Codename: Outbreak

Another FPS hits the streets..

'Game World GSC' are the developers behind this latest addition to the claustrophobic first-person shooter genre, with the strangely titled; Codename: Outbreak. Game World, who have previously been responsible for the impressive Cossacks, appear to have taken something of a risk in entering the most competitive genre of them all; so will Codename: Outbreak be a Half-Life, or more of a Sin? Well, if the truth be told, a bit of both… and here's why…

Firstly, the plotline and initial premise is arguably rather unoriginal and uninspiring; being something of a mish-mash of Half-Life and Alien, but with inferior delivery to boot. Not an impressive start, as I was beginning to suspect something of a half-baked attempt. My suspicions deepened too, once I commenced the single-player missions, and found myself languishing in the tedium of some poorly conceived objectives and foes. But fortunately things improved from here-on…

The mission design did improve fairly rapidly from the lame introduction, and the settings and mission-requirements became far more cunning and intriguing; as the foes became more of challenge. Finally the game was starting to distinguish itself from the crowd; the missions being highly competitive with the likes of Delta Force and project IGI. One particularly notable later mission involved creeping around darkened-steamy tunnels, with moisture dripping from the ceiling, and the fear of alien-attack generating a very-tense and genuinely unnerving Alien-style ambience. Another good mission required the player to prevent the evil alien enemy (I told you the plot was flaky) from gaining control of nuclear missiles.

Sadly, whilst the ambience and immersion did improve as I got into the single-player experience, the graphics did not; whilst the environments and there design became more interesting the fact remained that the graphics were not up to the stunning levels reached by the competition. Having said that, the talented design was evident in much of the environments so this improved matters somewhat.