The door bursts open and in rush Seth (in black leathers) with a handgun, a younger man (James) and a young woman (Kelly with a bat), holding up an unconscious man (Dave). There's another dude in a toque, who is obviously wounded-- and the door is slammed shut-- the outside is temporarily kept outside. Furniture is pulled in front of the door.
Dave is helped to a couch, attended to by Kelly, screaming to James who is carrying a shotgun, to look for a first aid kit in the bathroom. The dude in the toque is standing mysteriously away from the group at a window, in the shadows. Seth makes one attempt to shoot the unconscious man, but is stopped by the Kelly.
"Woa-- what the f*-- he's not one of them!"
"Not yet!"
And so it begins. This gripping opening scene to "The Outbreak" is an awesome start to an awesome zombie flick. But this isn't just any zombie flick. This is an Interactive adventure in which you decide the outcome and fate of the various characters. Yup, people die, and the blood and guts are on your hands.
The action is pushed forward relentlessly, with you having to make quick decisions (as it would be were you standing in a house surrounded by hordes of the undead, with questionable comrades as allies).
A lot of yelling and swearing, and lots of blood, guts and dying, make for an overall thrilling experience. The chapter navigation mechanism is great for quickly starting over from a bad decision, which minimizes frustration, and keeps the action moving.
"The Outbreak" was produced in 2008 by an "idea/ad/marketing" agency called Silktricky, more as a proof of concept than anything else. While a crazy ride, the game, by it's very construct (making simple but not necessarily easy decisions) within the pressure cooker of a game like this doesn't allow for a whole lot of character development.
Most of these attempts at Interactive Movies are relatively short. This is due to a number of reasons-- the biggest reason being the filming of all of the different variations of the storyline makes for a lot of video, and there really shouldn't be a huge amount of time between decision points (which would make for alot of branches and more video)
Otherwise, it really would start to drift back into a standard movie narrative, with annoying interruptions for you to make a decision to keep the story going. The staccato storytelling of a horror flick in the midst of the horror itself is a perfect place to create an interactive experience, and thereby immersing you fully in the horror. That keeps these interactive movie experiences short, but intense.
Click here to play 'The Outbreak' and hopefully, if your decisions are right, you won't be seeing this screen!
~blogofthelivingdead.com
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