Many of the long time Resident Evil fans may have played of the Outbreak spin-off series. However, there are also many people who have never even heard of it. An underrated game of it’s time, Outbreak never really got the chance it deserved, which led to only 2 releases; File #2 being a worthy sequel. But what happened to Outbreak? What made the original Outbreak great? I’m going to answer those questions today.
Reception
According to metacritic as well as sales, Outbreak underperformed, to say the least. While it didn’t sell nearly as many as the main installments of Resident Evil, it did manage to outsell every other spin-off of the series. Why is that?
Online Capability
Yes, you read that right. This Playstation 2 game was able to be played online with other players around the world; something not many people actually did at the time as it was unheard of. Outbreak was actually ahead of it’s time. Something that was intended to be a positive of the game turned out to kind of have a negative impact on how it was played, as playing it by yourself meant you were playing with AI characters rather than other players. However, the AI and characters, in my opinion, is what makes the game so unique.
AI Characters
Outbreak allowed you to choose from 8 different characters, each with their own distinguishable trait and ability that makes choosing your character a little thought provoking. In Outbreak, you played through different scenarios and depending on your selection of character, the game would automatically pick which characters would be on your team. Outbreak: File #2 is where things got a little interesting; I got the sense that not every character actually got along.
For example, I discovered that Yoko hates Jim; she finds him to be obnoxious and loud, thus avoiding contact with him throughout gameplay. This makes for interesting situations. Another example, Mark favors the playable character, meaning he will always be by your side to lend a helping hand.
This also makes every playthrough unique, as you never know how compatible each character is with each other until you actually play through the game yourself and notice these details. These details alone are something Capcom really went above and beyond with. We really hope to see another installment of this game in the future. Perhaps Outbreak: File #3, featuring the same 8 characters again?
Check out the trailer for Outbreak here:
Have you played Resident Evil Outbreak? How do you feel about it? I’d love to know your thoughts!
The Bipolar Gamer 
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