The Outfit (video game)

The Outfit
File:The Outfit Coverart.png
Developer(s)	Relic Entertainment
Publisher(s)	THQ
Composer(s)	Rob Cairns Tony Morales
Engine	HydraCore
Platforms	Xbox 360
Release date(s)
Genre(s)	Third-person action
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

The Outfit is a squad-based action game built for Microsoft's Xbox 360, set within war ravaged Europe during the Second World War. The game combines squad-based combat and easy to use strategic gameplay elements with cinematic interludes. It is Relic Entertainment's first game released on consoles.

The Outfit gives players the option to control three different squad leaders (voiced by Robert Patrick, Ron Perlman, and Terrence C. Carson), each with their own specific skills and abilities. Via the squad leaders, players are able to control a squad of battle-forged soldiers on missions based in highly destructible battlefields. By engaging in combat with the enemy, players earn "Field Units" (FUs) that can be used to order in "Destruction on Demand" to upgrade their arsenal, order in tanks and many other vehicles, build machine gun nests and anti-tank emplacements, or call for air or artillery strikes.

The game includes 12 single-player missions and Cooperative missions, and it supports online play with Microsoft's Xbox Live service. The Outfit is designed to play in high-definition (16:9 ratio) with Dolby Digital surround sound.

Plot

The plot starts off on a beach where the team goes over their overall objectives and then go to save a small town, only to find all of the citizens have been either killed or evacuated except a French priest. He points out that he is "still a man of God", and therefore would only provide help with his knowledge of the enemy.
After defending a small village from a German counterattack, the priest is found missing and is discovered to be a German collaborator. Meanwhile, two high-ranking officers within the German army quarrel over their duties, one being an SS commander and the other a Wehrmacht general.
During a mission, Deuce is fatally wounded by the priest, but manages to take out all of the forces in the area including himself by throwing a lit cigar into an explosives cache. The remaining American heroes eventually corner the collaborating priest in a church in a town ironically similar to the village they first met the priest. Mac decides to spare his life, but as he is leaving the church, the priest takes aim with a 1911 but is then shot and killed by Mac, who is holding Deuce's favorite revolver.
The Americans form an alliance with the Wehrmacht general during one of their later missions. With his help, the allied forces eventually arrive at the SS tower stronghold that the SS General Victor Morder is making his last stand. They capture one of the SS rail cannons and take down the tower with Morder inside.
The ending shows the Wehrmacht general surrendering to the American forces formally. Mac is seen reunited with the woman who helped them along the way.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic 70/100

The game received mixed reviews, scoring 70 out of 100 on review aggregator site Metacritic. Reviewers mainly noted that although the developers intended for the game to be strategy-based, most of the game saw players driving a tank through a linear level, from point A to point B. Thus, the game was deemed strategy lite. Reviewers also noted that the on-foot sections of the game were dull and repetitive, but luckily could normally be avoided. The multiplayer aspect of the game received mixed reviews. Most reviewers noted that the multiplayer game was more strategy heavy, because the games sub par artificial intelligence was replaced by a human opponent. Besides the core gameplay, the graphics were also criticized. The game was praised for its draw distance, as huge amounts of a level were viewable at any given time.

External links

• The Outfit Official Website