Its an ultimate marmite game this, on one hand you have the Resi fanatics (Me) and on the other you have the critics, now, whgen i picked this up my hope was that i'd find a kinda revamped Resi 2 with new features and characters etc etc.
And i kind of did, its lovely and violent with an ace dose of zombies, and mutant zoo monsters, but i kind of didn't at the same time.
For one the controls are AWFUL and very stiff, so turning around to shoot a blasted flesh-muncher is very difficult without reapetdly ramming the wall, then the inventory screen is horrible, and you can't pause the game to equip a gun like in previous Resi's, so if your out of ammo and theres three or four zombies after you, abbandon your team-mates and run like hell!
Its cut a fine line betweenb brilliant bits of content and awful bits.
so only a 3/5 i'm affraid

Firstly this game is brilliant, it features some new and familiar locations like File 1, but it is far superior to its predecessor.

I just wanted to warn people in europe, before you consider buying this, if its online play you want, unfortunately Capcom took their PAL servers down, so it's only singla player that is possible! Hopefully they will reactivate them but currently they are not available!

The 2nd instalment in the outbreak series proves to be a very good one. The trusty eight from the original are back with five brand new stories to play.
Opened at the start are the training level which will familiarise newcomers to controls & 4 of the 5 stories (the last becomes playable once all other stories have been beaten) the first 3 stories 'wild things',' underbelly' & 'flashback' take even resident evil veterans to new places including the zoo, a creepy hospital in the woods & the train station.(though the train station level is by far the worst dull, drab & uninteresting dragging overall fun from 5 to 4).
'flashback' is fantastic as your stalked by a nutter with a giant axe a very nemesis-esque kind of villain following you everywhere through the ruins of the hospital as is 'wild things' as your hounded by elephants, lions, hyenas, alligators & more one of the most invent setting ever for resi & great fun to play.
Whilst any ps1 players will be in for a trip down memory lane in 'desperate times' the 4th story taking place at the raccoon city police station with several characters from resident evil 2 popping up the story cumulates as zombies siege the station with no where to run until the vehicle arrives your locked into an exhilarating showdown with up to 30 zombies!
The final story available upon completion of the others is 'end of the road' as classic style resi story set in an umbrella lab with tyrants left right & centre its a great way to round off the package
On the extras side of things you get gallery images, FMV movies, unlockable extra characters, various music & voice samples & the new showdown & elimination games that pit you against all of resi's greatest monsters.
If you still have your data from outbreak one you can transfer it across & play as your unlocked characters from the first.
the stories themselves aren't that long & loading times can be a bit frustrating but there's still plenty of replay value with hidden items & unlocking some of the extras mentioned above.
Unfortunately online play is no longer available but there's still plenty of fun to be had solo a brilliant game & great addition to the resi franchise. If you haven't already get this one in...

It seems to me that "arteta_" didn't give the game much chance, it just seemed she/he died as all people do when they play a new game and couldn't be bothered to try again.

I do admit the character A.I. sucks but there is lone-wolf mode which lets you play by yourself although the down fall to that is that you have to unlock it, as myself being a "BIG" Resident Evil fan due to i have all resi games that are out i think Capcom have done good with the file #2 online play it's superb and you can unlock everything and get points online due to many people are willing to help each other although i must say file #1 would have been good if it would have came out with the online play like it was suppose to.

One more point why is everyone comparing it to resi 4 when file #2 is just a spin off from the resi series just like dead aim and more, all in all file #2 and resi 4 are both good games they are the ones you should have in your collection.

I have to say the visuals for this are pretty good,and characters are very detailed but gameplay is extremely slow. The movement and such of characters is slow espically walking (look like they are walking threw mud most of the time).
The AI characters that surpposivly are ment to help either
A: Run off and get hurt or killed and come back for health
B: Offer you things like timber and such when your bieng attacked by zombies
C: steal the good items and bugger off somewhere

It would be better if you didnt have to have 2 guys with you and just play alone it would be better, the muitiplayer is very good and funny when you have run out of ammo and are trying to run away from the enemies.

All in all if youre better off getting something like Resident Evil 4