Publisher: THQ

Developer: Relic

Release Date: March 1, 2006

Genre: Action

ESRB: (RP) Rating Pending

Available for: 360

Q: What were some of your inspirations/influences for The Outfit?

A: Obviously Battlefield and Battlefront were games we played a lot of, but we had plenty of non-videogame influences as well. The over the top action of Predator or any Jerry Bruckheimer film, for instance. In the comic book realm, Sergeant Rock was something we looked at as well. I wouldn’t say we set out to copy any of those things though - we just adopted their balls-out action and made sure we focused on fun first.

Q: What will gamers find most exciting about the game? What makes The Outfit stand out from other army-based video games?

A: I’m most psyched about our Destruction on Demand. The ability to call in anything at any time - vehicles, troops, machine gun emplacements, air strikes, etc. We’ve found that Destruction on Demand mixed with a killer online multiplayer component really puts The Outfit in a league of its own. We’re much more fast-paced, frenetic and fun-focused than other military games and our feature set backs up that philosophy.

Q: With all of the WWII simulation games out there, I'm glad to see someone do an arcade-style WWII game. What new features have been implemented to retain historical facts, but make it more fun for the gamer?

A: There was a point very early on in our game’s development where we agonized over how to deliver new weapons and vehicles to the player. Initial concepts revolved around vehicles driving out into the action to deliver stuff to you or you being forced to return to an armory or motor pool to pick stuff up. Then someone suggested everything just parachuting in from planes. For a split-second we all thought, "but that’s not real!" - before realizing that it was really cool and we had to do it.

That’s the approach we’ve taken throughout the game. To err on the side of what’s cool. Everything in the game is real - i.e. all the weapons really existed. But we may have stretched some in some places. Like they had bazookas and they had 4x4s, but they probably didn’t have bazookas mounted on 4x4s. But that’s pretty cool, so you can order a Bazooka 4x4 in The Outfit.

Q: How has your previous experience developing in the RTS genre helped you transition into the 3rd person war game genre?

A: First of all, The Outfit team is mostly made up of huge console gamers and developers. So our pedigree is console development primarily. But because we’ve developed The Outfit within Relic - a studio renowned for its RTS work - we were able to infuse the Destruction on Demand aspect of our gameplay with an incredible amount of depth. Every item you can purchase via Destruction on Demand has been tuned separately and competitively to ensure it fulfills a unique role in the product. It’s that depth, coupled with the unique squad commands of the heroes and the different hero abilities that hints at the depth of player choice you usually find in an RTS.

Posted: February 17, 2006