Playstation 2 - Resident Evil: Outbreak File #2

Format
Playstation 2
Publisher
Capcom
Developer
Capcom
Country of origin
Japan
Genre
Survival horror

Resident Evil : Outbreak File #2

By David Rasmussen
17th Jul 05

In the aftermath of Nintendo’s release of Resident Evil 4 you’d think there was nowhere to go but up. With the entire Resident Evil franchise revitalized and revived through the innovative gameplay of this blockbuster you’d think CAPCOM would have gone full steam ahead with this revitalizing force. Pity the makers of the Resident Evil : Outbreak series has decided (for the best of CAPCOM and the Resident Evil consuming public at large) to drag innovation out behind CAPCOM HQ and shoot it in the head. So thanks, CAPCOM, thanks a lot.

Innovation dies a quick death in Resident Evil : Outbreak File #2, but thankfully for CAPCOM it’ll still fly off the shelves faster than nude pics of Tekken femme Nina Williams at E3 due to the fact that, well, Resident Evil fans need their “hit” since it’s going to be a long long time before we even get a taste of the gameplay “smack” that is Resident Evil 5... So addiction, it seems, rules the day with RE : OB F#2. Yes, despite the fact this is the game that resurrects the same somewhat clunky gameplay, the same control issues, and the same crappy camera work that we were so happy to get away from when Resident Evil 4 hit, the game still has a potential to be a big seller despite itself. Of course CAPCOM selling the game at $30-$40 a pop would be a nice incentive to get people buying. After all you can get the game used from Blockbuster for $30, so it must be affordable brand new!

Yeah. The cut scenes are still great, and if you judged the game at first glance from just the opening credits sequence alone (don‘t press any buttons once you turn your machine on and you‘ll roll right through the very nicely done opening credits) that alone might make you hyped for this. Yes, and less we forget we also have the extras (purchasable through gameplay which racks up points which in turn can be turned in for extras), back and greater than ever which is another reason to be hyped. Add to that Resident Evil : Outbreak File #2 is still the only RE show in town that allows for online multiplayer? Yet another selling point of the series.
But still, if you were hoping for the innovation from RE4 to carry into Outbreak File #2 then you’ll be sadly mistaken. Outbreak File #2 is for all intents and purposes the same Resident Evil : Outbreak game with new locales (and some not so new, but revisited locales), and some new improvements to gameplay… some.

So, then, instead of recapping what was before, let’s see what’s new in File #2!
1 - First off you’ll notice they added a training level to get you up to speed on the game, as well as the differences between this and RE : Outbreak (original). You’ll revisit J’s Bar from the start of the original Outbreak, this time using the familiar surroundings of the bar as your 4-1-1 on Outbreak File #2’s gameplay, so you can get up to speed on the game without having to do it “on the job“ like you did in the original Outbreak… gee, wish they thought of that in Resident Evil : Outbreak #1!!

2 - New levels, including a faithful to the original revisiting of a classic Resident Evil locale.
You’ll be taking your time visiting such places as…

The Raccoon City Zoo - Here the wild kingdom learned it’s best not to feed the undead humans… as in not to feed themselves TO the undead humans! Most of the animals have been turned into corpses thanks to the ravenous T Virus victims… T virus… T virus… ohmygod I hope it’s not what I think it is!!
Uh… yeah… I know it’s not, because it would be sick if it was and all… but, just so we’re on the same page. As Sesame Street would say, C is for Cookie… and T is for Thriller… get it?
Ok. Nuff making you want to wretch your last meal up from the implications of THAT, let’s move on.
Oh, yeah, the zoo… apparently the zombies missed and elephant, crocodiles and some lions (oh my) while eating the animals and, for the first time in Resident Evil history, a zombie turns the tables on the zombie hordes and deals out a vicious smackdown that sends zombies flying… zombie as in zombie elephant! Too bad you decide to go through the zoo to reach rescuers which means you’ll have to face the zombie elephant, but whatever you do DON’T SHOOT IT!

Yes, as in real life nothing you’re holding is enough to take down a living elephant, forget taking down an undead elephant! You’ll need to lure this nasty thing (what the heck is hanging down on it’s rear underside?) back into it’s pen and seal it in. Use of a Parade BGM (not to be confused with KK Slider’s KK Parade song from Animal Crossing) in the elephant pen’s control room might make all the difference… or you can just stand at the controls and count on your dim as hell AI “survivor” partners to wander outside to be live bait. Damn, you go dummies. Don’t worry though, there’s a way out of the pen once they lure the elephant in so you can seal them in without fear.

The Raccoon City Subways - After running willy nilly through the streets tiptoeing amongst the corpses you’ll find yourself underground… in what I consider the HARDEST of the levels! You’ll need to do a whole lot of thinking here, and consider the cause and effects of your actions before you do something (cause there’ll be consequences if you don’t think things through). Worse is the fact you’ll need to find things, and access areas that are hard to get into in order to proceed! And, if that wasn’t hard enough? You’ll have to fight halfway through the level a horde of hard to kill flea like creatures that are hard to hit with your guns! And if they attach to you? There’s a chance they’ll poison your character! Oh, and after they drain you they grow gigantic size!! Talk about a pain to fight against!
If you’re looking for a level of this game that’ll really give you a challenge this is it.

The Forests Outside of Raccoon City - I thought for a moment you’ll be going to the mansion from Resident Evil 1, but instead you end up taking a reverse trip to a rundown hospital… which happens to be a level setting in that no good Resident Evil Clone knockoff X-Files : Resist or Serve, only in that case it’s a mental hospital and not a straight forward hospital (as in this game). Evil mutant plants, ax murderers (apparently chainsaw wielding grannies would be too hard for you) and plant encrusted zombies wait for you here. The trick here is to carry syringes of this substance that kills the plant things, as well as remembering the location of the device that gives out free refills (which you’ll need).

Raccoon City Police Dept. - Yup. Everyone’s favorite locale from Resident Evil 2 makes a comeback, and FINALLY nails down the timeline for Outbreak!

Resident Evil : Outbreak & Outbreak File #2 takes place… BETWEEN Resident Evil 1 & 2! Why? Because in this final level you’ll find that the police station has some survivors left, and the black officer who appears in Resident Evil 2 (the one who helps you at the start, then becomes a zombie halfway through that you have to kill) is alive and well which means this game is set between RE & RE2!
Sadly that means they’ll be able to squeeze out at LEAST 1 or more Outbreaks (set between Resident Evil 2 and 3), not to mention Outbreak spinoffs between RE3 and the destruction of Raccoon City in RE4’s opening sequence! So it looks like we may have a Resident Evil : Outbreak File #3 to look forward to, at LEAST with more possibly to come… so I hope you like the Outbreak series since they have lots of room left for even more games! Anyway here it is, the “end” (at least it looks like the end since there’s so few choices here for level selection) of the game. All you have to do is survive RCPD and make it to the end… I’m guessing it’s the end since there doesn’t seem to be anymore levels. Of course there could be more but I don’t see any signs of that being the case. Guess this is going to be a short game.

And that seems to be it… boring! Yes, in order to unlock every extra you’ll need to play the levels over and over again… and yes there is some value to the replay since you do have 2 (possibly three once you beat the game) levels of difficulty and lots of extras to unlock which means having to play the game lots to earn the points to buy those extras. Still, I got more levels out of Medal of Honor : European Assault so I was kind of hoping for better out of Outbreak File #2! This, more than anything, denotes a need for you to be able to play this online since it’s one of the two ways you’ll get the most out of Outbreak File #2!

3-This time out you get to pick the survivors you work with. While you can only work with two this time, instead of 3, now you can customize your group with people you’ll actually want to work with, as opposed to being forced to team up with people you might not be interested in working with.

4-YAH! No dumbass reporter who keeps saying “I have a theory”…! Speaking of dumb things heard while playing Outbreak…

5-Speaking of the whole ad libbing thing? There are changes in the wind for this effect in the game.
Voice emotes (ad libs) are back, and made even worse with EVEN MORE AD LIBBING… ok, it’s not worse since it looks like they balanced out the additional ad libs with the fact that they won’t speak to you unless spoken, or if they want to get your attention for one reason or another. That means you won’t have to listen to your “survivor” partners ramble on endlessly, like in the original Outbreak.
Emotes? Besides your standard emote and the emote to give “orders”, you also have an apology emote (hold down L2 and tap triangle) and one where you call out the name of the person you want to talk to (to get their attention) (hold down L2 and tap up or left on your right analog stick, aka R3).

5-Zombie animals, and this time not just dogs. Down at the zoo you’ll face zombie lions, zombie crocodiles, zombie birds and a great big zombie elephant! Oh my! Too bad there’s no feces flinging zombie chimps or a zombie zebra or something like that, but still I guess this is OK.

6-With a brand new Resident Evil : Outbreak game there’s brand spankin’ new cutscenes and new scenarios to play around in, and that‘s gotta be good!

7-More hands on approach now. Besides being able to deal out personal damage with attack melees when you don’t have weapons to fight with (tackling, punching, kicking) you can also break down some doors in the game (instead of constantly looking for keys for EVERY door) by ramming into it (hold down R1 and tap the X button while not holding a weapon in your hand)!
Of course you are looking for doors that are “fragile”. Those break best.

8-Now you can move/shoot at the same time! By holding down the L1 & R1 buttons you can now move as you shoot… nice.

Otherwise what’s the same? Pretty much a whole lot of the game. But then again there seems to be enough tweaks to at least give you some change, though not much. Once again you are moving from "location" to "location", fighting to survive each without much else happening in the way of story or plot. It’s just take your merry band of survivors and… well… survive!

The one improvement I am really keen on, obviously, is that while the survivors still don’t exactly follow your orders, they aren’t driving you crazy by endlessly ad-libbing either! They seem capable this time of keeping their yaps shut unless addressed, or unless they’re trying to get your attention. That, more than anything, is something I approve of in the new Outbreak game!

The best way to get the most out of this game? Two ways.
1 - You have to own the original. Huh? Why own the original after I gave it a not so keen review? It looks like this game interacts with the previous one, and you can download tools you had (weapons too probably) from the last game into this one so you start off with good stuff at the beginning of the game.
That has to be useful! Right?
2 - Online play. The best way to really enjoy this is to play it online with three friends. Since you can’t really do that with any other Resident Evil game other than this one? Then you might as well do it and get the most you can out of this release.

Ok. Nuff said. Time to break this down.

Resident Evil Outbreak Breakdown the 2nd
What's Hot? - The cut scenes are beautiful. Not to mention the whole purchasing system to lock them down,. So to speak! The whole system of buying cut scenes you completed is another funny, as you'll witness in this game. Add to that new twists to the old game and you have some innovation here.

What's Not? - While the game does have it’s moments it also has the potential to possibly become boring sooner or later (especially since unlocking all the extras means having to play the game as many times as possible for points). So unless you are a die hard total Resident Evil addicted sort this game might not be the best for you. However if you are a die hard fan then this game is going to be an addiction of it‘s own that compels you (the maniac obsessive RE fan) to act without consideration, and throw down $30 or more dollars for a game that you should rent first to see if you‘ll like it before you buy it.
It’s not the worse game out there, but it could have been better.

Moments to Remember? - Uh... sure, something memorable happened sometime during the Star Wars trilogy -- except for the fact that Episode III doesn’t seem to be scoring 100% approval ratings. Yeah. Ok. There are memorable things here but you should find out what… why? Just because, that’s why.

What to Ignore? - Thanks to the people of CAPCOM now that I don’t need to mute those around me, when they won’t go asking me anymore. Still, it’d be nice if they did show up for their thoughts before I go any further and really mett this out in deep thoughts.

Overall? - Let’s face it. If you are a Resident Evil fan then this is your new addiction until news of RE5 comes out. If you are a fan of the series, then this’ll act as the means to fulfill that addiction until a better game (I.e. a true sequel to RE4) comes along. It's not the best Resident Evil out there, but it does have a few merits and if you can play online then you have even more reason to snag this one up ASAP!
So try it out. It’ll fill that space in your life until at such time RE5 hits, or they make another Resident Evil movie… or something happens to get people hooked on the games again. Something.

And, just so you know, I feel asleep last time reviewing Outbreak (original) and rambled on about WWII games while half sleepy, not from a real purpose. Sure, I did eventually review the Medal of Honor series, but still… oh, well, now I just need to buy the classic Medal of Honor : Underground which I have seen for a little over $30 somewhere. What? $30?!? Considering how old this game is I should get it for a major discount! $30!! If I could find it again I could buy Final Fantasy VII Greatest Hits Edition for $20! Really! Anyway catch you next review!

-- David Rasmussen 17th Jul 05

Playstation 2 Resident Evil: Outbreak File #2 Images