Outtrigger
System:
Dreamcast
Publisher: Sega
Developer: AM2
Released: July 2001
Genre:
1st/3rd Person Shooter
Capabilities: VMU, Jump Pack, VGA Cord, Mouse,
Keyboard, Modem, Online Play
Compatible
Review Written: October 5, 2002
The Game
When I found out that Sega was making their online gaming service for Dreamcast free again for the rest of 2002, I was a bit ecstatic. I remember countless rounds of playing online games like NBA & NFL 2K1, and Unreal Tournament. Not to much of my surprise, nobody was playing the outdated sports games anymore, so I decided to go out and get some of the newer online games. Outtrigger caught my attention, so I decided to give it a try. It’s a multi-perspective shooter, much like Jet Force Jemini on the Nintendo 64.
Story
This is just your usual, uninspired crap for a shooter. For this one, members of some special group with a flashy name (International Counter-terrorism Force) unite in order to take down the next big threat to humanity. Not the greatest stuff out there, heck, I can come up with a better story!
Graphics
I’m a bit unimpressed in this area. I feel a lot more could have been done. Everything kind of feels half-assed. There are barely any animations for the guns when they fire, some of them don’t have animations at all! Outtrigger boasts some of the slickest models for their weapons designs. The character models look all right, but they could be so much better. You can easily make out the heroes and villains, but all the models look a bit “generic.” Ninja outfits for the bad guys, vests & jeans for the heroes. This isn’t much to brag about. The stages are one of the brighter parts for the graphics. You’ll be dueling in coliseums, mansions, courtyards, and other various locations. Most of these arenas are well done, and are on par with most other games. Outtrigger runs at a fast frame rate, with barely any slowdown at all. The loading times are about seven or eight seconds long, and they tend to drag on a bit.
Sound
Sega really enjoys giving us awkward background music at most times. They carry on the tradition here, with some weird techno track that sounds like it came from the movie, Hackers. There is a very odd, deep voice that introduces the game, and states how you’re doing during missions. He gets annoying right away, but like most other crappy announcers, you’ll get use to him. Most of the sound effects for the gunfire, explosions, and everything else are well done, and are how you expect them to sound.
Game play
The controls have got to be the worst part of this game. They aren’t customizable at all, but there are over a dozen presets for you to choose from. These range from classic Turok-style of controls, all the way to moving with the L and R triggers. However, there isn’t one option that allows you to move with the control stick! The preset I hated the least was moving the control pad, and aiming the camera with the control stick. It was the only one that came about halfway to my preferred style. Sega could’ve at least made the controls customizable, but they decided not to. So unless you prefer these odd presets, you’ll be in for a lot of trouble.
I thought there would be some kind of story based game for the main single player mode, but there wasn’t. There were a lot of training missions to complete where you have to complete specific challenges such as picking up so many tokens in a given amount of time. Once I completed these training missions, I went into the “mission mode.” I expected to see a storyline of events detailing the background of this game. Instead, it was just more challenges to do. There were three levels of difficulty, each containing about a dozen challenges to complete. What I want to know is why there wasn’t a story involved in the game. I’m guessing the developers at AM2 wanted to torture us.
The multi player in Outtrigger is what you’ll be playing the most. Up to four people on one Dreamcast can go against each other in split screen play. There are none of the popular multi player modes in here such as tag, capture the flag, or king of the hill. The only option in here is “points battle”. You get a point for every kill you get, then a token pops up where you got the kill, and if you grab that, then you receive another point. Whoever gets to a given amount of points first, wins.
The online play runs smooth over the 56k modem, and I didn’t notice much lag at all. You can have up to six people playing at once. I realize this game was already a year old, and that Sega probably lost a lot of its user base when they started charging for online Dreamcast games. I was expecting at least 15 to 20 people playing when I got to the lobby. That wasn’t the case when I got there, because only one other person was playing. A few others joined and we got four people playing online. It ran great and I had a blast, but I wish more people were playing online. That was the case for the other times I went online with this game.
Replay Value
The versus and online play modes is what will keep you playing Outtrigger. You can spend a while completing all the missions, but all that does is unlock a few other people to choose from to play the game with. You can create your own profile; I wish this feature had a bit more depth to it. All do is pick a costume, control settings, and enter your initials. If there was some sort of stat tracking like in Perfect Dark and Timesplitter, I’d be very pleased. A map editor would’ve been nice too, but maybe I’m asking too much since there is no main story mode to play!
In Brief
+: Four player versus mode, online play
-: No main story mode, Barely anyone is in the online lobbies, Profiles could’ve had more depth
The Final Ratings Rundown
Graphics: 7.2
Sound: 6.5
Game play: 5.6
Replay Value: 4.8
Overall: 6.0
Rounded to fit GameFAQs Score: 6
Comments
Outtrigger could’ve been a great game, but it ended up with too many rough edges. The online play is fun if you can get enough people going, and the missions are all right, but I’d prefer playing more of a story based mode that most other games have. This game does have some great split screen modes, so if you’re into the multi player part, you might want to check this out. Otherwise, you’d be better off not getting this one.