	Resident Evil Outbreak: File 2
	Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Eurosoft Release Date: Out Now Players: 1, 1-4 online	Words By:
Resident Evil Outbreak was a good game, it brought Capcom’s zombie universe online and… and… Except it didn’t. It didn’t bring the zombie universe online at all, because Capcom decided to not bother with the online mode for Europe, something to do with technical difficulties meant we got a purely offline game. It’s funny I seem to remember playing online PAL games on my PAL Dreamcast while living in England playing against people from all over the world about 5 years ago - on dialup too. Lame excuses and bullshit aside, the game was still good in PAL land, but it lacked what Outbreak was all about – the chance to play online with friends. So here is the sequel, and guess what? Capcom have got around all those technical issues for Europe and decided that we are a worthy continent after all. Well aren’t we the lucky ones! If you played the original Outbreak game, you’ll know exactly what to expect from this game. A virus has broken out in Racoon City (what AGAIN!?), and you must escape before your skin melts off. There are six chapters to play through, one of which is a training mission showing you the basic moves and features of the game. Outbreak: File 2 plays similarly to classic Resident Evil, with (mostly) fixed camera angles, lots of puzzles, and that inventory system which will either be second nature now, or drive you to insanity. You can choose from eight characters to play through the game with, and they each have their own skills and abilities, and of course their own story to follow too. You select the character you want to play, and then you choose two further characters to back you up. This is slightly different from the first game, where the game randomly selected them for you. From here it’s a matter of: get to locked room, find key, read notes, shoot zombies, get health… all the way to the end. You either love Resident Evil, or you don’t I am afraid; there isn’t much middle ground these days. Resident Evil 4 broke the mould, and hopefully got some new fans on board, but this is hardcore old-school nine year old gameplay here, so be warned if you didn’t like them on PlayStation. Some of the issues from the first Outbreak are still evident here; the reloading still takes forever, the AI characters still ignore you and rarely hang around in the same area as you. There are new issues too - what is the deal with doors, doors that take ammo to open? What is that all about? Fragile locks on the doors can be shot to be opened – OK, that’s cool, and is realistic, but why does it take around 10 shots from a handgun to open? Come on, that’s just being unfair, as usual with a Resi game, ammo is tight anyway. As you struggle to juggle numerous items around your inventory and the floor, you wonder where the AI characters have gone that could help you out. It’s at this point, where you remember there is the online mode, so you take the game online. Now let’s be honest, any online game on PlayStation2 is off to a bad start; It’s a clunky, annoying system that is laughable compared to the superb service Microsoft offer with Xbox Live. After creating a username and password (I thought I made a universal account with Central Station? – Oh well, never mind) and choosing a main server, a game mode, a room and setting up a private room, I was in. I created a private room that my friend and I could play in. When he did join, I wasn’t actually aware that he had joined the server because at no point does it tell me. You have to go into menus and submenus to see who is in the game. There is no voice chat in the server; the only way you can communicate is via a USB keyboard. Wow, it’s like playing on Dreamcast all over again! The lobby itself is rather unfriendly looking, and unless you know exactly what each character does and their abilities, you’ll have to guess because the character select menu online is just a name and a small photo. So you start a game, and it gets worse. There is absolutely no way of communicating with each other whilst playing the game. There is no voice chat, no keyboard chat, no soft-keyboard, nothing! All you have is the completely worthless set commands, which display when flicking the right stick in different directions. “Come here”, “Stop”, “Help” etc. - completely useless. Rewind five years to Phantasy Star Online on Dreamcast. It was on dialup, it was four player, and it had both keyboard and soft-keyboard chat. It was revolutionary for a console game, so having to go back to something worse than that on PlayStation2 is shocking. Thankfully both my friend and I have Xbox consoles with Xbox Live. So we booted up Project Gotham Racing 2 (probably the best voice quality), and created a private room. We then started up another session of Resident Evil Outbreak: File 2: Xbox/Gotham-assisted version! I can’t begin to tell you what a difference it made. We could talk, help each other, advise each other, and swap items around easily. It was like a proper online game. I appreciate PlayStation2 isn’t quite up to the job of online gaming as much as Xbox, but do we really need to resort to this to get a decent game out of it? Studio Liverpool managed to get voice communications for up to ten players working fine with their recent PS2 Formula One game, so this isn’t really acceptable is it? If it wasn’t for having an Xbox, this game would be virtually unplayable online, and extremely frustrating, as with many PS2 online games, if there is no communication with other gamers, what’s the point in playing online? – You may as well being playing an AI opponent. Once we were up and running, we both really enjoyed playing the game online. It works really well. Helping each other out, sharing items, taking out bosses together, doing puzzles, and carrying stuff for each other. It works so well, and I want more please. The clunky inventory and lack of space is very nearly fixed here, because online you’d typically have up to four people playing, so you can share stuff out easily. In the graphics and sound department, Capcom once again impress with their beautiful looking and sounding game. Animations are smooth, environmental and character models are detailed very nicely, and the cut scenes are of very high quality. The game sounds great too, with an excellent soundtrack and sound fx. The frame rate is smooth, and the 60Hz video option is once again welcome for PAL gamers. So where does this leave Resident Evil Outbreak: File 2? Well its online mode, until you have Xbox Live or a mobile phone with free minutes is poor to be honest. The complete lack of communication, is unforgivable, and just such a bizarre thing to leave out of an online game. HOWEVER, once the game is up and running, and you can chat to your friends, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable online game, and it’s very different from everything out there. I am a big fan of the Resident Evil series, and this is no different, but Capcom really, badly need to do something about the lack of communication. Perhaps Outbreak: File 3, if there is another, on PlayStation3 will have full on voice chat capabilities. A change in game engine would be welcome too, perhaps something along the lines of Resident Evil 4 would work better? I still enjoy it, but it could with a change now, and you’ll surely attract more people back to the series who previously didn’t like it. For this is the best co-op survival horror we have, and I do recommend it as an online game (and an offline game) to play, just be warned it’s a rather frustrating and disappointing experience without being able to talk to your online partners.