Outbreak: The New Nightmare is a throwback to a simpler time. This survival horror game is created with a love of the old Resident Evil games firmly at its center. The graphics and gameplay are reminiscent of those halcyon days when things were much simpler and games were pretty hard.
I have been studying zombie outbreaks in depth for decades now. I’ve witnessed dozens of them unfold and even weathered a few of them personally. When a new undead threat arose from Dead Drop Studios, I couldn’t resist. I knew that it was time to strap up and wade through the rotting corpses of the walking dead once more. So I broke into my zombie survival kit, which may or may not be a bottle of cheap whiskey, home herbal brain enhancer, and a comfortable chair, and grabbed a copy of Outbreak: The New Nightmare. The following is my survivor’s report.
The Struggle is Real
Many games will give you a tutorial that takes your hand and walks you through every aspect of gameplay. Outbreak: The New Nightmare takes a different approach. The tutorial is pretty much just a smaller portion of the first stage. You’re thrown headfirst into the end of days. Using the default character, I started with a high-power low-capacity handgun and three open inventory slots. You learn how to pick up and interact with some items and then you’re on your own.
There are some things that really make this game hard. Some of them are intentional and I kind of like them. For instance, the inventory is super limited. There are four slots when you start out. Your weapon takes up one slot. The ammunition that you pick up for that gun takes up a slot as well. In tutorial and first couple stages of Outbreak: The New Nightmare you the most prevalent healing items are painkillers and ointment. The ointment is useless without painkillers. The painkillers are less effective without the ointment. So, if you want to have an effective healing item you have to combine the two. This means that, until you combine them, they take up half of your inventory. You have to be really selective with what you grab.
Some of these zombies are fucking tanks! In the tutorial and first stage, I was averaging about 4 shots to put these things down. That was with using the auto-aim function. The item stack is pretty low relative to how much ammo you use. This, combined with the limited inventory makes things even more difficult.
They’re Working Against You!
The developers of Outbreak: The new Nightmare did things like I mentioned above purposely to make the game more challenging. I really enjoy that aspect of the game; an easy apocalypse would be boring. A little extra mental work along with slaying the undead keeps things interesting. There are, however, a few things that make things a little tougher that may not be intentional.
The camera angle in this game is absolutely maddening. It switches from one anchored camera to the other similar to the old Resident Evil but it’s nowhere near as intuitive. This presents a number of problems. For one, it makes going anywhere a huge pain in the ass. Then, you may miss important items because they’re in the blind spot of the camera. Luckily, there is a map with all of the times marked on it. Otherwise, you’d just be beefed on ammo and heals in several rooms. It takes a lot of getting used to.
There are no damage indicators. The only way to know if you’re taking damage is to open your inventory to check your health post-encounter. Alternately, if you die mid-fight you’ll know where you stand health-wise. The health indicator isn’t all that intuitive, either. You get levels like fine, caution, warning, and danger. I’m still not clear on which one is which except for fine.
Hunker Down and Get Comfortable
If you’re planning on taking a day and smashing through the campaign, you might want to reconsider. The first stage alone can eat up around an hour. This is kind of cool, for a few reasons. By the time you finish the first stage, you have a good feel for the gameplay and the camera becomes less of an obstacle. Also, you’re going to gather enough XP to level your character a little bit which will make the coming horde a bit easier to kill.
I’m going to be honest, I haven’t yet made it past the second stage of the campaign. I’ve put about as much time into this game as I did the entire campaign on Call of Duty WWII. So, if you want to complete this one, get comfortable, you’re going to be here for a while. That’s not a bad thing though. Outbreak: The New Nightmare offeres hours of challenging survival horror gameplay. And it does it at a bargain price.
Alternate Game Modes
There are three modes in Outbreak: The New Nightmare. The modes are campaign, onslaught, and experiments. While campaign and experiments modes are fine, onslaught was my favorite. You spawn on a map and have to find a weapon, ammo, and any other items before the waves start. It’s just you against hordes of the undead. No puzzles, no keys, just extermination. The onslaught stages alone are worth the price of admission.
Final Thoughts
I think this game is all in how you look at it. Let me put it to you in zombie movie terms. If you’re looking for something along the lines of 28 Days Later Outbreak: The New Nightmare isn’t what you’re looking for. This game is more along the lines of one of those deep cut Italian zombie flicks from the early eighties. It doesn’t look great, it has some flaws, but in the end it’s pretty damned entertaining. I would suggest playing this game in the same way you’d watch one of those campy zombie flicks: loaded and with friends. If you do that, you’re going to have a bloody good time. You can now pick this one up in the PlayStation Store for about twelve bucks. Give it a look.