An interesting new color on the Biohazard-palette.
The core is the variety.With the eight different characters and Raccoon's various destinations,the bill's almost done.Some scene was elevated out from the previous episodes(like the hospital,the underground Umbrella facility,etc...)and there's some new stages,indeed.The characters has their personal attributes,tools,special moves and much hidden items to find.The game's lifetime is absolutely OK,just as I said before.
Visually,the Outbreak uses the same 3D technology as the Dino Crisis or the Code:Veronica X.Looks like we have to forget about the 2D,rendered backgrounds once and for all...
The stages and the characters are purely designed and detailed.All looks very impressive.Some scenery is simply breath-taking!Not perfect,but at overall,the Outbreak has a great visual engine.Good work.
The game is performing well in audio too.For example,the title music is a masterpiece!Fantastic!Many sounds and music are so familiar from the previous episodes...wonder,why?:).There's no problem with the audio side.All good and atmospheric.
The main gameplay has some new features.The whole game is running on real-time system,so the monsters will attack us until we using the inventory screen or code computers.This makes the game more lifelike,but sometimes generates frustration.It's easy to lose the control when we wants to reload a weapon and/or use a recovery item...and there's no time for everything if we're encountered by enemies.Also,we had a T-viral infection in the beginning so we're a time based zombie!We can freeze the timer for a while with anti-virus medicines or every kind of the herbs,but we have to hurry!It was a good idea!
There's some flaws...I have to explain them.Sometimes,we can walk through the enemies!Yes,it looks terrible!Poor zombies...:).Also,the game's horror-atmosphere is a bit weak.First,not really creepy...unfortunately.Secondary,the average loading time is simply a DISASTER!I think it was optimized for the HDD,but the online feature is totally missing from the Euro-version,so I really don't understand why this version uses the same loading method!Sometimes,we have to watch the loading screen much longer than we spend time to move room to room and it's kills the traditional Resident-atmosphere!The automatic targeting makes troubles sometimes,there's too few types of zombies and...yeah,as I said,it's a relatively short action...
But after all,the Outbreak's had more positive features than negative.Very interesting game.Like a special piece in some kind of collection:Not the best,but UNIQUE.If it's up to me,I would recommend it for all Biohazard fans and the rest.Just open the historic book of Raccoon city and read these novels...but not for your little sister!
(Resident Evil:Outbreak-Platinum/European(offline)version)