Outbreak: Contagious Memories

The latest title from Drop Dead Studios was released on April 6th, for all major platforms, in the form of Outbreak: Contagious Memories. The game itself is a horror adventure, mixed with RPG elements, in a pretty straightforward fashion. Marketed as a love letter towards the 90’s horror games, Outbreak: Contagious Memories had the nostalgia factor tugging at the heart of gamers.

The Wrong Kind of Contagion

Outbreak: Contagious Memories tells the story of Lydia, a strong-willed woman that needs to find her way through a nightmarish town, overran by the undead. After being knocked unconscious, Lydia wakes up to find that a group of strangers is trying to decide her fate in this town. As any great protagonist, Lydia is undeterred and forges her own path. Through countless monsters, and puzzles, players have to fight their way out of town.

Heavily based on the 90’s horror games, Outbreak: Contagious Memories seems to have a special connection with Resident Evil 3. From the level designs, enemies, and puzzles, veterans of the genre will certainly find countless similarities. Storywise players will find themselves unimpressed and probably confused since there is so little to work with.

A Game Ravaged By The Still Living

Whenever a game proposes to scratch the itch left by previous generations, very high expectations are set. Either because those games became classics, or simply because people reminisce about them fondly. Outbreak: Contagious Memories derives a lot from classic titles, but that’s where it stops: inspiration.

Everything that Drop Dead Studios aimed with this title, has certainly failed. This comes as a surprise because the studio actually seemed to be evolving through releases, and this feels like a big step back. In a blender of terrible controls, bad camera angles, poor animations, and bad design the remaining decent parts feel insufficient to justify a playthrough.

The concepts of scarcity, backtracking, fighting, and collectibles that once made games like Resident Evil, and Silent Hill so popular are all here. But, again, these are poorly executed in a manner that seems almost made on purpose. At times the game might try to seem cheesy and trashy intentionally, but it is just hard to buy when there isn’t a contrast of good gameplay anywhere to be found. Not even co-op with a friend is able to make this a fun experience.

Conclusion

Drop Dead Studios devolved into something worst than what they had been working towards. This just can’t be a love letter, at best this is admiration from afar letter. Extremely dedicated players to the genre will most certainly find laughable most of the things here, but if they can turn off their brains and forget 90% of the game, they mind find some joy in the old puzzles and sound design.

PROS

• Sound Design
• Fun Puzzles Buried Deep

CONS

• Camera Angles
• Animations
• Voice Acting
• Combat System
• All Around Bad Gameplay, Makes The Game Unnecessarily Hard