Take one squad of fighting men, mix in a little strategy and throw the might of the Nazi war machine at them and what do you get, a unique blend of third person war action called ‘The Outfit’ but with so many war games out there, can ‘The Outfit’ survive or will it be mothballed.

Gameplay:

To take charge of your ‘Outfit’, you are first given a choice to choose which one of the three main characters who will lead a merry pack of soldiers through the stench of battle. Each of them have their strengths and weaknesses and it is up to you which one you think is most suited to the task at hand - the wanton destruction of everything in sight. Capt. Deuce Williams is the leader of ‘The Outfit’ and comes equipped with a bazooka and pistol. One could say he is the all round character, not weak in any particular attribute but can purchase all the items from the ‘destruction-on-demand’ (explanation to follow) list cheaper than the other two. Sgt. Thomas ‘Mac’ MacIntyre is the muscle of the team; he’s big and carries a sub-machine gun for long range and a nice flamethrower to toast the enemy at close range. Being the strongest means he has the greatest health and armour but it is his speed that suffers. Lt. J.D.Tyler, perhaps the weakest character out of the three as he has hardly any health but his speed and stamina are maxed which means it will be hard for the enemy to kill him if they can’t catch him. JD is equipped with the sniper rifle and the best close quarters weapon in my opinion – a trench shotgun. So there you have it, 3 totally different characters but all with one purpose, to bring destruction and mayhem to the Nazis.

There are 12 missions within the single-player campaign, each one of them being very linear meaning you don’t need to be a boy scout to work out which direction you need to go to complete the next objective and just in case you don’t bother reading the instructions (like most gamers including myself), the first mission doubles up as a tutorial introducing you to the unique ‘Destruction-On-Demand’ (DOD) feature. D.O.D brings a strategic feel to the game as you must spend valuable field units on purchasing vehicles, guns, troops and air strikes from within this menu to assist you in defeating the Nazis. Field Units are given when you kill or destroy an enemy soldier, vehicle or building. Unfortunately not every item is available immediately at the start of the mission so in order to activate them you must capture the motor pool, armoury and radio tower. Of course you don’t have to capture these enemy bases but it will make your life easier if you do as you are rewarded with the option to purchase tanks, anti-aircraft guns and air-strikes. The D.O.D. menu is easily accessed for you to make your purchase, all done within real time, so be careful because the enemy will stop shooting at you just because you want to airlift in a tank.

As well as running from one objective to another, you are able to drive the vehicles plus if you have a full squad with you, than you can also use whatever weaponry attached to it, for example most tanks have a machine gun to compliment its tank shells. Unfortunately this is where I think the game could have been slightly better; you see most of the scenery is destructible allowing your vehicle to drive over or through it but in some cases, your vehicle is stopped dead in its tracks by what looks like a big stone. It doesn’t make sense that my tank I’m controlling will go through a wall but be stopped by a pebble, which in turn loses me precious time and health as I try to reverse out of my predicament. Don’t get me wrong, I like the driving aspect of the game but it can be annoying and frustrating. Another downside to this game is the aiming (except with the sniper rifle), one would think that if I fired a bazooka at the enemy and it seemed to hit the ground in front of them, that they would die or fall over considering that would happen when a vehicle blows up near them. You have to hit something bang on for it to be affected and the aiming is not very accurate. It might be that Relic decided for a more realistic feel to the game and decided that not everything shoots where you aim. Frustration sinks in when it takes several attempts to shoot a tank with an anti-tank gun for it to finally hit its target.

What makes a nice change is that there are several multiplayer modes which improve and enhance the single player game experience even though it’s still using the same gameplay. You are able to play co-op missions online or system-link which I found personally real fun especially when both players are occupying the same vehicle because depending on where they enter the vehicle will determine if they are driving or shooting the guns (chaos and mayhem shortly followed). Moving on, you have your basic deathmatch, Destruction and Strategic Victory (a capture the territory game) via LIVE, all can be played head-to-head, two-on-two and even three-on-three.

Graphics:

Being a 360 title, one would expect nothing but the best in animation, scenery and graphics but this must be the first title in my opinion that has failed to deliver. Unless you are playing on a HD T.V. which in my case I’m not, the graphics look nice but blocky with very little animation. The messages that are there to help you and let you know what is going on are unreadable unless you are playing on a 50” plus T.V. (I play on a 35”). In fact, the game could pass off as a really good Xbox title but not a 360. This is a title that really leans towards HD. Nearly everything is destructible but it’s the small touches that make a good game truly great and this something special is missing from ‘The Outfit’.

Sound:

The usual array of explosive sounds that you would associate with any war game are present including chit chat between the soldiers which after awhile (in fact 20 seconds) gets really boring and you end up not caring what they say. The French and German accents are dire but work in a cheesy kind of way.

Longevity:

Twelve single player missions will last you about 10 hours with an additional 1 or 2 hours if you decide to hunt for the hidden objectives scattered though out the missions. The Co-Op is great fun and requires a little bit more strategy but will last a lot longer considering you might have already played the mission by yourself. Xbox LIVE is where the game truly succeeds in bringing death and destruction with a strategic feel thrown in for good measure.

Overall:

Is the game worth the money? In my opinion, it is a must-rent title because it is a unique game for the 360 and will be a welcome break from all of the 1st person shoot-em ups. Overall, ‘The Outfit’ has some fine qualities in the way of the D.O.D. but fail in some of the simpler areas like controlling the vehicles. Try before you buy.

For further information on The Outfit click here