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The first game in THQ’s Xbox360 release schedule is almost
upon us. The Outfit: Destruction On Demand promises old
school simple-fun gameplay mechanics under a next-gen hood. From the
development team responsible for 2004’s Warhammer 40,000: Dawn
Of War for PC, in a move not too dissimilar from the Advance
Wars’ series recent home console holiday, Battalion Wars,
The Outfit: Destruction On Demand offers strategy without
over-complicating the proceedings for the player.
The Outfit: Destruction On Demand is a pleasant change
of pace for the Xbox360. Offering an experience not yet benefiting
from a quench for it’s thirst on Microsoft’s newest arrival, the
title sees an arcade-esque take on military combat with a strategy
detailed by the players own taste for carnage.
While the Preview Code is incredibly limited, the refinement
in the title’s emphasis on instant-play is evident. Although at
first newcomers may feel wholly disorientated by the amount of
objectives in general play - build, attack, capture, defend, acquire
funding - with only a few plays the options become second-nature.
The Y Button launches a Purchase Wheel-Menu from which you may
order-in reinforcements, vehicles, artillery and other resources to
aid your battlefield dominance. The selection available currently is
heavily limited – obviously THQ are keeping plenty of surprises
for the final Release Code – but still we can see tactical
decision being made in not only the placement  of the units, but also
the choices made in which units to purchase.
With only a single gameplay-mode available, Strategic
Victory, the Preview Code is clearly a taster, but even with the
single option hours of fun can be filtered from both the XboxLIVE!
and Split-Screen Multi-Player variations. The objective isn’t
exactly precise, but defeating enemy units and capturing outposts
generally puts you into the lead. Capturing buildings helps to
reinforce the instantaneous nature of the title, with your only
requirements being to remove all enemy units and hold the ground for
about thirty-seconds in order to claim the outpost as yours.
While The Outfit: Destruction On Demand may not be the
best looking Xbox360 title – clearly falling when pitched against
the likes of Perfect Dark Zero or Dead Or Alive 4 –
there is very little cause for concern. The animation is tidy and
there’s plenty of detail. The enemy AI is also worthy of note as,
even in this incomplete code, it’s often hard to tell when at a
distance if it’s the enemy you’re gunning at, or simply one of
his AI counterparts.
The Outfit: Destruction On Demand is certainly an
offering with a difference on the Xbox360. A complete,
early-90’s-esque emphasis on intense, uncomplicated gameplay sees
THQ pushing for one of the best titles on the system, but with such
a wide spread of titles such as Call Of Duty 2 and Tom
Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter already hogging the
war-inspired PHD’s of the Shooting genre, will there be room for
an under-graduate?
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