‘Resident Evil Outbreak’ and ‘Painkiller’ full of hellish fun
“Resident Evil Outbreak”
Capcom for PlayStation 2, $49.99. Rating: M (Mature).
It just isn’t my day. I’m sitting at the local watering hole, punching away on my laptop trying to finish my latest story, when suddenly the bar is flooded with blood-thirsty zombies.
I head out a back door with three other surviving patrons, only to find the entire city is under siege from undead creatures, unfortunate victims of a biological outbreak.
We scrounge together guns, knives, even brooms to use against the mass of monsters. It’s not enough. I take a wrong turn and hordes of nasties swarm me. I call to my companions, but I can’t escape. I can feel the virus taking hold. Soon I begin to lust for the taste of blood. I, too, am now a zombie.
So my fictional journalist’s first foray into Raccoon City didn’t end so well. But this online, four-player cooperative battle for survival is eerily entertaining.
While you can choose to journey alone (online and off), misery loves company. The tension from relying on strangers in a life-or-death struggle provides a unique gaming experience — especially when you realize these people have left you for dead. At times you’ll have to leave them behind, too. But to escape zombie-itis, you’ll need to work together.
Unfortunately, for a challenge requiring teamwork, this game is plagued by a lack of communication between players. In-game chat is limited to a handful of preset phrases.
But that’s not the game’s only affliction. While it touts a diverse cast of characters and frightfully good visuals, “Outbreak” has only five scenarios. And the clumsy online interface and outrageous loading times further mar the experience. Unless you have the PlayStation 2 hard drive where you can install the game, you’ll wait more than 10 seconds every time you move into a new room.
— Ryan Huschka
“Painkiller”
Dreamcatcher Interactive for PC, $39.99. Rating: M (Mature).
If Ubisoft’s “Far Cry” is the well-aged cabernet of the shooter set — a beautiful game with a twisty plot, perfect in nearly every way — then “Painkiller” is a hard lemonade. It’s bubbly, it packs a punch and it’s a real blast to enjoy, even though no one will mistake it for a great vintage.
Think of your favorite shoot-‘em-ups updated with some cool settings, a great physics engine for knocking stuff (and enemies) around and an assortment of the best weapons in a shooter ever and you’ve got the idea.
There is theoretically a plot, enacted in the game’s movie sequences. You’ve been killed in a car wreck, and the only way to see your lady love again is to kill off hell’s armies for God.
But don’t trouble yourself too much: Plot isn’t a part of the real action here, and it certainly doesn’t get in the way. Instead, you’ll spend hour after delightful hour mowing down a wide variety of enemies (zombies, knights in shining armor, kung fu experts, you name it) and bosses the size of small skyscrapers with some truly creative weapons.
My personal favorite is actually the one you start the game with: the Painkiller, whose primary weapon is nasty spinning blades that chop up your opponents. Not enough? How about a shotgun that includes a freeze ray (freeze ‘em, then shatter ‘em); a rocket launcher with a chaingun as its alt fire; a stake gun (the wooden kind) with a grenade launcher alt; and the Electrodriver, which hurls throwing stars before frying the enemy with electricity.
I’m in heaven. All right, not really, since every set is as dark and foreboding as you’d expect for battling the forces of evil. It’s never sunny in “Painkiller.” But I certainly feel that way.
It’s a real surprise to get a shooter this fun from Dreamcatcher, which is better known for publishing slow-paced adventure games. But I certainly hope it isn’t the last.
— Heather Newman