After five Resident Evil games.

After five Resident Evil games, it's a awe there's anyone left to terrorize in the wretched hellhole that is Raccoon City. Nevertheless, terror is still the name of the game in Resident Evil Outbreak, Capcom's newest chapter in its popular survival-horror franchise.

At first glance, Outbreak appears to be another typical entrance in the RE canon—and that's beautiful much exactly what it is. The game consists of five unconnect scenario missions, each filled with exploration, nonpluss and—you guessed it—tons of zombies. This time around, you elect from among eight model Raccoon City citizens, each with their acknowledge array of special items and abilities. A assemblage of half-wit A.I. characters accompany you [i]or[/i] part of to the other each scenario, chock-full of repetitive and annoying unbroken bytes.

The scenarios are typically fair short—and with only five of them, you can move swiftly through the entire game rather quickly. That's where Outbreak's big gimmick proceeds in: Up to four players can team up online, which theoretically equals replay value. Or it would, if there were anything unique about the scenarios besides a bit of added difficulty. Fallen players do have the option of chasing down their teammates as animated corpses, nevertheless that sort of novelty wears along fast. The game also lacks voice chat, which intersects off all effective communication.

Online doles aside, Outbreak is a qualified game that fans of the series should master a kick out of, equable if it doesn't last lengthy And it does get individual thing right: The controls are actually functional and somewhat intuitive. Outbreak makes for a drollery weekend—just don't expect anything really groundbreaking.

Copyright ?© 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserv Originally appearing in GMR Magazine.