Things I Wish Capcom Changes If They Decided To Make Resident Evil Outbreak File #3 (Part 1)

Resident Evil Outbreak series is one of my favourite games of all times and the one of most underrated games in the history. Unfortunately, the times the series was released at, online gaming was not popular and very few games even had that feature especially on the Playstation 2 and because the games focused heavily on online gameplay, it was met with mixed response and low sales. But now that the Online gaming is popular, I believe it’s time for the series to make a comeback.

So here is a list of things I wish to see changed if Capcom ever decided to Make Outbreak File 3 and things I hope they keep from the older games.

So let’s start with the things I wish to see changed…

1-10 Scenarios or More:
The Outbreak series was different from the Normal Installments in the series. While the usual RE games had a sizable Campaign that can last you from 8 to 10 hours depends on how you fast you play and how much you explore. The Outbreak Installments were broken into 5 Scenarios each were you get to explore different locations from Raccoon City. Some locations were new and others were from the older Classic Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3. Any Resident Evil Veteran will recognize many of those locations instantly. You got to explore the infamous Raccoon City Police Department, The Birkins Labs from RE2, The hospital where Carlos got the serum for Jill in RE3 and many other locations. While the scenarios were amazing to explore, unfortunately they don’t last long enough. Each Scenario will take an hour to finish with the first scenario only lasting 15 to 20 minutes as it acts as a tutorial level. Some Scenarios can last two hours at best on higher difficulties. So more Scenarios would be welcomed. 10 or more Scenarios would be ideal with each scenario lasting at least an hour each.

Some of the Scenarios locations I wish to see are…

A Mansion we can fully explore in the style of Resident Evil 1.

A Cemetery/Graveyard would be creepy to play in.

A School would be a cool place to explore in a Zombie Apocalypse.

A Hospital would be sick as usual.

A Catacomb/Underground kind of level.

A Museum because we all know how scary that place is.

A Hotel is always a nice place to kill Zombies.

A Mannequin Factory is so creepy at night.

A Park would be beautifully scary setting with Hunters roaming everywhere.

An Asylum because Zombie Apocalypse and Asylum mix together like Butter and Ketchup!

An Airport with luggage scattered all over the place would be chaotic to explore.

A Metro station filled with Zombies and other creatures.

The Labs where it all began.

Sorry, i got carried away here :), let’s get back to the topic..

2- An Intelligent AI:

While the game’s main focus was the Co-Op multiplayer, it can be played alone with up to 2 of the most stupidest AI in the history of gaming. That was a major issue in the game if you play it on Single Player. The AI was barely helpful. For example, if they see a Zombie in front of them, they would waste a whole handgun magazine on them rather than using it wisely. If you give them a powerful weapon, say like a Magnum, chances are they would use the whole 6 precious bullets on one Zombie and give you a heart attack from their stupidity in the process. I wish to see an AI that knows the difference in the mechanics they should use in each situation. Should they run from the enemy? What weapon should they use on that enemy? Should they save the powerful weapons for the strong enemy or should they use it on the normal enemy? I want to see a smart AI in front of me that I could rely on, I want them to calculate the situation in front of them. If they see a zombie, they should use a Handgun rather than a Magnum, and they should Aid me when I need them and not just ignore me as If I am not there. Of course the game can be played Solo with no AI with you but it would be nice to have someone you can rely on specially with the inventory system that the game has. And speaking about inventory…

3- A bigger inventory:

The Inventory system in my opinion was amazing . It was different from the older games. In the older games, when you open your inventory, the game pauses until you do what you wanted whether you wanted to mix herbs or you wanted to reload you weapon and then resumes again when you close it. But here, it was different, the game doesn’t pause when you open it, so if there is a Zombie in front of you while you are in the inventory system, the Zombie can attack you so you have to either be in a safe place when you open it or you have to act fast. It gave the game a sense of realism and tension. So things like instant reloading are gone, you had to manually reload your weapon, you had to wait until your character put every bullet in weapons like Handgun or Magnum. It gave you a sense of realism and realistic survival. And it can be very tense especially when you are fighting a Boss but it felt so rewarding and challenging. The Inventory system was also the similar to the one Resident Evil 5. But unfortunately, it had one big issue. The inventory was very small. You can only carry 4 items in it except one character who can carry 8 items instead of four. So if you play the game Solo with no partners or Online, you will be backtracking a lot so that was a big issue. So it would be great if each character can hold up to Eight Items.

4- Puzzles:

There were a few puzzles in Outbreak, they were very simple like finding a code to a safe where you have to search for the file with the code and all. I want some puzzles where I just like the ones in Resident Evil Remake and the Classic Trilogy where some of them requires perception and using my mind to solve them. That would definitely be great especially if some of the puzzles were optional and you get cool and unique rewards by solving them.

5- Leveling Up The Special Abilities And Unique Items Of Each Character:

The game has Eight playable characters and each character has his own Special Ability and Unique Items. Also no one play the same at all, every character has a Unique Item and everyone’s HP is different so playing with some characters can be more challenging than others. So let me introduce them…

Kevin: He is a cop with a high Marksman skill with the ability to inflict Critical headshots on the targets for much higher damage than usual. He starts with a Unique Powerful handgun and A Magazine Clip.

Cindy: She is a waitress and basically the healer of the member, she carry a Unique herb case which contains herbs that does not take place in the inventory.

Mark: He is a Security Guard and basically the Tank of the team. He inflicts major damage with Melee weapons and has the highest HP in the group and he starts with a Unique Handgun.

Jim: He is one of the Subway Staff and basically the most coward person in the group and for some reason, Zombies and every enemy tends to ignore him so I guess that is his skill. Oh, and he can play dead too so go figure. And he have a Unique Lucky Coin that boost his Critical hits so that’s a plus.

Alyssa: She is a reporter with a high Marksman skill too just like Kevin with the ability to Inflict Critical Headshots and she carries an Electric Taser with her too. And her Unique item is a Lockpick just like Jill, She is a Master Of Unlocking too. She unlocks doors, drawers, cabinets so she is a very good character to play with. Also unlocking items is realistic in the game, meaning unlike Jill who takes a second to unlock doors, cabinets etc, Alyssa can take over a minute to unlock something so she have to be careful if there is a Zombie lurking around.

David: He is a Plumber and he is extremely talented with Knives. His Unique item is a Pocket knife and he can do a 4 hit Combo with it for a high damage and he can fix broken weapons and can craft weapons, for instance if you give him a lighter and a Pesticide Spray, he will mix them and make a Flame Sprayer so he is a pretty badass character.

Fun Fact: Enemies like Hunters can destroy weapons if they attack you in the game so yeah, David is Important!

George: He is a Doctor and his special item is a medical set. The medical set converts herbs into Pills. The Pills functions are amazing. So for instance if you have two herbs, they take two places in the inventory but if you convert them to pills, they take one place. So if you have 4 pills, they won’t take 4 places but they will take one. And not only that, he can also create an Antivirus pills which you can use against yourself your virus gauge is rising or you can use it against Zombies for a One Hit Kill.

Yoko: She is a high school Student and her Unique item is a Pack Bag that makes her the only character that can carry 8 items. So she is pretty useful to have in the party.

So now that you know their unique items what do I mean when I say level them up? For instance, when we level up a character like Kevin, his handgun gets stronger and he have more starting ammunition. Or Alyssa, instead of taking a minute to unlock a drawer, she would take 30 second or Yoko, instead of her carrying eight items, let her carry ten and so on. Give us a sense of progression. I believe that would be amazing.

6- Flesh Out The Protagonists And Make A Good Story:

The game has a huge potential to have an amazing story if they flesh out the characters more. Make every location they go have a meaning for those each one of those characters. Make them have a meaningful interaction with each other. I mean for instance we have two characters in the game who clearly have feelings for each other. George (The Doctor) and Cindy ( The Waitress), in the end of the first game, we saw them holding hands in the bad ending just before the Nuke hit Raccoon City... ( Watch the Video Ending below)

It was a cool moment but imagine if they fleshed them out more by having them talk to each other just like Ellie and Joel from The Last Of Us. It would be an extremely sad moment as characters we care about are going to die. Capcom should just hire The Walking Dead team for this because those guys knows how to make characters memorable or Naughty Dog lol :P

7- The Brilliant Atmosphere Of Resident Evil Remake:

Now, if there is one thing that make RE Remake my favourite in the series alongside Resident Evil 3, it’s the brilliant atmosphere. Now if we can see that amazing atmosphere in Outbreak File 3 then that alone could seriously be a game changer. That was definitely something the Outbreak was lacking in.

8- The Virus Gauge:

The virus gauge acts as a timer in the game. You start at 0% and it keeps growing, there are aspects that fasten the growth such as being bitten by a Zombie and once it reaches a 100% you die. If you are playing Online, when you die, you turn into a Zombie. Honestly, if there is one thing I want removed from the game, it’s this feature. This can make the game insanely hard sometimes especially on higher difficulties because a simple Zombie bite can make the gauge go from 1% to 25% so it can be hellish sometimes.

To Be Continued in Part 2...