Graphics
Graphically, Outbreak has a lot going for it. Each area looks very nice with plenty of detail to lend an air of authenticity and aid in immersion. There’s lots more interactivity this time around too with some areas actually having several parts to them, making exploring well worth while. The camera, though generally good, can work against you in places though. This is particularly so in areas where you are close to the scene in order to spot a detail or solve a puzzle. You can find yourself under attack from behind and end up firing off screen at baddies you can’t even see.
If you’re being chased by something, the fixed camera views work well once you’re used to them, though having to suddenly change the direction you’re pushing because the camera view has changed can be tricky. Luckily, even when running, you don’t move that fast, so this isn’t too much of a problem.
Each character is nicely animated and skinned and moves in a smooth, lifelike way. Similarly, the bad guys all look good too and the overall effect of the settings, characters and their rendering give the game a nice film noir-ish feeling, albeit with a horror twist. Speaking of horror, I have to say that given the work on the graphics and the detail you see everywhere, it was a bit disappointing to not see a particularly large amount of gore in the game. There are a few bits where something gruesome may have happened, but if you get attacked, it’s not particularly scary and the splash of pixelated blood is less than horrifying by a long way. Of course, the price of the lush visuals is that there are a fair few places where the gameplay stops while the next room loads. It looks like you can get about four rooms on the PS2 in one go before it has to top up with more. Add in some fairly long load times for some levels and it can take you five minutes to leg it from one place to another as you open a door, wait for the load, open another door and wait or the load. However, play that off against what you can see on the screen and I’ll leave it to you to decide if it’s worth it.
