Codename: Outbreak
Owen
Another year, another alien invasion.
It's another one of those virus'
Created by the same people now working on STALKER this FPS slipped under the radar of many gamers. Hopefully many COOP'ers checked this game out for its COOP play, but most ignored it. In reviews at the time of release it scored around 80%. With many gamers being spoilt for choice in 2001 this was simply overlooked. The game plays like a B Movie that would like to be a blockbuster. An Alien infestation has crashed on earth and is taking over the bodies of the military. You and your on-foot wing man are called in to check it out. The game engine was allowed huge indoor and outdoor environments unseen before but the 3d models were perhaps too blocky and highly apparent texture tiling must have put people off. Those that saw through this embarked on a Sci Fi voyage which I can remember in details still to this day.
Can a Russian fake a Russian accent?
The COOP setup was pretty simple. The host takes control of the main soldier and the other COOP player takes on his side kick. There isn't much difference, except you can select different weapons before joining the game. The game allows you to play through the entire single player missions. These mission are sometimes very large and without COOP re-spawn points its sometimes a slog to catch up if you die. The game also allowed maps to be played in the day or night giving a lasting appeal. As you play through the game the story develops but don't expect any twists. This is a typical anti alien game. The AI is quiet aggressive and will often get you with your back against a wall. COOP play allows you also to see through the eyes of your buddies in a windows on your HUD. This makes things easier to communicate a plan off attack.
No Brainer
Like other games e.g. Gunman Chronicles you can easily be captured into atmosphere of the game if you look beyond the blocky graphics. The corny voice acting give it such a "cult" feel to it, though I can understand why people were quiet negative on this aspect. With gamers, I think most only look for Blockbusters, but this was none of that and sadly many missed this. This game is classic COOP, a decent blast and will give you many gaming memories that you'll carry for sometime to come.
Just like John Carpenters' DarkStar was ignored over his later films, this game will always be over shadowed by STALKER. Check out the demo if your interested, it has two levels to try COOP on. The levels aren't the best, levels 2,3,4, in the game are amazing(level 3 specially)!
