The Outfit is a World War II themed action-strategy hybrid. This title plays as a third person shooter with the added feature of commanding reinforcements instantaneously. The concept of this mixture is reminiscent of Pandemic Studios’ 2005 title Mercenaries. However, unlike Mercenaries, this game fails to deliver either fun action or intelligent strategy. Centered on a generic story, The Outfit puts you in the shoes of one of three playable characters. All three characters have different specialties and weapons, allowing for a slight diversity in the run-and-gun sections of the game.

The story is told through short scenes between missions. All three playable characters are hunting a renegade Nazi general in a G.I. Joe caricature fashion. Each mission is comprised of a series of checkpoints and strategic resources that must be captured in order to proceed. Each building or resource allows the player more powerful reinforcements and vehicles. The levels are very linear and force the player along a winding series of roads that leave little room for any strategic developments. In fact, the only real strategy in the single player game is positioning defensive guns when warned of an impending enemy attack.

To its credit, The Outfit makes it very easy to access your combat resources with its "destruction on demand" menu. With the press of a button you can call in extra troops, tanks, and air strikes.

The importance of ordering additional resources cannot be stressed enough as there is a massive range of difficulty between gameplay on foot and gameplay in a tank. In later levels it becomes nearly impossible to make any progress without the use of armor. This brings the game to a major fault as the strategic options fade away with the use of faster moving vehicles. Gameplay becomes laughably easy once behind the wheel of a tank.

The multiplayer game is far better than the single player campaign. The game delivers a more challenge and strategy is more important once the opponent is another human. Multiplayer level design is far less linear and allows for strategic gameplay rather than a grinding linear experience.

Graphically, the game looks quite nice, levels are littered with war-torn towns and destructible structures. Explosions look good for the most part but many weapon effects, especially on the smaller scale, seem weak. Oddities like blocky character models, bizarre level boundaries, and repetitive textures stand out clearly against good looking environments.

Overall, The Outfit isn’t well designed. The story and characters can make the campaign painful to complete. It is easy to see why this game fell to bargain pricing so soon after its release.

About The Author

Andrew Alix is a Blast Magazine staff writer

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