i am a big fan of this ground-breaking series - Outbreak is a flawed gem - at once incredibly irritating and also very fun. It does also maintain some of the classic feel of the RE series. Minus the long load times and with online enabled play in Europe (with headset chat) this would have been a true classic. Maybe next time. How very dissapointing. For hard core RE fans - or those with alot of patience - only.
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