Venom. Codename: Outbreak

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3.8/5

( 36 Reviews )

3.8

36 Reviews

English & 5 more

Overall most helpful review

Posted on: June 25, 2015

GilesHabibula

Verified owner

Games: 1350 Reviews: 9

Retro Goodness

I bought this game when it was first released back in 2001 at our local Software Etc. It came in a simple small cardboard box, had decent artwork on the cover (if a little vague), and was published here in the USA as just plain "Codename: Outbreak" by Virgin Interactive as part of their short-lived "Anytime Anywhere 20 Bucks" series. The game came in a cheap (but unique) plastic case inside the box, with nothing else. No paper manual, or warranty card or anything. Just the CD in the case in the box, for $19.99. This was the FPS of that series (which I believe only ever contained three other games from different genres. I had no idea who GSC Game World was at the time, little realizing that they would go on to create quite possibly my favorite FPS series ever. This ran really well, and I had a lot of fun with it. It was nothing groundbreaking, but plenty interesting enough to hold my attention the whole way through. I finished it pretty quickly (in a few sittings), but it was a pretty long game by today's standards. If you go into this expecting modern graphics, you are visiting the wrong website. However, I feel that the graphics hold up pretty well, all things considered. Then again, I am pretty easy to please when it comes to graphics. I am more concerned with atmosphere and level design. The former is great, and the latter is just good. The AI was not stellar, but it got the job done, and I had a blast with this game overall. Accept this game on its own terms, and in the spirit of the times, and I believe that you will have as much fun as I did. But again, if you are in no way nostalgic, you might want to stick with newer games. However, I believe most of us here at gog do have a place in our hearts for games like this. Nostalgia is one of the main reasons I'm here, so this game fits in nicely with my gog collection. I hope you can manage to enjoy it as much as I did.

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Posted on: March 4, 2023

cruster

Verified owner

Games: 237 Reviews: 1

Fabulous and atmospheric

I played this long ago and was delighted to find it again on GOG. It's an atmospheric FPS with large sprawling levels. It encourages thinking and being stealthy rather than rushing in gungho with all guns blazing. The voice acting is a little "cheesy" but lends a charm to the overall game. It works perfectly on Win 10 once you tweak a couple of items in the games "game.ini" file. First of set the textures to TextureFormat1=32 0 0 0 65 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 32 0 0 0 0 0 255 0 0 255 0 0 255 0 0 0 0 0 0 255 TextureFormat2=32 0 0 0 65 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 32 0 0 0 0 0 255 0 0 255 0 0 255 0 0 0 0 0 0 255 you can also set "NoFog=1" to increase the view distance. Next, delete (or better still rename) winmm.dll to winmm.dll_OLD That's it! Enjoy! :-)

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Posted on: June 24, 2015

the-GURU-man

Games: 494 Reviews: 1

Guilty pleasure

Oh, sweet memories. This game looked like shit even when it came out - IIRC it was designed for TNT2 GPUs - so no wonder if you think it looks terrible. It plays a little better, quite simple, quite dumb, but CSC was onto something. They were learning how to program the "best AI" and your CPU controlled partner on missions was supposed to have the most advanced AI ever created. In reality, the soldiers were pretty stupid and your partner somehow always managed to get stuck somewhere or do something dumb, but it was part of the charm. If you want something little bit open world, little bit stupid, very much "budgety" and much less scripted than current games, this is something for you. For me, this is a guilty pleasure and I play it with nostalgia glasses on.

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Posted on: June 25, 2015

npocmaka

Verified owner

Games: 326 Reviews: 4

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s daddy

For me the most interesting thing in this game is its developer - the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (my all time favorite) creators.You can see a lot of ideas here that later were polished in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games .Not a bad game but S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s are far more better.

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Posted on: December 27, 2016

silencedNXK

Verified owner

Games: 182 Reviews: 1

One of the view ...

When I think back to 2001/2002, when the game was released, well, it was just the beginning of online gaming. Yes I know, shooter have been out since quite some while with deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag and so on, but something was missing: CoOp. In the same year: System Shock 2 was released, with a GREAT coop multiplayer patch right after release. And then, there was this little jewel. Single player was already good, but CoOp was where it truly became a great game. You could setup ambushes, coordinate with your friend, you could even have a monitor active showing you your partner's field of view. That was groundbreaking back in the time. Though, yes, it had a really big impact on performance back then, but it was FUN. Real Fun. My friend and me had a lot of fun, and there are quite a few moments I can still recall when I think back. Another thing is: Even in single player you can control both soldiers, with orders how to react. Can lead to fun situations aswell and bring in a big surprise for the AI. It's fun playing around with the possibilties, since the AI for the companion is not that bad actually. No matter where in the game you were, you had that feeling that death is around every corner. And it was. If you like slow paced action, tactical approach, scouting first, acting later: this may be for you. I'll definitely will sink a few more hours into this one.

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