Outbreak: The New Nightmare is a survival horror game in the vein of the old-style Resident Evil games. A sequel to 2017’s Outbreak, the game has been out on steam since 2018. Now, it’s finally available to PS4 owners.
Since its launch on Steam, the game has received a massive number of improvements, including:
- Local split-screen co-op (vertical or horizontal)
- Huge performance and graphics improvements (FPS, memory usage, real-time shadows and lighting, volumetric lighting, and more)
- New scenarios/game content
- New characters (Elena and Hank)
- Nightmare difficulty mode
- Radical weapon rebalancing (handguns/shotguns heavily buffed, random enemy spawns extremely reduced on Normal and Hard modes, hit detection from enemies greatly improved – and power weapons spawn in much earlier waves in Onslaught mode)
- Improved animations
- New weapon (DMR)
- Enemy pathfinding/AI improvements (e.g., enemies don’t attack through doors – opening them instead)
The Outbreak project has basically been a love letter to the survival horror games of yesteryear. The series developer, Dead Drop Studios, has gone on record to say:
Retro survival horror games don’t really get made any more. The recent Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 remakes are the closest we’ve come. Games like Resident Evil: Outbreak weren’t made at all … at least not until now! I happen to love retro/classic games and survival horror games in particular, so I knew there was a market for this type of unforgiving, hard-as-nails experience. That’s the genesis of the first Outbreak (originally a top-down 2D game) and now Outbreak: The New Nightmare.
As fans of the old Resident Evil games (and of survival horror in general), this really does seem like it might be up our alley.
You can check out the PS4 release trailer below.
