If you manage to find some people to play with you, this isn’t as much of an issue since you can coordinate attacks and flank the enemy a bit easier but the gunyplay doesn’t help the cause. As a cover based shooter one would expect to not take damage while you are in cover. This is not the case, forcing you to maneuver through fights from spot to spot hoping to stay alive long enough to take out a couple guards or aliens. Every person reading this has been spoiled with Gears of War and Uncharted, which makes it quite difficult to play something like Scourge: Outbreak when the basic mechanics simply don’t hold up.
The experience system is one takeaway from the game, and probably the most unique characteristic of the game. Your character levels depending on how you play, a dynamic levelling system if you will. The levelling is split between weapons, abilities, assault, and co-op. Using your shockwave to clear a room will net you ability XP, where reviving fallen teammates give you co-op XP. Once you level up in a tree, you are given perks that will aid you in that particular set of skills. What is nice is that this is all displayed in your profile during a co-op match so players can see who is better at what with the hopes of creating a well rounded team. This type of specialization isn’t necessary, as everyone is going to be shooting and reviving throughout the campaign.
I didn’t spend much time playing the adversarial mode, as the campaign was quite enough for me. I’m not even certain why this mode even exists as I can’t fathom how much time was spent creating the deathmatch, free for all, and capture the flag modes. When you are playing in the most saturated genre of games, you have to do something different or spend a ton of money to polish the hell out of your game. Unfortunately I was also the victim of some bad checkpointing that had me replaying sequences that I had previously completed. I’m not saying that it would have saved Scourge: Outbreak but cutting the multiplayer fat and spending time polishing the campaign wouldn’t have been a bad idea.
I’m not certain what Trangnarion Studios did for the last 3 years but they didn’t polish up the graphics on level 3. I applaud their effort to make a game of this scale, but their time would have been used more wisely doing something a little less ambitious than Scourge: Outbreak. There is no reason to play this game because it is flawed in all the main areas a shooter needs to succeed.
The Co-Optimus review of Scourge: Outbreak is based on the XBLA version of the game. Codes for review were supplied by the developer.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Players team up for the game's campaign, each taken a role as a different character. Character abilities differ slightly and cut scenes are specific to a character's viewpoint.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.