Codename: Outbreak Preview

Prepare for a big body count.

Codename: Outbreak is one of those games that could easily slip under your radar, considering all the big-name games vying for your attention as the holidays approach. Originally titled "Venom" and already released in Europe, Codename: Outbreak should be hitting American shores shortly. The game was created by GSC Game World, the Ukrainian developer best known for its real-time strategy game Cossacks: European Wars. This time, GSC Game World tackles the shooter genre, creating a blend of stealth and head-on action.

Codename: Outbreak mixes a bunch of science fiction, horror, and disaster movie plots to come up with a framework for its action. In 2012, astronomers spot an unusual comet heading toward our solar system from another galaxy. As the comet brushes by Earth, chunks of it splinter off into the atmosphere and slam into the ground, causing mass destruction through tidal waves and earthquakes. It turns out that these meteorites hold the seeds of new life--deadly new life that parasitically controls host humans, turning them into zombielike menaces that view the world through thermal vision. As a highly trained commando with a load of high-tech weaponry, your goal is clear: Investigate and eradicate this new threat to Earth.

You can choose your sidekick before each mission.

In a first- or third-person perspective, you'll make your way through a series of single-player missions that play out in 14 different indoor and outdoor environments. You can play many of them during day or night conditions for added replay value. Near a crater left by one of the fateful meteorites, you'll begin your adventures by searching the remains of a scientific research station. All contact with the scientists has been lost. Ensuing waves of police and marines have gone missing, with the marines apparently coming under fire from their own men. Not surprisingly, once you're inserted into the site by air, you learn that spiderlike creatures resembling the face-huggers from Aliens have attached themselves to the necks of the police and soldiers who went in before you. Now these infected troops are after you, and they're well trained, and well armed. Later in the game, you'll get to infiltrate tightly guarded bases and fight off increasingly tougher aliens and troops.

Before each mission, you get to choose a computer-controlled sidekick from a multinational team of commandos and then select his weapon and body-armor camouflage pattern. Via the keyboard, you can order your partner to cover you, attack, hold position, and hold or open fire. When not holding position, he'll tag along closely by your side, mirroring your moves while on the lookout for hostiles. In fact, your AI partner has a real eagle eye. He'll sometimes spot and open fire on the enemy before you do, which may very well save your neck but may detract a little from the feeling that you're the central hero of the game.