Reviewing Monsters - Resident Evil Outbreak

 Resident Evil Outbreak (2003); Resident Evil Outbreak: File #2 (2004)

Our next couple of games are also another two that the makers of the franchise try to pretend didn't happen. I think the two Outbreak games suffers more from the fact that they were released roughly a decade earlier than when they would've otherwise be popular. Where the Survivor series had their gimmick on a console accessory, the Outbreak games had their gimmick on online multiplayer gameplay... which, in 2002, was more of a novelty gimmick. I still personally think that online multiplayer gameplay is still a novelty gimmick for the majority of games out there that are not explicitly designed with it in mind, but at least modern games have functional online multiplayer. 

Anyway, the story of the two Outbreak games basically take place in the backstory of the huge Raccoon City outbreak (duh) that took place in Resident Evil 2 and 3, focusing on a selection of survivors that meet up in a bar and have to band together to survive. Somehow, they manage to enter Birkin's underground lab, find themselves onto a case carrying the G-Virus, and visiting the hospital in RE:3, a nearby hotel and Raccoon University as they are chased by Umbrella agents. Ultimately Outbreak has 40 different endings depending on choices you make and which characters you pick for each stage. Outbreak 2 brings the survivors to previously-unseen parts of Raccoon City, including Raccoon City's zoo, the subway, a nearby abandoned hospital, Raccoon City Police Department, and ultimately trying to escape before the nuclear bombardment. 

RETURNING ENEMIES:

We're talking about monsters, and returning from previous games are the regular zombie, the zombie dog, Crows, Neptune, Giant Moth, Lickers, Giant Spiders, Giant Alligators, Wasps, Hunter Gammas, G-Adults and a couple 'special' zombies like an 'Axe Man' that doesn't really give me much to talk about.

Hunter R & Hunter μ

Yet another Hunter Alpha variant that doesn't use a Greek alphabet name is the MA-125 Hunter R, a modified version that's a lot lanker than its predecessor. We've got the Hunter II, Hunter Elite, Sweeper, technically Hunter Beta... and now we get perhaps one of the most visually distinct variation that still keeps the same 'green, scaled lizard-man' vibe of the Hunter Alpha. Hunter R here is a lot more lanky and athletic-looking, and I do like that grin on his face and the smooth skin of its lower arms. As you can probably expect, these are faster but a lot less durable. I actually like this, even if its proportions are admittedly a bit more humanoid (and therefore more boring) than the basic Alpha mold. Not too much to say here, Hunter R is a pretty cool looking variant. Apparently they were killed in-universe when someone messed with temperature controls, freezing all the Hunter R's.

That picture on the right is actually a Hunter with a Greek letter! Hunter μ (myu) is named so because it's a smaller version of Hunter R, a Hunter 'micro' if you will, since μ is basically synonymous with micro in scientific jargon. Not very interesting, but I really do like the fun usage of the name. 

T-Virus Leech & Leech Man

So the T-Virus got into a bunch of leeches in Raccoon City's sewers, but didn't mutate them like they did with the Progenitor Virus. It's either a bit of a continuity error with Resident Evil 0 or maybe the leech biology just reacts very differently with just how these viruses are introduced to them? These T-Virus Leeches look identical to regular leeches, but they can swarm over a human body and turn them into a 'Leech Man' to move their whole colony. So maybe they already have the hive mentality down, and they just haven't transformed into their purple slug-like brethren? I'm still not really certain just why the Resident Evil franchise loves the 'leech colony' trope so much.

Apparently, this particular colony of leeches were created out of the Raccoon City hospital's supply of medicinal leeches, and this entire mass have used the body of a poor doctor to move around ventilation shafts and stalk survivors. Hilariously, you can actually distract the Leech Man by tossing around blood packs around. Pretty cool!

Zombie Lion

So a level in this game is the Raccoon City zoo, and this basically allowed the designers to toss in a bunch of zombie animals for you to kill. There really isn't much to say here about the zombie lion pride, there is a male and three female lions that roam around the zoo after being infected by the T-Virus. They sure are lion with zombie bits!

Zombie Hyena

Ditto for these zombie spotted hyenas, although it's notable that the model for the zombie hyenas doesn't quite 'zombify' them as much as the lions or the zombie dogs. They are pack hunters, and I can see the game designers just putting a skin over the zombie dog model and calling it a day. Not that I'm complaining, though, it's these sort of 'reskinning' that I am absolutely fine with, actually making a significantly different-looking creature that has an excuse of moving similarly to something else. 

Hornbill

The infected zoo idea is perhaps kind of too 'silly', which is why no other Resident Evil game have revisited it after Outbreak... not even as a 'oh no, the animal specimens got loose' kind of thing. Still, in-between the obviously scary animals like lions and hyenas, I do absolutely love that apparently the Raccoon City Zoo's population of hornbills have also taken to stabbing people with their big-ass beaks. Hornbills actually do look like they should be dangerous with that massive beaks, although the actual animals are very docile. Interestingly, the hornbills look basically identical to an uninfected hornbill (lump of human flesh in their bloody beak aside). Is there just something about bird physiology that makes these crows and hornbills not transform too much physically?

Scissor Tails

Okay, that's an interesting one! The token insect monster of this one is based on an earwig, and one with a pretty lovely gravel-like texture to it. Earwigs are, I feel, insects that are recognizable enough to the general public but so under-used as a fantasy monster. I don't think even Pokemon or Digimon have ever had an earwig-based monster. I guess they're neither 'gross' or 'dangerous' enough to jump to mind as a bug monster? They don't actually do too much with Scissor Tails here, though -- there are two variants, with brown ones being just big scary monsters, while blue ones have an an added extra 'poison sting' attack to the earwig's cerci-pincers. Real earwigs do use their butt-fangs to catch prey or defend themselves, but they are certainly not poisonous. I am delighted to see earwigs as monsters, but on the other hand... I kinda wished that they did more? I'm all for representing the animal kingdom as bioweapons, but at least have them do something interesting. 

Mega Bite & Giga Bite

I would split these two up, since "Giga Bite" is a boss... but Giga Bite is literally just a larger Mega Bite with no alterations and there isn't even a good screenshot of her online. Anyway... how about those names, huh? Mega Bite and Giga Bite? Hee hee hee. Fleas are another arthropod that I don't see being utilized as monsters in video games enough. I think it's that face, I don't think anyone can take those flea faces seriously. Again, though, there's really not much to talk about the fleas here other than them being giant fleas. The Giga Bite is also a 'queen', shoving yet another eusocial behaviour to these creatures that really had nothing to do with them. If they had wanted a 'boss' for the fleas, wouldn't a host animal be more suitable? 

Flying Bug (a.k.a. Swarm) / Rafflesia

See, this is how you adapt one of these weird real-life creatures into a video game monster. The Rafflesia itself is stationary, and just slightly larger than its real-life counterparts. However, the Rafflesia flower is blocking your path to a plot-mandated part of the game, and your characters are forced to destroy it to proceed. However, the Rafflesia is protected by a swarm of Flying Bugs (alternatively called "Swarm" in some localizations) which would go berserk when you blow up their little feeding ground. The Flying Bugs themselves are just generic flies or something. Not the most spectacular enemy here, but a fun one nonetheless. 

Green Zombie

Y'know, both versions of RE:2's Ivy monster were visually much more impressive than this one, but I absolutely find this plant zombie to be hilarious simply because he's wearing his parasitic plant like a hat. The Green Zombies here are all unfortunate humans that were parasitized by a 'mother plant', similar to the concept that would be used for Plant 43/the Ivy Zombies in the Resident Evil 2 remake. They're basically similar to regular zombies, just with an added 'poison fog' attack. Neat. 

Tyrant C

Only seen in the multiplayer modes, Tyrant C is just another variant and an excuse to have Mr. X copycats run around the multiplayer map. It sure has a bunch of little horns on his head, and apparently it has 'elasticated arms', although it's noticeably a lot more fragile. Eh.  

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Bosses:

G-Mutant
So the original Resident Evil 2 only had a single 'G-Adult' miniboss that were born out of a non-Birkin host. The remake expanded on this, showing that "G" has created a whole colony of genetically-incompatible G-Adults in the sewers. But when Outbreak was made, I think the concept they were working off of is that each individual 'imperfect' G-Adult looked different, and, well, the main characters of Outbreak apparently fought another such G-Mutant. This one is a fun variation of the original concept, although Outbreak's G-Adult retains most of his humanoid proportions and just instead carries huge slabs of nasty tumorous flesh in a combination of a huge tumour backpack and a tail. Got to have that creepy eyeball on the bubbly tumour-backpack, too, and I really like that the entire upper half of his face is just covered with mutated... bone? 

Regardless, I do really like just how different the G-mutants actually are from each other -- sure, it's impractical for the RE:2 remake to have different individual-looking unique G-mutants, but I really do like that between each of the different games that portray them, each G-mutant looks different while keeping the same 'one giant eye in a part of their body' aesthetic. Like the CGI movie-exclusive Curtis Miller here, who I probably won't cover in any of these reviews, but look at that gangly G-mutant!

Giant Leech

The source of the "Leech Man" and a swarm of other smaller leeches in a hospital level is a Giant Leech, and this is a pretty lovely bloated regular leech with some extra spikes, the size of a boat and... okay, that's still a lamprey mouth, but that's still a pretty nasty-looking mouth. Interestingly, the Giant Leech here is noted to be the 'queen' of the colony, which is terribly wrong for actual leech biology but actually consistent with the Progenitor Leeches in Resident Evil Zero. Not much to say here, it sure is a cool giant leech. 

Suspended

Less of a boss and more of a memorable little unique enemy, this Suspended is a lady who hangs down from the ceiling, able to stick onto the ceiling with her legs and attack the survivors with her angry hands and her tongue. It's theorized to either be a unique version of a Licker, or maybe a regular zombie in the process of transforming into a Licker, which is very, very cool in addition to the idea of some contortionist zombie jumping down on you from the ceiling being pretty nasty. In-game, the Suspended is actually stronger than Lickers and will actually call them to help out, so it seems that she might actually be a stronger variant. 

Thanatos

One of the final bosses in the first Outbreak game is "Thanatos", a uniquely powerful tyrant. He's African-American, which is actually a rarity among any 'boss' monsters in Resident Evil, at least until we get to Africa in RE5. Thanatos here is created by rogue Umbrella scientist Greg Muller, who wanted a Tyrant... "optimized for killing"? Like the Super Tyrant from Resident Evil 2 wasn't optimized for killing enough? I do like that the 'basic' form of Thanatos looks so human, though. Like, this is just a human with an exposed heart and slightly more monstrous claws, giving us the same uncanny valley vibe that Mr. X so effectively conveys. 

Tyrants are gonna Tyrant, though, so as you fight him he ultimately loses one arm, turns the other into a huge stabby claw, has extra muscles and is extra-angry. At this point I'm kind of numb with all of these Tyrants, and the story behind Thanatos isn't exactly particularly interesting. This form is called "Thanatos R",  with R standing for Reborn. 

Zombie Elephant

Outbreak 2's zoo stage ends with you fighting Oscar the Elephant, the star attraction of Raccoon City Zoo. Rampaging elephants are actually pretty terrifying in real life, and Oscar here actually has a nastily downward-pointing mutant tusks and tattered ears. I actually find it pretty cool that it's the elephant that the designers of Outbreak used as a boss instead of the lion or some kind of predatory animal. If the wiki descriptions are to be used, Oscar is apparently also pretty freaking cunning, collapsing the entrance to trap the survivors in the zoo. The fact that this elephant is also actively trying to eat the humans might be just that extra bit that is needed to push it into 'well, this scary' territory.

Huge Plant & Evil Shade

Here is the source of all the weird zombies that the survivors found around the abandoned hospital zone, so it's probably a different hospital than the one Carlos and Jill ran around in Resident Evil 3. You first see these 'Huge Plant' monsters, which are just huge weirdo flowers that spray poison around, but turns out that they are just part of the central plant monster, the "Evil Shade". There's a whole story about how this Evil Shade had consumed the corpse of some lady called Dorothy, and his insane husband, one of the main villains here, kept feeding corpses to the plant, thinking that the plant is the reincarnation of his wife. I to like that 'central' plant that is just this giant tumorous bulb encrusted with little seeds and giant vines bursting out of it. Nothing particularly new in the franchise, but certainly one of the cooler monster plants to come out from it. 

Tyrant R (Code T-0400TP)

It's a bit stretching it to say that Thanatos, Mr. X, Nemesis and maybe one or two other Tyrant-style enemies were running around Raccoon City all at the same time, but Outbreak 2 gives us yet another Tyrant. Tyrant R's human form isn't even trying to hide that it's a copy of T-103 "Mr. X", and it's explicitly a creature from that program. Apparently Tyrant R's specialty is that it's actually a fair bit more intelligent and durable. It somehow developed self-awareness, killing its handlers (who attempted to use it to take out the escaped Hunter R population). Tyrant R basically pursues our survivors before mutating into a version of Mr. X's original super-mode, which is just a huge hulking spiky man with spiky hands. It's pretty cool, I'll give you that, but I definitely think that at this point we're pretty Tyrant-ed out.

Nyx

Far, far cooler is when Tyrant R's super form gets straight-up eaten by a completely different bioweapon, Nyx! Nyx here is actually an amoeba monster, or at least a bioweapon that's based on one. We've never actually seen any bioweapon like it, and by the time our survivors faced it, Nyx has assimilated so many random corpses (and Tyrant R) into its body that I think the idea is that it's trying to assume a humanoid form because it's consumed so many humans. I love that Nyx's legs is so mismatched, with his right leg having a second smaller leg jutting out of it. Its head is just this huge wibbly-wobbly mass of blobby goop, and its right arm is just a giant club made out of like a dozen corpses that Nyx has absorbed. The gameplay element here is to get Nyx to expose its 'nucleus', which is hidden in that puckered-looking part of its chest. Also, yeah, its head also kind of looks like a ding-dong. Not my favourite enemy design, but at least it's not another Tyrant! 

The original concept for Nyx also had him absorb Tyrant R, but had it use the more, more boring way of just Nyx using the Tyrant's own head as its own. This way, showing the Tyrant half-merged with Nyx's body, is far, far more unsettling and memorable! I do like that this game's final flesh-glob boss is actually meant to be a flesh-glob. 

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Not actually the strongest Resident Evil game in terms of monsters, but at least we did get a bunch of fun zombie animals and some neat enemy variations from it.