I adore the Resident Evil franchise to death, but the series is so obsessed with its own convoluted mythology that piecing together a coherent backstory can be a challenging Survival-Horror puzzle in its own right. The 7th entry and the recent remakes were all fantastic games, but the best part of these experiences was not having to keep a franchise encyclopedia on hand at all times in order to understand what was going on (although the increased emphasis on horror and non-steroid-abusing protagonists was also a plus). So now that Capcom is on a roll again, I’d like discuss one of their most underappreciated projects and make a case for why this is the perfect time to bring it back. Of course, I’m referring to the underrated spin-off: Resident Evil Outbreak.
For those who never played it, Resident Evil Outbreak was an online cooperative multiplayer take on the RE Formula. Originally released in late 2003 for the PlayStation 2, this odd little side story revisits the iconic Raccoon City incident from the point of view of ordinary citizens. When a small group of unfortunate souls becomes trapped inside a bar, they must work together and face several horrific scenarios in order to survive the undead onslaught, courtesy of the Umbrella Corporation.
While the game still follows a basic Survival-Horror premise, with this rag-tag gang having to solve convoluted puzzles and manage resources as they slay undead bio-weapons, the focus on cooperation and down-to-earth characters make this an entirely different experience. You won’t find any members of S.T.A.R.S. here, as the character selection ranges from security guards to journalists and even plumbers, with the player really feeling that these are just ordinary people forced to deal with extraordinary circumstances.
The levels themselves are also incredibly immersive, with (mostly) mundane locations making this feel more like a zombie apocalypse simulator akin to Left 4 Dead rather than a contemporary Resident Evil title with booby-trapped mansions and foreign villages. The settings range from universities to hospitals and hotels, making Outbreak much more in line with the franchise’s original George Romero inspirations instead of the action-movie set-pieces of later titles.
With this slightly more realistic approach, the game as a whole hits a lot closer to home and manages to be scary even in the company of other players. The creature designs were also great, though they were mostly updated models borrowed from other games in the series. This would actually be improved with the release of the game’s expansion in late 2004, Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2, which added new and improved content to the game.
While the expansion was mostly a showcase of levels that were supposedly cut from the original game, it also worked as a standalone title in its own right, boasting improved load times and tweaked gameplay, with players now able to move and shoot at the same time (a first for the franchise). File #2 also contains some of my favorite moments in any Resident Evil game, with even more familiar locations turned into apocalyptic nightmares. The Wild Things scenario was particularly fun, as it traps the characters in an infected Zoo, forcing players to fight undead wildlife as they attempt to escape.
The entire experience here was really ahead of its time, implementing randomly generated content and a context-sensitive “ad-lib” system so that players could communicate without immersion-breaking voice-chat. There was also a “Virus Gauge” that could infect players if they dilly-dallied for too long, making sure that folks didn’t waste each other’s time during matches. While a lot of these ideas seem like no-brainers for an online title nowadays, remember that this was all designed for the PlayStation 2 and released at a time when dial-up internet was still common.
Unfortunately, these ambitions also had a negative impact on the game, with most players not having a decent enough connection to play online, making server options quite limited. While the lack of voice-chat did indeed make the game scarier, the ad-lib system wasn’t much help during the puzzle segments and was inexplicably removed from western releases of the game. The servers were also gutted after only 4 years, though it’s still possible to play the entirety of the campaign offline (and there are working fan servers out there).
Even ignoring these online issues, the game wasn’t perfect by any means. Several of the puzzles were just downright stupid, with translation errors making them even harder to solve. There was even a hint of that convoluted RE history bogging down a few sections of what should have been a standalone spin-off. However, most of these flaws are forgivable when you consider the sheer amount of innovation and creativity behind other parts of the game.
It’s funny to think that if Outbreak had been released only a few years later during the online console gaming boom, it could have been one of the franchise’s biggest success stories and we might still be seeing new Files released to this very day. The series played around with a lot of Co-Op elements later on, with the recent RE3 remake even being bundled with Resident Evil Resistance, an asymmetrical multiplayer experience that also takes place during the original Raccoon City incident, but none of these experiments were as faithful to the original games as Outbreak.
Nevertheless, with Capcom clearly feeling nostalgic for Resident Evil history, this is one experiment worth reviving for modern gamers. It wouldn’t take much to re-release an HD version of the title with proper online support, but I think I might personally prefer a complete re-imagining of this unique brand of Survival-Horror. With online horror gaming on the rise after the success of titles like Dead by Daylight, an online experience that requires players to work together to survive classic Survival-Horror scenarios would be incredible.
With Resident Evil Village on the horizon (and a possible remake of RE4 to boot), it’s clear that this series refuses to die, so there will be plenty of opportunities for another Outbreak-styled spin-off in the future. For now, however, I’m happy to reminisce about that time I got together with a few friends over a shaky internet connection and shot a zombie elephant in the face while playing as a badass waitress.
