RE Outbreak Preview/Walkthrough of PlayStation Experience Beta

As a huge Resident Evil fan i was elated to have the oppurtunity to visit the recent Playstation Experience in Londons Earls Court, sure, i live about 300 miles from London but a playable demo of Resident Evil: Outbreak seemed worth it, in fact it was the only thing that drew me there. On arrival it was clear there was a lot going on, many exhibitions and various differen games being showcased, but i was only there for one thing ... A lot of searching ensued and after what seemed like a life time i found what i was looking for, stuck in a corner 8 PS2's where linked up, 4 televisions on one side and 4 on the other, the graphics above explained to me what i had found, zombies where apparent wherever you looked, this was the Res:Outbreak section.
Of course all the consoles where occupied, i mean who wouldnt jump at the chance to play this game? But i stayed, i stayed for quite a considerable amount of time, whilst i was waiting i observed. 8 different characters, each player choosing a different one, the staff made sure everyone was comfortable and then proceded, each player had chosen there character, very unique in appearence and apparently skill, sure the text was in Japanese but everyone was provided with headsets and microphones, English was the sound coming through and the mics where easily usuable so it seemed.
Then it started, the beggining movie was a slight bit confusing, switching to each character, showing there starting location, and then it began, every man, or woman for that matter, to himself, left alone in a city infested with evil. On some screens you witnessed amateurs not knowing where to go or what to do and on others you could see players who knew the series, attempting to arm themselves with whatever came to hand, and i do mean whatever cam to hand, some people where using staple guns to keep the zombies at bay whilst others armed themselves with pesticides and bug sprays, a short term solution but nothing that was going to totally destroy an undead as we well know.
Then it happened, someone got bitten, in the earlier games this wouldnt be a problem, use a herb and your back to full health, not in the game tho, as soon as the teeth sunk everyone around noticed the bottom right corner of the screen. It was changing, the percentage was increasing ... percentage? what was this new addition? slowly the circular icon started to fill, originally it was occupied but normal blood cells, now though it was being inaded by a orange coloured virus, the virus was fighting for control. As the player moved on the virus spread, the player got weaker and started moving slower, slouching before finally falling to the floor on about 75% virus infection, crawling for survival you have to give them credit, they did carry on, not that it was any use, eventually they stopped ... dead.
Dead usually means dead, not in this case though, to manys amazement the character climbed to there feet again, something was different though, arms outstrecthed the character stumbled foward, searching for fresh blood, still controlled by the player, people where amazed, how good did this look!
And it did look good, even though it was obviously far from a finished copy the graphics shone, the characters looked even more realistic than the later Res games, facial features and movement emulated real life almost perfectly, sure there where times where charcters walked up to doors or walls and there arms would dissapear and reappear on the other side of the obstacle, but isnt that expected at this stage?, overall from my impressions this is shaping up to be a very very good game, especially if its networking is supported in Europe ;)

written by Spike

Spike@legacyofkain.net