Developer: Tragnarion Studios
Publisher: Bitbox S.L.
Platform: PC, Mac, Xbox360, PlayStation 3
Scourge Outbreak – Review
Tactical third person shooters that focus on co-op. They’re a lot of fun when playing with friends, but pretty dumb when playing together with AI. Scourge Outbreak is a game heavily focused on co-op. With its in game voice communication and quick order system, it’s a fun game to buy together with a group of friends.
Story
It is 2026, the world is ruled by the power-hungry Nogari Corporation, creators of a new energy source called “Ambrosia”. Ambrosia is the product of research conducted on a meteorite that is in Nogari’s possession. The meteorite is so powerful, they will do anything to protect it. You are Echo squad, employed by The Tarn Initiative, an anonymous group of anti-corporate saboteurs intent on revealing the truth behind Ambrosia and breaking Nogari’s grip on the world.
Echo’s mission is to find and secure Dr Reisbeck, Tarn’s double agent inside Nogari. Second, to recover a piece of the meteorite fragment being kept inside Nogari’s laboratories.
Echo’s squad consists of 4 members who are scourge, a chemically altered being who are connected to a hive mind and lead by a Queen. While fighting your way through Nogari’s laboratories, you find out you aren’t the only ones there. Alpha squad made it there before you, their leader has great power because she touched the meteorite. Because she touched it, she was turned into a queen. Normally, when there are 2 queens, they fight 1 on 1 to the death. But because she touched the meteorite, her powers were amplified, so you have to stop her at any cost.
The story then undergoes a major plot twist, as you find out you are actually dead. The real echo squad died because they touched the meteorite before, you were then cloned and disconnected from the hive mind so you would be able to kill Alpha squad without being controlled by it.
Graphics
The graphics in Scourge Outbreak are okay, they aren’t up to par with modern day games, but it isn’t disturbing or really bad. The details could be a bit fancier though, like weapon details or armor details.
The video options are just your basic stuff, however there is a bug where I can only access 4 options. Texture detail, shadows, etc. cannot be changed for me. Seeing as the game isn’t super fancy, it doesn’t require a great computer to run.
Sound
The music is just your typical action music, filling the suspense when fighting bosses or tactically fighting your way through 10 heavy enemies. However, when crawling through the more obscene parts where Nogari’s failed experiments are housed, the music suddenly changes to a more horror like scene. It’s a pretty cool transition and doesn’t go unnoticed.
Voice acting is pretty good but the sound effects could use a little bit more attention. Some weapons are horribly out of sync with their corresponding sounds, which is a bit disturbing.
Gameplay
The gameplay is pretty much what you expect from a third person shooter. There is a cover system (which you will be using a lot!) when you sprint against a wall or press space, which allows you to blind fire or pop out to shoot with accuracy. If you press space when running, you perform a quick roll to avoid grenades or other damage sources.
There is however one unique aspect. At the top right of the screen you can see your power bar, this can be used to create a shield or send a powerful blast of raw energy at the enemy. Each playable character has different implementations to this power. One character can create a stationary shield and another one can create one that moves with him. The powerful blast can either be a ranged attack, or you can smash on the ground to perform an AoE attack. The power can be replenished by standing near raw Ambrosia barrels, which also explode when shot!
Grenades are also pretty special, performing left click when equipping the grenade will throw a normal grenade. However when you right click, you will throw a sticky grenade that will stick to any surface, even enemies! Of course there are other weapons too, from a minigun to a sniper. In total, there are 9 different weapons.
When playing co-op or with bots, you can issue commands. The quick command will give a command to whatever player or bot is closest. This command can be a resurrection command, move command or a mount turret command. When using the F-keys, you can issue commands to specific squad members. The bots are rather smart and will be of more use than most random co-op players you find online, although they sometimes rush in the action without giving them the command, which can be a little tricky. Also when playing co-op, you can choose which of the 4 squad members you play, but every character can only be chosen once. When playing singleplayer, you stick with the same character throughout the story.
When you’re done playing the campaign, you can test your skill in the multiplayer! It’s a pretty basic and dull multiplayer, so the game is mostly about the campaign and story. You can play deathmatch, team-deathmatch, capture the flag and point capture. The multiplayer matches can be hosted by up to 8 players.
Conclusion
All in all, Scourge Outbreak is a fun game if you play with friends, but the developers should have given it some more love in some aspects. If you don’t have friends to play the game with, you’ll probably not enjoy it that much.
Scourge Outbreak - Review,
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[…] Scourge: Outbreak is a third person shooter, developed by Tragnarion Studios. Scourge: Outbreak is co-op based and it benefits you to play with 3 friends. We have already tested the PC version before, the review of which can be found here. […]