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THE OUTFIT XBOX 360 REVIEW |
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A solid
World War II game is hard to find. With hundred
of choices between RTS’ and FPS’, your
hard-earned money can dissipate in a snap! What
if you could have the best of both worlds,
combining destruction-on-demand gameplay and
FPS/RTS combat scenario? The result is THQ’s
latest shooter, The Outfit. The Outfit blew up
everything we knew about the traditional
representation of WWII games. The game is fun
the first week, but its adrenaline steam slowly
runs out because of the repetitive battles. In
The Outfit, you control a group of three heroes,
each in control of their own squad, and each
with their own special set of weapons and squad
orders. You’ve got J.D Tyler, the sniper,
Thomas, the submachine gunner, and Deuce
Williams, the rocket man, who appears to come
straight out of Walker, Texas Ranger. The
general goal of the game is to destroy the
living daylights out of the Nazis, and that’s
pretty much what you do in every mission: blow
things up, save allies, and blow more things up!
The Outfit plays a lot like an unrealistic
version of Ghost Recon. The only difference
between the two games is that you have unlimited
grenades and ammunition here. Just like Ghost
Recon, you can issue commands for your squad.
You can order them to charge, hold position, or
whatever instructions that goes well with the
present situation. Surprisingly, your
squad reacts intelligently. They’re relatively
successful in killing and manning gun stations.
What's nice is that if your entire squad dies,
you can always respawn to a chosen point in the
map. The game lets you access to “Destruction on
Demand”, where you spend FU points, which is
earned by killing a number of Nazi soldiers and
blowing everything up that comes into sight.
These FU points can be used to buy general war
items and have them FedEx-ed straight to you via
parachute. Some of the items you can buy include
military tanks, 4x4s with mounted bazookas, and
stationary machine guns. One of the game's
highlights is the ability to call for air
strikes that can quickly suppress your enemy’s
strong points. However, the problem with this
though, is that you can accidentally kill your
own guys if they don’t move out of the way for
weapon delivery, particularly if you’re ordering
giant military vehicles. |
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PRODUCT
OVERALL RATING: 8.0 OUT OF 10 |
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Once you
infiltrate a certain number of enemy
territories, you’ll be able to utilize whatever
piece of equipment they have in store, from
Radio Towers, to Nazi Armories, to Motor Pools.
Many hardcore FPS or RTS enthusiasts may find
The Outfit a bit dull because of the very
forgiving approach to the way you can overpower
your enemy’s superiority; but for casual fans of
shooting games this is actually quite fun. And
if you’re one of those run-and-gun types of
player, you’ll definitely appreciate Outfit’s
arcadish shooting style and the fast-paced
action sequences.The game features Live support
with up to eight players going at it at once. If
you think eight is too small of a number for a
war game, do remember that you’ve got the RTS
elements, and that every player commands a squad
of four. So if you do the math, that’s 40 people
fighting at once! Chaos spills on the map and
it's fun to see all the action unfolds.
There’s nothing better than smoking your
friends’ with a bazooka mounted on a 4x4 jeep,
squashing them with a heavy duty military tank,
or blasting them into smithereens with a frag
grenade. If you don't have Live yet, you can
still enjoy the same experience through the
game’s coop mode. The coop mode is really great!
You and a friend will have a blast crushing the
incursion of the Nazis. The best part is that
while you’re doing the dirty work, your buddy
can destroy a different section of the map.
Since it's a team effort, whatever medals you've
earned after a mission, your friend gets it,
too! The Outfit, being a 360 game, looks quite
dated, though the special effects are top-notch.
You’ll notice after a while that the terrain is
quite bland, and some of the textures aren’t as
sharp as they should. The characters you play
are nicely detailed, but your teammates lack
great attention. In fact, some of them look like
they came out of a PS2 game. It’s one of those
inadequate presentations you don’t really notice
outside the cutscenes; so it’s forgivable.
The graphics are still very good in many
respects. Trees cast realistic shadows; the
surrounding village burns as though it radiates
heat; vehicles explode with impact; buildings
blow up like the 4th of July fireworks. In the
audio department, The Outfit’s sound effects are
what gives the game its authenticity! The
explosion from tanks and buildings take you
right into the action. You’ll run across a
deafening ambience of over 30 Nazis with
bazookas, rifles, and halftracks. With respect
to weapons, guns, bazooka, rocket launchers, and
grenades are all accurately represented here.
The sounds on the vehicles are also nicely
reproduced. Voice acting is good, but does a
person really need to listen to the same macho
lines over and over again? They are being used
way too often! The orchestral soundtrack is fine
for the most part. It does a good job mimicking
the hostilities of war. Overall, The Outfit is a
good shooting game – it’s really exciting
playing with your friends, but as a
single-player, you’ll likely to get bored
quickly. THQ’s first attempt at RTS elements
with the FPS formula is not too bad at all. It
is rather aimed at casual gamers, but if you're
expecting some hardcore shooting, you might want
to wait for something else. |
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