the ad lib system is awesome, it's not flawless, but it kept the players in character using the character voices,
and had its uses which a lot of groups benefitted from. eventually, players understood the scenarios enough
that communication really isn't required to succeed.
Outbreak was ahead of its time (HDD made loading 100% faster)
if those games released on PS3 or especially PS4, there would be a huge fanbase and demand for its own series.
not sure but don't think even capcom unity was around when Outbreak released, most people just had REfan
to talk about it, so it only reached cult classic status.
Also Outbreak did support keyboard for the lobbies, I used usb keyboard for the lobby text chat window, so people
can actually plan things beforehand and let teammates know what they will do in the session (this did make things
like Decisions, Decisions more organized.)
lol "another typical entry into Resident Evil franchise" my arse. it just goes to show how clueless industry analysts out there really are. Just as Phantasy Star Online revolutionized Phantasy Star and console ORPGs, Resident Evil Outbreak revolutionized survival horror and RE games in the best ways.
Way more hardcore, more variety, more depth, and simulates zombie outbreak much more than action hero the direction RE4 went. And Outbreak 2 introduced move and aim/shoot to the series long before Operation Raccoon City and RE6 did.
I'm also a huge Resident Evil fan, and I think a large part of what killed Outbreak for me was that it was a PS2 exclusive, and it wasn't advertised all that well. I remember at the time I saw like one article on IGN about Outbreak. I clicked on it to check it out, and they pretty much just bashed the game, so I wrote it off as another Dead Aim-like spinoff that nobody cared about. Plus I didn't own a PS2, so that kinda killed it for me too. GameCube was the Resident Evil console, so I just never bothered. To this day I have never played Outbreak, and hardly ever heard anyone even talk about it. Maybe once cell phones can run a PS2 emulator I'll check it out, assuming the game even works in single player.