Resident Evil: Outbreak review

Standing there with a blue herb and a red jewel in each pocket, and a shotgun scattering zombie (un)death shells at the coming apocalypse may be all the citizens of Raccoon City know, but it’s what they’re comfortable with. Pre-Umbrella they drove to work in the morning, forgot their keys to the office and ended up in the pump room (nobody actually knows what it does) pouring the gasoline into the engine in order to power the card scanner off the backup generator. Trips to the dentist are just as arduous. The Racoon City theatre is thinking of handing out duplicate rose-headed keys at the box office to make people’s lives much easier.

So it made little difference to their daily routine when five titles in the Resident Evil (née Biohazard) saga and its numerous runt spin-offs invaded town and turned it into an all-you-can-eat special. They just picked up their File Cs and went on with the business of escaping by bumping into every desk in search of that elusive small clock hand - lickers be damned.

That this time they have found themselves infected by the T-Virus, that deadly strain of bio-engineering that led to all this mess, may have slightly worried them, but not much. It just means that they have to do things faster. Yet fast isn’t always a welcome word in the R.C. Not when opening every door takes time enough to turn your coffee cold and brown your apples, a problem that still exists to this day, but they manage. They pick up their handguns and plough through because every iteration, every adventure takes us somehow closer to unravelling the impenetrable plot that surrounds the meddling Umbrella Corp.

“A Jill Sandwich”

Maybe not this time, though, since because we’re dealing with the folks at ground level - the citizens - means the story’s quite thin on the ground. To put it in numbers: eight people, five scenarios (one hell of a day!) doesn’t always work out as the greatest exposition opportunity. But how could it not work, with the introduction of brand new monsters, the return to Resident Evil’s underground complex and enough notes and diaries to make any scientist proud? The threads are there and to the well-informed follower and the observant they make sense, yet their job is nothing more than to provide structure for the puzzle-based obstacles that let our fearless heroes and heroines escape unscathed.

Why so? Because these scenarios are self-contained with little relation between each other. A given seeing as they’re the landlocked versions of multiplayer maps where continuity isn’t a question. Fine when you’re playing online, but on your own (well, not really – we’ll come to that) it’s just something you’ll have to get used to. Then again, it’s not as if wandering from the bar to the facility to the hospital in that order isn’t a problem for Raccoon’s population. So you have to pretend the story is there, by playing them in consecutive order, the next unlocking upon completion of the last, before you can even think about the S rank bonus that Capcom bestow on those who participate in the arduous task of completing the whole game perfectly. Collecting arbitrary objects that matter little but to give you something to do to get 100% is the equivalent of pushing the space bar at every single wall in Doom.

S.T.A.R.S. In Their Eyes

So eight players. All the same, all suffering from the same control and camera problems, yet still different. A different special ability marks them out from the crowd and the character selection screen. From the helpful “good with melee weapons” and “extra inventory space” to the not-so appealing “able to heal allies”. Each sounds interesting and each makes its minor presence known in the midst of adventuring. But does it enhance the experience? Not really is the answer, not in a series as rigid as Resident Evil. Sure, you can use George, the heavy guy, to break down doors, or Alyssa, “a master of unlocking”, to pick those locks in a manner not seen since Jill Valentine got trapped in that mansion. But is that really on-linearity? The opportunities are clearly marked if you know what to look for, but the outcome’s still the same anyway and there’s no surprise there. The important objects are designed to be accessible to anyone, so the only room for difference is usually finding a locker with some bonus items in it (usually a red herb and ammo clip).

To take a go at each character is good for two things. (Not the stats though, you won’t really notice the stats.) First, despite the similarities, it’s mild fun to see how each character interacts with their environment. Maybe not the eighth time (skill willing) where you know the scenario like the back of your hand, but sometimes you will get curious to see how each deals with it. This is because, secondly, they’ve managed to scrape together enough plot crumbs to give an intro and outro to each person for every scenario. Don’t get too excited: some are more intriguing than others and some are little more than the same animation with another short voiceover spread on top.

Shuffle and Moan

Can you avoid working together, then? The glue that bonded the online mode together, cruelly rubbed off by an indifference to broadband adapters here in the UK. Not really. The game works almost exactly the same when you’re own your own. Two characters join you on your adventure, hand-picked by Capcom and filled to the brim with advanced AI. They’ll wander off, shoot monsters, die and utter stock phrases until they’re blue in the face. You’ll do the same. They’re only there to act as extra inventory space anyway. You’ve only got four slots (apart from Yoko whose skill is to have double). While the best or worst thing, depending on your tradition, is no magical chests. It’s this lack of carrying ability which means decisions, decisions when it comes to what to carry and what to sacrifice. A factor duly noted by the fact that there’s stuff to pick up everywhere and rarely is the time that the ammo runs dry. Those AI players pick stuff up too, mind. You request things and they hand them to you, acting at your whim until you lose them down a tunnel and spend the next half hour searching for that precious chemical they’d picked up oh, so long ago.

Zombie Dave

Then again, come to think of it, they do help you up if you’ve taken one too many hits. That T-Virus coursing through your veins, isn’t a gimmick, it’s a chemical irritant. It goes faster the more damaged you are. You can’t die from bites and scratches now. You can die from being bitten and scratched until you lie crawling on the floor and the percentage meter creeps up until you join the side of the apocalypse. Frustrating when there’s no-one around to hear your pleas for help and doubly so when you know a few fair swipes means a restart or reload all too soon.

You’re the prey. You’re the survivor. Despite a few tweaks here and there it’s still left to Resident Evil 4 to innovate the survival horror series. In Outbreak, you can almost taste the multiplayer, and how although it might not have been the best of its kind it did at least promise something a bit different from the norm. Without it the norm is all you’ve got left and as a single player only game Outbreak just doesn’t cut it. It’s not as good as any of the “proper” stand alone Resident Evils, so unless you’re a hardcore zombie fan this can be quite quickly crossed off your shopping list.