The TPS Report - Games, Beats 'n' Blogs

Dig Checks Out The Outfit For the Xbox 360
Posted by Diggler - 26/3/2006 19:38

The A-Team meets Saving Private Ryan, The Outfit is a third person shooter featuring strong strategic elements

Relic's The Outfit is destined to be misunderstood. What looks on the outside to be a fairly run of the mill World War II-centric third person shooter, is actually something with far more depth once you break the surface.

Okay, not so much as a single player game, where it's little more than a clichéd case of running and gunning, but certainly in its multiplayer mode, which I'll pretty much focus on from here on out. Split into Allied and Axis teams, you run around shooting each other and blowing up tanks as per usual, but to actually make any far-reaching progress, you must also capture command posts, gather resources, and set up defences. Does any of this sound familiar? It should do, as these are all pretty much staples of the RTS genre, somewhat understandable given Relic's history developing the likes of Dawn of War and the Homeworld series.

As a result, The Outfit is essentially an RTS game where you actually get to control one of your troops directly. Strategy plays quite a large part in your success thanks to this, so much so that teams who merely spray and prey will for the most part find themselves laying on the floor, sputtering up blood.

This basic concept could be considered pretty damn intriguing on the face of it. Personally my biggest beef with the RTS genre on the whole is the disconnection you feel from the action. Ordering in troops to battle and simply watching from afar does nothing for me, I'd much rather be down there on the battlefield blowin' shit up "with the men". In The Outfit, you pretty much get to do that, while still dictating the larger course of the battle by ordering in reinforcements and emplacements as and when they're needed. Much like a good tranny, it tries to be the best of both worlds.

The downside to all this unfortunately, is that neither aspect of The Outfit is particularly good.

Nazis? I Hate Those Guys

As you take down enemies, you'll earn cash to call in extra paratroop units, purchase additional vehicles and improve your outposts' defences

As a third person shooter, it's sluggish and dull. The guns feel lame and unsatisfying, the weapon selection is piss poor, the thrill of the kill is ruined by fiddly aiming and horrendous recoil, and perhaps worse of all, the vehicles are about as easy to control as an epileptic rodeo bull.

The strategic elements fare much better, and it's a sight to behold the first time you order in a tank to see it dropped from the sky mere feet away from you. Calling in reinforcements and setting up machine gun nests is pretty sweet actually, embodying you with a nice sense of power, and this aspect of the game I initially enjoyed.

At the end of the day though, the action's just way too fast-paced, loud and chaotic to form any real overbearing strategies with this system, and as a result it too kinda fails I'm afraid. The second you setup an anti-tank gun it's often blown away seconds later, taking an outpost will only see it drop again almost immediately, and so on and so forth. This constant see-sawing just feels tiring after a while, and unfortunately, kinda like work.

Uglyville

The explosions and physics are admittedly, rather impressive. Shame about the vehicles

Beyond its conception and design choices, The Outfit also has additional problems to worry about. The graphics are bloody poor pretty much across the board, with Xbox 1 level characters and architecture that on a standard definition TV, will look about 5 years out of date. Don't get me started on the constant pop-up. The sound is also somewhat annoying, with cheesy army music and "comedy" voice acting that - given the big names behind it - has little excuse for its lameness. In terms of its poor technical showing in both the audio and visuals, it's really only the explosions and physics which manage to stand out.

In all fairness, the ability to destroy every single thing you can see is quite a feat, and it's quite clear all the 360's power has been channelled into fuelling this aspect of the game alone. Whether it be fences, walls, houses or even flippin' trains, ploughing enough shells into it - or calling in an air-strike - will result in a rather splendid display of explosive flame and flying debris. For the occasional split second you see tires and bricks flung from their vehicles, or an entire bridge explode 10 meters ahead of you, it almost feels "next-gen". Almost.

Yet it's not enough. Mercenaries gave us a similar playground of destruction last year, but also had a wonderfully vast and expansive game to back it up. The Outfit feels like a cheap knock-off that drops Mercenaries' greatest asset - its free-roaming nature - while simultaneously trying to shoe-horn in a second genre that - at least personally - feels too confusing, fast-paced and random.

Saving Grace

A rather mundane single player game is improved with better online action, and a humorous co-operative mode

Is it all bad news? No, I would say the mere fact you can play through the solo campaign with a buddy - both split screen and over Live - is a major pulling force bringing this one back from the depths of utter shit, towards something more average, and in actual fact manning vehicles together and setting each other on fire by accident does indeed provide some cheeky little fun I must say.

Mercenaries' greatest flaw was its lack of such a mode in my opinion, so for all its faults, it's ironic to see The Outfit deliver quite wonderfully here. Yeah, it doesn't fix any of the underlying problems with the game, but much like mutual masturbation, doing something with a friend proves twice as fun.

It really ain't enough though, and certainly not at this price. The Outfit is a wasted opportunity at the end of the day, and along with Amped 3, is one of the most disappointing games I've played on the 360. Save your cash, pickup Burnout, Fight Night, or GRAW. Better yet, grab Oblivion. There's plenty of great games hitting the 360 right now...and The Outfit ain't one of 'em.

(Pictures courtesy of Xbox)