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The Outfit - Hands On Preview

Chris Leyton

16/02/2006

Relic takes a break from RTS and has some fun with explosions, lots of them...

If you're one of the fortunate few to have picked up an Xbox 360 you're probably looking around for the next wave of titles, hopefully containing at least one game to fully exploit the next-gen capabilities and demonstrate where all your hard-earned cash went to. Fortunately the number of 360 titles looks to increase as we head towards March and the typically important Easter period, one of which is THQ and Relic Entertainment's The Outfit. Good things are expected from the duo that previously brought us the excellent Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War series; however The Outfit puts forward a very different scenario to their traditional RTS offerings.

Set during WW2 but taking a deliberately over-the-top and slightly fantastical take on the setting, The Outfit looks to offer a very similar experience to last year's PS2/Xbox hit, Mercenaries, from LucasArts and Pandemic Software. The game is best described as a physics based playground, presenting players with plenty of scope to wreck havoc and destruction - and let's admit it, explosions on this scale are always fun.

Taking control of one of three squad leaders, each an emphatically stereotypical American hero and offering varying attributes along with skills and weapons, The Outfit has players embarking on 12 different missions that typically revolve around blowing lots of stuff up. Much like Mercenaries kills and destruction earn you points known as Field Units, which can be used during the mission to call on weapons/vehicles to be instantly air-dropped onto the battlefield. There's an almost RTS aspect when setting up machine-gun nests and anti-aircraft turrets, however the focus is always predominantly on the action. Continuously following the leader into war and almost certain death is his squad-mates, which can be issued with various instructions such as assaulting a specific target or laying down suppressive fire. Their status as cannon fodder never develops however as recruiting new squadies to replenish fallen comrades is the least expensive drop in the game; perhaps it would have been nice to see some sort of experience system to create a sense of loyalty between them and the player.

You'll get your hands on a considerable number of land based vehicles throughout the game, ranging from 4x4 jeeps to full-blown tanks. Control is a little on the awkward side at present, largely because throttle, braking and steering are assigned to one thumbstick with the other taking aim of the targeting reticule. Given the light nature of the game it's unlikely to be too much of a hassle, however it's certainly something TVG hopes will be tightened up during the last stages of development.

Of the handful of missions TVG has witnessed early in the game the challenge often involves gaining control of landmarks, which in turn grant the player extra bonuses, such as radio towers granting the ability to call in air-strikes, vehicle plants the creation of more advanced vehicles and command zones respawn points whenever you die. It's very much Capture-The-Flag (CTF) technique requiring you to hold the location for a set time, whilst the Nazi flags are lowered and the good old stars and stripes hoisted into the air.

Naturally the million dollar question at this stage is whether The Outfit will be a true 360 title or resigned to the status of 1.5 that so many titles have in recent months. In certain ways The Outfit is doing something not possible on the previous generation, particularly when it comes to the use of the Havok physics engine and just how much reacts to forces within the game; holes accurately appear in buildings when a shell blasts through it - although the canned crumbling animation when a building takes too much damage is disappointing - and sandbags fly off individually when you career into them. But equally the game does have it's fair share of issues at this late stage into development; the game's introductory sequence focuses on the bag of a Nazi german, highlighting the inadequate textures in the process; there's a distinct lack of next-gen techniques such as HDR lighting, which seems to be becoming the definition as to whether a title (visually at least) is next-gen or not.

Although rolling around the various stages is fun whether or not The Outfit's long-term enjoyment will be sufficient is slightly more questionable. It's also slightly dubious to find The Outfit's linear series of stages come up short compared to the free-roaming approach employed by Pandemic's Mercenaries, whilst the non-linear faction tactics featured within that game, effectively allowing the player to wage conflicts between one another, are also sadly missing.

Where The Outfit is likely to shine is in the multiplayer stakes, something that Mercenaries missed out on. The game's CTF structure and exaggerated action are perfect ingredients for an online frag fest, and TVG expects The Outfit to become a firm favourite on Xbox Live upon its release. Up to eight players can battle it out for supremacy online (two via splitscreen), fighting to gain control of command points and strategic objectives across each map, or in traditional Deathmatch and Destruction modes. Every aspect of the single-player campaign is included, allowing players to purchase new vehicles, recruitments and weapons from the Destruction on Demand feature, whilst players can also team up in Co-Op mode to tackle the game's various single-player maps. With the promise of downloadable content and the typically brilliant Achievements, it's playing online where The Outfit could truly shine and extend way beyond the fun, limited life-span of the single-player campaign.