They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery, and it looks like Drop Dead Studios LLC was a huge fan of the first Resident Evil games on the PlayStation and Dreamcast. Outbreak: The Nightmare Chronicles is the third game in the Outbreak series. This studio is a one man show, which makes this third entry in the series even more amazing.
The Story
The first few screens after you make some gameplay decisions lay out the stories that happened in the previous games so that you are all caught up. You play as Lydia, who is tired after all of her recent “monster” encounters. She ends up breaking into a manor and that is when you gain control of her.
You attempt to clear out the house and perhaps survive the night so that you can continue in your real life. A life that isn’t filled with “monsters.” This will not be an easy task, lots of dangers and puzzles lurk within the manor, and you only have so many bullets and painkillers to keep you going.
The Controls
Seeing as this is an homage to the Resident Evil games on the original PlayStation, the controls don’t handle as well as they should. This does take some time getting use to, at least it did for me. LT is auto aim and Y is shoot, once you pump about eight bullets into an unsettlingly fast zombie you hit RB to reload. D-pad or Left Thumbstick is move, if you want to run press Y and Lydia will jog around the manor.
To find items in the manor, which you will need, I suggest hugging the environment and pressing B over and over. B is interact and this can gain you ammo, painkillers, weapons, and floppy discs. If you’re wondering what a floppy disc is, they use to store small of information for our archaic computers. In this game you save with them and they are in very limited supply. You have to save only when you must or you’ll have to leave your Switch on “Sleep” mode.
You also only get one save spot, the floppy disc saves over your last save, this was one of my biggest complaints in Dead Rising for the Xbox 360. I’m yet to save myself into a corner, but it is a big possibility. One thing I have noticed is that Ammo and Painkillers are readily available, I’m yet to really feel in danger yet.
The puzzles can be frustrating! Going back to Resident Evil when you read a memo you could look at it at anytime because you collected it. In Outbreak if you read a memo and there is a code or password you have to write it down for yourself because she doesn’t pick them up. I found myself running back to rooms because I would flip flop numbers in the code. Have a pen and paper handy while you play. You will need it.
The Look
The game does have a very spooky atmosphere, which it needs to make you scared and creeped out. I can tell you that I would not want to hang out in this manor. Lydia is there because of a life and death situation and that isn’t ideal. This place looks like a terrible AirBnB and I would give it one star. Lydia stands out on the screen with her reddish shirt which is good because this is a very dark game. You’d lose sight of her if she didn’t have a flashy color on.
The zombies are usually well hidden in the dark so I had a difficult time making out their deign. I can tell you they were creepy, they moved in a very unsettling way and they took SO many bullets. You can’t really run around them because they’re quicker zombies than most.
I enjoyed the feel and atmosphere of the game, it reminded me of my teens when I was experiencing 16 bit horror on the PS1. This title has better graphics than that, but sadly not better graphics than the REmake on the GameCube. The game does look nice, but there are some ugly textures and wonky physics that pull you from the scare. I get that one guy programmed this and that is amazing, but sometimes I’ll shoot a zombie and he’ll die standing up, that isn’t too scary to me.
Overall
I’m going to be honest as a sucker for horror games, I REALLY enjoyed playing this. Yes my problems with the game may have hindered tiny moments of enjoyment, but I would recommend this game. I still believe there isn’t enough horror to go around on consoles. So I like to support indie developers that pump out a couple here and there, Bloober Team’s Layers of Fear, and The Deep End Games’ Perception come to mind. Outbreak: The Nightmare Chronicles join their ranks, which is good, look at where Bloober is at now.
The game is scary, fun and intriguing, there is no reason not to download it onto your Switch and try to survive the manor. If we can all support Drop Dead Studios LLC, who knows what they will give us in the coming years. Developers have to start somewhere and this one has so much potential to bring us the horror we deserve. Pick this up now!
The Review
Outbreak: The Nightmare Chronicles
An homage to the original Resident Evil games has been released on the Switch, Outbreak The Nightmare Chronicles. Will it be scary good or scary bad?
PROS
- Atmosphere is great, very reminiscent of the Resident Evil Remake
- Has some amazing nostalgia factors, just in the opening screens
- Ammo and painkillers are plentiful which doesn't make the game insanely annoying
CONS
- Controls are wonky, I chose "modern" controls and they were more difficult than "tank"
- You only have one save file, so don't get backed into a corner or you have to restart
- Puzzles can be frustrating, make sure you have a pen and paper handy to write codes down or you'll backtrack a lot