Made by the same team that created the comical and recommended Drunken Fist games, Outbreak: Dead City is a simple $7 first-person shooter. The 2-3 hour campaign is mostly rinse-and-repeat, but there is just enough fun factor to warrant a wishlist addition, especially given the low price and tiny dev team.

This FPS is presented in the same purposely chunky polygonal style as the Drunken Fist brawlers. However, unlike the ridiculous nature of those games, Outbreak is much more serious in tone. For a straightforward FPS, the story is well written and contains a surprising amount of detail, but it doesn’t really fit the visual tone of the game. Instead of cracking jokes, the quest to stop a zombie threat, find a cure, and save a comrade is taken very seriously, perhaps too seriously. The story is the glue that ties the gameplay together, and it is well done, but I can’t help but feel it should have taken a different approach. Plus, there is no life in the AI-generated voices.

Outbreak: Dead City is loaded with all sorts of jank, but the choppiness is actually what gives this title its personality. For example, gunplay is shoddy and inconsistent at best. Sometimes a shot will connect. Other times it will miss. Sometimes a successful hit will cause only chip damage. Other times it will reduce enemy health significantly. Sometimes a leg will get blown off. Sometimes nothing will happen. You never quite know how the game is going to react, which sounds frustrating, and it is at times, but it also gives the game unintentional humor. That’s another reason why I wish this game wasn’t taken so seriously.

Gameplay-wise, the campaign allows the player to move within a relatively large space; it is not on rails or overly linear. However, the quest marker system leaves much to be desired. When accepting a new mission, the only indicator the player receives is a tiny triangle far off in the distance that can be seen through walls and obstacles. However, getting there can be a challenge. Instead of just a waypoint, it would have been nice to have some type of path-guiding system since the marker often requires traveling between loading zones. Although I was always eventually able to figure out where to go, I wish the waypoint system had been enhanced to improve the player experience. The waypoint doesn’t point to the few side quests either.

There is also the ammo problem. The game barely gives the player enough ammunition, but making every bullet count is tricky with the shoddy hit detection. Plus, I lucked out during one boss battle and defeated it with my last bullet. The player always has access to a knife, but it is on a lengthy cooldown timer and has practically no reach. There is also the scrap system used to upgrade weapons, but the game never tells the player about it. I wasn’t aware of the upgrade table in the main hub house until about halfway through the game, nor did I know about the scrap-filled toolboxes that could be collected for points. Upgrading also requires a lot of scrap, so there is a good chance only a few upgrades will be purchased before the credits roll. However, this imbalance seems intentional, as there is a New Game+ mode that allows players to replay the campaign with all upgraded weapons.

Outbreak: Dead City is a simple, straightforward, never-complex FPS filled with all sorts of quality jank, but that is exactly what makes the game what it is. By no means is this a great game, but it is definitely playable and enjoyable, providing a great example of “good garbo” that can be finished in a single sitting.

By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com

X/Twitter: @ZackGaz

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