The Outfit
Xbox360
Relic Entertainment


On paper, The Outfit must have seemed like an excellent idea. Take a well established video game setting, take some well-intentioned game-play devices from other games, like purchasing weapons, vehicles and troops; or being able to blow everything up; or being able to capture and hold strategic points. Mix it all together and throw in some colour to make it stand out from all the WW2 games and BINGO!, best selling game ever...Unfortunately like Homer Simpson's claim about communism, it only works in theory. When it all comes together in the one place, it all seems to fall apart.

The story of The Outfit sees you take control of the titular Outfit of J.D. Tyler, Deuce Williams and Tommy Mac, three tough action war movie stereotypes who lead a band of men through war-torn Europe hunting evil Nazis and corrupt clergymen. It's clichˇd enough as it is, but wait until you hear these guys talk!

The game itself is a pain to play. You will die a lot. There are tons of enemies and they keep coming, but they're not overly intelligent. Although they do take cover and use weapon emplacements and vehicles, they never use any kind of tactics against your squad. There are no flanking moves, and they rarely try and bail out of a damaged vehicle. Also, they take many hits to kill. You'd think running over Nazis in a tank or half-track would pretty much be the end of them, but quite often they just get back up.

Driving vehicles is a pain. Every vehicle is harder to control than a tank, which makes the tank harder to drive than a rock. Shoddy controls and dodgy environments suck all the fun out of it. Holding strategic points is way too easy, and getting money to call in extra troops/vehicles/air strikes is as easy as blowing things up, which means you have a very easy run of it. Blowing up everything isn't fun either, as on foot on in vehicles the aiming reticule is sluggish and crude. The game doesn't even look like an Xbox360 title. It's nice and colourful compared to other WW2 titles, but there's nothing here that shouts next-gen except the price.

All in all a good idea, but a crappy execution in all areas. Oh, and don't believe the hype on forums and websites about the online play - I spent three hours looking for games online and didn't find a single person playing it. If it was really that good, why is everyone still playing Halo2?

Julian Cram