If Outbreak: The Nightmare Chronicles had a pound for every time a journalist compared it to Resident Evil, it’d probably go out and buy the Resident Evil movie boxset. There’s no avoiding it: this is a game series that adores Resident Evil, from the fixed camera to the slippy-slidey feet movement, even down to the ‘blip’ sound as you move around items in your inventory. Outbreak: The Nightmare Chronicles Definitive Edition is out now on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
Very specifically, Outbreak: The Nightmare Chronicles and this Definitive Edition feels like a blood-smeared love letter to the first few Resident Evil games, even going to the lengths of starting you in a manor. The city outside is burning and fallen to chaos (Resident Evil 2), and monstrous beasts are freely roaming the countryside. Your job is to survive, find your fellow survivors, and perhaps uncover what has caused this cadaverous mess. It was Wesker, spoiler.
Outbreak: The Nightmare Chronicles has many different modes, but the primary one is its Story Mode. You move from room to room with limited items at your disposal, deciding whether to fight or fly in the face of waves of zombies. Difficulty is dialled up high, and you have limited saves, just like… you know.
Perhaps where Outbreak: The Nightmare Chronicles might flourish is in its many other game modes. Outside of Story Mode, there is a Battle Mode (Mercenaries), which is more focused on you getting to an exit with much more limited ammo, and there are various difficulty modes including Nightmare Mode, where one hit sends you back to the start. Perhaps one for the FromSoftware veterans.
There are worse games to ‘homage’ than the Resident Evil series, and – while the graphics and animations look somewhat on the simpler, PS2 side – there seems to be a lot of variety in the enemies, plenty of weapons (some explosive) and a focus on story, which should please anyone who felt that Resident Evil lost its way around the fifth iteration.
Features include:
- Story Mode: Survive through a classic single-player survival horror experience.
- Battle Mode: Tough as nails action mode where you scrounge and fight to reach the exit.
- Cinematic: Experience your last moments through fixed cameras and beautiful environments.
- Explore: Search rooms and read logs to find keys and solve puzzles to survive.
- Fight or Flee: Engage threats directly or run away to safety in another room.
- Classic: True hardcore classic survival horror with a limited inventory and deadly foes.
- Progress: Saving is limited and restricted. Find floppy disks to record your progress.
- Storage: Manage your limited inventory by finding and storing items in caches.
- Difficult: Play across multiple difficulty modes, including the one hit kill Nightmares mode.
- Defense: Utilize numerous firearms and melee weapons against the undead.
Outbreak: The Nightmare Chronicles Definitive Edition is out now on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S (with next-gen optimisation in place) and starts at £12.49 from the Xbox Store. There are plenty of other Outbreak offerings available too – most notable the recent drop of Outbreak: Epidemic.
Game Description:
As the city burns and the countryside is engulfed by the epidemic, you’re now alone and forced to live with this new reality. Monstrous beasts and disfigured remnants roam freely with their numbers increasing rapidly. Scattered and separated from your fellow survivors, you’ve fled into a large manor estate to escape the relentless horde. Your only goal now is survival. Explore the manor, locate supplies and find a way to wake from this nightmare. But somehow… you know your fate is already sealed. Outbreak: The Nightmare Chronicles is an unforgiving survival horror experience. Death lurks behind each door as you fight to survive with the limited supplies at your disposal. Search rooms thoroughly and make the right choice when to fight – or flee – from the monstrosities. Featuring classic hardcore survival horror gameplay in a directed single-player experience, you’ll need to stay on your toes to stay alive. You have a limited inventory and you’ll need to leverage supply caches to store your equipment for use later. Saving your game is also highly restrictive and you’ll need to locate the means to record your progress as you explore. Lydia’s adventure is just the beginning… can you survive the chronicles and determine the fate of the other survivors?
