The Outfit FAQ and Online Chat

[ceejayoz]

This is a placeholder thread for The Outfit FAQ.

Known information

Developer: Relic Entertainment
Publisher: THQ

Platform: Xbox 360

Release Date: Winter 2005

Genre: Action

Setting: World War 2

Official Website:
www.theoutfitgame.com (http://www.theoutfitgame.com)

Screenshots:
(click to enlarge)
http://relicuniverse.com/images/the_outfit.jpg (http://uberjumper.hwcommunity.com/images/theoutfit/THQ-THE-OUTFIT.jpg)

Published Articles:
Press Release (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050516/lam074.html)

Here's a list of Relic people known to be working on The Outfit, as revealed by either them, or by each other.

Producer = Adrian Crook
Assistant Producer = Geoff Thomas
Art Director = Dave Cheong
Lead Designer = Jeff Brown (Soupy).
Lead Programmer = Stéphane Morichére-Matte (motte on forums was his last account).

[ceejayoz]

If you're interested in chatting with others anxiously awaiting Company of Heroes, join us on IRC!

If you've already got an IRC client, connect to irc.hwcommunity.com #theoutfit (irc://irc.hwcommunity.com/theoutfit)

If you need an IRC client, you can get one for Windows at http://www.mirc.com/, or you can use RelicUniverse (http://relicuniverse.com/)'s web-based IRC at http://relicuniverse.com/irc/.
(just pick "#theoutfit" from the list of channels... and make sure you change your username to your Relic Boards nick so we know who you are!)
If you'd like to talk to others in the Relic Community, the community chat channel is #homeworld - just type "/join #homeworld" in your IRC window.

See you in the chat!

[ceejayoz]

Storyline


Relic's game is set in fictional World War II. The single-player campaign enables players to control the American-led Allies using a "hero" and two squads of four soldiers. Relic is placing high importance on both the single- and multi-player aspects of the game, knowing that a story and compelling single-player campaign is what many console players want. Players have medal opportunities, objectives to meet, and have a huge variety of options at their fingertips from calling in infantry, commanding vehicles, or sending out scouts. There are multiple paths in every level, a tech tree enabling players to enhance and boost their vehicles, and a hero system that enables you to switch from squad to squad as well to switch from any race or hero at will.

Unlike the over-done sub-genre of authentic World War II first-person shooters, The Outfit is loosely based in World War II. It's got a fictional storyline with over-the-top characters, abilities, and actions. Parachuting into the countryside of France, your squads head into a town, confronts light opposition, and wanders into a church. To their surprise, the cathedral is filled with the slaughtered bodies of innocent civilians. A priest, who managed to live through the killing, informs you the killers headed to the next town. For the next 12 days in September, you will experience a game unlike anything you've seen or played before.

- http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/614/614374p1.html

Gameplay


"The Outfit contains RTS elements, but it's by no means a real-time-strategy game," Brown explains. "Using field-level strategy and a huge amount of player options, you earn Action Points (the game's currency) not by harvesting or mining from a set area, but by heading straight into action."

By transforming the resource-gathering notion into a purely action element, Relic enables you to reap rewards by lunging into action, with each kill earning Action Points; even taking enemy fire gives you a few. With enough points earned, you can call in troops, tanks, half-tracks, jeeps, and perhaps even a zeppelin, which appear so quickly on the field it's both shocking and comical. By eliminating the often laborious process of resource-gathering, Relic is creating a fast-paced game in which the deciding factor of the battle isn't based on whether the mine is still functioning or the forest is still around, it centers on pure, unadulterated combat.

- http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/614/614374p1.html

Multiplayer


While the single-player campaign is filled with objectives, medals, and storyline, the multiplayer game promises to keep Xbox Live fans riveted. Like the single-player game, players take on a team of four with a squad pitted against another team of four (with its squad), and they'll be able to pick all of the same options as the single-player game, from races, weapons, vehicles, and "plays."

Plays are special abilities or moves attributed to the player's chosen hero. If you chose a Scout, for instance, you can set up ambushes, calling in air strikes or sniping enemies from afar; if you're Deuce Williams, you're a melee specialist, and there are mortar specialists, too. While playing Live, using two different races, you can use the scouts to call in an infantry attack from one angle, while simultaneously flanking them with your friend's mortar team, distracting and confusing the enemy on its way to defeat.

A host of adversary games are in the works, though Relic wouldn't reveal them. And, best yet, Relic is making a two-player cooperative online game. The title will have a host of downloadable content from decals, tattoos, maps, and single-player levels that are playable in co-op, too.

- http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/614/614374p3.html