The Outfit

April 5, 2006

It really was only a matter of time before the WWII genre become so over-saturated that somebody would think about taking it to the next level. No, I don’t mean improved realism, super-advanced squad tactics, or anything similarly substantive. I mean it in the pejorative sense – we’re talking World War II, to the extreme! This is, in essence, what Relic has done with the oh-so-overused backdrop of the European front – they’ve condensed all the explosion-laden, super-soldier machismo that was merely latent in other games, and put it front and center as the star of the show. The Outfit is, from start to finish, a simplistic and orgiastic revelry of war, never deviating from its linear and predictable path. While it is redeemed in part by the novelty of its multiplayer component, the main thrust of the game is poorly thought out and coarsely executed.The main component of The Outfit‘s story arc is that a particularly blood-thirsty nazi general by the name Hans Von Beck is wreaking havoc on the French countryside, massacring whole villages full of people, and driving the French Resistance heavily under ground. The American military brass calls on the titular outfit to root out and destroy Von Beck, and rid France of this particularly nasty Nazi menace. The three main characters are torn straight from the pages of an old G.I. Joe comic book. The group is lead by Captain Deuce Williams who, if his aviator sunglasses and default armament of a bazooka are any indication, could give R. Lee Ermey a run for his money. Sergeant Thomas A

Score: 2/5

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